Fractional Head of Design · Seed → Series B
You have a product team. Nobody's leading design.
I embed with your team and lead design. The same job a full-time design leader would do, without the full-time hire.
Trusted by teams building at speed
A design leader who happens to be part-time.
I work with Seed-stage through Series B companies: teams that are building fast but haven't put the design leadership layer in place yet.
I'll join your team directly — standups, leadership reviews, Slack, product discussions — and make decisions the same way a full-time design leader would.
The difference is the commitment structure, not the altitude.
Design leadership, in practice.
First or founding designer at five startups. From pre-product teams to King, Schneider Electric, and enterprise at scale.
First Designer
First designer at the company. Built design from scratch, owned every decision, and set the foundation the product carried through to acquisition.
Founding Designer
No design leader in place. Owned onboarding strategy end-to-end — set the process and standard before handing off to a full-time hire.
Founding Designer
No design foundation in place. Joined as founding designer, owned every decision, and led the translation from a consultancy model into a product.
Design Lead
Cross-functional team with no design decision-maker. Aligned stakeholders, set direction, and owned all design outcomes from strategy to delivery.
Design Lead
Legacy internal tool with significant UX debt and no path forward for AI features. Led its redesign used daily by titles like Candy Crush — including AI-powered features.
Design Lead
Buying experience fragmented across multiple disconnected apps. Led the redesign of the full journey, consolidating it into a single product.
Who it's for.
This is for you if
- You're Seed, Series A, or B — small founding team up to ~80 people
- You've built with AI tools and design is becoming the bottleneck
- You have 0–3 product designers and no design leadership layer
- Your lead designer is shipping work, not setting direction
- Design decisions are being made by PMs or engineers
- Design needs a seat at the leadership table
This isn't for you if
- You need someone to fill sprint capacity — UI output at volume
- You need a new logo, brand system, or visual identity
- You already have a design manager or functioning design org
The Head of Design job. Done part-time.
I do the role. Embedded, scoped to your team, with the altitude of a full-time leader.
01 — Strategy
Design strategy + roadmap influence
Design gets a seat at the product table — and the roadmap reflects it. I work with your CPO and PMs to make sure design is shaping priorities, not just responding to them.
02 — Team
Team structure + hiring
You know who to hire next, what level, and what to look for. When you're ready to bring in a design manager, you'll know exactly what that role needs to be.
03 — Craft
Process + standards
Your designers stop reinventing decisions between projects. I establish critique, documentation habits, and component decisions so your team has a foundation to build from.
04 — Influence
Stakeholder alignment
Design decisions stick because leadership is aligned behind them. I represent design in leadership and engineering conversations.
per week, 3-month minimum. Some teams stay on a lighter retainer once the foundation is in place.
is what a full-time CDO costs before benefits. Fractional gives you the same judgment for the quarters that matter most.
Years after we worked together, I still go to Jorge for sparring — on work, on decisions, on things outside the original scope. That kind of trust doesn't happen by accident.Niels Prip · VP HR & Business Development, Actimo
What I don't do.
This is not a rebrand.
I don't do logo design, wordmark work, or visual identity systems. If that's what you need, I can point you to the right people.
This is not a sprint resource.
I'll do design work — that's part of the job, especially early on. What I'm not here to do is fill a capacity gap with no strategy or leadership component attached.
The first 4 weeks.
Listen
I meet your team, PMs, engineering lead, founders. Mapping where design is today and where decisions break down.
Diagnose
Clear picture of the gaps — process, team structure, stakeholder relationships — and the order to address them.
Move
One thing changes immediately. Usually it's how design decisions get made in your product reviews.
Plan
You have a 90-day plan: focus areas, what a stronger design team looks like, and the role going forward.
His ability to distil complex product ideas into their essential components was invaluable. He helped us identify what truly mattered.Josiah Odosu · Co-founder, SecantX