Summary
When design teams start to grow within hyper-growth startups, there is often a natural fear that the design culture will change as a result. It doesn’t have to. By encouraging best practices on recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and interviewing for “culture fit” you can benefit from a more diverse and culture rich team. Join Meredith Black for a talk on the vision and values of scaling the design culture at Pinterest while also designing for 175 million users.
Key Insights
-
•
Having a co-founder who is a designer (Evan Sharp) guarantees design is prioritized at Pinterest.
-
•
Pinterest’s design team grew 650% from 10 to 75 designers within three years, emphasizing deliberate slow hiring to preserve culture.
-
•
Cross-functional teams integrating designers, engineers, and product managers make all key product decisions together.
-
•
Burnout often results not from overwork but from lack of stimulation; ongoing education combats this.
-
•
NITCON, an internal conference offering diverse classes taught by employees, fosters company-wide engagement and inspiration.
-
•
Hiring focuses on portfolio quality, cultural fit, product knowledge, and candidates’ ability to present their design thinking proactively.
-
•
Red flags in hiring include questions about IPO timing or focusing on ‘hot’ projects instead of company impact.
-
•
Producers (program managers) act as essential buffers, protecting designers from product management overload.
-
•
Diversity in geography, skill level, and background is actively cultivated to build empathy for Pinterest’s global user base.
-
•
Design culture is sustained with rituals like weekly Fika, debriefs, speaker series like Yarn Ball, and collaborative innovation workshops.
Notable Quotes
"Design always has a seat at the table because we have a co-founder who is a designer."
"Burnout isn’t a result of working too much; it’s a result of not being stimulated."
"We call our process at Pinterest knitting, symbolizing collaboration and transparency."
"We won’t hire an asshole no matter how talented they are; culture fit is critical."
"When candidates ask ‘When is the company going to IPO?’ it signals they aren’t here for the right reasons."
"Our goal is for candidates to do their best design work that challenges them and impacts our users."
"No meeting Wednesdays let designers focus without distractions and boost productivity."
"Fika is Swedish for tea time, and every Wednesday the design team gets together to share what they’ve made from Pinterest pins."
"We intentionally slow hiring so designers can know each other instead of being strangers on a team."
"The hardest part isn’t hiring but letting go of the wrong people to protect team culture."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"When teams lose a sense of agency, they act strange, cutting corners and racing to get something out the door."
Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone
June 15, 2018
"Space has meaning in a map—if you move components around without reason, it’s no longer a map."
Simon WardleyMaps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)
January 31, 2019
"White supremacy is the belief system of the superiority of whiteness that can embed itself in algorithms."
Sandra CamachoCreating More Bias-Proof Designs
January 22, 2025
"By observing Jeff’s concerns and asking questions, I was able to show empathy and focus on the problem rather than get defensive."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"After each interview, I input the transcript into ChatGPT and ask for three key takeaways that I can quickly share with stakeholders."
Fisayo Osilaja[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
June 4, 2024
"Temporary, quick, and sometimes rough artifacts have a lifespan just long enough for the conversation they enable."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
"Trust is often underestimated but is critical when designers face public critique and feedback."
Davis Neable Guy SegalHow to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team
June 10, 2021
"People were very adverse to changes because a small 0.5% conversion increase meant millions in revenue."
Eniola OluwoleLessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
October 24, 2019
"Design leaders want predictable roadmaps and healthy teams, measurable against timelines and goals."
Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank DeshpandeIntroduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
September 9, 2022
