I am Aaron Martin. I create web experiences, mobile products, custom typography, and branding experiences. I provide creative direction by way of design, strategy, and art direction.
By now, you’ve crafted a strategic vision (Chapter 1), streamlined your operations (Chapter 2), and built bridges across teams (Chapter 3). But none of that matters without the right people to bring it to life. Your job isn’t just to dream big—it’s to build a team that can turn those dreams into reality. This chapter is about finding top talent, nurturing their growth, creating a culture where they thrive, and setting them up for long-term success. I’ll share some stories from my own journey to show how these ideas play out in practice, and we’ll tie it all back to what you’ve already put in place.
Think back to Chapter 2, where you optimized your design processes to run like a well-oiled machine. Hiring is the next step—finding the people who can make those processes hum. It’s not just about filling seats; it’s about building a team that fits your vision and can execute with precision.
Before you start recruiting, get clear on what your team needs. Are you short a UI/UX designer to polish your app’s look? Do you need a researcher to dig into user insights? Map your current skills against your upcoming projects to spot the gaps. If you don’t already have a career framework, tools like Progression can get you started.
Don’t wait for a crisis to figure this out—keep an eye on trends and reassess regularly.
Great designers don’t just stumble into your inbox. You’ve got to go where they are—conferences, design meetups, even online communities. Show them what’s special about your team: the vision, the operations, the tight-knit collaboration.
Keep your interviews sharp—test their skills while respect their time. Over time, I’ve crafted a set of questions that target both the skill sets I look for and the high-level character traits that I have found to be the most valuable. Training the team on what these questions mean and what good answers look like can really help you find the right designer who is going to fit.
And while I dislike the idea of influencers, feel free to share a tip or two online—position yourself as a leader worth joining.
A mix of skills—UI, research, interaction design—keeps your team versatile and creative. At Ridgeline, we once hired a visual designer who ended up sparking a whole new approach to our onboarding flow just by seeing things differently. Diversity in backgrounds, experience, and perspectives only amplify that.
As your team grows, clarity is king. Define who does what and who reports to whom. I like breaking things into pods—small crews focused on specific product features. It keeps everyone moving in sync and allows them to build up valuable domain knowledge.
With the right talent in place, the next step is helping them grow through mentoring and coaching.
Once you’ve hired the right people, nurturing their growth through mentoring and coaching becomes the priority. You’ve spent time finding talent that fits—now it’s about helping them flourish. This builds on the hiring foundation: the better you understand their strengths from day one, the easier it is to guide them toward roles where they’ll excel. Mentoring turns your team into the glue that holds cross-functional work together.
Every designer is different—some want to lead, others want to master their craft. Sit down one-on-one and make sure you know what their next step is and what is holding them back. I had a designer once tell me she wanted to run workshops—a few months later, she was leading our team’s first design sprint.
Listen hard—sometimes what they don’t say is the real clue. Every situation is one of three things: they need to be helped, they need to be heard, or they need to be hugged. Identify where they’re at and provide help that’s appropriate.
Designers who are early in their career need a steady hand. Don’t forget that they’re often learning two things: what it means to be a designer and what it means to be an employee. Give them clarity, show them the ropes, and don’t hold back on feedback. They have an idea of what good looks like, but it’s still unfocused and, at times, wrong. Tell them what good looks like, step by step. Point out what’s working and what’s not, right away. Good coaching early is compounding interest. I have a default behavior of asking questions to help early career designers learn how to think and not just what to think, but sometimes the most valuable thing is to just tell them what to do, or what the answer is, and then walk them through how you got there. For example, instead of saying "This layout doesn't work," you might say, "Consider adjusting the spacing here to improve readability." This approach helps them understand the reasoning behind your feedback and how to apply it in the future.
Patience and encouragement are vital. Recognize that learning takes time, and mistakes are part of the growth process. Celebrate small achievements to boost their confidence, such as successfully implementing a new design technique or effectively collaborating with a team member. By modeling best practices in your own work—whether it's thorough user research, meticulous attention to detail, or innovative problem-solving—you provide a tangible example for them to emulate.
