What does it actually take to be the first, or only, designer or researcher on a team? Spoiler: it’s not just about doing great work. This week, we get into the unglamorous, under-discussed side of the solo role: building systems, managing up, and earning trust before you’ve even shipped anything.

What happens when you’re really good at the craft, but nobody around you understands what you do, why it matters, or how to support you?

Julian Della Mattia has spent his career doing one of the hardest things in UX: showing up first. As a researcher who has repeatedly been the founding or solo practitioner inside organizations, Julian has learned, mostly the hard way, that being great at research is only a fraction of the actual job. He’s also the host of Finders to Builders, a podcast built specifically for researchers navigating this exact challenge.

In this conversation, we dig into what Julian calls the “finder to builder” mindset shift: moving from someone who just surfaces insights to someone who builds the infrastructure, earns the trust, and creates the conditions for research (and design) to actually matter inside an organization. We talk about how to manage up when your manager doesn’t fully understand your work, how to know when your efforts are starting to gain traction, and what the invisible job description of a solo or founding designer really looks like.

If you’ve ever landed a solo design or research role and felt the gap between what you prepared for and what the job actually demanded, this one’s for you. Julian brings a grounded, practical perspective that goes well beyond frameworks, because, as he puts it, in this context, frameworks rarely fly out of the box. Hit play.

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Julian on LinkedIn
• Follow Julian’s Substack
• Finders to Builders Podcast

Topics:• 02:25 – Meet Julian Della Mattia• 03:48 – From PM to first researcher• 06:06 – Agency advice for juniors• 10:54 – Accidental in-house research role• 14:28 – Finder to builder mindset• 18:51 – Time triage and playmaker mode• 24:53 – Invisible work and org dynamics• 27:49 – Managing up and selling research• 32:23 – Signals and metrics that it’s working• 36:48 – Measuring research impact• 38:35 – Skip the framework trap• 39:02 – Managing up tactics• 40:16 – Aligning with business goals• 43:37 – Just ask your boss• 44:43 – When to start hiring• 46:32 – Recap and teamwork• 48:37 – Parting advice for firsts• 60:39 – Where to find Julian

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Party of One: Building a Practice When You're Alone in the Room with Julian Della Mattia

Beyond UX Design

Party of One: Building a Practice When You're Alone in the Room with Julian Della Mattia