Finding Your Way: Management or Senior IC?

Most UX researchers eventually have to decide whether and when to become a manager. Here’s why I started managing, why I later returned to IC work, and some advice on choosing your own path.

By Jim Hudson

At some point in their career, most UX researchers face a decision: to manage, or to continue on the senior individual contributor (IC) career path. As a manager of 8 years who ultimately switched back to IC work, I’ve learned a lot about both tracks. In this article, I highlight the pros and cons of management and IC work in the hopes of helping you decide whether to pursue an IC track or management track, and (spoiler alert) to remind you that you can always change course.

The joys of management

I believe that everyone should consider going into management at some point in their careers. Management roles can provide rewarding mentoring experiences, career flexibility — especially outside of tech — and tools to effectively engage with leadership. I’ll cover each in turn.

Impact on people

It sounds clichéd, but the secret to having long-term impact in the world is to help other people grow. We all need experienced mentors, and I’ve found it emotionally rewarding to play my small part in helping others experience their full potential. When I think back to the impact I’ve delivered in my career, I always think about people before I think about projects. Moving into a management role may be the first time a UX researcher gets to really experience the richness of these deep, long-term mentorships. Not only are these mentorships rewarding on a personal level, they also amplify impact by providing a way to contribute to far more project work than any individual could do alone.

Career opportunities

Facebook and many other major tech companies currently have parallel career ladders for ICs and managers that can easily cover 20+ years of industry experience. As the UXR discipline continues to mature, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these parallel tracks rise higher. Companies with parallel career paths are serious about providing room for IC career progression and about ensuring equity (in terms of compensation, career growth, etc.) between IC and management roles.

If you intend to stay at a large tech company for your entire working life, you can easily build a long, successful career as an IC. But many people spend some portion of their career at smaller companies, which may not have the same philosophy about parallel tracks

In general, I recommend gaining some management experience to open up a wider range of career opportunities. If you’ve never managed, smaller companies are unlikely to hire you into a role requiring management skills. Smaller companies may also find it hard to give management opportunities to their current ICs, as their research teams may not be growing rapidly. (I’ve personally faced this challenge with incredibly talented ICs on teams I’ve managed.)

Understanding how leadership thinks

As a general rule, senior executives at most companies are people managers, so there are certain aspects of people management that pervade how they think. From the processes and rhythms of unlocking resources to the very human aspects at play during a reorg, understanding how people managers think can be critical for IC partnerships with leadership.

While people managers sincerely want to minimize churn and chaos for their ICs, I’ve found that understanding organizational changes is useful for an IC navigating various corporate constraints in order to deliver impact. When I compare my experience as a former-manager-turned-IC with what I hear from peers who’ve never managed, I believe that I may be better positioned to connect certain dots and ask relevant questions because of my previous management experience. As a result, I’m able to engage with the complexities of the organization (and help shape them!) in productive ways.

When to make the jump to management, and lessons for new managers

There is no one-size-fits-all approach on when to transition from IC to manager. But you should think through, and discuss with your mentor(s), questions like:

• Are you driven to mentor? In the past, have you come away feeling energized and excited after helping others learn or grow, or does it feel cumbersome, draining, or one-directional? Have you honed some of your skills well enough that you’re ready to start teaching them to others?
• Are you ready to start letting some things go? Because you have more experience in your craft, there are lots of things that you’ll be able to do better and faster than your team, but letting them grow means letting these tasks go.
• Do you have the right support structures in place? Management is a new skill. Do you have mentors who can help you learn?
• Are you ready for context-switching, and meeting with people for a majority of the day? Managers’ days are often filled with back-to-back meetings. Do you enjoy interacting with others for much of the day, and drawing connections between different areas?
• When will you have another opportunity to try management? IC-to-management opportunities typically occur only after you’ve had some time to prove yourself in your existing IC role. Movement between teams or between companies may affect when you have an opportunity to transition.

If you do decide to make the jump to management, here are some suggestions and considerations:

• Team charter: I encourage prospective managers to find a way to clearly articulate the team’s unique purpose. After all, management is about leading a team, not simply managing a group of individuals.
• Team structure & size: The ideal number of direct reports depends on several factors: the complexity of the IC work, the experience of the ICs, the quality bar for the work, the manager’s experience, and how dynamic the market or work environment is. Personally, I found that more than seven direct reports left me feeling stretched thin, but it’s important to weigh your own circumstances.
• Continuing IC work: Managers must be comfortable taking on “gap” projects that their ICs can’t prioritize, or that methodologically don’t fit current IC skill sets. In addition, many managers enjoy keeping up their IC skills by taking on larger strategic research projects.

The joys of IC work

Luckily for me, Facebook is a strengths-based company. People, including managers, are encouraged to think about what activities energize them. Our company philosophy is that more enjoyable work naturally leads to better performance. After managing at Facebook (and elsewhere) for several years, I found that the activities that energized me were more closely related to executing product research, so I switched back to an IC track. In this section, I’ll focus on what I find rewarding about IC work.

Depth of focus

Managers and senior ICs spend their time thinking about and working on a wide range of topics, including business strategy, product development, team/org health, and the career growth of those around them. The key difference between management and senior IC roles is how much time they dedicate to each of these topics. At this moment in my career, I’m more intellectually excited about going deep into challenging research topics. Choosing an IC role allows me to spend more of my time deeply understanding the people who use our products, which includes research planning, execution, and activation tasks.

Depth of product impact

To generalize a bit, ICs tend to have more direct impact on product experiences while managers have more direct impact on the organizational systems that shape how product experiences evolve. Or, to put it into research language, ICs are likely to be proximal determinants of product experiences, while managers tend to be distal determinants.

After spending many years shaping organizational systems, I found myself missing the excitement of diving deeply into a product area. There’s a certain joy that comes with developing a nuanced understanding of customer needs, and then working closely with a product team to create something that will meet those needs.

Meetings and energy management

At the risk of oversimplifying, research suggests that social engagements impact extroverts and introverts differently. While the two types may behave identically in a given social situation, extroverts tend to walk away having gained energy as a result. Introverts, on the other hand, use some energy, which is later replenished in quieter moments.

I’m an introvert, and one benefit of being an IC is that my daily calendar seems better aligned with my energy needs. As a general rule, management work is more likely to be done in scheduled meetings (both group and one on one) than IC work is, which leans more on impromptu, in-the-moment interactions. At a very practical level, more meetings typically lead to more fragmented calendars. One thing I love about IC work is being better able to block my calendar for uninterrupted hours to immerse myself in my work. I’m rarely more energized than when I’ve worked on a hard problem and debated it with thoughtful colleagues to produce new insights that help us move forward.

Listen to yourself

At the end of the day, don’t overthink the decision. Pay attention to your strengths and choose the work that will give you energy. If you do, I believe you’ll end up in a good place no matter which path you choose. And remember that few career decisions are irreversible. Try the one that makes sense for you now, knowing that you can change course later on.

Author: Jim Hudson, UX Researcher at Facebook

Contributor: David Kille, Research Manager at Facebook

Illustrator: Drew Bardana