How to build a design team in a company: from the first hire to a shared system

A design team starts to work when the company has a shared design system, a clear path from design to developers, and one place for change requests. That’s how I built the first design team at Done Deliveries. Before that, I led the design team at Capgemini for seven years.

Published 3 November 2026Based on the project: Done Deliveries

Done Deliveries: page for clients, mobile

When a company needs a design team

At Done Deliveries the company’s ambition was ahead of its products. Tools for forwarders, drivers and customers were built separately, and each looked different. There was no design team, no shared process and no brand to tie it all together.

Another sign is a customer journey that falls apart as features pile up. That happened with Quote&GO: every new email and message was made on its own, and customers had started to notice.

Where I start

I set up a design team and a project office that plans and runs design work.
I agree a clear way of handing designs over to developers.
I build a shared design system that the next products are built on.
I introduce a rule that every change to the customer journey, even a new email, goes through the design team.
I collect change requests in one place and plan them with the team.
I test decisions in research, user tests and workshops with the company’s departments.

What a shared design system gives you

The shared design system at Done Deliveries carried new versions of the transport management system, which runs on three platforms, and of the driver app. Later tools were built on the same system.

I also pushed for fixes to the interface and the design system to come before new variants of the service. Every variant built on the old interface had to be rebuilt later.

How I grow the team

I spent 14 years at Capgemini, seven of them as head of the design team. I hired, supported designers’ growth and planned work on projects from brand identities to large digital transformations.

Over time the team worked like an in-house agency for the company and its clients. It delivered more than 100 projects, including capgemini.com and odigo.com.

The result at Done Deliveries

The company gained its own design team, a shared way of working with developers and one brand across all its products. A customer NPS survey scored 58.

How to build a design team in a company: from the first hire to a shared system

Published 3 November 2026Based on the project: Done Deliveries

When a company needs a design team

Another sign is a customer journey that falls apart as features pile up. That happened with Quote&GO: every new email and message was made on its own, and customers had started to notice.

Where I start

I set up a design team and a project office that plans and runs design work.

I agree a clear way of handing designs over to developers.

I build a shared design system that the next products are built on.

I introduce a rule that every change to the customer journey, even a new email, goes through the design team.

I collect change requests in one place and plan them with the team.

I test decisions in research, user tests and workshops with the company’s departments.

What a shared design system gives you

The shared design system at Done Deliveries carried new versions of the transport management system, which runs on three platforms, and of the driver app. Later tools were built on the same system.

I also pushed for fixes to the interface and the design system to come before new variants of the service. Every variant built on the old interface had to be rebuilt later.

How I grow the team

I spent 14 years at Capgemini, seven of them as head of the design team. I hired, supported designers’ growth and planned work on projects from brand identities to large digital transformations.

Over time the team worked like an in-house agency for the company and its clients. It delivered more than 100 projects, including capgemini.com and odigo.com.