What it is
The Design Org Playbook is a living set of frameworks, templates, and guiding philosophies for:
Structuring your design team - whether centralized, embedded, or hybrid.
Defining roles and leveling across junior to executive pathways.
Developing leadership culture that prioritizes vision, feedback, and inclusion.
Scaling operations with DesignOps, rituals, and systems that grow with you.
Hiring and onboarding with clarity and consistency.
Running effective workshops to align, empower, and evolve your teams.
Navigating culture and scaling challenges with actionable solutions.
It brings together insights from design leaders across industries, combined with first-principles thinking and real-world examples. Whether you're setting up your first design function or scaling across geographies and product lines, this playbook gives you the clarity and depth to lead confidently.
Who it’s for
This playbook is crafted for anyone involved in building, managing, or influencing a design organization:
Founders & C-Level Executives looking to establish a design function from scratch.
VPs / Heads of Design seeking to scale, restructure, or improve team performance.
Design Managers & Leads navigating growing pains, career paths, and cross-functional dynamics.
People Ops & HR Partners working closely with design leadership on hiring, onboarding, leveling, and culture.
Senior Designers with aspirations to step into leadership roles and build systems, not just products.
Product and Engineering Leaders aiming to collaborate more effectively with design and embed design thinking across teams.
No matter your role or stage, the Design Org Playbook offers practical insights and deep principles to build a design team that’s not only operationally excellent but also creatively empowered, strategically aligned, and culturally thriving.