How to Build A Strong Design Team Structure & Align
Today timely feedback and support, effective communication, and exciting products are probably what makes a good team what it is. We have formalized some design team structure issues to show how to maintain excellent relationships at a distance and in the office via effective team structure models.
What is a design team?
A creative team structure may be made up of one product designer or a group of designers who may play different roles, depending on the project, using different tools and methods to achieve one common design goal. The common goal may be the creation of an illustration, building a website, designing a mobile application, or any other design project.
Types of Design Teams
Product design team structure is something that can be chosen as per the company or project peculiarities, specific requirements, historical background, etc. Here are the most commonly applied models in design teams.
Centralized
Centralized design teams tend to work like real agencies in meaning that they may work on different design projects within the company. The workload and the whole process are traditionally managed by the design managers or the UX Director.
Embedded
When we talk about embedded teams, they’re also known as decentralized or distributed teams structure is quite the opposite of that of centralized. Here production design team members add speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness to your product development process. They may also be called cross-functional.
Cross-functional
In a cross-functional team, a member primarily works with their product manager and engineers during the design team process. They are also known as multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teams, who are a group of people with different functional expertise and role working toward a common goal. For example, they may be may come from business, finance, marketing, operations, human resources departments, etc.
Flexible
A flexible design team structure is rather about an in-house design team which is a hybrid of centralized and embedded design team structures. These design teams are flexible because they can be moved around easily to meet changing organizational design needs & perils.
Hybrid Team (Matrix)
A matrix or hybrid structure is an organizational model that combines two or more reporting structures. It’s best adjusted for work environments that are very dynamic, as hybrid structures may shift from project to project. Most commonly, this hybrid structure may combine the functional and product organizational structures.
Key Roles in the Design Team
No matter the team structure, there are certain design team roles and responsibilities distributed among the members. Let’s consider some of them:
Project manager
Project managers in design are professionals who organize, plan and execute projects while working within restraints like budgets and schedules. Project managers are in charge of the leading .teams; they define goals, deal with risks, keep in touch with stakeholders, and see a project through to its closure. Popular methodologies used in design project management include Kanban and Scrum, which offer flexible and iterative approaches to keep teams organized and projects on track.
Team Lead
A team lead is a leader in the group. This is the person who provides stable guidance, instruction, and direction and has led a group of individuals who comprise the design team for the purpose of achieving a key result pr end goals of the project. The team leader also is someone who monitors the quantitative and qualitative achievements of the team and must report results to a project manager.
Product designer
A product designer’s role is very simple. It is somebody who actually oversees the whole design process of a product from the beginning to the end or provides the improvement of an existing product.
Design Team Structures in Different Companies
Hiring people to join the team may be very interesting because each company may have its particular in-house design team structure. Not all models may fit this or that company. That may depend on the company type. For example:
Agency
There are three common design team structures you can follow in an agency: Centralized, cross-functional (also known as embedded), and flexible. Think of it as a design team organization where designers are located within a given team and have their responsibilities.
Product
Product design-team structures align to one of 3 common models: Centralized, where designers are part of the same core team and report to the same manager, decentralized, which is quite opposite and cross-functional, or any other hybrid model.
Startup
Start-ups may use any kind of structure since this is the most dynamic environment to interact in. There may be four types of design team structures or even more to try: centralized, embedded, flexible, or just contractual experience.
How to build the right structure of the design team?
In fact, designers are easy to structure and manage – the main thing is to hire cool guys and not interfere with their work. Good specialists love their work and get a sincere buzz from solving problems, “making” the world a better place, and being interested in self-improvement. A design team can be a singular individual working on design projects across an organization, up to a team of 50+ designers who have their own department. To choose the most suitable model, do some research to add more value to the team organization and go ahead.
Set conditions for them, give them support, challenge them, limit their creativeness a little, pretend that you really appreciate their opinion, and they will produce the most quality design that you’ve imagined.
Conclusion
In today’s digital world, timely feedback and support, effective communication, and exciting products are probably what makes a good design team what it is. There is a huge need for creative leaders, as design is now closely linked to business results. It plays a critical role in customer satisfaction and determines the winners in the competition. It is so essential that there are team structure models in the new millennium that may fit any design project or any company type that needs some product design services from a reliable digital product design agency.
