What to do when your Senior Designer Wants to be More…The Five Ways to Guide your Designer to the Next Level

Transcript

1. What to do when your senior designer wants to be more… Mags Hanley Design Leadership, UX Australia, 14 May 2020
2. Imagine this…
3. What do you do when this happens? Put it into the chat box
4. Five steps 1. Understand what ‘more’ means to the person 2. Determine which role is the best for each person right now, and to help them identify potential ways forward 3. Find the right place or project for them to grow 4. Change your organisational structure to support growth of your team 5. Teach them to skills to grow
5. Firstly three career paths for UX professionals Practitioner / Individual contributor • Focus is on practicing, strategy and doing design for a product or service organisation • Progression is Junior, Mid-weight, Senior, Specialist, Lead, Principal Manager • Focus on developing people and the practice, and achieving business goals • Progression is Team lead, Manager, Director, VP / GM, CDO Consultant • Focus on providing expert skills into organisations • Progression is Freelancer, Consultant, Thought Leader Photo by Davide Baraldi on Unsplash Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
6. Cornerstones of UX work Business People Technical
7. Step 1 –What is more? – Use your research skills to dig deeper into what ‘more’ means? lead people develop new skills creative direction create the strategy new projects more autonomy client projects product management lead projects more experience coach people develop the practice
8. Questions for understanding more More…people management – Do you want to: – Coach and mentor people – Develop people’s skills and careers – Review and critique work – Help with recruitment – Grow a team – Lead a team of specialist More…project leadership – Do you want to: – Set the direction for the project – Create proposals for work – Scope the work for projects – Work more closely with development/ project management/ test / the business – Assign work to the team – Help the team get work done on time
9. Questions for understanding more More…strategic work – Do you want to: – Set the direction for the practice – Work across channels – Expand into Service Design or Customer Experience – Create the strategy for products – Create the design strategy – Set the creative direction and vision for projects – Teach your specialism More…autonomy – Do you want to: – Set your own deadlines – Decide on your own work – Scope and specify the work your design discipline does in projects – Lead a team of specialists – Develop your design discipline more in the organisation
10. Questions for understanding more More…experience – Do you want to – Have more exposure to clients – Work on different projects – Use different skills when practicing design – Work in a different product or group – Work in a different channel
11. What do you do with this data? Rule of Thumb People management à Managerial Project leadership à Consulting or Practitioner People management and Project leadership à Managerial Strategic and People management à Managerial Strategic and Autonomy à Practitioner Strategic and Project leadership à Consulting Autonomy à Specialist Experience à Consulting or Practitioner Use the answers to work out which UX career path will suit them the best. PLUS you know them – what does their personality and the way they work demonstrate?
12. Step 2 – Right now vs. the future Determine which role is the best for each person right now, and to help them identify potential ways forward Career vision – A combination of life circumstances and what they enjoy at work Direction – Many directions a person can go – Explore what each Manager / Consultant / Practitioner career path could look like based on their vision – For the next 6 months, what will get them on that path?
13. Step 2 – Right now vs. the future DO say, “Let’s find opportunities in the business that can help you towards being…” People can see you want to keep them, and help them move forward. DON’T say, “Stay where you are for 6 months and then we’ll consider your options.” People can see through it – they know nothing will happen. IT IS STALLING!
14. Example 1 Goals Directions Step 1 • Develop and grow people in UX • Teach and communicate UX • Develop the practice of service design Direction 1 -Teacher at GA or at a university • Teach UX skills to juniors in the organisation • Teach a workshop externally Direction 2 - Manager or Director of CX/UX at a bank or retailer • Line manager/ coach responsibilities for a junior member of the team • Teach service design to the business Direction 3 -Thought leader in Service Design, coaching people through projects • Teach service design to the business
15. Example 2 Goals Directions Step 1 • Work on many and varied UX projects • Develop tools and methods for doing content strategy • Lead projects Direction 1 – Independent Content Strategy Consultant • Ensure content strategy work is world class in the organisation • Lead one full UX project Direction 2 - Specialist in the organisation • Develop or find specialist roles in projects Direction 3 - Author of content strategy book • Ensure content strategy work is world class in the organisation • Get them writing
16. Step 3 – Find the right place for them to grow Six month plan Work on a plan to move them towards the direction they want to go If you have no opportunities, consider working with them to find others in your organisation or in another organisation. It is OK to suggest that your organisation does not have opportunities for growth. Develop skills in… Project leadership • Lead a design workstream in a project • Scope and plan UX projects • Write proposals for projects • Allocate people by skill and temperament to a project People leadership • Watch you run a UX team meeting and then run the next one • Assign them a junior member of the team to mentor/coach Practice development • Document the existing UX practice • Identify new ways to make the practice work better • Lead project retros to understand where the process worked (or didn’t) Technical skills • Identify where they are missing skills and invest in training • Write and teach their skills to the rest of the team
17. Step 4 – Change your team Consider changing your team to allow for growth in the practitioner, managerial and consultant Career Path Current Changed Practitioner Junior Mid-weight Senior Add… Specialist Lead Principal Managerial - Team leader (if large enough team) Coach or buddy Consultant - Practice lead Workstream lead
18. Step 5 –You teach them to grow To grow need to develop skills in – People – working with people, managing them, and managing stakeholders – Business – understanding the language, developing OKRs and KPIs, developing business cases and strategy – Technical – more sophisticated methods, defining the organisation's practice, and learning more about technology But who’s going to teach them…
19. Step 5 –You teach them to grow Mentor them in business – Provide examples of: – Strategy – Business cases – OKRs and KPIs – Talk analytics and measurement (quant and qual) – Show them how you scope projects and write proposals Mentor them in people skills – Model behaviours with your team and talk to them afterwards – Get them to shadow you doing allocation – Show them how to effectively set expectations
20. Step 5 –You teach them to grow Mentor them in technical and practice development – Show them how to codify the practice – process mapping and methods documentation – Feedback on work – reviewing work, critique, and people skills – Teaching a skill to more junior members of the team
21. Wrap up 1. Understand what ‘more’ means to the person – Ask the right questions 2. Determine which role is the best for each person right now, and to help them identify potential ways forward – Identify their career vision and possible directions 3. Find the right place or project for them to grow – Create a plan for the next 6 months to get them on their way 4. Change your organisational structure to support growth of your team – Consider changing your group to provide growth opportunities 5. Teach them to skills to grow – As a leader teach them the skills by showing and mentoring
22. Questions
23. My services – For senior UXers who want to grow their careers, I have a community UX-CLC with – Coaching (group and one-to-one), – Learning (2 webinars per month) and – Community (Slack) – One-to-one leadership coaching – Need more help, you can talk to me for 30 min about developing UX leaders, Women in UX or your career. Please email me at mags@magshanley.com
24. Contact Mags – Email: mags@magshanley.com – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ magshanley/ – Twitter: @magshanley – Website: www.magshanley.com