Senior designers are your strongest weapons. Let them weigh in on big calls and mentor others. If you’re truly hiring designers with different strengths and talents, they’ll bring things to conversations that you normally won’t. Work with them on what mentoring means, and what individuals need. Feedback from you (as a boss) will always sound like an order or directive, even if you don’t mean it to. The same feedback from another designer will often land differently, so use your senior designers as help. Push them to teach—it’s a win-win.
Make sure to delegate. You may be the designer with the most years under your belt, but you won’t always have the time to do everything. It’s also not your job to do everything, that’s why you’ve hired a team. Use them.
Providing opportunities for visibility amplifies their impact and acknowledges their contributions. Highlight their successes in any way that you can. For example, nominating them for design awards or encouraging them to present at conferences can enhance their professional reputation and reflect positively on your organization.
Creating a team culture that values continuous learning and mutual support enhances both individual and collective performance. Organizing skill-sharing sessions—such as workshops, lunch-and-learn events, or hackathons—enables team members to teach and learn from each other. This not only broadens their skill sets but also strengthens relationships within the team.
Promoting cross-functional collaboration encourages designers to work with colleagues from other departments, such as product management, engineering, or marketing. This exposure helps them understand different perspectives and how their work fits into the broader organizational context. It can spark innovation by combining diverse insights and expertise.
Leading by example is a powerful way to foster this environment. Share your own learning experiences, whether it's a new design trend you've explored or a challenge you've overcome. This openness demonstrates your commitment to personal growth and normalizes the pursuit of knowledge. Encourage open communication by creating a safe space where team members feel comfortable expressing ideas, asking questions, and offering feedback without fear of judgment. Don’t forget to jump in yourself—show them learning’s part of the gig.
A strong team culture ties back to that vision from Chapter 1—it’s the soil where innovation grows. You’ve hired talent and started mentoring them; now it’s about knitting them into a crew that’s collaborative, creative, and fired up. Let’s group this into three big buckets: working together, pushing the envelope, and keeping the good vibes going.
Creating a positive team culture and maintaining high morale are essential responsibilities. A thriving culture not only enhances job satisfaction but also fuels creativity, collaboration, and productivity. By fostering an environment where designers feel valued and empowered, you enable your team to take risks, innovate, and excel. Let's explore how to cultivate such a culture through in-depth strategies, action items, and behavioral tips.
Culture is a hard thing to define, you’ll know it when you see it. But it all flows down from you. Your leadership in shaping the team culture has a profound impact on morale, productivity, and the overall success of your team. By embodying the associated behaviors, you lay the foundation for a vibrant community that not only achieves outstanding results but also attracts and retains top talent.
Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it’s a team sport. Set up tools and processes to keep ideas flowing, and run regular huddles to stay aligned. This builds on Chapter 3’s cross-functional wins—your designers should feel just as connected to each other. And join the conversations—your voice sets the tone.
Innovation is your edge. Give your team room to play—think “innovation days” where they chase wild ideas. At Ridgeline, one of those days led to a feature that’s now core to our product. Reward the bold moves, even if they don’t all pan out. Let them experiment without pressure. Set up a way to pitch and test new stuff. Call out the risk-takers in a big way. Say “yes” to the crazy once in a while—it’s worth it.
A happy team sticks around. Be there for the tough days—offer flex time or just listen when they need it. And celebrate the wins, big or small. Check in when they’re quiet—could be a sign something’s off.
Remember: helped, heard, hugged.
Fostering your team's professional development and outlining clear career paths are crucial for both individual satisfaction and organizational success. When designers see a future within the company and have opportunities to enhance their skills, they are more engaged, productive, and likely to contribute innovative ideas. Investing in their growth not only builds a more capable team but also strengthens retention and attracts top talent who value personal development.
