How can a Designer become a Leader?
7 Tips to Lead a Design Team.
Disclaimer! What you’re about to read is based on my experience, specifically things that have given me good results. I don’t claim to have it all figured out, there’s still a long way for me to go, regardless of that I thought it could be interesting to share my learnings up until this point.
The transition…
Let’s start with a bit of context first… when my manager asked me if I wanted to lead a team I almost automatically said no, at the time I was a bit hesitant to take over this new responsibility, especially because my true passion is design and the thing I love the most is to actually make things. In my head, leading a team, by default, would mean little time to design/make something, more time managing people and probably lots of admin work. So “no” was a no-brainer, after all, I didn’t become a designer to spend my days managing designers and letting them have all the fun.
After a couple of weeks, she asked me again, she mentioned why she believed I could do the job, and also gave me the change of doing it as a trial for a few months. Since my team would be quite small, I decided to give it a go and see if I could still find time to design.
Fast forward 3 months and thanks to the team size I still managed to find time to design, and now I could even steer the general direction we were going and hire designers that I believed in, so my conclusion was to keep going.
That’s how I got started, and even though I’m still very much noob at this, during the past year I think I learned quite a lot, and I wanted to share that with you, hoping you find it useful in case you want to lead a design team, or just if you wonder what would entail to take that responsibility.
With that out of the way, let’s get into my learnings.
1. Have a Goal
The first thing I learned was that you need to provide direction to your team.
Have a clear goal, give them focus so they know what they’re supposed to achieve and when.
Doing that will help people understand where they’re heading and what they should be doing to get there. Imagine that you’re on a boat with several people rowing, if they don’t know where you’re heading, you might end up moving in circles and getting nowhere. With a goal, even if it is a bit fuzzy, you’ll get people rowing in the right direction, and if the original goal is fuzzy, it’s important that as you move towards it, that it starts to become more and more clear.
When you define your goal, it’s good to be realistic on a short term but visionary on a the long run. People need to know what they should be doing now but they also need to understand what’s the ultimate dream, so they can take that into consideration.
In my view, as the design lead your job isn’t just to write down what your team should do and when, but more importantly is to give a bit of a glimpse of what that can be, that’s where you can put your awesome design skills to use.
2. Rushing slows you down
If you read my last article you know I’m all for moving fast, this tip doesn’t mean that you have to move slowly, this only means that you should go through a proper design process, and you don’t skip steps unless you have a really valid reason. The whole “fail fast” mentality isn’t much of a valid reason if you ask me, if you have the means to test something in a small scale and avoid giving your users a hard time, why would you put them through it?
With this, I basically mean that you shouldn’t skip prototyping because it can take some time, you need to test and validate your designs as much as you can so you don’t end up making bad decisions based on wrong assumptions and release a product that will be a pain to use.
This also means that you shouldn’t be too busy to join user tests, because there’s nothing like seeing people frustrations first hand, when you can see more than a number, or a username, you see an human being trying to accomplish something that was supposed to be easier thanks to your brilliant design. This is when you learn and empathize the most with the people using your product.
You can’t skip things just because you’re the Lead, I believe that a good Lead should lead by example, if you don’t consider it a priority, your team might end up following your example. Not just that, to properly steer the boat you need all the insights that are gained in the user test, and for that there’s nothing like being there in person.
Next to this, and this should go without saying, you should test and use the product that your team is designing as much as you can, and you should know all the ins & outs of the current version of the product that your users are using, so you don’t forget about them and their struggles.
3. Dream before it gets real
Even though it’s good to be realistic, practical and pragmatic when you’re designing a product, I believe it’s important not to forget to dream, and to encourage your team to do the same.
One doesn’t become a designer because they want to reuse as much existing components as possible, or because they want to design MVPs for the rest of their lives.
Therefore, I think it’s very important to keep that spark that made someone become a designer alive, and encourage them to go wild sometimes. That crazy idea that your team came up with may never see the light of day because it’s too expensive to build or too dreamy, but maybe, just maybe it will be the thing that inspires an engineer to build something that can be somewhere in between, which ends up being a better experience for your user and something more inspiring for the design team to build upon.
The other reason why I think it’s important to dream is because I really believe that the moment you let all the constraints pull you down it’s the moment you stop innovating. This is one of the reasons why car manufacturers invest in designing concept cars, it’s not to design a car that can be shipped in a few months, but to give their design team (and the world) a glimpse of what the future can be, so they can envision how they can design something that is more realistic but at the same time is heading on that same direction.
4. Listening makes you better
The “leader” stereotype is someone who likes to talk, they’re the ones calling the shots and telling everyone what to do. That stereotype couldn’t be further from myself, however I would argue a better kind of leader is the one who listens more than talks.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t say a word, it just means that you listen carefully, you encourage others to participate and give their 2 cents, so you can use all that as ammunition to construct your opinion, and to make decisions. If you really listen, whenever you talk you’re contribution will be more meaninful and have a bigger impact.
