Department built.
Three siloed designers into a strategic discipline across five fintech ventures, while the company grew from 38 to 180 people. Structure first, headcount second.
- Role
- Head of Design
- Reported to
- TBD · CEO / founders?
- Team
- 3 → 9 designers
- Budget / headcount
- TBD · did you own the hiring budget?
- Scope
- 5 fintech ventures, one umbrella
- Duration
- 12 months
- Key peers
- Founders, HR, Heads of Product & Growth
- −30%Delivery time on design epics
- 4→6Team satisfaction (Likert)
- ✓Design underpinned BeOne's banking licence, one of the five ventures
A render farm for decisions made elsewhere.
The company exploded from 38 to 180 people in 18 months. Design fragmented: three designers under different CEOs and PMs, no shared process, no rituals, no career framework.
My mandate: turn design into a scalable, strategic discipline across all five ventures.
Structure first. Headcount second.
Everyone wanted everything fixed yesterday, and the obvious move was to hire. I pushed back: hiring without foundations multiplies the chaos.
What I chose, and what it cost.
| I chose | Over | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Structure and team composition first | Opening headcount straight away | New hires would have landed in the same chaos |
| Prioritising with stakeholders on impact × effort | Fixing everything at once | Avoid boiling the ocean |
| TBD · what did you consciously not do? | TBD · … | TBD · … |
People, org, and the CEO layer.
- People
Built a career framework so expectations were clear before anyone was hired or promoted. Hired T-shaped, startup-ready designers.
TBD · who did you promote, coach, or let go?
- Org
Rituals (crits, alignment, focus hours, retros), a visualised process with clear roles, and designers in planning instead of receiving tickets.
- Upward
Used data and process visuals to show design's impact, and set structured feedback channels with the CEO layer to cut ad-hoc interruptions.
- Peers
Every framework built in workshops with HR, Heads, Founders, Product and Growth: with the people who'd have to live with it.
The floor went in. Then the numbers moved.
Delivery time on design epics dropped 30%, team satisfaction rose from 4 to 6, and headcount tripled only once the structure could absorb it.
TBD · one business outcome for the ventures
What I'd do differently.
Leadership alignment is never finished; I'd invest in it continuously from day one, not as a phase.
TBD · a real mistake or a call you'd make differently