Key habits of highly effective designers
Be a better design partner and leader by incorporating these habits into your process
What does it take to be an effective designer? As a discipline, digital design is always flux. New technologies and new tools are coming on the scene all the time. It’s important to have the craft down and know your way around the latest tools. But that’s just the beginning.
Today, the design process is a never ending collaboration with stakeholders. To shape and ship a quality product we need to work together with our cross functional partners in product, engineering, research and others. After all, without a team—a design deliverable can only go so far.
To be a strong product leader we must first be a strong teammate.
In many ways, this mini-guide is a letter to my younger self—what I wished I knew when I was starting out. These habits come from my own work and by observing other, much more talented designers. The lessons apply whether you’re in a large company working with a team of designers — or you’re in a startup where you are the design team.
So if you want to get that coveted seat at the table—start with you and start with good habits.
- Externalize your work—Move faster by revealing the process through sketches, whiteboards and by printing your work out
- Design for progress over perfection—Increase your capacity to execute and develop your intuition through mini-feedback loops
- Plan ahead—How to manage your design projects by planning for the number one resource–yourself
- Boost your design time—manage your energy and make time for deep work, reign in the meetings, plan your work and triage
- Lead with design expertise
- Prototype
- Test the product
What are your key habits?
This list is by no means exhaustive and I welcome feedback. What habits have you found useful in your design career?