As a Lead I think it’s also vital that you don’t take someone’s opinion based on their seniority or their position in the company. If you built your team properly, you should be surrounded by intelligent individuals that are striving toward the same goal as you. This doesn’t mean you ignore experts advice, you just have to keep in mind that in the end of the day, you’re not designing for these experts, you’re designing for people that will use your product. They’re the ones you have to listen.
Beyond design, listening can be also useful to improve your team motivation and productivity. Talk with your designers and also the people that your team interact with, ask them what can be better. You’ll be surprised with the insights you’ll get just by listening to what they have to say, even when things are running somewhat smoothly there’s always points of improvement, you just have to listen.
5. Make the dream with the team
When you’re hiring designers, you should aim to hire people that you think are better than you at something. If you want a good team you can’t be afraid of hiring someone that might take your job, you should actually only hire that kind of people because they’re the ones who will help you move forward.
Next to their skills, you should also evaluate if their personality will be a good fit in your team. You need to be able to have a conversation with this person, after all, you’re going to work together on a daily basis, so it’s always nice if you don’t hate each other.
Once the team is there, I think the best possible design work comes from proper collaboration.
To encourage that, you need to be honest with your team, but also open to receive honest feedback. You might need certain people to execute parts of the designs individually, but the vision and the end result should be taken as the fruit of the team. Brainstorming, designing and iterating should be something that happens as a team, I believe that is the best way to make everyone feel motivated, productive and equally responsible for the end result, moreover, it’s the way to make sure you get the most out of the different minds in your team, by having them bouncing ideas of each other.
Last but not least, the size is key. My experience tells me that a small team is always better. The more people you have under you, the more communication lines you have, which essencially means that is more likely that a miss understanding happens.
6. They need to see it to believe
I’m a firm believer of showing rather than telling. If you have an idea and there’s a way to visualize it, as a designer, your job is to make that happen.
Having something to look not only gives people a starting point of discussion, but also gives them a glimpse of what something can become.
When you’re leading a team I think it’s important to keep on designing, that will show your team you’re not just a manager, but you’re someone who deeply cares about design, and more specifically you care about making whatever project you’re designing into something real and tangible.
This is key not just within the design team, but even more when you’re communicating to other stakeholders. If you lead by example hopefully your team will follow, thus making the communication with other teams more effective.
With that said, this point is not just about making a design visible, it’s also about taking action and doing rather than talking about it. For instance, if there’s an idea to improve the work process that comes from a team member, if you believe in it, don’t linger around to put it into practice, just make it happen.
It’s easy to resist change and just keep doing what you’re used to, but if you never take action when your team gives you feedback, that may look like you don’t care or listen to what they have to say.
As the Lead, your job isn’t just to show your team where to go but also to give them a voice and help them push their ideas forward.
7. Build trust not walls
This is kind of obvious, but I’ll say it anyway, you have got to trust your designers. Don’t try to micromanage people. If you hired someone, you did it for a reason, let them show you their best side.
A team of talented designers won’t be more productive or creative if you’re sitting behind them tracking their progress, or if you make sure they’re all clocking in at 8:59am.
Every designer is different, trust their process. The only thing you have to do is giving them clear goals to achieve, and make sure they get there in the end.
If they don’t, that shouldn’t be the point when you start to micromanage, what I recommend doing it to make them aware of what is expected from them and give them a second change to get on track. In case they don’t, then you have to take action quickly, or else their behavior and attitude might spread to the rest of the team.
The ultimate goal is to have a team that can operate even when you’re not around, I think that can only happen if you trust them when you are.
Trust also goes beyond your design team, and as the Lead you have to make sure your team has the trust from all the different teams they work with.
Don’t forget to peek over the fence, and try to tear down any walls there might be in place. Whether is the PMs, Development, Marketing or any other team, your job is to help your team building a bridge, and to encourage collaboration.
Make time, involve them early and don’t wait for them to come to you, take initiative and push for true collaboration. In my experience, if you do it effectively, you’ll not just gain their trust, potentially you get a sit at their table when important discussions happen.
Bonus tip!
If you made it this far, I have a bonus tip for you. In case you’re a bit like me and have that “maker” itch that you need to scratch, try to block time on your calendar to design, and I mean, blocks of uninterrupted time (2–4 hours).
If you don’t, your calendar will get swamped with meetings very easily. Also, be prepared to say no, because if you don’t protect your time people will try to steal it, especially if your calendar is fully packed.
Is there a conclusion?
To lead a team you have to develop some skills that you don’t necessarily practice as a designer, but that doesn’t mean you have to do sell your soul and do a complete 180, you only need to evolve, especially because there are plenty of skills that you already have as a designer, you only need to adapt them to your new context.
In the end of the day, you are still a designer, the only difference is that instead of being a single contributor, now you have people that can help you multiply your impact and speed.
