Design Leaders: 4 Key Areas To Consider When Hiring Your Team

By Margaret (Mags) Hanley Hanley, Career Growth Coach & Mentor for UX Professionals

There is a large demand at the moment for Senior UX Designers — well, there has always been a huge demand.

But at the moment in Australia — with the rapid digital transformation of many organisations during COVID — the need to improve on the ‘first draft’ has now led to increased demand for them.

When I work with Design Leaders, the first job description they create is the Senior Designer — one who has the skills to do the work and can be placed in a squad, being effective straight away. It’s a lot of pressure on the senior designer.?

These leaders are under pressure to get bums on seats, while they are developing trust in the practice, snowed under with recruitment, or are working on more strategic initiatives. They see that senior designers will meet the immediate need.

But are seniors truly the right hires for teams?

I have four inputs to consider when hiring for a team:

1. Organisational digital maturity
2. Design maturity?
3. The role design is going to play in each project
4. Current vs. future positioning of the team

Organisational Digital Maturity

There are four different groups in my digital maturity model:?

1. Followers: Digital is either the mature business model or a mature part of the organisation
2. Leaders: Digital leads the business in defining the customers and new?
3. Start-ups:Digital is the product and the MVP
4. Trailers: They are still in digital transformation or the essential platforms and products are being developed

These categories can apply to either the whole organisation or could apply on a department level in larger companies. For Design Leaders, it is understanding the environment they are operating in...

Continue reading this article on our Aquent Australia blog?here.