The @mutinycorp design team grew from 1 to 5 in about three months.

And now that we have a full team, it's on each of us to intentionally define the culture and tone for Mutiny Design. So we set out together to built our own guide for collaboration and crits:

We didn't want working with the design team to feel like there were just 'more hands on deck.' Our internal stakeholders should benefit more from a team of designers' perspectives than from a single opinion from their design partner.

But I hate process. Or rather, I hate adding more meetings to the calendar (or more invitees to our meetings) just to pretend that it makes us "collaborative."

Collaboration comes from how you work together—not how much time you spend together.

So we started with our design critique culture. We built out a style that keeps us open and adaptive, and ignores titles. (In fact, if you're invited to the crit and don't have "design" in your title, I send our guide over and tell you that they're a designer for the next hour)

It's easy to just assume that designers joining your team have been to a critique before. But getting the team to work well together from day one means that you have to be intentional in how you set the ground rules.

Here's what our guide looks like:

- Design critiques are not presentations. They are intentionally fluid and open ended.
- We like raw Figma files more than Slides
- We like talking through the story more than we like reading text
- We leave comments so that anyone can contribute
- & we have agreed upon rules:

1. Be curious
If you have an opinion to share, start with a question. Genuinely look for context before trying to give guidance.

2. Pause
Before you share your opinion, take a moment to pause and consider your response. This will help ensure that your feedback is constructive and on point, and that the conversation remains productive.

3. Let others speak
Everyone’s perspective matters, and everyone should feel comfortable to share their ideas without fear of being shut down.

4. Be specific
Keep critiques focused and actionable. Instead of giving general statements, encourage each other to provide specific feedback.

5. Find the best solution
Crit is a tool to find the best solution to our users’ problems. Give the feedback that’s really on your mind. Just do so in a respectful way.

6. Remember our users

We’re here for—and because of—them.

Everything we design should be user focused. Put yourself in their shoes, interact with each others’ designs as if you were a user, and make sure that you aren’t designing for yourself.

If you liked these and want to riff off of it for your own team's needs, here's the full version: https://mutinyhq.notion.site/Guide-to-Design-Crits-a49f5ea20b834e85aed69770b59c2d14

Growing a Design Team: Building a Culture of Collaboration

Portfolio reviews often encourage designers to overcomplicate their work.

Not every piece needs a set of personas, a whiteboard full of stickies, and hand drawn wireframes.

If you're having to wrap a complex set of processes around a project that only took a couple of iterations to (successfully) pull off, maybe you're presenting it with the wrong context.

It's just as powerful to show off quick and dirty tests that drove  meaningful impact as it is to present a full, quarters-long design process.

Obviously, try to fit in both. The strongest portfolio reviews I've seen juxtapose a couple of highly complex, fully cross functional initiatives with rapid tests that take very little design lift.

Having a nose for quick iteration is a differentiator in this market. And knowing when to not over-design can be the skill that sets you apart.

Framing is everything. If you can convince a team that you know both when to redesign the entire product and when to do as little as possible to solve a problem, you're set.

At the end of the day, a company is interviewing you to understand how you really work. If your actual process was successful in your last role, don't be shy to show it off.

Show less in portfolio reviews

It's so hard to understand how well you and a designer can work alongside each other in a remote environment. So how the hell are you supposed to get signal during interviews when everything is so scripted?

The jam session.

Jam sessions have become my favorite interview for designers.

It's the best way to get a taste of what collaboration could look like with a candidate without asking them to prep a portfolio or do a take-home exercise.

Portfolios are still the best way to present your whole identity as a designer. You get to share full context, craft a narrative, show off your presentation skills, and decide on how you come across as a creative—all key to finding the right fit.

But portfolio reviews show your interviewers how polished your work can be and how well you can present, not what it would actually be like to work with you. That's even more important to determine these days.

That's why we do jams first.

The jam session:

Design candidates bring a previous project or two and show us the mess of ideas, iterations, and failed solutions that they've already tried. Just open up @figma and go. No additional effort required ✨

Successful jams give candidates and interviewers an opportunity to drop their guard and just talk through projects. We get to jump straight into hearing how you explore an idea as if we're already in a weekly design crit together.

And now that designers across the industry have collectively rejected take home exercises (❤️), we found a new way to see your ideation process without asking you to do more work. And it's just more fun.

TAKE HOME: you work alone
JAM: we chat through ideas together

TAKE HOME: you work for hours for free
JAM: we check out something you've already made

TAKE HOME: you polish a quick idea
JAM: the messier the file, the better the discussion

Honestly, jam sessions feel a lot like what we used to do in whiteboard sessions.

You get the back and forth, the light disagreements, to see how they handle wrenches in the plan—without having to ask them to come up with new work.

And they're more remote friendly 😉

I've seen candidates pull out the pen tool and sketch out an idea on the spot in response to a question.

Portfolio reviews and 1:1 scripted conversations don't capture that.

@kevinyien and I tackle design jams together all the time. It's a constant reminder that:
- PMs can be good at design jams—they know how to riff too 😂
- in small teams, everyone needs to be bought into a new hire
- designers who don't care where good ideas come from will go far

I was able to hire incredible design talent previously at Square thanks to jams. And now we've adopted them at @mutinycorp too. They're a big reason I got so comfortable with this team while I was interviewing remotely.

Maybe you'll see how fun it is to work with us too 🤷 🦝

If you're curious about our whole design interview process, we publish our design interview guides so that no one has to come in blind: https://www.notion.so/mutinyhq/Mutiny-Interview-Guide-for-Product-Designers-53012e43f7a54bdda3d575cd2456d4f8