Having a growth mindset as a Designer
How my Design Manager inspired me to become better at my craft.
It’s been about a year since I started working at Atlassian. And, it took me almost a decade to meet a design manager I’d finally call, my most favorite!
Ash Sterzenbach (who now no longer works at our organization) is some one who is super passionate about her practice, genuinely cares about the team, is kick-ass at her craft, used to be a brilliant IC (Individual Contributor) during her early days, and most importantly, knows her sh*t! Her rock-solid people processes and frameworks have ensured predictability, kept a check on surprises, and empowered individuals within the team to grow as per their aspirations and motivations whilst achieving the company’s objectives and outcomes.
One of the most important things I’ve learnt from Ash and my workplace over the past year is the need for designers to have a ‘growth mindset’. Especially for a field such as ours that demands exceptional analytical, creative, and tactical skills, shouldn’t every day be about growth and constant learning?
Why should Promotions, Performance bonuses and Year-end appraisals be the only factors that define whether or not a person is growing professionally?
Here are some of those practices I believe have helped me become a better designer whilst tracking my strengths and weaknesses, and constantly keeping a check on that imposter syndrome.
1. Having regular 1:1s with your Design manager
Mutual respect and trust are what makes any relationship work. And, 1:1s are a good starting point for Reports and Managers to get to know each other better. Ideally, this is something a good leader earns from their subordinates over the course of time.
Though, not every manager is a good leader.
Nevertheless, setting up a 30minute weekly sync (or fortnightly) is crucial. The goal here shouldn’t just be about project updates and clients, but instead, it needs to be a slot that is devoted to talking about ‘You’. Yes, you read that right! Eventually, you would realize that your conversations are becoming a lot more honest where you can openly share your vulnerabilities, blockers that are preventing you, personal issues that you are battling with as you continue to deliver your projects, and so on. Let your manager know how important these sessions are to you and make the maximum out of the opportunity.
Do not let it become some sort of a standup/check-in meeting. It isn’t.
2. Growth talks
Different organizations may have different hierarchies as far as roles and responsibilities are concerned. What is expected of a Lead Designer at one firm might be expected from a Senior Designer at another. So, it is important to understand the role (a.k.a Job Title) and what it means to your workplace.
This is where ‘Growth Talks’ come into play. Atlassian does a fabulous job here by breaking down the expectations of each role in terms of both soft skills and craft skills. And, design managers have gone on to take advantage of this exhaustive framework and customize it to inspire their teams based on each individual’s interests.
What’s usually done is, you evaluate yourself based on the expectations from your current role whilst being aware of what the next role you are looking to progress into demands of you. It’s highly likely that it might take you two to three years to actually be eligible for that promotion, but the point of constantly doing this self-evaluation, having monthly discussions with your manager, and receiving honest feedback is to challenge yourself and get better professionally.
This isn’t some checklist where you need to be a 100% skilled at every single aspect of that role. Nope!
It’s about having an open conversation with your boss, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, talking about your motivations, being aligned on the areas that you are passionate about, and facilitating towards helping build your muscle around them.
Someone in your team might want to work on improving their skills at communication and influence that year, while you plan on putting most of your efforts into let’s say your user-research and prototyping skills. That shall be a decision made solely by you, in alignment with your manager.
Ideally, monthly check-ins and a mid-year review where a deep dive on each aspect of your responsibilities and how have you been delivering your projects would be a good way to steer your growth chats. This negates lousy appraisal conversations where reports and bosses usually bullsh** to each other just to justify a pay raise, and instead, helps minimize assumptions and foster better communication from the very get-go.
Money matters. But so does building your craft and becoming a better designer.
3. Goal setting
A goal is essential to remind you of the path you decided to take and the one you happen to be in. That’s where short term goals and long term goals come into play. These need not be set on stone and you can choose to modify them as you navigate through each year too! But, what’s important is, having (some sort of) an idea on the direction you intend to steer your ship towards.
For example: A Senior Designer could have a 5-year goal of becoming a Principal Designer who is an expert at product strategy. Or maybe your goal is to become a Design Manager who has built a team with the best employee satisfaction score in the organization, or whatever it is you dream of achieving!
Your short term goals could be something like: ‘Grow my skills at documentation’, or ‘Get better at gaining stakeholder buy-in’ or ‘Introduce better research frameworks for design teams to use at the organisation’ etc.
Short term goals could be more than one, but you need to be clear with what you are keen on working towards. Remember the ‘growth talks’ that we discussed earlier? You could leverage those to define your goals too! Eventually, these would feed into your long-term goals and you’d actually realize that it is possible to become the designer you’ve always aspired to be after all.
4. Reach out shamelessly to the people whose work you admire and reciprocate the same
I’m an Individual Contributor who has been keen on understanding people management for a while now. So, I began reaching out to Design Managers and Lead Designers at my organization and outside. Some of them were known for their people skills, while there were others who switched back to Individual Contributor roles after trying a hand at people management. My conversations revolved more around their journey, how they ended up taking up the role, what were the things they went through emotionally, how did they manage to up-skill and prepare themselves for the job and so on.
I found these sessions to be really helpful, especially knowing that some of these amazing leaders went through a similar dilemma during their early years as well, was quite reassuring. Also, the very fact that people have been super friendly and approachable, made me want to reciprocate the same to those that I’ve managed to inspire in a tiny way, if at all.
There is nothing wrong with admitting to yourself that people are better than you in certain areas, and openly letting them know that you admire their work or are keen on learning how they approach a problem.
Imagine a world where you could simply reach out to ANY designer irrespective of who they were?
That’s my dream for our industry.
5. Bring your whole self to work
Lastly, if you aren’t passionate, motivated, or driven, it is going to show up, eventually! How long can you fake it?
Sure, there are going to be off days where you just aren’t able to focus or produce your best work. And, that’s totally alright! What matters is, acknowledging the fact that we are human, and can’t perform to our 100% every single time. Be honest with yourself.
In case you see the need to take a break, feel free to give yourself one! Maybe you believe a 3month sabbatical is going to help you recharge, then just muster the courage and take it! Or chances are you no longer like working with your team or see the need to shift to a different organization completely..
How are you going to be able to grow if you pointlessly complain and do nothing about it?
Stay true to your profession irrespective of whom you work for.
That’s the first step towards inculcating a growth mindset. Spread your wings, be that Designer you always aspired to be. And most importantly, don’t stop yourself from growing.
Dedicated to Ash, my favorite Design Manager. Thank you for everything! :)
