I watch a lot of movies, and I've gotten fascinated by how they're made and how much work goes into every frame. Film sets have the luxury of deep specialization: lighting, photography, VFX, editing, sound; software doesn't, so a design leader wears a lot of hats. These are the four I wear most often. Always in the service of of the designers on my team.
Director
Set the vision, in charge of day to day operations and pulling the best work from the team.
Producer
Bring all the other functions together, connect, unblock, resources.
Editor
Narrative cohesion, handoff between experiences, simplify, quality assurance
Agent
Find opportunities to earn new skills, get their name and work out there.
What I expect from my team
Great design never ships in isolation. I expect every designer to build knowledge that starts with the user and widens all the way out to the business.
01
Know your users
Real empathy for the people we design for, not personas on a slide. What are they trying to accomplish, and where does today's experience let them down?
02
Know the product
Know your area deeply, and know how it connects to the full customer journey. We don't ship our products in isolation.
03
Know your users
A fluency for the metrics that matter: the health and outcome numbers for your area, the common user lifecycles, and the clearest pain points.
04
Know your users
Run your own concept test, usability test, cognitive walkthrough, heuristic eval, and jobs-to-be-done interview. And treat content as the design skill it is.
05
Know your stakeholders
06
Know the company
Network across the org. Understand what makes it tick, who decides, and how work actually gets done.
07
Know the business
Understand how the product makes its money, and how the experiences you design move that bottom line.
What my teams can expect from me
Two things, really: that I will grow them, and that I will clear the path so they can do their best work.
Empowerment and autonomy
At the start of a project, the designer writes the action plan from discovery to delivery and reviews it with PM and engineering. It lets them work the way that makes sense to them while staying accountable. I make connections, find chances for them to show their competencies, and give them the tools to succeed.
Growth & talent
Regular conversations about how they want to grow: what energizes them, what depletes them, what challenges them, where they want to go, and a quarterly plan to get there.
Growing relationships
I model strong relationships with product and engineering, and help my designers build their own. Help your partners where it counts, and learn to ask for what you need.
Closeness to users & data
I attend every user testing session I can and debrief with the team after. I push for collaboration with research, or thoroughness when there's no researcher.
Business context
Everyone on my team can connect their work to the key metrics, and to how the product makes or saves money.