Design Resources

13. Design Management

Bitter Lessons As A Design Manager (https://lnkd.in/eJuRJ-PE), an honest overview of the challenges and “aha!”-moments you should be expecting when stepping into a design management role. By Slava Shestopalov.

🤔 Manager’s reality is full of limitations and poor choices.
🤔 People who bring a lot of value can also do a lot of damage.
🤔 Top performers are often the first in a queue for burnout.
🤔 People who deserve recognition ≠ people who demand it.
🤔 Good process for designers ≠ good process for company.

✅ Many senior designers are survivors, rather than evolvers.
✅ Many decisions seem unfair unless you know the context.
✅ Keep team spirit high to avoid plummeting in times of crisis.
✅ Nothing hurts more than redoing someone’s work yourself.
✅ Office politics is bad and frustrating, but inevitable.

🚫 Most managers don’t give enough feedback.
🚫 Don’t mandate decisions from the top; explain them.
🚫 Don’t be a silent voice in the back: be present at all times.
🚫 Most managers are reactive: “No complaints = Good manager".
✅ Good managers are proactive: “Engaged team = Good manager".

With teams, what people do, say, think and feel are often very different things. As Slava notes, the team, in most cases, doesn’t know what it actually needs, so if you are a manager, you need to observe and experiment instead of asking. If nothing bad happens, it doesn’t mean that something good is going on.

When you are promoted to a manager, you might feel that you are still a part of the team, and you might behave as such. Of course you will protect your team from external pressure and promote the right people. Yet you also will have to compromise and make unpopular decisions within given constraints.

Managers aren’t really a part of the team; they live between the team and the business. Once you step up, you’ll need to pay attention to things happening “between the lines”: people who rarely interact in Slack, or skip teambuilding, or express no desired career directions.Ultimately, this might be the most important skill to survive and thrive as a design manager.

✤ Useful resources

Bitter Lessons as a Design Manager, by Slava Shestopalov
Part 1: https://lnkd.in/eJuRJ-PE
Part 2: https://lnkd.in/eswWMTbG

So, You’re Managing a Design Team, by Alex Mandel
https://lnkd.in/eg3GCxCD

Grow as a Design Manager, Playbook
https://lnkd.in/eaXEiKK2

How to Become a Better Design Manager, by Romina Kavcic
https://lnkd.in/e45p4jNk

Motivations and Realities: From Lead to Manager, by Jared Zimmerman
https://lnkd.in/esR6t5ay

20 Lessons For New Design Managers, by 🪴Tarryn Lambert
https://lnkd.in/eS-_sByG

Main Leadership Mistakes as a New Manager, by Claire Lew
https://lnkd.in/eZHc7UJG

Books For UX Managers, by Joshua Seiden
https://lnkd.in/erUkRFiM

✤ Useful Books

⦿ The Manager’s Handbook, by Alex MacCaw
⦿ The Making of a Manager, by Julie Zhuo
⦿ The First 90 Days, by Michael Watkins
⦿ Build, by Tony Fadell