Being a design manager — year one
In early September, I completed my first year as a design manager, so I’d like to share a few reflections — especially to those considering a “manager track” in their career.
For 20+ years I had been operating as an IC (individual contributor) designer, up to and including the highest levels of practice as a principal and architect. But a compelling opportunity emerged at perhaps just the right time in my own career and life overall — so I became a manager of a small, mighty, and growing team at a mid-stage startup establishing itself as the leader in solar energy software. This is not what I predicted even a couple years ago — but then again, we are living in bold new times!
I resisted becoming a manager for many years — despite many of my colleagues’ encouragements. Of course, I do see myself as a “design leader” within a team and the industry, given my range of activities, writings, and talks. Design leadership is a common theme for me. But being a…manager?
The two biggest issues around management that scared me off were:
1 — The administrative minutiae: I know this comes with the territory, but my main fear was such work would dull my design senses and just bore me to tears, snuffing out my creative passion. (read: crush my soul) Would such work become too overwhelming, extracting loads of energy, time, attention?
2 — The burden of responsibility for others: You know the saying that “people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers”? (And boy have I done that many times myself!) To be held accountable for someone’s professional growth, and in charge of (or at least providing direction for) their workloads, tasks, goals — it all seemed so heavy. My fear was that I might screw it all up and scar my direct reports. And I certainly don’t like “parenting” people around!
OK, maybe there’s a bit of exaggeration as we spin up the fears in our minds, grounded in some past traumatic experiences of being badly mis-managed by others. But these were my chief concerns that held me back from truly deeply considering a shift into management.
In spite of all that, I decided to dive into becoming a manager, in this particular context, for a few big reasons:
- Being a highly dynamic startup, there’s just so much work to do that I would have to design (“make stuff”) as well.
- I started out with 2 direct reports, now grown to 4 over the past year, so it’s a nicely manageable team size.
- The designers I inherited and hired were already mature, professional superstars in their own right with an array of talents.
So, the waters seemed quite inviting, warm & shallow enough to wade in safely. But that was a year ago… what have I realized and gained from the experience thus far, after my first year? Below are my top five points.
1. Endless meetings are a reality — especially if managing across multiple functional areas (pods) — but not an inevitability. It’s on you to manage that too.
You really don’t want to see my calendar and all the competing, overlapping colored blocks — in fact, there’s a certain time every other Friday where I’m invited to literally 4 meetings at the same damn time. Umm, nope!
How do I handle this?
- I asked my direct reports to tell me in advance which meetings they truly need me to attend — usually to provide air cover, or offer additional viewpoints, or even facilitate a murky discussion. Always glad to help!
- For important meetings, especially 1–1’s, I regard them as key relationship building moments, for learning about others, trying to gain alignment, or get decisions/approvals. When “yet another Zoom call” is reframed — with clear goals — as a conversation to learn & understand, it’s a bit less burdensome.
2. In this era of remote-first work, as a manager I’ve got a “flat view “of my team — it’s important to dimensionalize that with in-person workshops / meetups!
Given the remote-first approach of our company, with teammates spread across North America, I’ve noticed as a manager that I have a rather “flat view” of my direct reports — I only see them via Zoom calls , Slack chats, and Figma files — and various Notion or Google Docs, too. That’s truly my lens into who they are and what they do. Not super fulfilling and authentic, right?
But after running some lively workshops with many of them in our SF office last few months, I developed a far better sense of who they are, and what they can do, especially given an energetic setup. For example, I realized a team member is really quite good at challenging a product manager’s assumptions, while also jotting inspiring ideas on a whiteboard — none of that was apparent in a Zoom call! Other examples abound but I must say I truly appreciated them as people and teammates — beyond merely talking heads on Zoom :-) Engaging in real co-located physical space matters, and deepens your lens into their ability and identity.
3. As a manager I find myself delegating & guiding while trying hard not to actually do (or prescribe) the work myself — it’s hard!
As someone who’s always been very hands-on diving deep into the pixel-level details and cranking out iterations with specs, to then have to shift gears and instead direct, guide, inform, or suggest the ways a design direction might evolve — through guiding and delegating — it’s a new capability for sure! I’d heard of a manager long ago who got into the team files and fiddled with them, changing the designs — something I vowed never to do if I became a manager. Also, I’m careful to try not to prescribe solutions, but instead give my team the space to figure things out first.
But, there are moments where I do need to step in and create a “reference model” sketch, framework, diagram, etc. with explanations as fuel for their creative work. Maybe it’s being a “catalyst” as needed, to jump-start their work.
4. I’m still a maker, but a maker of abstractions like models, strategies, and plans — as artifacts to anchor conversations with cross-functional peers.
This is admittedly quite a relief for me too, as I’ve been comfortable doing this over the last several years in my roles as Principal and Architect. And to their relief as well, since these items can provide a center of attention/focus to ensure we’re all debating and deciding the same thing, or inspiring ideas together from a common point.
5. Finally, as I’ve often said many times about design leadership, I’ve realized being a manager is not about having the answers or making the right call.
Indeed, we all must operate in conditions of imperfect and incomplete information while the measures of success are still being defined. I do what I can to ensure we’re having transparent, candid conversations about how to resolve thorny issues knowing it’s not all ideal or perfection. I trust my team and cross-functional peers that we are doing our best — as we have feedback loops to support that — and we continually make forward progress. And as a manager my responsibility is to serve my team and ensure we’re achieving our goals together, while getting better along the way.
