First hire. First process. First culture.
Anyone can inherit a team. Building one from the first hire is harder. It's the work I've done most.
The framing that matters isn't "I managed a team." It's that I built the conditions where a team could do the work they were hired to do: clear process, trusted standards, the right culture from the start.
Joe helped us totally reinvent our approach to design across the business and our suite of products. He built and mentored a team that not only increased the coherence and quality of our output but increased our cadence of updates, responding to and learning from user feedback in lockstep with our engineering, CX team, marketing and other key stakeholders.
Build
I've been the first designer at a company. The person who defines what design even means there. Building a function means hiring for culture before skills, setting standards when none exist, and making the case for design to a CEO who hasn't needed it before.
At Zappar, I went from first UX hire to leading a team across five brands. The hardest part was never the craft. It was building the conditions where good craft was possible.
I was consistently impressed with Joe's people management and his ability to help talented junior designers develop their skills and give them exposure to high-profile projects. Joe is a design leader who can also add huge value as an individual contributor.
Joe has been one of the best people I've ever worked with, as a manager, mentor, and friend. He always advocates for his team. He's taught me so much over the years in all aspects of design.
Bridge
The most useful thing a design leader can do is connect rooms that aren't talking to each other. Product and engineering. Design and business. Craft and strategy.
At Disguise, I ran research sessions to align teams across acquired companies that had never shared a design language. The output was a unified system. The actual work was creating the conditions for alignment, not the artefacts themselves.
Joe's collaborative style is one of his greatest strengths. He fosters strong partnerships between developers, UI designers, and stakeholders, creating a process that is both efficient and highly creative. His clear communication and practical problem-solving have helped improve the coherence of our designs while ensuring we respond effectively to user feedback and business needs.
Stay Close
The most dangerous thing a design leader can do is stop doing the work. When you lose touch with the craft, you lose the ability to judge it. And eventually to lead the people doing it.
I've led teams and still done the detailed interaction work. At Nexus Studios, leading spatial UX on a major XR headset launch, I was doing the interaction design myself. No team to hand it to. Just the problem and the craft. The two reinforce each other: staying close to the problem makes me a more credible lead; having a team means the problems I pick are the right ones.
Joe's exceptional eye for detail has massively improved the quality of our products, ensuring that even the smallest elements are thought through. He's always encouraging his team to think in different ways to consider the user at every stage of the design process.
