UX Career Path: Manager or Individual Contributor

You’re a Senior UX Designer. What’s next?

This is a question I pose to my senior designers during career planning talks. As a manager, I can give my opinion and advice, but it’s ultimately a decision that each designer needs to make on their own. For some, it might be very straightforward, but for others, it might be a bit of a conundrum. If you’re part of the latter group, here are some considerations I gathered based on my own experience that might help you decide.

Does your organization offer both tracks?

In some companies, the only way to grow your career is to get into management. I’m not a fan of such companies. When people become managers only because they have no other choice, there’s a very good chance that they will not be great at the job. Offering parallel management and individual contributor tracks allows designers to develop their careers doing what they enjoy the most.

Design career path at Cisco Umbrella, with parallel tracks for managers and individual contributors. Design Leads and Principals are leaders in the organization just as much as Managers — they are responsible for areas of the product and for mentoring junior designers.

What’s your desired percentage of hands-on design work?

Probably the biggest difference between the management and individual contributor roles is the amount of hands-on work you get to do as part of your day-to-day job. A manager’s day tends to be more meeting and email heavy, while individual contributors (ideally) still spend a significant part of their day doing heads-down design work.

What is your natural inclination?

Do some introspection about what energizes you. Not only at work, but in life. Did you spend your childhood organizing other kids to do things like plays or school projects? Do you enjoy planning birthday parties, baby showers, a trip with friends? There’s no guarantee that you’ll be a good manager, but you’ll probably enjoy it — and that’s a good start. If everything I just wrote sounds like a nightmare, you should pay attention to that too.

What are your long-term career goals?

If you know that you want to become a design executive one day, you probably want to pick the management track (I personally do not know of any design executives that do not manage people in some capacity.) If you see yourself more as a super specialized, super experienced design professional (some might call that “guru”) the individual contributor track probably suits you best.

Still not sure? Give it a test drive.

If you think you might be interested in management but you’re not quite ready to make the jump, talk to your manager and ask to manage one person. Give it six months and get feedback from three sources: your manager, your one direct report, and yourself. I realize this might not be possible in every organization, but if you have the chance, it’s the safest way to try your management chops.

Related: 5 Challenges of Becoming a Design Manager

Do you have other thoughts on this subject? Feel free to respond!