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Building and Scaling a High-Performing Design Team

Recruiting & Onboarding
Summer/Fall 2025
As the team's workload increased, I scaled the team internationally with a refreshed recruitment strategy and an onboarding process built for cross-timezone workflows.

OVERVIEW

As our client base and design workload grew, I led the expansion of our design team with a redefined recruitment approach and a redesigned onboarding process that aligned with our current ways of working.

THE PROBLEM

Our small, reactive team was struggling to keep up with client demands, putting designers at risk of burnout. We needed to create a new job description that reflected our updated responsibilities, implement a more efficient hiring process, and design an onboarding experience that would ramp up a new hire within six weeks, half the time of our previous onboarding program.

THE SOLUTION

We set out to hire a mid-level UX/UI designer to complement a team of senior designers. Given our limited bandwidth and the urgency of client deliverables, we needed someone who could quickly contribute without extensive onboarding.

Since our team supports a diverse set of clients, the right candidate needed a sharp eye for brand detail and experience applying design systems to real-world interfaces. Additionally, since our new hire would be based in London while most of the team was in New York, strong communication and self-management skills were essential.

UPGRADED RECRUITMENT PROCESS

I began by redefining the job description to better reflect our evolved role expectations. Then, I partnered with our HR recruiting manager to align on candidate criteria by clarifying non-negotiables, “nice-to-have” skills, and collaboration style. Over a three-month recruitment period, we stayed in close contact via Slack, reviewing portfolios and exchanging feedback in real time to move faster on strong candidates.
Faster Hiring Timeline

To reduce the hiring timeline, I designed a two-round interview process, replacing our previous four-round approach.

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  • Round 1: A 90-minute session combining behavioral (30 min) and technical (60 min) interviews.

  • Round 2: A 90-minute session consisting of a team brainstorming exercise (60 min) and a candidate case study presentation (30 min).

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This streamlined format reduced the candidate’s overall interview period by 50% and significantly cut the team’s recruiting time, freeing up hours for client work.

Eliminate Take-home Assessments

I made a strategic decision to eliminate take-home assessments. Take-homes often delay the hiring process, fail to reveal real-time design reasoning, and can over- or under-represent skill levels depending on outside help or resources.

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I find that live technical sessions provide far more insight into a candidate’s thought process, collaboration style, and comfort in Figma than a static design file can.

After each final-round interview, I led a team retrospective in FigJam, using a shared rubric to evaluate each candidate’s competency on a 0–3 scale.
My hiring philosophy: Choose the designer who elevates the team and makes us collectively better. 
I guided the team to make decisions based on enthusiasm and confidence in the designer’s long-term success on the team and at the company overall.

"Look for a designer you’re genuinely excited to collaborate with!"

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REDESIGN ONBOARDING PROGRAM

Once the offer was accepted, I had one month to prepare a new onboarding program designed to help the designer start contributing within six weeks without overwhelming them.
Training Designers, Growing Leaders

Our new onboarding materials lived in a structured FigJam file outlining weekly learning objectives, live sessions, and independent study tasks.

 

I collaborated with a senior designer to refine the content sequence and empowered her to lead the hands-on training as the new hire’s onboarding mentor. This gave her valuable coaching experience while strengthening our team’s leadership pipeline.

New Hire Timeline

By week five, our new designer began taking on client work with mentorship support. I met with him twice weekly throughout onboarding to track progress, clarify questions, and ensure he was applying new knowledge confidently. By the end of week six, he was fully integrated into team workflows and contributing to live projects.

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Historically, onboarding took around 10 weeks before a designer could contribute meaningfully. Our new process reduced ramp-up time by four weeks, improved team morale, and restored balance to a team that had been stretched thin.

IMPACT

  • 50% faster hiring decisions, cutting the interview process from four rounds to two rounds
  • Reduced onboarding time by 4 weeks, from 10 weeks to 6
  • Improved team morale and designer satisfaction, reducing burnout across senior team members

REFLECTION

Leading this initiative under tight business pressure taught me to balance speed, quality, and team well-being. My goal was never just to fill a seat; it was to hire someone the team was genuinely excited to work with, who could ramp up quickly and sustainably.

I resisted the pressure to rush a decision or compromise on fit. Instead, I focused on process clarity, cross-functional partnership, and setting our new hire up for success. This experience strengthened my belief that great design leadership means designing for people, not just products.

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