design-team
United States edition. The design org inside an ~80-person Series B startup: seven people built on published ratios - one designer per ~5 engineers (the design-led end of the range), one researcher per 4-5 designers, the design system owned fractionally by a senior designer. Embedded in squads, managed centrally. DesignOps and a dedicated systems team come later; a content designer is the next hire.
The standard-bearer, not the standard-enforcer.
Player-coach. Reports to product, dotted to the CEO; owns critique, hiring, and the quality bar. Absorbs DesignOps at this size.
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One designer per squad, in the PM/eng-lead triad. Research to flows to pixels to QA.
One per squad; ratio ~1:5 against engineering, the design-led end of the published range. One of the four owns the design system at 30-50% time - a dedicated systems seat waits for 15-20+ designers.
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Web, campaigns, decks, and the visual voice. Solid line to design, dotted to marketing - or the inverse; the industry genuinely hasn't decided.
The craft of the company's face.
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A centralized service of one. Embedding starts at 3+ researchers.
Mixed-methods generalist; 1 per 4-5 designers is the modal ratio.
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Justified at the next stage, not this one.
Most companies with UX writers have exactly one; a second arrives past ~7 designers.
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