Christophe Tauziet - Plaid’s culture of craft, tips for CRIT, and lessons from early Facebook
Mar 7, 2025
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Christophe Tauziet, Head of Design at Plaid, dives into building a craft-oriented culture within design teams. He shares essential strategies for fostering collaboration and effective feedback loops. Learn how structured reviews and polish sessions can elevate design quality. Christophe emphasizes the importance of understanding user challenges and the iterative nature of design. He also discusses his evolving criteria for selecting design candidates, highlighting curiosity and emotional investment as key traits.
A culture of craftsmanship within Plaid's design team emphasizes deep problem understanding and iterative design for project success.
Collaboration and regular feedback mechanisms enhance design quality, democratizing the process and fostering engagement amongst team members.
Curiosity is a key trait in hiring design candidates, reflecting a commitment to continuous learning and alignment with high design standards.
Deep dives
Emphasizing Craft-Oriented Culture
A strong emphasis on craftsmanship within the design team contributes significantly to the overall success of projects. This culture is instilled by focusing on understanding problems deeply before jumping to solutions, ensuring that designers connect with the real issues their users face. The approach promotes iterative design processes, encouraging designers to explore multiple solutions rather than settling for the first idea. A dedication to craftsmanship is further supported through mentorship, with experienced designers helping others evolve their skills and transform their approaches.
The Importance of Iteration
Iteration plays a crucial role in the design process, with the belief that the best solutions emerge through repeated exploration of ideas. By treating design like throwing darts, designers can gradually hone in on better solutions with more attempts rather than relying on the initial idea. This necessitates a work environment that allows for rapid prototyping and feedback loops among team members. Designers are encouraged to produce multiple versions of their work, creating a rich reservoir of ideas that can inspire and lead to innovation.
Encouraging Collaborative Feedback
A collaborative environment is critical for producing high-quality designs, and establishing regular feedback mechanisms helps achieve this. Designers share their work in progress openly, inviting reactions from other team members, including product managers and engineers, to democratize the design process. Utilizing tools for asynchronous feedback ensures that insights can be gathered without the time constraints of live meetings. This emphasis on open dialogue fosters a sense of engagement and pride among team members as they contribute to refining design solutions collectively.
Polishing Designs through Reviews
Polish reviews serve as an essential final checkpoint before designs enter production, aiming to capture last-minute adjustments and ensure adherence to quality standards. A dedicated panel of experienced designers plays a critical role during this phase, scrutinizing elements like typography and alignment for coherence and detail. This practice not only enhances the end product but also mitigates potential queries from developers that could arise post-launch. By investing additional time to review designs, the overall quality improves while reducing instances of scope changes or miscommunication later on.
Cultivating Curiosity in Candidates
When hiring new designers, a premium is placed on curiosity, which is seen as a driving force behind exceptional work. Candidates are evaluated on their eagerness to learn about emerging design trends as well as their ability to understand user problems deeply. This focus on curiosity shapes both the selection process and the environment designers work in, encouraging ongoing exploration and growth. Furthermore, a balance of craft and problem-solving skills is sought to ensure that new hires align with the company's high standards for design excellence.
This week’s episode is with Christophe Tauziet who is the Head of Design at Plaid—one of today’s leading fintech companies.
We go deep into the ways he’s building a culture of craft and the rituals they’ve evolved to consistently sweat the details. There are a lot of practical processes and ideas in this episode.
Some highlights:
Keys to a great async video share out
How to foster a winning CRIT environment
Why Christophe implemented “polish reviews”
Ways to foster collaboration within a design org
Practical advice for giving better design feedback
How Christophe changed what he looks for in design candidates
