I guess most product owners find it quite stressful and difficult to hire a new team member, so building the whole design team (an effective one!) may seem like mission impossible.
Dealing with the question “how to build a design team?” is not a one-day task, you have to not only find candidates and evaluate their skills, but create the whole company culture and favorable environment that would attract the best people for your project and business in general.
Eleken is a team of product designers (with emphasis on the word “team”) that has the experience of working with projects of different scales and complexity. That’s why we understand that having a reliable, dedicated, and well-structured team determines half of the project's success.
To begin with, before discussing the approach that would help you build a killer design team, let’s figure out what such a team consists of.
Roles in design team
We can formulate the design team definition like a designer, or a group of designers with different responsibilities, whose main objective is, with the help of certain design tools and methods, to complete a design project (develop a website/web or mobile app).
Basically, to accomplish any design project, there should be someone who can take care of UI design (create aesthetically pleasing screens), UX design (build intuitive and logical user flows, wireframes, prototypes) and UX research (conduct user testing to validate ideas, create buyer personas, track the customer feedback and so on). And it should not necessarily be three different people.
Here is the list of specialists that deal with the above duties and can be a part of your crew:
- UX designer. Their role is to provide a consistent and intuitive user experience across all products.
- Product designer. The duties of product designers are quite similar to UX designers, but except for user experience, product designers also make the great focus on the company’s business goals.
- Visual (UI) designer. They develop visual concepts based on the creative brief and turn them into layouts (choose and order images, colors, typography, and so on) of design projects.
- UX researcher. This specialist has to identify users’ needs, design objectives, create a plan on how to reach them, conduct research (user interviews, usability testing, A/B testing), and analyze the results.
- Copywriter/UX copywriter. The goal of a copywriter here is, with the help of their writing skills, to help the user easily reach their goal, find a solution to their issue, and quickly navigate through the app.
- UX lead. The UX lead mentors other designers, communicates with the whole team, presents their thoughts and ideas to the company’s leaders, and makes sure the project moves in the right direction.
Though there are numerous job positions in the design industry, very often one person combines several design team responsibilities and that’s where you start hesitating about the number of employees you need to hire.
How big should my team be?
How to choose a design team structure?
UX design team structure varies depending on the company and type of project. There are large corporations with dozens of designers, each in their own product team. As well, there are design agencies with 10 people that perfectly cope with their duties. A lot of startups have got only one designer, but an expert in their field.
The number of designers in most cases only affects the project’s length. The quality of the final result depends on the designer’s skills, not the quantity.
For that reason, in case you have a great scope of work or need to complete the project fitting deadlines, it’s better to hire more employees.
Do I necessarily need a project manager?
The need of the project manager depends mostly on the scale of the project. Of course, if there are 10 designers working on the project, it is necessary to have someone who will manage them. In case there is one specialist on staff, he or she will easily cope with all tasks without an additional manager’s help.
Different companies choose different approaches. For example, in Wix, they have 2 managers for the designer. The first is the design guild manager who cares about the designer’s personal development (helps to grow professionally and understand in which direction to move). The second is the project manager - this person looks at how the designer works on a specific project and distributes tasks.
In contrast, at Eleken, we don’t have project managers at all. We believe that having direct communication between designers and the client leaves no misunderstanding and leads to better final results.
Strategy for building a design team
Creating a professional design team is a complex process that requires hiring good specialists, correctly distributing their responsibilities, choosing the right tools and methods, and building a consistent product design process.
Here are some pieces of advice that would help you move in the right direction when building your design team:
Define your needs and what you expect each team member to do
To get the product design team structure right, you must understand what tasks and deliverables you expect them to deliver.
Think about the product or service you are developing and the skills needed to successfully build the product. Create a list of needs and prioritize them. By doing this, it becomes clear what kind of help you require to solve some specific issues.
The result can be the following:
Must-haves
- building user flows, wireframes and prototypes
- creating UI kits
- conducting user interviews
- conducting user testing
Nice-to-have
- creating content strategy
As you can see we don’t mention job titles here. Try to focus on the skills and personalities your team needs to successfully cope with tasks.
At the time you have distributed all responsibilities among your employees, they will need a clear step-by-step plan on how (and with the help of what tools) to design a product/service.
