2. TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019
Nicolò Volpato
Founder & CEO
@nicolovolpato

3. Luca Scarpa
Partner, CFO & Team Leader
@luscarpa
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Roma, September 20th 2019

4. We are an experience
and service design company.
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Roma, September 20th 2019

5. We believe in the power of design to
make ideas tangible and turn them
into successful products and services.
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Roma, September 20th 2019

6. We design products and services
that engage people in memorable
and meaningful experiences, while
delivering business value to our clients.
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Roma, September 20th 2019

7. TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019
We put people at the core,
both when we work on
projects and when we
work on our own
company culture.

8. We are a team of thinkers and makers, designers,
researchers and front-end developers
TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019

9. Jake Knapp - Design Sprint 2017 and 2018
We create internationally
renowned events, we talk
regularly at Italian
conferences and nurture
our local Digital Design
community.
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

10. 4
national events
organized or hosted
5
international events
organized
10+
Italian events
sponsored
300+
attendees
25+
talks and workshops
at Italian conferences
12+
countries
represented
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

11. TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019
Designing for what’s next
with Josh Clark
Bologna
October 9, 2019
tangible.is/whats-next
JOSHCLARK2019-10OFF-10%

12. Design + Business
Our design process begins with the
whole company involved, stakeholders
on board and clear, shared goals.
We design and then measure impact.
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

13. We manage complex projects for large organizations
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Roma, September 20th 2019

14. We also lead some of Italy’s most promising startups to launch
their products and raise important investment rounds.
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Roma, September 20th 2019

15. Modeling Roles
Modeling Culture
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Roma, September 20th 2019
TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019

16. TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019
Let’s play!

17. TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

18. Sarah Nelson
Leading Design 16
London
TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019
5 11 20 35 70 150 >150

19. • team of 11
• end of year retrospective
reveals some mismatches
• Agile reset
• team of 5
• clearer vision
• mindset switch
• we start building a
team
• team of 13
• culture and values - round 2
• Talent Canvas
• skills matrix
• we launch our new brand
2013
2004
2016
2017
• team of 8
• we look for a brand
that tells who we are
2015
2018
• 2 people
• small design studio
• team of professionals
who work together
• team of 16 (+1)
• retrospective: how do I
grow? how can I
contribute? how do I … ?
😓
• roles matrix and career
paths
2014
• we start working on
culture and values
as a team
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Roma, September 20th 2019

20. 5
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Roma, September 20th 2019

21. 9 - 12
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Roma, September 20th 2019

22. 12
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Roma, September 20th 2019

23. 12
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Roma, September 20th 2019

24. 12
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Roma, September 20th 2019

25. Labeling roles is not easy
and is a consequence of our
company culture
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Roma, September 20th 2019

26. TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019

27. Internal roles might be different
from the ones we use to advertise
our services on the market
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Roma, September 20th 2019

28. TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019

29. Roles Culture
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Roma, September 20th 2019

30. UX Designer is not a role,
UX is the outcome of team
collaboration and multiple skills
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

31. Market roles
Seniority
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

33. Show me the matrix
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Roma, September 20th 2019

34. RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECH
Role = skills + responsibilities
SKILLS RESPON.
IXD
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Roma, September 20th 2019

35. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Interaction Designer Service Designer
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Roma, September 20th 2019

36. Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
IxD as the foundation
Service Design as an upgrade
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Roma, September 20th 2019

37. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
UI Designer Brand Experience Principal
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Roma, September 20th 2019

38. PM SD RES IXD UI FE TECHGLOBAL
Design Ops is definitely a thing
DESIGN
OPERATIONS
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Roma, September 20th 2019

39. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Frontend Developer Design Engineer
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

40. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Vertical growth is possible
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

41. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Horizontal growth is possible as well
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

42. Specialists
• specific skills
• innovators
• “evangelists”
• technicians
• efficient
• focus on quality
Generalists
• cross-discipline
• enablers
• coordinators
• big picture
• effective
• focus on outcomes
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

43. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL ICON ADMINSD CONTENT
Project Manager is not a role
but a set of responsibilities and skills
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

44. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Design Director
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Roma, September 20th 2019

45. Managers used to be practitioners
and have strong design experience
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
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Roma, September 20th 2019

46. Management is a choice.
It’s not a promotion,
it’s a career change.
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Roma, September 20th 2019

47. Designing teams is a design exercise
and is human-centered
TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019

48. Henrik Rydberg
Interaction 16
Helsinki
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Roma, September 20th 2019

49. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL ICON ADMIN
Help Tangible to grow as a company
business + market + people
SD CONTENT
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Roma, September 20th 2019

50. For team growth
• Hire more accurately
• Set clearer expectations about roles
• Balance teams
• Stronger competences
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Roma, September 20th 2019

51. For individual growth
• Clear career paths
• Different options to grow
• More objective one-on-one reviews
• Better spending of the training budget
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Roma, September 20th 2019

52. So far, so good ❤
• Feedback (internal and external)
• Conversations
• Team morale
• Trust
• Recruiting
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Roma, September 20th 2019

53. Tricky… 🤔
• Loose guidelines vs. career ladder
• Scalability
• Stepping into leadership roles is hard
• Personal maturity might need coaching
• Lack of models to develop soft skills
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Roma, September 20th 2019

54. Very tricky… 💩
• Hierarchy: needed? How much?
• Economic transparency: desirable?
• Salaries tied to the roles matrix
• Bonuses follow other criterias
• “Performance” reviews and one-to-one’s
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Roma, September 20th 2019

55. Things to monitor 📈
• Behaviors (unhealthy competition, envy,
conflicts…)
• One-to-one followups and updates
over time
• Maturity
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Roma, September 20th 2019

56. Takeaways
• It’s a process, not a tool
• Alive and iterative, never done
• Shared and explained
• The goal is autonomy, not control
• A guide for individual and team growth
TAG Late Night
Roma, September 20th 2019

57. Doing the work of translating someone else’s methods
to fit your culture is hard work. It needs to be designed.
It needs to be assimilated, not just applied.
—Dave Malouf, IXDA founder
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Roma, September 20th 2019

58. Luca Scarpa
Partner, CFO & Team Leader
@luscarpa
luca@tangible.is
Nicolò Volpato
Founder & CEO
@nicolovolpato
nick@tangible.is
Thank you!
TAG Late night
Roma, September 20th 2019