And it’s your job. It is one of the biggest pieces of value you can bring to an organization: the ability to make other designers around you better.
What you bring to the table is the inverse of what they bring to the table. You have many years behind you in which you’ve learned and grown, and you can pass that on to your team. They have many years in front of them in which to push, grow, and bring fresh perspectives to current problems. Use both of these scenarios wisely.
Providing structured career paths and development opportunities demonstrates your commitment to each team member's long-term success. It involves understanding their individual goals, offering resources to achieve them, and creating an environment that encourages continuous learning. By doing so, you cultivate a culture where designers are motivated to excel and feel valued for their contributions.
By providing structure, resources, and support, you enable designers to envision a future within the organization and equip them with the tools to achieve their goals. Supporting skill development and specialization enriches the team's capabilities, while encouraging continuous learning keeps everyone agile and innovative.
Your active involvement in their career growth fosters a motivated and dedicated team, and it shows that you care about them as people as well as employees. This commitment not only enhances individual satisfaction but also drives the collective success of your organization. By prioritizing career pathing and professional development, you build a resilient, forward-thinking design team ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
I make sure to tell all of my directs that I want them to work with me as long as possible, because I enjoy the experience, but above that I want them to leave better than when they arrived. I’m making sure they see that I’m self-aware enough to know that it’s no longer the 1950s and they aren’t working a single job through to retirement and a gold watch. I want them to trust and believe in me, so that when I push them in their growth they understand that I’m doing it out of a great amount of care for them and their careers.
Every designer has unique strengths and passions. Supporting them in developing these areas not only enhances their job satisfaction but also adds valuable expertise to your team. Specialization allows designers to become subject matter experts, leading to higher quality work and the ability to tackle complex challenges.
Understanding each team member's interests enables you to align projects and opportunities with their strengths. This might involve assigning them to initiatives that require their specific skills or pairing them with mentors who can further nurture their talents. Encouraging exploration within the design field also prevents stagnation and keeps the work engaging.
Designers need to see what’s next—senior designer, lead, maybe even a VP role like yours. Lay out the levels and what it takes to climb. I’ve had folks light up when they realized they were one project away from a bump up.
I’ve developed a structured six-week process for career conversations that empowers designers to own their growth while feeling supported. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but this is only done once a year, and it replaces a weekly 1:1 for each of the weeks. I have a smaller, single session check-in that I do mid-year that follows up on the full conversation. How you may want to do it will probably be different, but this works for me.
It’s a lot of work, and each week has homework that the designer needs to do, but this does two things that are very important: it forces them to take responsibility for their career and it shows that I’m willing to put in the time to help.
All of this is very much dependent on having clearly defined skill sets that align with your company’s career progression, so if you don’t have that this is going to be tough and feel arbitrary and vague. Make sure to put in the work to define that framework.
As you start to put more effort into the professional development of your team, tracking metrics like retention or employee satisfaction can help you assess your talent development efforts.
Some designers will want to specialize, others will want to branch out. Find out what drives them and match projects and challenges to their passions.
Cheer their quirks—it’s what makes them stand out.
Investing in your team's professional development ensures they have the skills and knowledge to meet current and future challenges. This investment signals that you value their growth, leading to increased loyalty and job satisfaction. It also keeps your team at the forefront of industry trends, enabling them to deliver cutting-edge designs and solutions.
Professional development can take many forms, such as attending conferences, enrolling in courses, or providing access to learning materials. By allocating resources specifically for development, you empower designers to enhance their expertise and explore new areas of interest. Encouraging them to share their new knowledge with the team amplifies the benefits and fosters a culture of collective learning.
Action Items & Behavioral Tips:
Talent’s the heartbeat of design leadership. Hire smart, mentor with heart, build a culture that hums, and pave the way for growth—that’s how you turn a good team into a great one. You’ve set the stage with strategy, ops, and collaboration in Chapters 1–3; now your people make it sing. Next up, we’ll tackle leading through change—keeping this crew sharp no matter what’s around the bend.