Hire a GOD of UX, not a pixel pusher.
Maybe call them the Chief Taste Officer. You’re looking for someone who is equal parts Steve Jobs, Don Draper, and Seth Godin. Assuming such a person exists (and that you can hire them) they will be responsible for Quality, top to bottom, and they’ll have the power (hiring, budget, creative authority, whatever it takes) to make it happen.
This is a pretty tall order. It may even be impossible. Apple was able to do it, but only because Steve Jobs is a genius who wanted his baby back, and Apple was circling the drain so Jobs was given the time and authority he needed to remake the company.
Can you reinvent a software company by hiring a pixel pusher?
Also:
We’re not all solo auteurs. Collaboration, compromise, and constraints are inescapable when building complicated products. The secret is to make sure that even as work is distributed, ownership of the work’s quality isn’t.
If you’re a software company, your people should have titles like these:
God of Bringing in the Money
God of Servers
God of Programming
God of the User Experience
Show me a company without a designated (and opinionated) “God of UX” and I’ll show you a company that makes crap.