What makes a great UX leader?
A few weeks ago I was approached by a recruiter about a leadership role within a UX team. After a read of the job spec I pinged over a CV and link to my portfolio site. My professional journey through the creative industries has been somewhat unusual so I wasn’t surprised when the recruiter came back and asked for more details about my previous experiences. The majority of these questions were nothing new and I reeled off a selection of war stories from previous roles that have shaped my career to date. Just as I was preparing to take a final dyslexia-checking sweep and hit the send button a new mail popped into my inbox with a bonus question that stopped me in my tracks…
After a quick internal reflection I realised this this was not something I had ever really considered. I have regularly mulled over my leadership experiences; exploring what has worked, what has not, and what I should have done differently. However, I hadn't ever thought about leadership through the specific lens of UX. I began to ponder what made a really good leader within the field of User Experience, and how this set of essential qualities differed to those of great leaders in other industries.
I have been a founding member of two tech start-ups and worked both agency and client side. Over the years I’ve built up teams of UX Designers, UI Designers, Interaction Designers, Service Designers, Researchers and Developers. Throughout these experiences it has always been important to roll up my sleeves and help teams get shit done, bringing my experience and technical skills to the group and guiding by example. More importantly as a leader, I have always concentrated on creating environments that are not only focused on the end point of delivery, but make space for people to slow down and reflect, to have the opportunity to share their knowledge and opinions in order to make the team as effective as possible. One example that springs to mind was when I rearranged the seating in the studio to encourage UX and Development teams to interact and collaborate with each other. This simple action (coupled with structured workflows) led to impactful improvements in both output and team dynamics.
I am a big fan of structure. When leading UX teams I have implemented structures within many aspects including workflow, hiring, mentorship and feedback. Some of these have been industry standards (Agile), some I have stolen from other teams (too many to count from Hyper Island), and some were created from scratch (custom stage gate designs as an example). I have approached them all as experiments and most have needed to be iterated as they were implemented. As a UX leader applying structure to teams gives confidence, direction and transparency which are key ingredients for success.
When I consider leadership there are certain aspects that are universal and in my opinion apply to all good leaders no matter if they work in UX or something else.
Empathy
This is a skill that is ingrained into the fabric of UX but goes much deeper within the context of UX leadership. The teams I have experienced leading have all been very diverse (a conscious decision when hiring because diverse teams have been proven to be more creative) and I’ve learnt that individuals need to be inspired, engaged and communicated with in specific ways that are best suited to them, there is no ‘one size fits all’. Being aware of this and harnessing their individual strengths, focuses and drivers is a key leadership skill which I have continuously tried to develop.
Inspiration
Inspiring teams does not stop at providing a drip feed of creative brain food by sharing links, events, articles, podcasts, products etc. (my personal mantra for this is to constantly try and make everyone in my team better than me). Being an inspiring leader is also about having the confidence to break the rules and redefine them, the knowledge to apply the most effective tools and methodologies, and the ability to maintain an egoless character that others are drawn towards working with.
Vision
The ability to see the path ahead, and keep that as the north star to guide the team is an incredibly important skill for any leader. When applied to UX leadership it translates into articulating the vision to the team and making informed, evidence based decisions to keep moving in the correct direction. For me a great leader is perpetually curious about the future of the industry and focused on pushing the boundaries, whilst having a clear vision of where the team is headed and how they are going to get there, even if that means making unpopular decisions along the way.
The role that got me thinking about this didn’t work out in the end, but I enjoyed pondering over the question and the way it made my brain hurt a little bit. The answer is of course contextual to the experiences of the person answering; ask 10 UX professionals and I’d stake money that you would get 10 different answers. So what do you think the special ingredients are that make a great UX leader?
