Building UX as a function at FIDx
Growing the design team 3x and turning design from a service applied late into a function embedded in how the org decides what to build.
FIDx operated a complex investment platform with a process that had grown up largely without dedicated UX. Design existed, but downstream — requirements arrived finished, and design's job was to make them presentable.
The actual problem
Hiring designers is easy. The hard part is that an org that has shipped without design for years has working habits that route around it. By the time design saw a feature, the decisions that mattered had already been made.
What changed
Three moves, in order:
Hired against the gap, not the title. Grew the team 3x, selecting for designers who could operate upstream — useful in the meetings where requirements get written, not just in the files that come after.
Built review into the path of work. Established design review workflows positioned early enough that design input arrived while decisions were still cheap to change.
Shipped visual standards teams could use without us. Documentation and patterns that let product teams self-serve the easy 80%, reserving design's time for the problems that needed it.
Why it outlived me
The workflows and standards became how the org works rather than what I delivered. Consistency across the product line now comes from the process, not from any individual reviewing screens.