Scaling UX design
Overview
Scaling design
To scale UX design in an organization, you must build a strong UX foundation by establishing clear vision and processes, develop scalable systems like design systems and research repositories, and foster a user-centered culture through strong leadership, stakeholder buy-in, and cross-functional collaboration. This document provides an overview of common strategies we are using to provide UX resource and value.
Common strategies
Design Ops
Set up processes and systems that make design work more efficient and consistent:
- Design systems: A shared library of components, patterns, and guidelines saves designers from reinventing the wheel.
- Templates and toolkits: Provide wireframing, research, and presentation templates that non-designers or junior staff can use.
- Standardized workflows: Streamline project intake, design review, and delivery to reduce overhead and confusion.
UX coaching / mentorship
Senior designers can mentor junior staff or cross-functional partners to distribute knowledge:
- Host UX clinics or design critiques that allow teams to bring problems and get directional guidance.
- Build internal communities of practice to share learnings and solutions.
Design enablement for non-designers
Empower others (PMs, engineers, BAs) to take on low-risk, design-related tasks:
- UX training or bootcamps for internal teams.
- “Design thinking” workshops to help cross-functional teams contribute to ideation and problem framing.
- UX champions or design advocates embedded in teams to liaise with central UX.
Documentation & knowledge sharing
Well-documented decisions and processes reduce rework and accelerate onboarding:
- Maintain a UX knowledge base with research insights, best practices, personas, and journey maps.
- Use tools like Notion, Confluence, or Zeroheight for easy access to documentation.
Tiered design support
Not every project needs full UX support:
- Create a tiered model (e.g., High-touch vs. Self-service): only strategic or complex projects get full UX involvement.
- For simpler projects, offer lightweight consultation hours or office hours with designers.
- Use UX scorecards to assess the need for design involvement (prioritization framework).
Strategic use of tools
Adopt tools that enable speed and collaboration:
- Tools like Figma allow for real-time collaboration, reusable components, and version control.
- Use AI tools or plugins (e.g., for content generation, layout suggestions) to reduce manual effort.
Foster a user-centred mindset
- Demonstrate the value of UX by showcasing data, user insights, and the benefits of a customer-centric approach to gain support from leadership.
- Build strong relationships with other departments (e.g., marketing, product management) to spread the user-centered mindset and increase the impact of design.
- Regularly share research findings and usability testing insights to educate others and emphasise how design benefits the entire business.
- Involve partners to participate in UX activities, in particular: user testing
Lean UX and agile practices
Adopt a leaner UX approach:
- Focus on experimentation over perfection — prioritize MVPs, quick testing, and iteration.
- Work embedded in squads, enabling shared accountability and faster feedback loops.