How to Find the Right Designer for Your Product Team, Even If You Don’t Know What to Search For
When you’re leading a product or design team, you’re expected to move fast, deliver consistently, and solve problems as they come. But when you need outside design help, especially for something specialized, it’s often not obvious where to start.
You know what good design looks like. But how do you find someone who can plug into your workflow, understand the business, and actually make things easier?
Here’s the honest reality: most product and brand teams don’t fail because the design was bad. They fail because the team brought in the wrong kind of help at the wrong stage, and didn’t realize it until the expensive part had already started.
This guide is here to fix that.
Design decisions start with clear direction
What You Might Be Searching (and Why It’s Not Helping)
When VPs or heads of product start looking for design support, the search terms often sound like:
• “freelance designer for product team”
• “help with design strategy”
• “need a bag designer”
• “support for brand refresh”
• “freelance design partner”
These are all reasonable, but also incredibly broad. They lead to portfolio sites, agencies, junior freelancers, or directories that don’t really filter for experience, fit, or business alignment.
The result? You click around for 30 minutes and still don’t feel any closer to a decision.
What You’re Actually Looking For
Here’s what most VP-level design leaders need, even if it’s not how they’d phrase it:
• Someone who knows your category
• Someone who doesn’t need a long ramp-up
• Someone who understands internal team dynamics
• Someone who makes decisions easier, not harder
If you’re working in the bags and accessories space, for example, you’re dealing with specific constraints—materials, construction methods, margin pressures, factory timelines, and cross-functional expectations. You don’t want to teach someone all that from scratch.
You want someone who’s seen what goes wrong when product direction is fuzzy, who can spot the gaps before they become delays, and who understands what premium actually means in the context of price, channel, and positioning.
What Matters More Than a Portfolio
It’s easy to get stuck in a portfolio loop—scrolling through beautiful projects but not sure if they’re relevant. What you really need to assess is:
• Contextual experience: Have they worked at your level of brand or complexity?
• Collaboration fit: Can they work inside a structured process without disrupting it?
• Strategic value: Do they just design, or do they help clarify what should be designed?
The best external partners won’t just show you what they’ve done. They’ll show you how they think, how they solve, and how they fit into teams like yours.
When to Bring Someone In
Design help can serve different purposes depending on timing:
• At the start of a new product direction, to define and validate concepts before investing in development
• During a development bottleneck, to accelerate without adding managerial drag
• When internal teams are stretched, to support execution while protecting quality and alignment
• When a product isn’t landing, to unpack where strategy and design have disconnected
You don’t need to wait until something’s broken to bring in help. The earlier you clarify what’s needed, the less effort you waste downstream.
How to Know You’ve Found the Right Fit
You’ve probably seen this go wrong before. The designer is talented, but misses the nuance. The agency’s work is beautiful, but doesn’t hold up in production. The freelancer is responsive, but not strategic.
The right partner will:
• Ask hard questions early
• Spot misalignment before it spreads
• Work like part of your team, not a service layer
• Bring category-specific insight you don’t have to explain
They’ll make your life easier without needing to be micromanaged.
Final Thought
If you’re leading product at a premium brand, you already know what’s at stake. The timelines are tight. The margin matters. The design has to deliver.
The question isn’t just who can design it.
It’s who can help make the right product happen, from the start.
If you need a design strategist with experience and expertise in the bag industry, reach out to me.
What kind of designer do I need for my product team?
That depends on the problem. If it’s executional, you might need a strong freelancer. If it’s strategic or cross-functional, you need someone who can think like a partner, not just deliver assets.
Where do I find experienced product designers in bags or accessories?
They’re rarely on job boards. Look for independent specialists with a track record in your category, often through direct referral or targeted search.
What’s the difference between a design strategist and a product designer?
A product designer focuses on execution. A design strategist helps define what should be made in the first place—and why.
Can I use an agency for this?
Agencies are great for creative direction and marketing design. But for product-specific, category-informed work, a senior individual contributor or strategic partner may integrate better with your team.
What if I’m not sure what kind of help we need yet?
Start by identifying the gap. Is it bandwidth? Clarity? Execution? Strategy? Once you know what’s missing, the right kind of partner becomes easier to find.