Think of an effective product design process
An established and well-organized design process will help designers move faster towards delivering the final design solution. It eliminates misunderstandings or miscommunication both within the internal team and when communicating with you (product owner). It’s because with a defined design process the designers know what to do, when to do it, and what you expect to see as the outcome.
At our organization, the product design process looks something like that:
Facilitate professional growth
Think out the directions for the professional growth of each worker in your team, otherwise, your team members can decide that they have reached the limit of growth in the company and it is time for them to move forward.
The best way to learn something new is to observe the best in their field, work side by side with them, and get feedback. A mentor helps your employee draw up a clear development plan and define tasks for practicing and improving skills. A mentor can be a middle designer, art director, or another employee who has more practical experience in some specific area.
It is the job of a good leader to think about beneficial growth for both the business and the individual.
Leave space for diversity and freedom of actions
Diverse designers are the strength of any organization. Each designer you hire is, first of all, a personality with its strengths, weaknesses, and wishes. They are creators and they should have the ability to create cool things (and cool projects).
Therefore everyone has their own preferences. Some of your employees will prefer some "creative" tasks, others would rather delve into technical aspects of a product. That’s why, it is necessary to give the designer freedom of action, to allow them to make their own decisions or work on different projects to avoid burning out. At the same time, let your designers know that they can always turn to other team members for help.
Ask for feedback often
Over time your company and your team will scale and evolve. With this growth, you will have to make changes in the methods you use or even the work culture you’ve established. To keep track of those changes and be able to make adjustments in time, talk to your employees and ask for their feedback.
A strategy for those who don’t like waiting
Everything we’ve discussed above works great, but such a strategy is suitable for those who are ready to patiently and steadily adhere to a long-term plan. But what if you have a limited time frame or it’s not profitable for you to hire an in-house team and train them?
In such a situation, think of an alternative like hiring a design agency with strictly selected personnel, no overheads, and no worries about employee turnover.
Eleken UX design company specializes in designing SaaS products for different industries and company types.
Our company culture is geared to creating a work environment that allows our employees to develop their ideas and fulfill their passion for creating great products. We work hand in hand with product managers and lead developers throughout the whole product design process. We help each other, look at each other’s work, get each other’s feedback, and have thorough discussions to deliver the best design solution.
Opting for Eleken you:
- won’t have to take care of the hiring process, as we’ve already got the best talents in our team
- will be able to change the number of designers when needed
- will communicate directly with designers without paying additionally for the manager’s hours
- Won’t have to pay sick leaves, insurance, and so on
What is the best design team?
There is no definite answer to the question of how to form a design team, and who should be part of it. For example, at first, Genius didn't have a designer at all. And at Pocket, the designer was the second most important employee, and designers played an important role in the development of the product from the very beginning. Someone is hiring very experienced designers with ten years of experience at worldwide-known companies. Others prefer to hire designers with a wide variety of backgrounds. Airbnb's design team includes a former librarian, mechanic, therapist, and dancer.
It's easy to manage designers - the main thing is to find cool guys and let them create. Good professionals love their job and make a sincere thrill from tasks, making the world a better place.
Therefore, create nice work conditions for your team members, make sure they have your support, listen to their opinion, and together you will create beautiful, effective, and valuable products.
We hope that the article helped you make up your mind on what you need to build a killer design team and:
Now it’s time to create a job posting, prepare solid designer interview questions, and get ready to search for a designer that will become a part of your dream team.
To make this process shorter and more pleasant, you can just contact Eleken and get your reliable SaaS design team in the shortest time, making little effort.
Top Stories
Why You Should Outsource Design Work to Optimize Your SaaS Business
Outsource design work is a well-accepted phenomenon in digital product development today. Still, those who still need to gain experience in hiring external professionals can worry about many things, from the quality of the work to management issues to the potential benefits of collaboration for their specific business needs.
Eleken has been delivering outsourced UI/UX design services since 2015. Today, we have a long list of satisfied clients, an impressive portfolio, and our design is used in more than 50 applications worldwide. We know firsthand that such a cooperation model with designers can be effective if you approach the process of finding outsource designers comprehensively and consciously.
