Design leadership should separate people management from product quality ownership¶
Insight: According to Robin Bigio (VP of Design at Preply), separating design management into two tracks prevents compromises: Design Managers own "people, staffing, hiring, and planning" while Area Leads (Staff-to-Principal level) own "product quality and coherence." This structural split lets quality advocates focus on craft without people management obligations and vice versa.
Detail: Preply's design org (~35 people across Barcelona and London) uses "design checkpoints" at three stages — Scope, Concept, and Craft — where designers present work with their product managers. Bigio argues this "tilts the scales in favor of the designer for once (especially in a world governed by metrics)." The team runs ~700 experiments annually. Hiring philosophy: "It's easier to teach someone product thinking than taste" — so hire for visual sensibility, creative instinct, and craft.