The Art of Onboarding: Setting Up a Small Design Team for Success
By Jue Feng I 2025
Illustration by Ann&Amelia on annillustration
When you’re growing a small design team—somewhere between four to ten people—it’s tempting to keep onboarding informal. After all, it’s just a handful of people, and everyone can figure things out as they go, right? Not quite. A well-structured onboarding process saves time, prevents misalignment, and helps new team members contribute faster.
Define the Way You Work (Before They Do)
Designers love their tools. They also tend to have strong opinions about them. Left unchecked, you might end up with one designer prototyping in Figma, another sketching in Miro, and a third advocating for the return of paper wireframes. This is why onboarding should introduce not just what tools you use but why you use them.
The key here is to be clear about the workflows you expect. Show them your existing design system, how handoffs happen, and how you track design decisions. If someone insists on using a different tool, the onboarding phase is where you set expectations—flexibility where possible, consistency where necessary.
Context Over Tasks: Show the Big Picture
Designers don’t work in isolation. They need to understand how their work fits into the broader company vision. Yet, too often, onboarding focuses on immediate tasks rather than long-term goals. A simple fix? Instead of just walking new hires through Figma files or Jira tickets, bring in a sales or marketing director to share how design influences business outcomes.
For example, if your company sells B2B software, invite a sales lead to demo how they pitch the product to clients. Seeing the real-world impact of design decisions builds motivation and alignment faster than any onboarding document ever could.
Stakeholders Aren’t Just Names - Make the Introductions Early
Illustration by Ann&Amelia on annillustration
One of the most common onboarding mistakes is introducing stakeholders after the designer has already started working on projects. By that point, they’re catching up instead of building relationships. Instead, set up intro meetings with key stakeholders—PMs, engineers, marketing, and leadership—within the first two weeks.
Even better, pair new designers with a stakeholder on a small, low-stakes project. A quick design audit, a minor UX fix, or even a short usability test can help build trust early. The sooner they understand who they’re working with and why, the fewer communication roadblocks they’ll face later.
Onboarding is the First Design Problem Your Team Will Solve
A structured onboarding process doesn’t just help new hires—it sets the tone for how your design team operates. If you treat it as an afterthought, expect inconsistencies down the line. But if you build it with intention, you’ll create a team that’s aligned, effective, and ready to make an impact from day one.
Please share your thoughts in comment below or by emailing me directly.