Once you understand this, you will realize that there are many benefits of outsourcing design: you can take a fresh look at your business, reduce costs, save time, and more. In this article, we will share the arguments for delegating tasks to an outsourced designer and share some successful stories, both from ourselves and SaaS companies.
But first, a quick definition.
What is design outsourcing?
Design outsourcing is the practice of hiring design agencies or freelancers to handle design-related tasks or projects that would otherwise be performed in-house. Outsourcing design work can be beneficial for companies that don't have the resources or expertise to handle certain design tasks or want to reduce costs. It can also provide access to specialized design skills and technologies that are not available in-house.
The practice can cover a wide range of design-related outsourcing services. One can outsource graphic design, web design, product design, UX/UI design, and more. The process typically involves defining the scope of the project, selecting a suitable design agency or a freelance designer, establishing timelines and milestones, and managing the project to ensure that it meets the desired quality and objectives.
Outsourcing design work can be done locally or internationally, and it can involve different types of contracts and payment models, such as fixed-price contracts, hourly rates, or retainer agreements. As with any outsourcing arrangement, it's essential to choose a reliable and trustworthy outsourcing partner and establish clear communication channels and expectations to ensure a successful outcome.
To outsource or not to outsource: main challenges when outsourcing a design team
You might be trying to tackle the question of whether to hire in-house designer vs agency, and there are pros and cons to both models. Even if you're leaning towards UI/UX or graphic design outsourcing, you might have quite a lot of reservations. Let's talk about some of the most common concerns that come with outsourcing.
Finding a reliable partner
This first challenge is the most difficult and the most important at the same time. In case you overcome it, all the other issues we will mention below will seem like nothing.
Many product owners don’t know how to find a designer for their app, software or service, what to start with, or where to search. And most importantly, how to make sure they’ve found a reliable design agency or a freelancer. If you're doing it for the first time, check out our article on how to hire UI/UX designers, as well as the guide on UX designer interview questions. Obviously, finding the right specialist takes some time and effort, but the devil is not so terrible as he is painted.
Management and communication
The next concern that most employers have is how to manage and communicate with the outsourced designers remotely. The fact that you can’t constantly control the design process of the outsourced designers leads to the fear that in the end, you won’t get the expected result, and it’s totally fine.
Still, you don't need to stand behind one's shoulder to micro-manage a specialist to get great design. At Eleken, we don't rely on project managers or other intermediaries. You get a direct line of communication with the specialist or specialists assigned to you, so you won't even notice the designers working on your project are not an extended part of your own team.
Security issues
Another problem you might have when you hire a remote team is a risk of a data leak. Some owners worry that designers they hire may cooperate with their competitors and can hand over some data. No one wants to hire a UI/UX or graphic design service only to get robbed of one's ideas and intellectual property.
For that reason, make sure you know basic legislation details before starting to cooperate. Professional agencies and freelancers will be glad to sign an NDA. Do not neglect this opportunity.
The outsourced designer won’t understand your brand/industry/product
Very often, the products/services you want to design can be quite complex. And while the in-house team dives deeply into such projects, for an outsourced specialist who sees the product for the first time it can be difficult to understand how everything works.
However, there are reasons to outsource graphic design work, as well as UI/UX, which can outweigh these issues, if everything's done right. A good designer is good no matter what. Eleken's experience often proves that.
For example, our work on Highpoint entailed redesigning a very complex education management system. The designers created a visual style from scratch and made the design both universal and flexible to meet the requirements of different universities. The design also had to comply with governmental standards, which influenced many aspects of the software, including the interface colors. The product is quite complex, but the team added some fun touches to the design, such as illustrations. And, although as UX designers they are not often dealing with that, they designed the logo as well, approaching it no less rigorously than all the other changes.
How outsourcing design can help SaaS companies grow and flourish
Here are some of the key reasons to consider outsourcing your design work.
You get access to top experts
By outsourcing design work, SaaS companies can gain access to a team of experienced designers who have the knowledge and expertise required to create compelling designs. These designers have a deep understanding of the latest design trends, and can help SaaS companies create products that are not only visually appealing but also functional.
