Is your UX team a space ship or a pirate ship?

How two different UX leadership styles use loyalty and dissent to supercharge their teams

Is your team operating like a space ship? (Illustration: Guinea pigs in space suits. Source)

Two UX leadership mindsets

Over ten years in the UX domain, I’ve been part of many teams. Each team with its unique dynamics and outcomes: some were powerhouses of innovation, lighting up their projects with electrifying ideas, while others were entangled in the undergrowth of dysfunction, barely making any progress.

I’ve had my fair share of roles in this space. As an observer, a participant, and at times a guide within this ecosystem, I tried to understand what makes teams successful, distinguishing the thriving from the merely surviving. And, as I delved deeper, a curious observation stood out. I saw a dichotomy in successful leadership within the domain of UX.

Picture two leaders, both achieving their objectives, but their styles were night and day. One was akin to a space ship officer, where the crew operates in seamless unity, their loyalty unquestionable, their tasks clear-cut and ordered. Then picture a pirate captain, with a crew that thrives in the unpredictable, where challenging the captain’s orders is not mutiny, but a valued strategy for survival.