Mia Blume: Product Design Leader
Design Inc. Department of Talent Spotlight
Mia Blume is quite extraordinary and has led an incredibly diverse design career starting out in traditional graphic design, then moving to interaction design at IDEO, followed by leading design teams at Square and Pinterest. Currently she coaches startups and companies and helps them building great design teams and design culture.
Mia, you seem to have done every type of design related job there is from IC, Design Manager and Lead to Coach, What is your main focus right now?
Currently I advise companies on how to build useful, well-crafted products as well as how to shape healthy design organizations.
There are a lot of incredibly talented people focused on the first part (building products), but unfortunately the second often gets neglected. Both aspects are both equally important to me because I find that in practice they go hand-in-hand, and the best leaders know that developing their people is critical to long-term success. This has driven my current focus: supporting design leaders in our community through coaching and other methods.
Can you share a bit about how and why you progressed from IC to Manager to Coach?
I was fortunate enough to start out my career at IDEO, where we not only designed innovative products, but we also taught our methods to our clients. As a consultant (even as an individual contributor at a consultancy), you have to be on top of your game, which includes building strong relationships and products. Over time, I realized I had a knack for many aspects of leadership and ended up leading multi-million dollar projects. It was a serious fast track to leadership early in my career.
When I made my leap to management, I was afraid that I’d miss designing. I made the transition because I was drawn to the idea of growing my impact through leadership, and quickly realized that building a team was actually designing a team. And that fear of not being creative or making quickly vanished.
The shift to coaching is a less traditional shift. After talking to many designers over the years about their growth paths and the available (rather, lack of) resources for design leaders, I realized I wanted to help fill that gap. Coaching allows me to help others build their teams, which is even more rewarding than just building one. It’s been deeply satisfying to see design teams and their impact growing across multiple organizations.
When should a designer switch from Individual to being a Design Manager? How do they know they are ready?
When you’re willing to give up crafting interactions and pixels every single day, because you’re more interested in using your creativity and problem-solving to influence an organization and shape others’ careers.
That’s scary for a lot of designers. Many find their identity is so wrapped up in the the things they make. The catch is, if this is your path, know that you’re not going to stop designing or being creative. It’s just that your energy will be shifted in different directions, and you’ll be asked to grow in new ways.
All that said, management isn’t for everyone. And that’s okay. There’s plenty of paths for designers to take that doesn’t include management, whether it’s continuing to grow as an expert designer, or even taking on a non-management leadership role (e.g. Creative Director).
Currently you are doing a lot of work with companies to help them build up their design teams — what attributes do you look for when you’re building these teams?
It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyways: as a leader of designers, it starts with a strong portfolio. Not just pretty pictures, but a portfolio that reflects a strong understanding of the business and user needs they’re addressing through their design solutions.
After that, I look for designers with excellent communication skills. As we’ve all experienced, over half the job is being able to communicate your ideas to others. It doesn’t matter how talented you are as a craftswoman, if you can’t engage people in your ideas.
Finally, I look for designers that are self-aware, curious and passionate. This tells me they’re open and hungry to grow, which is a prerequisite for our work together to be successful.
What’s your advice to companies who are struggling to build a design culture (aside from the fact they should hire you!) What are steps they can take right now?
Culture can be one of those ambiguous and hard to define things, but really it’s just a tangible reflection of values. So if you feel like you don’t have a strong design culture, I’d urge you to take some time to define what you value as a team. Then determine how you (the team) will demonstrate that value. For each value, brainstorm associated behaviors. Once those values are established, it’s much easier to act on them in interesting ways. Repeat behavior becomes norm and ritual. Over time you can influence it or shape it, but keep in mind that culture (like brands) forms whether you intentionally create it or not.
What are some of your favorite books on design or design leadership that have really helped you along the way?
Favorite design books? Not fair. But a few that come to mind are: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte, and Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible by Sophie Lovell.
There’s very few well-written books on design leadership. One of my favorite leadership books (and a book I often gift to others) is called Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. It really gets to the core of the challenge: how to create a space for creativity while also navigating the complexities of a growing organization. Most recently, I really enjoyed reading Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace, which provides an inside look into how Pixar built their creative culture.
Do you ever have periods where you feel a little bit disconnected from your work, or where you burn out? How do you deal with those?
Seriously, who hasn’t felt like that at some point? Unfortunately, it’s a topic that I feel like we don’t address enough as a community. Particularly in the tech community, there’s this belief that in order to build great things, you must be working non-stop, all hours. The reality is, that’s not how creativity works. Creativity ebbs and flows, and our environment and working style can have a huge impact on it. I think recognizing this is highly important in order to avoid burn out. You can’t sit at your desk and force creativity to arrive. (I mean, maybe if you sit there long enough…but who wants to work like that?)
I have a post-it on my monitor that says “Design or be designed” which is my reminder to really own my way of being. To avoid that burn out, I try to get out of my space and move around. Fresh air, sunshine, and nature are all critical to my creative energy. Even a short walk or trip to the museum can shift my perspective. It sounds simple, and it is, but we so often forget to take a few minutes to nurture it.
I’ve also re-discovered the power of making things with my hands (yes, without a screen!) and I feel more energized and creative than I have in a long time. I even launched a jewelry line, Gem+Geo, recently as a way to foster that need for making tangible things.
What’s a major aspect of what you do that you don’t think most people know?
Most people or most designers? ;)
I think most people still lack a clear understanding of what we do as designers. There’s certainly a lot more appreciation for well-designed products (thanks, Apple), but less appreciation for the arduous journey to make them. I spend a lot of time talking to startup leaders who desire to build great products, but even in the valley, there’s still a lack of understanding on how to actually do it.
As for designers, I think most of them don’t know that my job as a coach isn’t to tell other leaders what to do, or how to lead. Even though people often hire me because of my experience working at well-known, design-centric organizations, the truth is that the processes and leadership style that worked at those other companies may not be appropriate in their organization. My real job is to help leaders identify their authentic leadership style, to leverage their creativity and resourcefulness to tackle tough challenges, and be a knowledgeable support system.
That said, my relationships with clients are often a combination of consulting and coaching, helping identify opportunities for growth both for leaders and teams and also developing actionable plans for improvement. What I don’t do is show up with the idea that I know it all. I show up knowing that my client is a creative force that needs a partner to help unleash it.
Overall, why do you do what you do, and why do you love it?
I believe design has the potential to have so much impact on our lives. At one point in my career, I even thought I had to design it all! I believed it was imperative that I use my design skills to create life-impacting things. But now, my perspective is shifting as I speak to more and more designers who are hungry to learn how to have impact within their organizations. Now, I impact the world by applying my design skills to creating opportunities to help others grow.
Who would you want to see on Design Inc?
More lady designers, always. Specifically, I adore Meg Lewis for her talent and awesome perspective on self-care and happy clients.
You can follow and see more of Mia’s work all over the internet, she goes by the handle @mialoira :
On Design Inc.
On Dribbble
On Instagram
On Twitter
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