To prove this point, let's take a look at what Eleken's customers have to say about cooperation with us:
"Eleken's collaboration has also helped us to have a more organized workflow – seeing how the different pages would fit together, and what the user journey would be. Overall, I'm highly confident that they would be able to help with additional features as well. This is the advantage of working with an agency that has previous experience from dozens of clients."
Tanay Kothari, CEO, Software Company
"It is unusual to find a designer who has experience building applications with geospatial data – especially imagery data. We found that in Eleken. The value proposition is very high with Eleken — their rates are fair and their team is excellent."
Jamie Conklin, VP Product, Astraea, Inc.
You can focus on core tasks
Outsourcing design work allows SaaS companies to focus on their no-less important objectives. For instance, instead of spending valuable time and resources on design, they can focus on developing their products and services. This can help SaaS companies improve their overall efficiency and productivity.
"We have presented the new UX design created by Eleken next to the UX we threw together with no UX experience, and the overall feedback was terrific. Every advisor, investor, and the customer loved the new design. Since hiring Eleken, we have also been able to shift our focus on the development of DarkWave to other areas of high importance outside of the UX since Eleken has gained our trust in their timelines and high-quality work. Finally, the new UX has made our platform look very professional instead of one put together by offensive security experts."
Quentin Rhoads-Herrera, CEO, Vector0, Inc.
It's cost effective
How much does it cost to outsource design? The answer to that depends on many factors: form of cooperation, location, skill set of the designer you're hiring. If you're interested in specific numbers, check out our article fully dedicated to the costs of hiring a designer.
Still, in general, outsourced design services can save you not only time but also money. After all, when working with a design agency or a freelance designer, you won’t need to buy software, create a workplace for new in-house designers, and provide the new employees with computers and other equipment. Moreover, most outsource graphic designers are located in different countries with different hourly rates. Hiring an in-house design team can be expensive, especially for startups or small businesses. Outsourcing allows SaaS companies to save on overhead costs such as salaries, benefits, and office space.
At Eleken, our pricing model is similar to that of SaaS companies. You pay a monthly subscription fee and in return, you get a dedicated designer or a team of designers working full-time on your project. We take care of insurance, benefits, and equipment so you don't have to worry about any of that. Moreover, we don't charge any project management fees since we don't have any project managers. Basically, you get a designer working full-time and fully emerged into your project, but without the additional time losses and expenses that come with hiring an in-house designer. .
Product goes to market faster
83% of organizations that took part in the SHRM research stated they have had trouble recruiting suitable candidates recently. Not that inspiring statistics, especially for those who have some urgent design tasks…
Hiring new employees, as well as training them, is a time-consuming process. With an agency team designing outsourcing project, you get already trained and experienced specialists ready to dive into a design process straight away.
By outsourcing design work, SaaS companies can bring their products to market faster. Design agencies have the necessary resources to complete projects quickly and efficiently. This can help SaaS companies gain a competitive advantage by getting their products to market before their competitors.
See what Eleken's clients have to say:
"Since they don’t take multiple steps to achieve their goals, they deliver quickly. Thanks to their work, we’ve been able to improve and globalize the UI/UX of our product in a short period of time. [] They have good communication with short response times."
Product Manager, Software Development Firm from Seoul, South Korea
Scalability becomes easier
Outsourcing design work provides SaaS companies with the flexibility to scale their design needs up or down depending on their business requirements. This is particularly important for SaaS companies that are in the early stages of development, as they may not need a full-time design team.
On the other hand, as your company scales, you may have more projects and, as a result, much more work to do. At some point, your internal team won’t have enough time, resources, or the needed skills to handle the growing workload. In such a case, designing a project with outsourcing specialists will allow you to produce more in a short time span and take on several ongoing projects. And, if the designers are qualified and experienced, they will feel like an extension of your own team. Our client’s feedback proves that:
"The workflow with the Eleken team is seamless. They work as an embedded member of our team."
Jamie Conklin, VP Product, Astraea, Inc.
High quality is guaranteed
Design agencies have quality assurance processes in place to make sure that the final product meets the client's expectations. This includes reviewing the design at every stage of the process and making any necessary changes. By outsourcing design work, SaaS companies can be confident that they will receive high-quality designs that meet their specifications.
