World 04 — The Crew · Case study · Team building
Building a design org from 4 to 7.
A Fortune 100 financial services and insurance company. A mandate tied to a $200M+ annual sales ecosystem. I started with four people; six months later we were seven, plus a swarm of AI agents.
01 — One spark
Start with one spark.
My first hire was a company veteran, brought on to soak up the overflow. Someone who already knew how the place runs. First hire, first win.
02 — First orbit
Hire for range, not clones.
I hire for personality, curiosity and technical understanding. I want smart creatives. Tools? We can always teach tools.
03 — Leaders, on purpose
Grow leaders, not headcount.
Give people room to explore, learn and own their work, and they grow fast. A mid-level IC grew into a channel lead. Another became the go-to expert across the whole org on several of our processes and tools.
The path is simple: IC → leader → channel/group owner.
04 — Compounding
Then it compounds.
AI-assisted workflows now cut weeks out of our design cycles. We help partner teams move faster too, and raise the bar for everyone we work with. And we own it: our work, our promises, every time.