How I lead design authentically
6 minute read
OVERVIEWTo be authentic, I believe you operate within a set of values or principles that have been shaped and honed by previous experience. Here are eight core values that underlie the authenticity I bring to the role:
1.
Tell it like it is
Be direct in your interactions and feedback
I’ve always greatly appreciated when a colleague is candid with sharing their point of view - even if it’s something I rather not hear. Doing so indicates a level of care, respect, and trust that is critical for high-performing teams. When preparing feedback, I choose the right time and place and think carefully about how others may receive it. My feedback is timely, direct, and genuine and originates from a desire to help others appreciate what they did well or help them see what can be improved.
2.
Lead by example
Show, don’t tell
The idiom “do as I say, not as I do” never sat right with me; it has no place when establishing trust. Any value you exhibit is meaningless, even counterproductive if you’re not demonstrating it yourself. To lead, you must conduct yourself in the manner you expect of others. Leading by example is especially true when things have not gone as expected. Doing so is the most powerful, effective way to teach others how to respond.
The manager assessmentNetDocuments conducted bi-annual eNPS assessments where direct reports could anonymously provide ratings and feedback. Although happy that my eNPS typically ranked high amongst other managers, there were clear areas for improvement. I saw this not only as an opportunity to do better but also as how to lead by example. During our monthly all-hands, I screen shared the topics I had been called out on and the meeting went quiet as people read the verbatim. Then I said, 'I need your help to fix this.’ Next, I asked the team for their ideas on how I could improve and help keep me accountable. Over subsequent surveys, my ratings improved as I addressed the issues. A mature team must be able to handle critique and criticism. By openly sharing my assessment and inviting my team to help me address the concerns, I demonstrated firsthand how to take such feedback.
3.
Ask questions
Listen carefully, then help others find the answers
Asking questions allows others to untangle significant, messy challenges. When speaking with directs, ask questions to enable them to tie the answer back to the big ideas and strategies. Encourage the team to find the answers themselves, which helps them build the critical thinking skills needed to make good decisions. For example, suppose a designer comes to me with multiple design options asking which is best. In that case, I’ll ask them to explain how each solution tracks back to guiding principles such as business strategy or design tenets. As the designer rationalizes each design against principles, the preferred solution reveals itself.
4.
Invest in people
Seek and develop relationships with those around you
Early in my career, I believed that the strength of my output alone would guarantee success. If I worked hard and delivered terrific designs, good things would come. This approach initially worked well, but as I desired to have more influence in decision making, great work alone wasn’t getting it done. I learned that I needed to spend more time developing and strengthening the relationships around me. Now, I prioritize time to discover, develop, and deepen the relationships of my team members and colleagues. It’s the strength of these relationships that open doors to my ideas and trust in my judgment.
A presentation deck assistSmall gestures matter. I’ve found that offering even a small amount of help for a colleague is a great way to lessen their burden and deepen relationships. For example, seeing that a business partner was struggling to express her business case presentation in visual form, I offered to illustrate the key concepts. As a result, both the impact of the presentation and our relationship strengthened. Paying it forward, the same partner highlighted to senior leaders the contributions I had made.
5.
Develop future stars
Top performers require top leadership
You’ve done the hard work of attracting and supporting top talent. Then, unexpectedly, your top performer leaves for another opportunity, and you’re left wondering what happened. To keep your best people, you need to consistently work to make sure they are recognized, engaged, and challenged - not overly protected. High-performers deliver more, so make sure the recognition is commensurate with the value they provide, especially around pay. Second, keep them engaged by exposing, not shielding, them to the why behind the strategy and even challenges the organization faces. Being exposed to big challenges is a powerful way for your stars to feel invested in the outcomes. Finally, challenge them under actual conditions. Let top performers stretch and grow under natural stress. Eventually, it will be your turn to pass the torch, so develop your best people to run with it.
6.
Own your missteps
How you handle a mistake is more important than making one
Mistakes happen. Being perfect can be a sign you’re not leading, as doing so requires taking intelligent risks. Missteps don’t define the person but what they do next does. When I mess up, I quickly take ownership. Never try to deflect or distribute blame to others. Next, reflect and learn from what happened. Retrieve and consider that knowledge the next time you’re in a similar situation. Then, make it a teachable moment for others by sharing what happened and what you learned. This type of storytelling is beneficial for others who have also misstepped, seeing that their situation is not unique. Finally, move on and resist dwelling in past mess-ups. Let the learning propel you forward, better prepared for what lies ahead.
Boosting our design workshop playbookAfter spending six weeks on a North Star design lauded by stakeholders, I walked into a product owners meeting expecting praise. Instead, I found eight frustrated faces. 'Why weren't we included?' one asked. My stomach dropped. In my rush to move fast, I'd alienated the very people who needed to implement the work. In response, I met with each product owner to hear their concerns firsthand and apologize for feeling out of the loop. As a result, we revised our design-intensive playbook to include interested parties beyond stakeholders through the use of a pre-exercise questionnaire. Next, we reserved 30m at the end of each day to broadcast the latest activities to any interested party. Lastly, we surveyed all interested parties after the project to get their feedback. These steps significantly improved the reception of future exercises and deliverables. In addition, the pre and post questionnaire also surfaced notable themes that were of value to senior leadership.
7.
Anticipate what’s next
Shape the future by recognizing potential impacts early on
Facing uncertainty while leading is a given. Good leaders intuit when tension is present and how it may affect their team then proactively prepare to influence the outcome. When done well, leaders can replace fear and anxiety with confidence. For example, when shocking world events occur, anticipate that your team will naturally react to what happened. Then, respond proactively acknowledging the event, hear concerns, and communicate how the organization may respond.
8.
Customer behavior shows the way
Focus on what people do, not what they say
What customers say and what they do often tell different stories. Early in my career, I primarily relied on qualitative feedback and opinion to validate design direction. Customers would emphatically request that a feature be added but, upon delivery, went largely unused. I evolved my approach to weigh behavioral data alongside verbal feedback and saw much better results. When leading teams, I coach designers to trust patterns over preferences and build cultures of evidence-based decision making through research and experimentation. Customers vote with their actions. Leading effective design teams means bringing both the qualitative and quantitative evidence to the decision making table.
The power of user dataWe leaned heavily on customer testing to shape Fidelity Go, a savings and investment offering for digital natives. Frequently, we would conduct remote, moderated tests with customers using mock data to help zero in on promising design options. Of course, test details such as the number of accounts, account type, balances, returns, investments, and transactions were representative but bogus. Once the feature was live, we often invited the participant to revisit the design using a live site containing their actual data. Where the participant may swoon over and be forgiving of a design using mock data, the same person would be much more critical and forthright with their impression when viewing a similar arrangement with their actual data. Once we observed this phenomenon, we shifted our research to lean more heavily on in-market methods, such as A/B tests, that leverage real customer data, which yielded better, more accurate feedback.
TakeawayLeadership gets messy. You'll face situations you've never encountered, with no playbook to follow, and that's when principles matter most. They give you a foundation when everything else feels uncertain to help you make consistent decisions that build trust over time. These eight values have shaped how I lead and build teams that deliver exceptional outcomes while genuinely enjoying working together.