Timeline
2016 – 2026
My Role
Head of Design / Resource Manager
Impact
P&L −27% → +32% margin · team 2 → 10, 0% attrition · delivery 5–7 → 2–3 sprints
How I rebuilt a loss-making design unit into a profitable, high-retention team.
Challenge
The design unit ran at a −27% annual result. The root cause was bench time: designers sitting between projects with no billing, while hiring ran ahead of confirmed demand. Design was treated as a cost center, and designers had no clear path to grow — a churn risk in a competitive market.
MY ACTIONS
1. Killed the bench. Moved the team onto long-term dedicated assignments instead of short project-to-project work, so billing became predictable. The bench was the whole problem: designers between projects generate cost and no revenue, and the schedule had been built as if that gap didn't exist. 2. Made hiring a last resort. Headcount only against a confirmed project, never in anticipation of one. When a project could be covered without a new hire, I took the delivery work myself. 3. Moved estimation to the people doing the work. Designers estimated and owned their own projects rather than receiving a number decided above them. Estimates got more accurate and delivery came down to 2–3 sprints. 4. Built a team people stayed in. Ten designers, zero attrition over the period — in a market where designers change jobs every 18 months.
Solution
Company BI recorded the annual department result moving from −27% to +32%. The team grew from 2 to 10 with 0% attrition, and design shifted from a back-office function to a recognized driver of enterprise wins across SaaS, healthcare, fintech, and IoT. Led design teams across enterprise and Fortune 500 engagements — Lenovo, Epson, GE, Halo Collar, jDisc, G.J. Gardner Homes. On several accounts I staffed the team myself: scoped the engagement, hired the designer against that specific project, then led delivery. Design also carried presale at that scale — interactive prototypes of the prospect's future product for pitches to companies like Deloitte and ExxonMobil.
What I'd Do Differently
I fixed the economics before I could explain them. The department was already profitable by the time leadership had a clear picture of why — I was reporting outcomes rather than the mechanism, and that made the result look like luck instead of a system. It also meant the argument had to be re-made each time budgets were reviewed. I'd instrument bench time and utilisation from month one now, so the numbers make the case before I have to.