Org Design for Design Orgs

Chapter 4. The Centralized Partnership

CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES ARE often employed without intentionality. People use what’s worked for them in the past, typically some form of hierarchical bureaucracy, broken up into functional departments. Design teams embed themselves in these structures, modeling themselves on the other functional departments.

These structures, though, are products of 19th- and 20th-century industrial thinking.^[13] Design, which has emerged as a primary discipline because of 21st-century concerns of connected software and services, will be stymied if it simply conforms to these outdated practices. To realize design’s potential, design leaders must be thoughtful and intentional about how the design organization is structured and shaped.

Organizational Models for Design Teams

When the design team is small, say just five members, its organizational model is straightforward—it’s the design team. The team is focused on a couple of key projects, and doesn’t have to think too hard about how to tackle them—at that size, just do what feels right.

As the team grows, if something isn’t done about this structure, everyone will report to one boss, and there will be one undifferentiated mass of designers trying to work together. That is not sustainable. The design team must evolve into a design organization, with explicit consideration around structure, project work, and cross-functional collaboration. Historically, there have been two ways that design organizations ...