Designing in the Gray Zone
Elementor is famous for its powerful web builder, but when I joined last year, my mission wasn’t to tweak the core product. Instead, I came on board to lead the design of something completely new: a standalone product with its own brand, team, and goals.
That product, now known as Sweet, turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. I thrive on building products from the ground up, laying the foundations, tackling the big questions, and figuring things out as we go. The more question marks, the merrier, as I always say 🤓
At first glance, designing a new product within an established company sounds like the best of both worlds: creative freedom backed by real resources. And in many ways, it is! But it also comes with its unique set of trade-offs. You’re constantly toggling between the fast pace of a startup and the structured environment of a larger organization. This in-between space? I call it the Gray Zone™.
Here are 10 invaluable lessons I’ve learned from navigating design in that dynamic, often ambiguous, territory.
1. Design Freedom Is Earned, Not Given
Don’t let the allure of a “greenfield product” fool you into thinking you have carte blanche. The moment your design choices intersect with shared systems, existing brand expectations, or critical roadmap dependencies, things can quickly get political. To truly earn design autonomy, you need to make your process transparent, secure early wins, and build credibility with stakeholders across the entire organization.
Tip: Talk to the people you’ll be collaborating with, and do it often! Their buy-in (and services) will be crucial later on.
2. Design Systems Are Negotiations in Disguise
You might inherit a design system that wasn’t built with your product’s unique use case in mind. Perhaps it’s too rigid, overly “enterprise-y,” or too heavily focused on the main brand. Instead of fighting it, approach it as a dialogue. Where can you contribute? What can you extend or adapt? Which rules are flexible, and which are non-negotiable?
Tip: Start with honest questions instead of assumptions. Reach out to the system owners as early as possible to discuss your specific needs and use cases.
3. Good Team Rituals Outperform Fancy Tools
You might not have the luxury of a full design operations setup, but a few lightweight rituals within your team can make a huge difference. Things like pre-sprint grooming sessions for specific features, regular developer demos, and recurring check-ins can achieve far more alignment than any high-tech tool stack.
Tip: Establish at least one internal ritual within your first month. Even a 30-minute dev demo at the end of a sprint can completely transform team alignment.
4. Your Design Community Is Your Secret Weapon
It’s tempting to put your head down and “do your own thing,” especially if you’re the sole designer on your team. But remember, the broader design organization is a goldmine of experienced people who have likely already solved some of the very problems you’re facing. Tapping into peer design review sessions, internal Slack channels, and shared design libraries will not only save you time but also significantly broaden your perspective.
Tip: Join or even start a weekly cross-team peer design review session. You’ll get invaluable feedback and boost the visibility of your work.
5. Brand Rules Can Be Bent With Respect
Launching a product under a new identity is a delicate dance, especially when there’s a dedicated brand team protecting the “mothership.” But here’s the secret: brand guidelines aren’t sacred texts. With the right rationale, you can explore evolutions that perfectly serve your new audience while remaining true to the core brand principles.
Tip: When you engage in brand conversations, come armed with mockups and solid reasoning, not just requests. Show how your direction aligns with brand values while fulfilling your product’s specific needs.
6. Your Scope Will Expand — Rapidly
In this kind of setup, your job title might say “product designer,” but your influence will inevitably spill into product management, user research, content writing, hiring, and even launch strategy. This isn’t a flaw; juggling many different hats is a feature of being an early-stage team within a larger company.
Tip: Treat every “stretch” task as a chance to learn and grow. However, be clear about what you’re taking on, and be mindful so it doesn’t quietly creep up on you and become overwhelming.
7. Move Quickly, But Leave a Trail
You’ll be iterating at a blistering pace. Decisions will pile up faster than you can keep track. Without proper documentation, you’ll lose sight of the “why” behind those choices. When new team members join or priorities inevitably shift, you’ll desperately wish you had captured your rationale.
At Sweet, for example, we made sure every epic had its own Jira space, with Figma files interlinked. The complete design flow was always available on a single page (with clearly marked sections, of course—we’re not animals!).
Tip: Use one page per feature. Summarize the intent, explorations, decisions made, and any remaining open questions.
8. Constraints Will Sharpen Your Work
You will inevitably encounter blockers. Brand alignment challenges, platform limitations, or compliance requirements will force difficult decisions. It’s tempting to view these as threats to your creativity, but more often than not, they actually refine and strengthen your ideas.
Tip: Reframe constraints as requirements from the outset. Design with them in mind from the start instead of treating them as afterthoughts.
9. You’re Defining Design Culture in Real Time
How you collaborate, how you share your work, and how you respond to feedback sets the tone for design within your new product. Especially if you’re the first or only designer, you are the culture. Your presence and actions influence how design is perceived far beyond just the user interface.
Tip: Be intentional about how you handle critique, prioritize feedback, and involve others in the design process. Those behaviors will scale.
10. The Most Lasting Work May Not Be the UI
Yes, the screens matter, and the user interface is critical. But what you build into the process—the systems, the relationships you foster, the team rituals you establish—will often outlive the product itself. Great design leadership means leaving behind a solid foundation that others can build upon.
Tip: Document not just what you built, but also how you built it. Future designers (and your future self!) will be incredibly grateful.
The In-Between Is Where You Grow
Designing within a hybrid model—a startup inside a larger company—is inherently uncomfortable. It demands that you operate without clear boundaries, stretch into unfamiliar territories, and build influence without traditional authority. But here’s the powerful truth: it accelerates personal and professional growth like nothing else.
If you ever get the chance to lead design for a “startup within a company,” seize it. You won’t just be shaping a product; you’ll be shaping what design can truly be within that organization.
