Seniority in design - Speaker Deck

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wearefuturegov.com Seniority in design UX in the City, Manchester - March 2019 Ben Holliday, Chief Design Officer @benholliday

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hello hello

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We reform public services by supporting organisations through digital transformation and service design. We believe in the power of 21st-century organisations to deliver the highest quality services that have a lasting impact for all.

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This talk is built from the experience of hiring and working with over 100 designers in the last 5 years. And from being a designer.

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Question: Where are you on the path to being a senior designer?

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Question: How do you think about seniority, and what really makes a designer senior?

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Check in: What is your job role?

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Let’s start with job titles...

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Job titles... Digital Designer (in house) Product Designer/Front End Developer (agency) UX Designer (agency) UX Researcher (Government/contract) Head of User Experience (Government/in house) Deputy Director, Design (Government/in house) Design Director (agency) Chief Design Officer (agency)

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Hypothesis: the pressure to be ‘senior’ happens from early in your career. It’s about validating your role, and feeling valued.

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Hypothesis: job titles don’t mean very much in reality. It’s more what you do that counts.

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A design state of mind bit.ly/design-mindset

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A design mindset is how we respond to our immediate surroundings and work. This means asking different types of questions, and requires a different set of responses to the challenges we face.

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What makes you a senior designer? (8 things to start with)

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More focus on outcomes than process (as a way of navigating complexity). What makes you a senior designer?

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Complex (complexity) means something that consists of many different and connected/ component parts.

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Service map (navigating something more complex)

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An outcomes based approach to complexity: - Creating simple models to communicate component parts of a bigger picture/system. - Framing challenges and priorities without being drawn into detail too early or in the wrong places. - Having a clear goal/vision/proposition to work towards that helps us stay focussed on user-based and/or policy outcomes.

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Not over-complicating (and being able to visualise and communicate clearly). What makes you a senior designer?

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Complicated is what things can become if we don’t design the tools, or have the ability to create the right conversations at the right touch points.

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Storyboarding

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User Experience (impact) Safeguarding outcomes (impact) Organisation capabilities Data security Service/systems view

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Prototyping

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Asking more questions (inc. more obvious questions). What makes you a senior designer?

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Asking the right questions to frame the problem bit.ly/framing-the-problem

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Being prepared to take more measured risks and being accountable for what happens. What makes you a senior designer?

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Design is about imagining what the future could look like. Putting sticks in the ground bit.ly/sticks-in-the-ground

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A big idea is better than having a big plan. People get behind ideas, and are inspired, engaged and take action because of ideas.

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Being able to deconstruct your work in order to teach or coach others. What makes you a senior designer?

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First principles is about breaking something down to its most fundamental component parts, or the things that you believe are true. Then you work from there.

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“…[a framework or model] is purposefully reductive. It takes things away, emphasising only a small part of a large whole, so that we can focus only on what remains. A world map is a model of earth that removes nearly everything about the planet, leaving only relative masses, names of countries and cities, and overall proximity.” Jon Kolko

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Letting go of perfection. What makes you a senior designer?

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Being pragmatic (you can’t win every battle today), while still being optimistic (everything is worth fighting for).

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Work to an 80% rule… You can be reaching for high standards but getting in the way of making progress.

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Working with increasing levels of ambiguity. What makes you a senior designer?

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Ambiguity means being able to hold opposing or different ideas in tension at the same time.

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Working with ambiguity in design is: - not having the answers before you start - taking intuitive leaps to explore different ways of solving a problem or shaping a product, service or experience - being bold enough to hold strong opinions and ideas while working to prove yourself wrong - holding and developing ideas that are in tension with how the world and existing models work today - being confident enough to let go of detail when dealing with complex systems - being prepared to work around or challenge existing constraints and how things work right now (using creative thinking/methods).

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No content

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Seniority, anxiety and dealing with confidence issues

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“People assume that I’ve always been confident and comfortable speaking in front of a room full of strangers… Nothing could be further from the truth.”

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Everyone can have an on/off switch, but you have to find it first (we’re all different).

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Some working principles (for coping)... - Lean on other people ie. knowing when and how to trust others to take the strain for you at the right times. - Have a drawbridge i.e withdraw from situations that don’t help you manage negative feelings or worry. It’s okay to retreat occasionally. - Know your own coping mechanisms i.e. if you can’t work through anxiety you need ways around it. But don’t ignore how you feel. - Be yourself

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There isn’t a leadership style for senior designers that always works or defines ‘good’. Finding your own voice and style is important.

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Find an outlet for your thinking. Working in the open is a reflection of your leadership, and seniority.

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Design is about constraints, so this is how we should shape how we lead.

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Build on your limitations and make them your strengths.

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The importance of feedback (and how to manage/ask for feedback)

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As a designer, you’re only as good as your feedback loops.

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Self reflection. Be your own feedback loop - make time to reflect on how you lead design, and make adjustments.

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Progression, or taking on more senior roles (in design and elsewhere) is about personal responsibility

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- Autonomy i.e taking responsibility for how your use your time, energy and focus (recognising any constraints around this). - Asking for support when you need it i.e not waiting for someone else to notice that you’re not okay (focus on how you are). - Asking for feedback when you need it i.e not waiting for feedback from other people (focus on your work inc. outputs, way of working and communicating). - Looking out for other people i.e. always being aware if the person working alongside you is okay (focus on how other people are). - Being proactive i.e. not waiting for someone else to offer you a promotion/opportunity.

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Don’t mind the gap(s). Work in the gaps around you.

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Getting unstuck. (Something practical)

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Design a tool that helps you have the right conversations

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Capability Canvas: Service Design (example)

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Working principles (things that work): - No checklists i.e. avoid progression conversations based on job descriptions/lists of skills and tasks only. - Understand where people start i.e. benchmark a foundation level. - Talk about what it means to be increasingly senior i.e. be clear about responsibilities and behaviours you expect. - Use different lenses

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Different lenses for a capability canvas: - Outputs The things you are actively doing e.g. designers should make things, and be able to make things happen. - Self-presentation How you present yourself when working with others e.g. designers needs to think about energy, focus, confidence and communication. - Time/projects How you manage your time and responsibility for tasks that you own. - Responsibilities Your responsibilities as part of a team. - Feedback/progression How you manage feedback and the personal responsibility you take.

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Capability Canvas: Service Design (example)

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Leading design (and not just being a senior designer)

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“…design leaders are still designers, but they design different things. Teams, processes, and culture. ” Kim Goodwin UX London (2016)

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Design leadership is making sure that other people have as much space and time to do their best possible work.

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Proximity is where you position yourself in relation to other designers. Closeness is the distance you are from the work itself. The attachment to solving the problem.

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Empathy both ways. How we can start to understand decisions, motivations and even the politics that we don’t agree with.

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Things I haven’t talked about… - Money - Equity (when things are not equal) - Toxicity (when you should leave)

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Some final advice… - Be interested - Focus your time and energy - Be prepared to say ‘yes’ - Work at being a better communicator

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Thanks Ben Holliday, Chief Design Officer, FutureGov @benholliday wearefuturegov.com

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For more, read and follow the blog posts at: medium.com/seniority-in-design Get in touch: benholliday@wearefuturegov.com @benholliday