As we move into management and leadership, we unweave one identity as a designer and a person who makes things for a living, and start weaving a new one as a person who enables others to make things. There is often a moment where you lose confidence in your craft and have not gained confidence in the leadership role. I call this the Leadership Dip and it comes at a time when you're supposed to be at the top of your game. It can trigger quite an existential crisis and much of what I do in my Design Leadership coaching practice is help people navigate this.
These are the slides from my talk on the topic at the Product Design Week Design Leaders+ Conference in London, 2024.