Design Lead @ Vincit USA
I’ve been the Design Lead at Vincit USA since March 2023, after making the move from Helsinki to California. It’s been an exciting journey! When I started, I was the first person to really focus on leading our design team, which has fluctuated between 3 to 5 members depending on our projects.
My role has been all about building our design offerings and processes from the ground up. I love coming up with creative ideas for our sales proposals and leading internal initiatives that make our work more efficient. A big part of my focus, as a direct manager of our designers, is ensuring my team members have meaningful goals and opportunities to learn, all while providing the support they need to thrive.
ROLE: Lead Designer & Team Lead @ Vincit USADURATION: Feb 2023 ->RESPONSIBILITIES: Overseeing projects, Sales support, Offering development, Mentoring, Recruitment, Hands-on design work for clients, etc..
Some of the clients I’ve worked with. Besides my internal responsibilities I have been doing hands-on design work in client projects.
Design Offering
When I first came on board, I during my initial meetings with the team I heard concerns from the designers about the challenges they faced in collaborating with the sales team. It seemed like miscommunication was leading to issues with staffing and project scopes. I quickly realized that there was a real gap in documentation about our design capabilities, and the sales team had different understandings of what we could offer. To fix this, I put together resources that the sales team can use during their early conversations with prospects. I also organized info sessions to help everyone get on the same page and ensure that the sales team and design team were aligned.
Vincit design offering that I defined and documented as the Lead Designer
Vincit Discovery
Opening new accounts is super important in the agency world because those clients often lead to ongoing work after the initial projects wrap up. To make it easier for new clients to see the value we bring right from the start, I took a fresh look at Vincit Discovery. It was previously too complex (therefore not that profitable), so I simplified it and created a clear template that makes it straightforward to propose and execute. Now, we can offer a low-threshold deliverable that truly delivers value from day one!
Career track for designers
Among my first tasks was to define career tracks for our designers. The starting point was that our designers had neither seniority levels nor idea of expectations for them that would allow them to progress in their role. To find direction and validate my assumptions I collected multiple rounds of feedback from Design Directors in Finland and Technical Directors in the US. My work was then used to reshape the career track for engineers in the US.
Words from my colleagues
Below, you can read some of the public feedback I received from my colleaugues at Vincit. I closely collaborate with technical team members during sales, project work and internal initiatives.
“From the very start Johanna has been such an excellent colleague, resource, collaborator and assisted me in so many ways already!!! She is always quick to raise her hand to help out, ideate, create, and overall just be totally awesome to work with. THANKS so much Johanna for the professionalism and energy you exude. It does not go unnoticed! ”
“Your expertise and enthusiasm made a significant impact on our client relations -thank you for your invaluable contribution and a fun and engaging workshops! ”
“Johanna was thrown in the deep-end as a Cell lead in the middle of Vincit struggling and didn’t miss a beat. She’s kept the design team on track despite losing half of it, helped on most of our sales requests, did a full round of interviewing, and has consistently been pushing us to be better as a group. Despite being as busy as anyone here, she’s always willing to do more. She’s been a terrific coworker and I’m glad she’s with us today.”