From Designing to Leading Design

I began my journey working remotely at a U.S. sports tech company, Hudl, exactly five years ago. Having previously worked solely at agencies in the U.K., Hudl has given me the opportunity to have the best of both worlds. I’ve been able to continue honing my design craft working on an exciting and groundbreaking product, and I’ve also grown as a leader and manager of countless extraordinarily talented people, spread across the entire world.

A little more than 18 months ago, I took my first leadership role as Design Director for our Hudl Focus smart camera product. Despite having led teams of designers before, I consider this to be my first true design leadership role. I’m no longer hands-on in the tools and am now 100% accountable for the output and processes of a team — five designers focused on a single domain.

My first 18 months as a director have had some big ups and downs, and I’ve probably grown more recently than at any other point in my career. I’d like to share some of the lessons I learned during my transition to becoming a remote design leader at a fast-paced technology company.

1. Broaden your social circle

Designers can get caught up in the notion that we’re the voice of the customer. We know them best, we know what they want, and we know what they need to be successful.

This might be true in some cases, but, in reality, our colleagues in sales, support, marketing, customer success, finance (I could go on) spend far more time connecting with customers than we ever could as designers. They’re the people customers call on for help when the app is crashing right before the start of a crucial game, or when customers are deciding whether to trust us or a competitor for their upcoming season. These are crucial and vulnerable moments for our customers, and vital for our team to learn from.

To be successful as a design leader, I quickly learnt that building relationships beyond the product team is vital. It not only gives you a broad spectrum of perspective but also helps to build credibility and access for your entire team.

2. Don’t always die on the hill

I’ve learnt this lesson the hard way, multiple times! It’s easy to lose sight of the “why” by focusing too much on the details of what you’re doing. We’ve all been there, you get scope cut in a tight deadline — that pixel-perfect representation of your designs seems no longer important to anybody but you. It’s infuriating, right?

But, it’s important to know when something is worth dying for and when it isn’t. Whether the situation is affecting you personally, or a designer on your team, remember to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How critical to success is your vision for the solution? Seek outside council, a different perspective, and find the will to compromise, even in the toughest of situations.

Leading your team to focus on the important things and being willing to compromise will pay dividends in the long run. Plus, it will build your credibility for when that hill is definitely worth dying on.

3. What got you here isn’t going to get you there

Painting a picture of what the future looks like is the most important and powerful thing you can do as a leader.

Your team looks to you to guide them in their work. They want to know their work is important, how it helps users, and how it drives the business forward. They want to understand the here and now and how it fits within the product’s tomorrow. Answering these questions was now my job — the most important part of it.

By helping your team craft a vision for the future, you’ll enable them to have more focused, aligned and meaningful discussions around long-term product strategy. Help them take the leap from the day-to-day business and engineering constraints they work within, to rallying the company around wild potential instead.

4. Be the shit umbrella

It’s important your team knows you have their back and that you’re actively working to create an environment that welcomes vulnerability, real talk and, ultimately, great design work.

Having your team’s back can mean sheltering them from executive “swoop and poop,” but also giving direct and critical feedback when necessary to improve their work and help them grow as designers. It’s a balancing act of knowing when to be the shit umbrella and when to create the space your team needs to learn from failure. I found this takes time and practice. And none of it is easy.

At Hudl, two of our company values are “We’re respectfully blunt” and “We’re a family.” I try to uphold these values as a design leader day in and day out. It helps guide my decision-making on when I need to step in or step out (while holding that umbrella).

5. Embrace pluralism

This is probably the mindset I’ve found most difficult to transition to as a dedicated design leader. Your way is not the only way to do something, full-stop.

I have incredibly strong opinions, both from my personality and from 15 years of experience designing hundreds of products for a wide range of users. This means I fall into the trap of projecting my own opinion on process, direction and output way too often. Every designer, and ultimately every human, goes about tasks in different ways — that’s what makes us all unique.

I’ve learnt the hard way that embracing pluralism is incredibly important when working with a team of talented designers, who all have varying degrees of experience. What really matters is the outcomes we deliver for our customers and for the business. Yes, we should ensure a rigorous design process, efficient practices for the business, and a strict adherence to a universally accepted quality standard. But all of that can still be achieved by approaching problem-solving in different ways, whatever ways work for each individual designer.

Moving from doing to leading has really put me through my paces over the past 18 months. It’s forced me to raise my line of sight, expand my perspective, and learn to actually let go. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience of growth and adaptation. I hope some of these lessons can make the transition to dedicated leadership roles easier for other designers as well.

If they do, please reach out to me — I’d love to chat.