How SaaS Teams Effectively Scale Design Without Adding Headcount

TL;DR: Many SaaS teams think that hiring is the only way to avoid design delays and bottlenecks, but the reality is, they need a reliable graphic design service like Penji.

For many SaaS (software as a service) teams, growth isn’t their biggest challenge. The real issue lies in keeping their design output aligned with that same growth. Marketing needs fresh visuals for campaigns, product teams push for UI updates, and sales want polished designs for their decks and demos. All these end up in the design queue, causing design bottlenecks. The quick route many take is hiring more designers, which isn’t always the smartest. Here’s how your team can get graphic design for SaaS without adding to your existing headcount.

Why Does Design Work Pile Up So Fast?

SaaS teams are in constant need of designs. Every new campaign requires new creatives, such as ads, social media graphics, landing pages, and more. It’s the same for launching new products or services. In addition, they need to test these visuals for performance; thus, they regularly need design variations for A/A testing.

SaaS teams don’t need one-off design tasks, but a barrage of visual assets. Having an in-house design team isn’t always enough, most of the time, it leads to bottlenecks. This is why many of these teams turn to design-as-a-service platforms to handle all their graphic design needs for SaaS.

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Why Adding Another Designer Isn’t Always the Fix

Adding more team members can seem like the best option at first. Sooner or later, many SaaS teams will realize that this often creates new issues rather than solving them. Here’s why:

• Hiring full-time staff is expensive: SaaS design needs fluctuate. Some days the demand is sky-high, while others are quieter. When this happens, you still pay your team their salaries even though they have a light workload.
• Hiring freelancers is a hit-or-miss experience: while cost-effective, some freelancers disappear, delay, or fall short. Plus, quality and timelines vary, so don’t risk stalling your product launch to save on design costs via a freelancer.
• Agencies provide great work at a huge cost: they often take longer, are more costly, and focus on larger projects.
• Managing more people takes up time and resources: Each new hire requires onboarding, meetings, feedback loops, training, and more. All these add up and can cost you. Also, this can eat up a huge chunk of your time that should have been spent on more crucial matters.

What your SaaS team needs is consistent creative work, not more designers.

What’s the Smarter Way to Scale Design?

So, if adding more people won’t solve the bottleneck, what will? The smarter move is to build a system that consistently delivers all your creative output. This is where design-as-a-service comes in. Think of them as the following:

• On-demand design: Your visual assets will be delivered to you when you need them, not when your freelancer’s timeline loosens.
• Predictable costs: Subscription-based pricing eliminates the hassles of hourly freelancers or agency retainers.
• No more long hiring cycles: You’ll skip the long timeline of searching, interviewing, onboarding, and training.

To effectively remove design bottlenecks, use graphic design services built for SaaS teams. These can help you keep pace with your product launches, marketing campaigns, and sales initiatives without slowing down.

How Design as a Service Helps You Move Faster

Many SaaS teams enjoy working with a design-as-a-service platform because of its speed. They no longer have to scramble to find a freelancer for a specific task or wait weeks for their agency’s timelines. They get design when they need it, thus the term, on-demand graphic design services.

Let’s use Penji’s design process as an example of this. With it, you no longer have to search for a freelancer to work on your logo and find another one for your custom illustration. Or, you won’t have to search again for each new campaign you want to launch. All you need to do is submit your project brief and wait 24 to 48 hours for your first draft.

Penji also offers unlimited revisions, allowing you to get the exact design you need without paying extra. Penji’s design team also includes designers from the top 2% worldwide. This assures you of quality work from a diverse pool of talent.

How to Fit Design as a Service Into Your Workflow

Working with a design-as-a-service platform offers many advantages. What many SaaS teams love about it is that they didn’t need to reinvent their processes. They easily integrated them into the tools and rhythms they are already familiar with. To make it work, you need to do the following:

• Use the tools you already have, such as Slack, Asana, Trello, or Jira. Most graphic design services integrate directly into your existing workflow, without adding another platform or software.
• Keep your briefs simple, yet clear. This allows your designers to get your designs right the first time. While most offer unlimited revisions, a clear description of your project saves you time and energy.
• Provide quick, constructive feedback. Your direct feedback helps keep your projects moving without the endless back-and-forth.
• Think of it as your own design team. When you treat your on-demand graphic design service as an extension of your team, you’ll get the most optimal results.

Where Most Teams Get It Wrong

Many SaaS companies are used to design bottlenecks and don’t realize the hassle they cause or how they slow their growth. The following mistakes are common:

• Taking a long time to fix the delays: By the time their campaigns stall, they become overwhelmed by the backlog.
• Overloading their designers: From ad creatives to marketing materials, one designer won’t be able to keep up with the pace.
• Hiring too early: You need to optimize first before hiring anyone. Doing so only adds to the friction.
• Ignoring the impact of design on growth: They think of design as an afterthought, unaware that it directly affects speed, conversions, and customer trust.

Below are the signs that you need to rethink your design setup:

• The requests are piling up.
• Your campaigns get delayed because the creatives haven’t been done yet.
• Your team is constantly waiting for the designs.
• Hiring seems too huge a task.

When you experience even one of these, it’s time to turn to on-demand graphic design services.

Final Thoughts

While it is the first recourse many SaaS can think of, adding headcount isn’t the solution. It’s all about reducing friction, which you can do by working with a design-as-a-service. The bottom line is, a better design workflow equals faster SaaS growth.

If you want to get in on the action, work with Penji. Watch our quick demo video here to learn how our designers can help you avoid design bottlenecks and keep pace with your campaigns without hiring. Click here to get started with your first design request.

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