Retain & Develop
Kick-Ass Designers

Craig Peters
3 min readJul 21, 2016

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Part 5: Purpose

This is the fifth article in a 10-part series for design managers and directors called How to Retain and Develop Kick-ass Designers. You can find the overview of all 10 parts here in the Introduction.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. — John F. Kennedy

Purpose is all around you, but you have to look for it. You have to craft it. You have to pay attention to it and reinforce it. And, most importantly, as a design manager, you have to make decisions based on it.

Your organization’s mission is a good place to start.

Southwest Airline’s mission is “dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.” As a Southwest employee, it’d be hard not to draw a sense of purpose from that.

Zappos has ten core values that they live by:

  1. Deliver WOW Through Service
  2. Embrace and Drive Change
  3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
  4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
  5. Pursue Growth and Learning
  6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
  7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
  8. Do More With Less
  9. Be Passionate and Determined
  10. Be Humble

Go further with your team

Many company-level mission statements are great. And, at the same time, a lot of them have a way of ending up buzzword’y and flat more often than we’d like to admit.

As a design manager, ask yourself if each designer on your team has something to connect with. One designer might find purpose in the company mission statement. For others, they need something else.

What’s the mission or purpose for your group? Can your team complement or improve upon the organization’s purpose? What are each individual’s own reasons for showing up to work?

We have a designer who says her purpose is to make the world a better place through design — that’s what gets her excited about doing her best work.

Another designer says “Sure, but, I’ve been on too many projects over the years that, for whatever reason, didn’t actually launch as well as we’d like — and some never saw the light of day. I don’t want to attach a sense of purpose to projects that we can’t always control.” She decided to state her purpose as “I want to make creative things with talented people who care about each other.” For her, that’s all she needs.

If you’re at an agency and therefore have lots of different types of engagements, discuss with your team which projects and industries are most aligned with their hearts and their passions. For example, at Awasu Design, along with sports, big data, art, and fintech, we’re deliberately getting into edtech, health & fitness, social good, and the outdoors.

Some of your designers will be excited about trends and platforms, as well. Storytelling, virtual reality, gestural and voice input, augmented reality, wearables, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence are booming and energizing.

There’s always another industry and a new trend to bring into the fold, but even with your best efforts, there will be times when the main projects don’t line up beautifully with everyone’s interests. That’s when it’s time to encourage them to make something their own.

Passion Projects (aka Side Projects)

Passion projects, whether team-based or individual, are great sources of purpose. Maybe you have a designer that’s drawn to typography. His side projects can focus on exploring type — he can write about typography, create his own typeface, attend events, organize his own Meetup, interview others in the field, and design an app.

Even if they’re not immediate revenue generators, side projects will excite your team, highlight your team’s thought leadership and capabilities, and add to your company’s portfolio. They help with recruiting and retention, too; self-directed designers are happier designers.

Bottom line: make it personal

In the end, no matter where a designer’s purpose comes from — company mission statement, individual philosophy, or passion projects — it has to create a personal connection.

Next, in Part 6, we’ll discuss how to keep your designers focused by shielding and protecting them from negativity.

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Craig Peters

CEO of Awasu Design. Entrepreneur. Designer. Facilitator. Fighter. Sort of guitar player and dancer. Galaga pro.