Designed and Made, a weekly newsletter by designers and user researchers at Made Tech.
Harry is Head of Design at Made Tech, based out of our Bristol office.
In the next month or so our permanent UCD team will double from six to 12 people. By the end of this year, the number will likely double again to 25 or more user researchers and designers.
This means a few things for us.
Design is in demand 📈
More and more of our new work clients ask for designers and researchers in teams. This isn’t just in central government, which if they are to pass service assessments must have fully multidisciplinary teams. Local gov and NHS trusts teams are demanding UCD skills in them. Not because they have to, but because they want to.
We’re not the only ones feeling this. Speaking to friends also hiring, I hear much of the public sector and beyond is seeing surging demand for designers and researchers. I believe some interesting forces are behind this, which might be interesting to write about another time.
Team to an org 🐜
At a certain size, a team needs to become an org. The ways that we now support six people to work and grow creaks at 12 people and at 25 will break altogether. Our strategy to meet this challenge is building a network of people to lead and support a growing design org within Made Tech.
With that in mind, we’ve been prioritising hiring UCD leaders across our different offices. We’re lucky already to have Spyri in London and Mark in Manchester. Recently we’ve hired a UCD Principal and a Lead Designer who will be based in Bristol and London respectively. There will hopefully be more in the coming weeks and months, who together will mentor and support this emerging structure.
A little less fun for me (that’s good) 💚
With everyone being new, I’ve line managed all six people. I’ve loved this - it meant having regular one-on-one time with each person. Listening to how they’re settling in, the challenges they’re facing, what they want to learn, what support they need. I do all these on a Thursday and it’s honestly my favourite bit of the week.
That’s changing. For example, from next week I’ll hand over to Spyri the responsibility and joy of line managing all the user researchers in London. Changes like this will mean I won’t know everyone quite as well. It’s a little bit sad for me, but a healthy step in becoming a scalable design org.
I’ve half-joked that I won’t be anyone’s line manager one day. As Julie Zhou says, leaders should always be trying to make themselves redundant. Then they can focus on new strategic opportunities and challenges.
Workforce planning 🧫
Strategy is all about ruthlessly prioritising. With handing more line management to other UCD leaders and soon coming off client work, I’ll focus my time on how we grow and support a design org of 25 to 100 people by the end of 2022.
For me, workforce planning isn’t just looking at hiring, its also:
Investing in and designing our UCD academy
Refining our career progression framework so its clear how people grow in our design org
Nurturing and promoting a design studio culture
As an aside, if you know any books or audio about football’s scouting and academy system, I’d love some recommendations for inspiration ⚽
If you’re interested in being part of a growing design org, with the fun and challenges that it involves, do get in contact - harry.trimble@madetech.com 👋