# Maturing design at Pax8

- Org: Pax8 (2022–26)
- Role: Sr. Director → VP of Design
- Timeframe: 4½ years · 2022–26
- Focus: Design leadership, Org building, Design systems & tokens, UX research, Content strategy
- Outcome: 3 → 20+ design, research, and content
- Outcome: ~90% design system adoption across product verticals
- Outcome: 4 directors
- Access: summary public; the full case study unlocks with a password from Seth's application, or on request
- URL: https://sethgerard.com/work/org

How I built design, research, and content into one organization at Pax8, with four directors, a shared design system, and a seat in planning.

From three designers taking requests to a core function the business plans around.

Pax8 had grown fast as a sales-driven cloud distributor and was turning itself into a product-led technology company. I joined in 2022 as Senior Director of Product Design, alongside a new head of product, and together we designed the product organization design would live in. Over four and a half years I built product design, UX research, and content strategy into one organization with four directors, a design system that most of the product was built on, and the rituals that made design part of how work got planned rather than where it ended up. I became VP of Design in 2024.

- **3 → 20+** designers, researchers, and content strategists, plus 7–10 contractors
- **4** directors across design, research, and content, three grown into the role
- **~90%** design system adoption across product verticals