If you need senior design direction but aren’t ready for a full-time hire, a fractional design lead fills the gap. I set direction, raise the quality bar and help product, design and engineering work together, so your team makes good design decisions even when I’m not in the room.
What fractional design leadership is
It’s a part-time, senior design leader who works as part of your team rather than as an outside adviser. I join the key meetings, run design reviews and work with your founder or product lead on what’s coming next. The focus is leadership: direction, process and people, not just producing screens.
Who it’s for
- Startups and scale-ups with one to three designers and no senior design lead.
- Teams where design always arrives last minute and has become the bottleneck.
- Companies working with agencies or freelancers who need someone senior to brief them and keep quality consistent.
- Businesses between design leaders, who need cover while they hire.
- Founders who are still the main design decision-maker and want to hand that over.
What’s included
- Design strategy and roadmap input, so design work follows business priorities.
- Design reviews and critique that catch problems early, while they’re cheap to fix.
- Mentoring for in-house designers, with clear roles and room to grow.
- Hiring and agency briefing support, from writing the brief to interviewing.
- Stakeholder and leadership communication, giving design a clear voice in decisions.
What a typical week looks like
- Embedded time. I’m in your team’s Slack, in the key leadership meetings, and running design reviews.
- A standing hour with the founder or product lead to talk through what’s coming, what’s blocked and what needs deciding.
- Two to three hours on design and engineering alignment, connecting the design system, research and workflow with product and engineering.
- Two to four hours of coaching: mentoring designers, clarifying roles and helping the team grow.
- Focused work between meetings: reviewing research, drafting decision frameworks, looking at metrics and fixing structural problems.
The first things I usually change
When design is chronically late, it’s rarely because designers are slow. It’s usually because they’re brought in too late. So I often start by running discovery and delivery as two tracks, asking for rough sketches within 48 hours instead of a “big reveal”, agreeing a definition of ready before engineering schedules work, and moving key approvals to the start of a piece of work rather than the end. Read more about why design arrives last minute.
Results
- 25+ years designing websites, apps and digital products.
- 100% of clients say the process worked and would choose Layer2 again.
Questions people ask
What is a fractional design lead?
A senior design leader who works with you part-time, usually one or two days a week. You get the experience of a head of design without hiring one full-time.
How many days a week do you work with a team?
One or two days a week, depending on the size of your team and what you need. We agree this at the start and review it as things change.
How is this different from hiring a freelance designer or an agency?
A freelancer or agency mainly produces design work. A fractional design lead sets the direction, improves how the team works and helps other designers do their best work. I can still get hands-on where it helps.
When should we hire a full-time head of design instead?
Usually when your design team reaches four or five people, when several product teams need design input every day, or when design needs a permanent seat at the leadership table. Part of my job is helping you get there, including shaping the role and helping you hire.
Can you help us hire designers?
Yes. I can help define the role, write the brief, review portfolios and interview candidates.
Do you only work with teams in Dorset?
No. I’m based in Gillingham, Dorset and work with teams across the UK.
Next step
Tell me about your team, what’s slowing you down and what you need from design. Get in touch and I’ll reply within 1 working day.