{"id":342404,"date":"2017-06-01T02:30:58","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T18:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1497808"},"modified":"2017-06-01T02:30:58","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T18:30:58","slug":"6-major-tech-companies-have-doubled-their-design-hiring-goals-in-last-half-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/6-major-tech-companies-have-doubled-their-design-hiring-goals-in-last-half-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"6 major tech companies have doubled their design hiring goals in last half decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dylan Field<\/span> Contributor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Dylan Field is the co-founder and chief executive of Figma<\/a>, a cross-platform design and collaboration tool. Before starting Figma, Dylan interned at LinkedIn, Flipboard, and O\u2019Reilly Media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You know design is having its moment when IBM, the stodgy normcore dad of the tech industry, gets in on the action<\/a>. In the last five years, Big Blue has grown its designer to developer hiring target from 1:72 to 1:9.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only one\u200a\u2014\u200acompanies across Silicon Valley are recruiting far more designers than ever before. I\u2019ve been hearing about this hiring crunch for years, ever since we started Figma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The stats<\/h3>\n

We wanted to put some hard numbers behind the trend, so we reached out to our network. We gathered the stats on six companies\u2019 designer:developer ratios in 2017, and how it compares to half a decade ago. The growth is staggering\u200a\u2014\u200aenough so that the venture firm Kleiner Perkins decided to include the data in their Internet Trends report.<\/p>\n

As you can see below, companies like Atlassian have gone from 1 designer\u00a0: 25 engineers in 2012 to 1 designer\u00a0: 9 developers in 2017. Uber\u2019s design team has grown 70x since 2012, and they\u2019re now targeting 1 designer: 8 engineers. Check out the rest:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These numbers show that \u2018design thinking\u2019 isn\u2019t just a trendy new buzzword\u200a\u2014\u200acompanies are willing to put money and staff into it at a higher rate than ever before. It\u2019s a small sample size, but it\u2019s some of the first hard data available on tech design hiring.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that these are only the ratios of today. We\u2019ve heard anecdotally from several companies that they\u2019re aiming for ratios as low as 1 designers: 3 developers in the next few years\u200a\u2014\u200aif they can find the talent. (IBM is already there in terms of mobile.)<\/p>\n

The companies willing to go on the record were mostly enterprise, so this sample doesn\u2019t even include the consumer startups that famously focus on design, like Airbnb. Facebook staffers told us the social network has quadrupled its designer hiring target in the last two years alone\u200a\u2014\u200abut Facebook wouldn\u2019t officially comment.<\/p>\n

In the last few years, many big tech companies, including Facebook, bought out entire design firms to hit their targets. John Maeda mapped out all the acquisitions<\/a> in his big Design in Tech report this year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So\u2026why is this design arms race happening?<\/p>\n

Design is the secret\u00a0sauce<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve hit that point in the tech industry where engineering is becoming more and more commoditized. With AWS and frameworks like React Native, practically anyone can spin up an app.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how you wind up with \u201cTinder for threesomes<\/a>\u201d and the messaging classic \u201cYo<\/a>.\u201d In this new era, what really sets companies apart is the user experience\u200a\u2014\u200aa perspective designers know intimately.<\/p>\n

As IBM\u2019s Design GM said in a recent post<\/a>, \u201cNot everyone is a designer, but everybody has to have the user as their north star.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since design-thinking is one of the few things that can\u2019t be automated, it makes sense that companies are wooing designers like they\u2019re Ohio voters in an election year.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s just not enough people to meet the surge in demand. Universities have fallen far behind Silicon Valley\u200a<\/a>\u2014\u200ahardly any art schools offer tech design majors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn\u2019t even include\u00a0<\/a>UX or UI design as a career in its surveys.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of established training programs, product designers must master a mile-long list of skills. They need to know how to code, basic user research techniques, data visualization, the architecture of apps and websites, and\u200a\u2014\u200aof course\u200a\u2014\u200aall the basics of graphic design like typography and layout.<\/p>\n

Design leaders predict it will take years for education to catch up.<\/p>\n

The story isn\u2019t much better in Silicon Valley. The focus is coding, in everything from hacker bootcamps to educational initiatives<\/a> with millions in tech backing. Design is forgotten.<\/p>\n

Investing in the\u00a0future<\/h3>\n

To hire good designers, founders have to battle over them\u200a\u2014\u200amaking pacts like handing over their first born child or turning their souls into horcruxes. It\u2019s only going to get worse as companies continue to ramp up their design hiring goals.<\/p>\n

Preparing the next generation of designers will have to be a collaborative effort among schools, the tech industry, and design tool companies themselves.<\/p>\n

At Figma, we\u2019ve made our design product free for students, which we think is a crucial first step to lowering the barrier to entry. But it\u2019s not enough. We\u2019re trying to figure out how else to tackle this problem, and we\u2019re curious to hear about other\u2019s approaches. Reach out to us and let us know what you\u200a\u2014\u200aor others you know\u200a\u2014\u200aare doing to help grow the design pipeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" You know design is having its moment when IBM, the stodgy normcore dad of the tech industry, gets in on the action. In the last five years, Big Blue has grown its designer to developer hiring target from 1:72 to 1:9. It’s not the only one\u200a—\u200acompanies across Silicon Valley are recruiting far more designers than ever before. I’ve been hearing about this hiring crunch for… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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