Designing Your Team / Melissa Hajj (EDGE 2015)

To tackle big UX challenges, you need a great design team – but building a team is a design challenge itself. In this talk, Melissa Hajj will explore the difference between leading design and leading designers, discuss the key behaviors of a successful team leader, and share practical tools and tactics from her experience – and mistakes – as a team leader at Facebook, Apple, and more.

Transcript

1. View Slide

2. Hi Tel Aviv!
   

   View Slide

3. Melissa Hajj
   Product Design Manager
   Facebook
   

   View Slide

4. View Slide

5. View Slide

6. When was the last time you felt
   you were able to do your best work?
   

   View Slide

7. Leading a design team
   is not the same as leading design.
   

   View Slide

8. Design is not just what it looks like.
   Design is how it works.
   — Steve Jobs, 2003
   Design is not just what it looks like.
   Design is how it works.
   STEVE JOBS, 2003
   

   View Slide

9. What happens when you use design thinking
   to learn how lead your team?
   

   View Slide

10. View Slide

11. Design leaders
    create the conditions
    that make great design possible.
    

    View Slide

12. Conditions are situational.
    

    View Slide

13. Conditions are situational.
    Clear goals
    Educated stakeholders
    EXTERNAL
    

    View Slide

14. Conditions are situational.
    Clear goals
    Educated stakeholders
    Just enough process
    Trust & candor
    EXTERNAL INTERNAL
    

    View Slide

15. Conditions are situational.
    Clear goals
    Educated stakeholders
    Just enough process
    Trust & candor
    Strengths leveraged
    Motivated
    EXTERNAL INTERNAL INDIVIDUAL
    

    View Slide

16. When was the last time you felt
    you were able to do your best work?
    

    View Slide

17. Conditions are situational.
    Clear goals
    Educated stakeholders
    EXTERNAL
    Just enough process
    Trust & candor
    INTERNAL
    Strengths leveraged
    Motivated
    INDIVIDUAL
    

    View Slide

18. And there's one other thing…
    

    View Slide

19. Great design leaders are
    supportive, not directive.
    

    View Slide

20. View Slide

21. People
    

    View Slide

22. People + Understanding
    

    View Slide

23. People + Understanding + You
    

    View Slide

24. People + Understanding + You
    

    View Slide

25. People + Understanding + You, the
    Coach
    Diplomat
    Strategist
    Connector
    Defender
    Therapist
    

    View Slide

26. People + Understanding + You, the
    Coach
    Diplomat
    Strategist
    Connector
    Defender
    Therapist
    

    View Slide

27. A designer & a product manager walk into a bar.
    

    View Slide

28. A designer & a product manager walk into a bar.
    A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    

    View Slide

29. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    

    View Slide

30. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    The designer
    The PM
    PEOPLE
    

    View Slide

31. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    The designer
    The PM
    PEOPLE
    What are the goals?
    Why the changes?
    UNDERSTANDING
    

    View Slide

32. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    The designer
    The PM
    The other PM
    The lawyer
    PEOPLE
    What are the goals?
    Why the changes?
    UNDERSTANDING
    

    View Slide

33. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    PEOPLE
    What are the goals?
    Why the changes?
    UNDERSTANDING
    The designer
    The PM
    The other PM
    The lawyer
    

    View Slide

34. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    PEOPLE
    What are the goals?
    Why the changes?
    UNDERSTANDING
    The designer
    The PM
    The other PM
    The lawyer
    

    View Slide

35. A designer & a product manager walk into a project.
    PEOPLE
    What are the goals?
    Why the changes?
    UNDERSTANDING
    Connector
    Diplomat
    Coach
    ME
    The designer
    The PM
    The other PM
    The lawyer
    

    View Slide

36. A product manager and a designer walk into a project.
    Get everyone aligned on the project's goals
    Coach the PM to bring the designer in to the complete process
    Coach the designer to ask for clear goals
    CHANGE THE CONDITIONS
    

    View Slide

37. Create the conditions that make great design possible.
    Be supportive, not directive.
    Use people + understanding + you.
    

    View Slide

38. View Slide

39. Thank you!
    

    View Slide

40. View Slide