How long does it take before we designers realise that our work's ultimate destiny is to understand the scale? 

Very recently, one of my students from the Designt at Scale™ Academy contacted me not because she sought follow-up consultation, portfolio review or advice on her project but because she wants to reflect on the changes in her life throughout the last year.

How does she become a better designer with greater focus and dedication? How does she find a new job (with a better boss, let alone a new loving partner), and now she is moving to the country interested in growing within the data visualisation field?

“Welcome to Design at Scale. My name is Jiri, and I'm your Design Coach.”

Design at Scale™ Coach 

Over a decade ago, after I arrived from Singapore in 2013, I set up a little independent initiative called Design at Scale™. A place where we share our knowledge about product design development and factors of scale: throughout a variety of design networks, some of which died along the way, I settled on ADP List and Designed.org to present a detailed framework that ultimately makes us better designers.  

The ultimate goal of every product designer is to become an educational enabler for a new generation who is changing the world as we know it.

This program mentored over 450 private and almost 5k public students across design courses. The simple framework I will share enabled these individuals to progress in their lives and careers and start doing what they love. DaS™ structure is around three main pillars – the designer in the team of 01, the group 10, and the department of 100.  

The Design Team of One.

A one-to-one series where we look at the basis of why the design team of one matters and why it is the most profound foundation of every successful design team.

The series of 9 sessions focus on areas like ambition, vision and beliefs, how to craft your own design philosophy, or how to effectively communicate your design knowledge to the client or your team.

What role does technology play, and how do automation and interaction enhance your daily design delivery?  Inevitably, we’ll touch on time management, legal and finance and how to adjust your time and company time. This profoundly leads to how we scale it.

The Design Team of Ten.

The follow-up series takes your knowledge and applies it to the role of the product designer in a design team. Quite expected, this had become one of the most common questions of early 2020 interviews when we entered the era of remote working.

Together, over the nine sessions, we’ll look into the business landscape and the individual contribution required for your success. We start with the internal business network analyses and how the role and responsibilities you play a part in reflecting on business and scale, discovering the way you deliver enough to become a thought leader and not just a designer with a fluffy title. 

With this objective in mind, we’ll revisit the daily routines that help you to organise long- and short-term objectives from which your team benefits.

How do you change the relationship with the Product Owner and Scrum Master from good to great? How can you understand the complexity of a constantly evolving product or service and its successful implementation over a period of time? What does it mean when someone says I own the release?

And why understanding the Agile Scrum combo will make such a profound difference as a designer in a complex environment. I have summarised them in four simple principles – called the power of one. 

One Language, One Location, One Team, One Product. 

The Design Team of One Hundred

The final series aims to focus on the scale of one product team into a Design Department of One hundred and above. Debating the scale in size to the scale in quality of people or resources is an inevitable outcome of this method. 

We’ll discuss the business structure and evaluation matrix in great detail. The one empiric measurement of the quality and agility of your design team defines success or failure in today's design world. 

How does the department function goes hand in hand with adaptability that defines organisational agility? When the proactive approach changes the outcome to reactive, broadcasting the knowledge allows faster growth over protecting the department's knowledge.   

Inevitably, transparency builds a better designer, let alone a better organisation, through tribe leadership and ownership. The scale is not a target to be measured but a daily joy of making things, people and the environment better for future generations. 

The above three pillars are indeed themes in which you deliver the products or services. Understanding and correctly navigating these themes means that you’ll enjoy the work as a designer while building your reputation and inevitably progressing your career to greater milestones.