"After some quick bug fixes and feature enhancements, the app worked perfectly and received great user feedback. Eleken's responsive communication, prompt turnarounds, and agile, organized methodology set them apart. [] Their approach was responsive, agile, and iterative, which made our experience extremely pleasant."
Shahin Baharan, Growth Hacker, SB Growth
Cases of successful design outsourcing
Still not convinced it's possible to outsource efficiently? Let's take a look at some companies that managed to do it.
Slack
The first company that comes to mind that outsourced its design with huge success is Slack. The company hired a Canadian design team MetaLab to help with developing a successful product from the beta version. MetaLab provided the Slack team with valuable feedback, which helped them create a tool that reached 15,000 users in 2 weeks of its launch.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is another great example of a SaaS company that successfully outsourced its design work. The social media management platform outsourced its design work to a team of designers in the Philippines. The outsourcing allowed the company to scale quickly, improve the user experience and increase customer satisfaction. The company's CEO, Ryan Holmes, noted that outsourcing design work allowed them to focus on the company's core business while still improving the product.
Prift
Prift is a personal finance platform that provides tailored financial tips and hints to help individuals achieve their financial goals. Eleken helped to design a simple and minimalist MVP for Prift, prioritizing the "must-have" and "should-have" categories. They conducted benchmark research, wireframing, and A/B testing to create a working prototype with personalized financial advice as the primary feature. Prift came to Eleken after receiving a recommendation from another firm, and, according to Oliver Dix, Prift's co-founder, everything went smoothly and they were impressed with their responsiveness and ability to work independently when necessary.
Final thoughts
With the right approach, outsourcing design services can be a valuable solution for SaaS companies looking to improve their products and stay ahead of the competition. By accessing the expertise of experienced designers, focusing on core competencies, saving costs, achieving faster time to market, scaling up or down, and ensuring quality assurance, SaaS companies can enhance their overall efficiency and productivity.
Of course, time and effort is required to find a reliable design agency or a freelancer. Some companies might have complicated workflows or unclear pricing. Some just have a way too wide range, so their expertise might not be suitable for your purposes. If you need a design agency focused on SaaS, don't look any further, drop us a line!
6 Things I've Learned as a Product Design Manager at Eleken
Hi, my name is Maksym Chervynskyi and I am the head of design at Eleken - a UI/UX design agency that helps companies all over the world build great SaaS products.
Since 2019 our team has scaled from less than 10 to about 30 product designers, all of which are under my supervision. I mentor, guide, and assist them when they take on new projects, onboard newcomers, helping junior designers successfully get through their daily tasks, and perform all the other responsibilities that a product design manager is supposed to do.
Now all the above-mentioned duties are my daily routine that I truly love, but three years ago when I was just starting my new career position, I felt both excited and challenged with upcoming loads of work to be done. And recalling myself back then, I would have been very grateful if someone had provided me with a piece of valuable advice.
This post contains important lessons that I’ve drawn out from managing product designers that I believe help us move forward as a strong and productive team.
1. Managing designers is impossible without trust
Personally I’ve always been a great believer that prominent design teams are built on trust and autonomy. And my goal as a design manager is to bring my designers to the level where they have enough knowledge and skills to make important design decisions independently, without my supervision or approval.
We can draw a parallel with the Ukrainian army here. Current successes of our armed forces are possible, to a large extent, thanks to the decentralized management system. Our officers don’t have to wait for orders from on high to take any single action, instead, they have the freedom to make their own decisions and can act quickly depending on the situation.
This way, giving your team enough autonomy helps to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy and speeds up all design processes to let your designers work more efficiently. Full autonomy, freedom of actions, and complete trust are what ensure smooth design processes that lead to a satisfied client and a happy designer.
2. Don’t be afraid to let your team feel responsible for what they create
It really takes some time to learn how to cope with the desire to improve each design your team members create and stop being overprotective. Thoughts like “This could be done in another way”, and “I’d better change the interface color” are not that easy to ignore but they can lead to the situation when workers put full responsibility for their final result on you.
I found my own way to cope with this issue with the help of a long-lasting boot camp that each novice designer has to go through. At Eleken, newcomers’ onboarding lasts about three months, during which they have to develop a design concept from scratch under my supervision.
