January 2025



In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, Australian professional services firms are increasingly exploring smart ways to access high-level design expertise without the commitment of a full-time executive hire.

Enter fractional design leadership – a flexible approach to developing or growing your design team, or even managing design-related projects.

What is Fractional Design Leadership?

At its core, fractional design leadership involves engaging a senior design professional with extensive design management and leadership experience who is parachuted in to work with your firm on your unique challenge, project, or growth opportunity.

These leaders bring strategic design thinking, operational experience, and industry insights to organisations that may not require or have the resources for a full-time design leader.

Key characteristics of fractional design leadership include:

• Engagement periods typically span from a few days for a small need to several days per month, enabling firms to scale design outcomes based on their specific needs and project requirements. This model is attractive to firms who want to progress without a full commitment.
• Leaders work directly with firm stakeholders to align design initiatives with business objectives. The role of Fractional Design Leader enables design thinking to shape and influence the firm’s design-related growth trajectory or initiatives.
• Most fractional design leaders have extensive experience across different types of professional services firms, as well as different industries and ideally have served in-house as leaders themselves. They can service multiple clients simultaneously, bringing cross-industry insights and best practices whilst maintaining strict confidentiality between engagements.

Implementation in professional services

The Fractional Design Leadership model is particularly well-suited to professional services firms. Firms require sophisticated design leadership to maintain quality and brand consistency, yet the fluctuating nature of their design requirements means they often don't have enough consistent design work to warrant a full-time leadership position.

Law firms, accounting practices, consulting agencies, and financial services firms often require sophisticated design leadership to enhance their service delivery, project management and client experience, but mightn't have enough consistent design work to justify a permanent leadership position.

Engagement and geography

Professional services firms typically engage fractional design leaders through structured agreements with defined outcome goals.

Common engagement types are:

• Rebrand or design-related project management
• Design team mentorship
• Design team transformation
• Fixed-term design team management
• Design process and systems optimisation
• Design team set-up and recruiting advice

The Australian context adds unique dimensions to fractional design leadership. Given the country's geographical spread and the common practice of remote work, many fractional design leaders have developed effective systems for engaging and managing design teams and projects across multiple locations.

BrandOps’ design leadership experience

We bring over a decade of experience delivering design leadership across Australia's professional services landscape. We have developed deep expertise in navigating complex stakeholder environments, such as:

• Law firms
• Financial services
• Consultancies
• Federal government

Our work spans design team leadership and transformation, digital transformation initiatives, service design, and extensive project management, bringing valuable insights and understanding while maintaining the confidentiality that professional services firms expect.