LEADERSHIP

I've now spent the majority of my 13 year career as either the big brother on my teams, or as the actual lead/manager and I've come to truly value some key things in the teams I've grown with.

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Connections, community & humour

I've been a builder and adhesive for the communities inside several orgs, helping to create spaces for people to connect, share, and learn. I naturally find myself bridging between connections and wanting to help others do the same. Also, I am a goofy guy and I love to build relationships through humour to help those around me feel more comfortable. The people (and manager) you work with are often the main value in staying with a company and I've taken that to heart in culture building moments with my teams. Knowing you have friends and allies for support and validation really makes or breaks your whole impression of your job.

 

Programs & structure

Creating actual programs and guidelines for others to rely on has been an active focus area in my career. Blending Design Ops scaffolding into my teams has been really meaningful for direction and growth — through mentorship programs, career journey definitions, UX estimation frameworks, and hiring/onboarding docs.

 

Empowerment & support

Designers need different kinds of help as they transition from junior to senior, and different support based on their on personalities. I have taken a lot of pride in being able to protect designers around me from noise while still opening doors for those looking to grow. I always let my designers speak for their own work so they get the exposure with leadership and practice with presenting. Resourcing and balancing the team workload often also means tapping the senior contributors to work on parallel projects and own the influence in their partnerships. I always encourage the team around me to 'zoom out' on their work to understand the broader impact, and really build on their strategic lens.

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Adaptability & perspective 

There is always more than one way to solve any problem: a motto I've repeated and lived by through my whole career. I've used this approach through my years as a designer and I try to instill this perspective into my teams as a leader as well. It opens the doors for more creative and divergent thinking, it untethers situations from 'wrong' or 'right' answers, and it helps to more easily guide stakeholders through UX decisions. Being adaptable also means removing my ego from how I operate. If a group agrees on a viable path that I wouldn't typically agree with, then embracing that flexibility, my team and I can decide when to speak up and when to agree and move forward.