That’s the time I do my best to share my vision of what good design is, teach newbies best design practices and approaches, show them the right direction for further self-development, as well as adjust their way of thinking to the one that supports our company’s values.
Putting so much effort into newcomers' education helps me ensure that they are ready to work with real clients, that they feel ownership and responsibility for the work they do, and won’t ignore occurring issues and deadlines.
My task as a product design leader is not to watch each designer’s step and strive for perfection but to ensure the final design satisfies the customer and is good enough to perform its goal.
And though my designers know I am always there, ready to help, they are accountable for what they deliver.
3. Allow other team members to help you
As the team grows, it becomes harder to give enough attention to each person and provide your assistance to every minor issue they have. Therefore, a design manager role requires you to be able to delegate effectively.
Delegation helps you:
- Get things done faster
- Develop your designers
- Motivate them
Additionally, sharing your product design manager duties among workers promotes team collaboration and helps your designers come up with better solutions together.
But to be able to give the right task to the right person you should learn each of your designer's backgrounds, skills, styles of work, strengths, and weaknesses.
From my practice, I often direct junior designers to seniors when I know they have great expertise in some specific problem area. For example, one of our product designers, Dasha, is great at visual design. She has a better sense of beauty than I do. Thus, when I understand that a newcomer has some troubles with the visual design, I direct them to Dasha.
Each individual can contribute to the team’s success. You as a manager should help your designers collaborate, exchange ideas, listen to different points of view, and based on all the information they receive, form their unique experience.
4. Be a facilitator
My process of working with designers can be called the Socratic method. I don’t tell them what to do and never give direct orders. I rather lead an argumentative dialogue to stimulate their critical thinking and make them come up with the right decision on their own.
To build a powerful design team always explain the “why” behind each of your arguments. Don’t say “Your design solution is wrong”, say “The decision you chose won’t work because…”.
The managers' job is to provide employees with the needed tools, resources, and support that help them achieve high results.
5. Don’t underestimate yourself
Probably the most difficult point in my product design lead responsibilities at the beginning of my career was the uncertainty in my own skills and knowledge. I wasn’t sure if the advice I gave earlier this day was good enough. There were many doubts in my head: “What if I think my remarks are OKAY, but they are not?” “What if I teach my designers the wrong things?”, “If I personally don’t fully understand what I’m doing here, how can I teach others what to do?”
The relief came over time when I gained enough experience to realize that the knowledge I give my teammates is correct and relevant. And I saw it in their progress and individual growth.
Therefore, whenever you doubt your professionalism, remember:
- It’s OK to make mistakes if you are willing to correct them
- It’s OK not to have answers to all questions if you have a clear design vision, a well-established set of values, and you are ready to work hard to improve your product design leadership traits.
- It’s OK to face problems if your knowledge helps others grow professionally
6. Look for people who are excited about what they do
“You can put in practice the most efficient system, process, or structure in the world, but this will be as successful or not as the mindset of the people involved in the process” from “Inspired” by Marty Cagan.
All your product design manager roles and responsibilities end up working with people. Thus, an essential thing that contributes to your team’s success is people's personality. I am not talking about professional skills or experience (as they can be gained with time), here I mean some personal traits you should look for in your team members.
From my experience, a product designer is successful if they are:
- Eager to learn new things. To stay tuned in a fast-moving world, where the design trends change drastically, it’s a must to keep learning and self-improving non-stop.
- Excited about their work. If a designer works at your company only to earn a living and you don’t see a sparkle in their eyes, it’s very likely they won’t retain for long in your team, or wouldn’t be able to deliver good designs. Loving what you do gives you the best motivation to become professional.
- Have great communication skills. Your employees can lack some skills that top product designers have, but if they can clearly explain their design ideas, communicate their thoughts, and give just-in-time feedback it won’t be a problem for you as a manager to help them improve and achieve higher results.
To sum up
If someone would ask me what three pieces of advice I can tell those who just start their careers as product design managers my honest answer would be:
- Don’t be afraid to give people freedom of action and feel of responsibility.
- Don’t micromanage but trust your designers.
- Surround yourself with smart people eager to learn new things.
Looking for dedicated UI/UX designers to help you grow your product? Extend your team with Eleken.
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