InVision Case Studies Leveraging Design Culture for Growth: A Case Study on Pinterest

Edit This Case Study Record

	Leveraging Design Culture for Growth: A Case Study on Pinterest InVision

Leveraging Design Culture for Growth: A Case Study on Pinterest

InVision

Technology Category	Drones - VTOL & VTOL Hybrid Drones Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
Applicable Industries	Buildings Electrical Grids
Applicable Functions	Maintenance Product Research & Development
Services	Training
Challenge	Pinterest, a social networking software company based in San Francisco, has a strong design culture that emphasizes humility and a focus on the user and the product. The company believes in working cross-functionally when creating new features or products and showing work before it’s done. However, maintaining this design-driven culture while growing rapidly and retaining employees posed a challenge. The company also faced the challenge of operationalizing processes within hybrid organizational structures, which can get complex. Furthermore, Pinterest needed to ensure that there was a connection to the needs of the customer in every project. Read More
About Customer	Pinterest is a social networking software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. With a team of 2,200 employees, the company is known for its strong design culture that emphasizes humility and a focus on the user and the product. Pinterest believes in working cross-functionally when creating new features or products and showing work before it’s done. The company is committed to creating a culture that celebrates design and nurtures design talent, and it has grown rapidly while maintaining a reputation as a great place for designers to thrive. Read More
Solution	To address these challenges, Pinterest adopted a hybrid approach to organizational design, blending multiple organizational models and running different models in parallel. This approach provided the flexibility to tailor the organizational structure and meet the immediate needs of the organization. Designers were positioned in temporary cross-functional teams to work on focused projects with clear deadlines, after which they returned to the centralized design team. Pinterest also created the role of Creative Director as an alternate, non-managerial option for career advancement. The company used InVision for socializing designs with other teams, user research, and creating prototypes to quickly validate concepts. Additionally, Pinterest conducted IDEO-style workshops to test new ideas or move teams forward when they were stuck on challenging problems. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Drones - VTOL & VTOL Hybrid Drones

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud

Applicable Industries

Buildings

Electrical Grids

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Product Research & Development

Services

Training

Challenge

Pinterest, a social networking software company based in San Francisco, has a strong design culture that emphasizes humility and a focus on the user and the product. The company believes in working cross-functionally when creating new features or products and showing work before it’s done. However, maintaining this design-driven culture while growing rapidly and retaining employees posed a challenge. The company also faced the challenge of operationalizing processes within hybrid organizational structures, which can get complex. Furthermore, Pinterest needed to ensure that there was a connection to the needs of the customer in every project.

About Customer

Pinterest is a social networking software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. With a team of 2,200 employees, the company is known for its strong design culture that emphasizes humility and a focus on the user and the product. Pinterest believes in working cross-functionally when creating new features or products and showing work before it’s done. The company is committed to creating a culture that celebrates design and nurtures design talent, and it has grown rapidly while maintaining a reputation as a great place for designers to thrive.

Solution

To address these challenges, Pinterest adopted a hybrid approach to organizational design, blending multiple organizational models and running different models in parallel. This approach provided the flexibility to tailor the organizational structure and meet the immediate needs of the organization. Designers were positioned in temporary cross-functional teams to work on focused projects with clear deadlines, after which they returned to the centralized design team. Pinterest also created the role of Creative Director as an alternate, non-managerial option for career advancement. The company used InVision for socializing designs with other teams, user research, and creating prototypes to quickly validate concepts. Additionally, Pinterest conducted IDEO-style workshops to test new ideas or move teams forward when they were stuck on challenging problems.

Impact #1	The hybrid approach to organizational design allowed Pinterest to maintain its design-driven culture while growing rapidly. It provided the flexibility to tailor the organizational structure to meet the immediate needs of the organization. The creation of the Creative Director role offered a non-managerial option for career advancement, which helped in employee retention. The use of InVision facilitated socializing designs with other teams, conducting user research, and creating prototypes to quickly validate concepts. The IDEO-style workshops helped in testing new ideas and moving teams forward when they were stuck on challenging problems. Overall, these strategies helped Pinterest maintain a strong design culture and a focus on the user and the product.

Impact #1

The hybrid approach to organizational design allowed Pinterest to maintain its design-driven culture while growing rapidly. It provided the flexibility to tailor the organizational structure to meet the immediate needs of the organization. The creation of the Creative Director role offered a non-managerial option for career advancement, which helped in employee retention. The use of InVision facilitated socializing designs with other teams, conducting user research, and creating prototypes to quickly validate concepts. The IDEO-style workshops helped in testing new ideas and moving teams forward when they were stuck on challenging problems. Overall, these strategies helped Pinterest maintain a strong design culture and a focus on the user and the product.

Download PDF Version

Overview

Leveraging Design Culture for Growth: A Case Study on Pinterest

Operational Impact