Thank you!
Your submission has been received!
Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Fractional design leadership for teams that need it: hiring, critique, career paths, and the unglamorous operational work that decides whether good designers stay. I led the design practice at Neo in Singapore, where the engineering was already strong and the customer understanding had to be built alongside it.
A design team has grown past the point where one person can hold it together. Designers are producing good work that doesn't add up to a coherent product. There's no design leader and hiring one properly will take six months. Or a leader is in place and needs someone to think alongside.
The problems here are rarely about craft. They're about how work gets assigned, how decisions get made, how design engages with product and engineering, and whether anyone has said out loud what good looks like.
I led the design practice at Neo in Singapore, where the engineering was strong and the customer understanding had to be built alongside it. The pattern repeats everywhere: designers under-performing inside a structure that would defeat anyone. Fix the structure and the work improves without a single conversation about skill.
Practically that means clarifying ownership, setting up critique that produces decisions rather than opinions, and making design's contribution legible to the rest of the business — which is usually what determines whether the team gets resourced next year.
Where hiring is the answer, I can help work out what to hire for, which is often not the role people assume.
Fractional leadership works well one or two days a week over a quarter or more. A diagnostic engagement can be much shorter.
Is this a fractional design director role?
It can be. Some teams want an interim leader, others want coaching for the person already doing it.
Do you do performance management?
Not formally — that stays with you. I can help you see clearly what's structural and what's individual, which usually makes those conversations easier.