About This Playbook

This playbook exists so that managing a design team doesn’t require you to be in every conversation. It maps roles, responsibilities, and autonomy levels so that whoever is on your team, and wherever they are in their growth, you know what they need from you and what they can own themselves.

It has three parts. Role summaries describe what each person on the team is primarily responsible for. The delegation framework shows how the right level of involvement changes as someone gains context and confidence. The full responsibility matrix is in the appendix for when you need more detail on a specific activity.

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This is a reference, not a rulebook. The autonomy levels are a starting point for a conversation, not a performance rating. Use what's useful and ignore what isn't.

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Role Summaries

Each role has a distinct lane. Where they overlap is intentional, good design work requires those overlaps. Where they don't overlap is equally important. The clearer each person is on what they own, the less energy gets spent on coordination.

Product Designer

Owns end-to-end design vision and cross-functional alignment

• Sets the design direction and ensures it connects to business goals
• Balances user needs, technical constraints, and product strategy
• Partners with the BA and development to get designs built accurately
• Facilitates design reviews and owns final approval before handoff

UX Designer

Owns research, information architecture, and design validation

• Leads discovery: research planning, user interviews, synthesis
• Translates insights into information architecture and user flows
• Creates and tests wireframes before visual design begins
• Documents findings and hands off validated structures to the Product or UI Designer

UI Production Designer

Owns visual execution and Figma delivery