Elevating Efficiency: Optimising Lean Design Teams

With tight budgets & headcount freezes, how are Design leaders upskilling & optimising teams through mentoring, development, & AI?

This was the focus of our our latest Design roundtable, led by Product Design Director Orly Golan alongside 12 fellow Design leaders:

Orly Golan - Director of Product Design at Psyomics
Malwina Fojcik - Product Design Manager at Tide
Jordan Rolph - Senior Product Design Manager at 9fin
Venessa Bennett – Global UX Director at Dye & Durham
Jem Wakeman - Head of Product Design at Cuckoo
Sam Walker - Head of Design at UnlikelyAI
Charmaine Wyland – Former Director of Product Design at Gumtree
Matt White - Former Head of Product Design at Zoopla
Josephine Lie – Head of Design at Trainline
Max Fumagalli – UX Director at Beauty Pie
Angel Shen – Lead Product Designer at Raft.AI
Jacek Rebkowski – Lead Product Designer at Depop
Nicolas Holzapfel – Director of Product Design at Sylvera

Key Takeaways:

1. A Clear Product Vision is Non-Negotiable

• A strong vision helps teams prioritise, innovate with purpose, and fix operational gaps.

• Without it, teams often default to optimisation only, risking innovation stagnation and neglect of critical issues.

2. Admin Efficiencies

• Tools like Dovetail, Granola, and NotebookLM reduce time on transcriptions, summaries, and synthesis.

• In some cases, these tools replace the need for junior support roles.

3. AI-Enhanced Design

• Figma plugins and tools such as Builder.io, v0, and Lovable accelerate early design work by:

  • Converting screenshots into mockups

  • Auto-generating responsive layouts

• Time-saving is the key ROI—but over-reliance risks skipping discovery and losing touch with the real user problem.

4. Research Support

• AI is being trialled for summarising research and benchmarking competitors.

• Tools like Maze and Wondering are used for interviews, but concerns remain over synthetic users and the loss of human/emotional cues.

5. The Risks of AI in Design

• Loss of process: Teams jumping straight to polished outputs, skipping research, framing, and iteration.

• Skill erosion: Foundational design and strategic skills risk decline.

• Tool bias: Choosing tools for UX/tone rather than capability or fit.

• Platform dependence: Reliance on low-cost tools could backfire if pricing rises or platforms consolidate.

6. Growing Skills Gaps in Design Teams

Emerging gaps include:

• Branding & Visual Craft: Typography, colour theory, and brand principles becoming rarer. Strong craft skills differentiate teams from “blandified” AI outputs.

• Storytelling: Articulating the why behind design decisions.

• Research & Ops: Time constraints are pushing research and system maintenance off the list.

• Process Discipline: Teams jumping into tools like Figma before clearly defining problems or user needs.

7. Upskilling Without Hiring

• Buddy systems: Pair designers with complementary skills for project-based knowledge sharing.

• Learning blocks: Block time during dev slow-downs for design hygiene and skill-building.

• Hack days/weeks: Dedicated time to tackle specific problems and prototype.

• Back to basics: Encourage sketching, writing, and whiteboarding before designing. Try Amazon’s one-pager/mock press release method.

• Cross-functional learning: Designers and PMs explore AI tools together to build shared understanding.

• Prompting courses: Teams that master prompting unlock AI’s full potential—invest in training and knowledge-sharing.

If you're interested in hearing more about the Design Leadership community we’re building or have a challenge you’d love to explore with a peer group then reach out to our Design specialist, Megan, at meganm@burnssheehan.co.uk.

💡 Download and share the key takeaways here 💡