4 years ago Atlassian had 6 designers. Fast forward to today and the design team numbers 106. Building and managing a design team of this size is one thing, integrating it successfully into a traditionally engineering led organisation is another. Alastair Simpson (Head of Design — Confluence) will share how Atlassian has successfully embraced design as a first class discipline and is changing from being an engineering, to an experience led company. At the end of the session, you’ll be armed with a basic playbook for how to manage your team of designers to affect meaningful change within any organisation. Come for the practical tips about how to grow and manage design as you scale, and hear some of the road bumps along the way as we grew from 6 to 106 designers in just 4 years.

1. From 6 to 106 in 4 years
ALASTAIR SIMPSON
HEAD OF DESIGN, SOFTWARE TEAMS
@ALANSTAIRS

2. Consultants are a
service to a client

3. Client & Consultant relationship
Client Consultant

4. Design is a service to
product teams

5. Design as a service
Product
Management
Engineering
Design

6. True triads
Product
Management
Engineering
Design

7. I don’t give a %&$%. If the experience
is not right you should stop the release
JURGEN SPANGL, ATLASSIAN
“
”

8. Seat at the table?Seat at the table?

9. Changing company culture

10. 5 hard lessons

11. Lesson 1
You can have the best design team in the
world, but if your company doesn’t value
design, it doesn't mean squat.
Me

13. Why is the button over there?
FOUNDER REVIEW
“ ”

15. If you don't like what is being said,
then change the conversation
DON DRAPER, MAD MEN
“
”

20. Great work on the ADG, and the
improvements I’ve been seeing in the
last few updates of JIRA is awesome.
ROBERT VINING, ATLASSIAN CUSTOMER
“
”

21. Faster process

22. Existing patterns

23. Existing patterns…in code

24. How do we scale design faster?
FOUNDER REVIEW
“ ”

25. ProductEngineering
CEO
Design QA
Value of Design

26. ProductEngineering
CEO
Design
Value of Design

27. If you don’t want design to be treated
as a service, you need to have an
opinion about what problems are
worth solving and why
JULIE ZHUO, FACEBOOK
“
”

28. Takeaway 1
Design is not a magical switch that gets turned
on inside a company. It’s a conscious effort on
behalf of the CEO and the executive team
(YOU) to make design matter.

29. Lesson 2
Pain is temporary, suck is forever.
Jason Deamer, Pixar

31. Design sparring

32. Design led
Structured
Inclusive
Regular

33. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace
Codify design

34. Envision Make Improve

35. Envision

37. Takeaway 2
Codify design across your organisation.

38. Lesson 3
I have several times made a poor choice, by
avoiding a necessary confrontation.
John Cleese

39. Radical candour

40. Challenge
directly
Care
personally
Radical
candour

41. Craft Driving for outcome Leadership
Skills matrix
Interaction and UI Design
Ability to compose interface
elements with structure,
flow, and patterns for users
to achieve tasks across a
variety of devices.
Process
Ability to use user-centered design
techniques within agile teams to
deliver both tactically and
strategically. Able to choose the
right plays from the Playbook, at
the right time.
Facilitation and collaboration
Ability to take a diverse set of
people and facilitate them towards
shared understanding of
problems, experiences, and
solutions.
Rate: 1-5

42. Takeaway 3
Show your team you care, practice radical
candour.

43. Lesson 4
Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not
to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.
John Lennon

44. Shuhari

45. Shu:
ha:
ri:
to learn
to practise
to master

46. 90 Day Plan

47. 90 Day Plan
Links to internal research
Company & team history
30, 60 & 90 day check-in
Who to meet & greet
Clear deliverables

48. Design detention

49. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace
Design Week

51. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace

52. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace

53. Takeaway 4
Whatever they are, put rituals in place to
foster a culture of trust, and a sense of TEAM.

54. Lesson 5
UXers: Your problem is not solved just
because you arrived at a conceptual diagram.
You might have to ask an interface designer
for help.
Matthias Schreck, Atlassian

55. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace
Value the design craft

58. • Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace
Value the management craft

60. Takeaway 5
Really value the craft of design and
management by defining clear career paths.

61. Pulling it all together

62. At some point your team will ask you what
design owns, and you need to have a better
answer than the user experience
ME
“
”

63. Designers should code
Designers should own the roadmap
Designers should have a seat at the table

64. Responsibility and Accountability

65. True triads
Product
Management
Engineering
Design

66. Responsibility and accountability
Build the right thing…
…in the right way…
…so that it is usable and delightful.
Product
Management
Engineering
Design

67. True triads
Overall customer
satisfaction
MAU+ NPS + others
Product
Management
Engineering
Design

68. 1. Make design matter
2. Codify design
3. Be candid
4. Rituals make a TEAM
5. Value the craft of design

69. 1. Make design matter
2. Codify design
3. Be candid
4. Rituals make a TEAM
5. Value the craft of design
Responsibility and
Accountability

70. Thanks!
ALASTAIR SIMPSON
HEAD OF DESIGN, SOFTWARE TEAMS
@ALANSTAIRS

71. Radical candour: http://firstround.com/review/radical-candor-the-surprising-secret-to-being-a-good-boss/
ADG: www.design.atlassian.com
Atlassian design: www.medium.com/designing-atlassian
Julie Zhuo: https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/8-unintuitive-lessons-on-being-a-designer-
ca7e97a572ee#.wva6ywm2z
Design sparring: https://medium.com/designing-atlassian/the-art-of-sparring-ce4f379f156c#.jb6rf0c1m
Shuhari: https://medium.com/designing-atlassian/shuhari-design-mastery-378e78e7d062#.288lc8gvb
Images
www.unsplash.com/
www.pexels.com/
www.deathtothestockphoto.com/
https://flic.kr/p/budSWy
References