Starting a New Design Gig
Joining a new company is exciting. There is a sense of relief that you’ve made it through the interviewing process and have found a place to call home. You feel excited to embark on the adventure, coupled with a little anxiety and nervousness to be venturing into unknown territory.
I just marked my 5th month anniversary at my new company, RingCentral, and being that this is the first time I’m ever writing a Medium article, on-boarding has been top of mind for me. This is my 6th company throughout my career. In my previous jobs, as a designer, I usually jumped into my teams and projects to start cranking out the work. I’d often learn about everything else along the way. But now, as I play a leadership role on design teams, it’s my duty to have an understanding of the bigger picture while also learning about my specific area. Now I’m more deliberate about information gathering. And I want to share how I go about it:
I seek org charts – Whether it is down on paper or someone draws it out for me on a whiteboard, the information is one of the first things I like to get a hold of to orient myself.
- Where does the UX team fit within the organization? Is it a peer to product and engineering? Does UX report in to product or engineering? Or is it part of a creative team that is responsible for marketing and user experience? Knowing this helps to know the teams you may be more aligned to and how the organization views the purpose of user experience design.
- How is the UX team structured? Who reports to whom? What are the titles and what do they mean? Is the team organized by products, disciplines, other? This helps gives me a quick understanding of the connection between all the individuals on the team.
- Who are my cross-functional partner teams and how are their teams structured? This leads to understanding of who are the key players on the other teams and who I need to start building relationships with.
I connect with people– Once I have a general sense of the people in my new world, I can start building relationships.
- Make a list of everyone that you think you need to meet. Within your UX team, there may be designers, researchers, writers, prototypers, operations and more. (If you’re a manager, it goes without saying that your direct reports should be first on your list!) Then, you’re cross-functional partners like product owners, engineers, project managers and even key human resource contacts who can help you navigate the systems.
- Share the list with your manager for input, and get suggestions from your peers and partners.
- Schedule introduction meetings in the method that makes most sense to the person you are meeting. Use your judgement in this area as an individuals’ role and title may need to be taken into consideration for the format and length of time (e.g. a casual one hour lunch, a thirty minute coffee break, fifteen minute meet+greet or a more official 1–1 in the office)
- The general goal of the first connection:
- Learn about the other person– How long have they been with the company? What is their background? What are they focused on? What do they think is working well within the team/company? Where are the opportunities to improve? How has the person worked with design in the past? What expectations do they have of you and your new role, if any?
- Introduce yourself– Share your background, your focus at the company and why you think this connection will be important to you.
I ask a lot of questions and actively listen– As a ‘conscientious’ communicator, I observe and absorb first to make thoughtful contributions and decisions eventually.
- About the design team: How did the team grow? What are the teams’ values?
- About process: What are they now? How did they get here? What is working well? Where are the gaps? (Within UX and in collaboration with any cross-functional partner)
- About collaboration: What is the relationship between design, product, dev or any other partner? What is working well? Where are the gaps?
- About management: Is there a management philosophy within the team? the company? Are they consistent? What is valued in the organization?
Through all these connections and conversations either with my teams, cross-functional partners, peers and of course my manager, my goals in the first few months of joining a company are to:
Understand the business, products or services– It is important to learn about the company as a whole and not only your specific area. Who are your customers or clients? What products and services does the company offer? How does the company make money? Companies may provide some training materials to start, and then its up to you to dig in by connecting with people who can teach you more.
Align expectations– No matter how well you think you understand what you’re expected to do, be sure to recheck expectations once you formally join your new organization. Why? Because understandings that are developed before you join may not always prove to be fully accurate once you’re in the job. It isn’t that you’ve been actively misled, rather it’s because recruiting is like a romance and employment is like a marriage. Don’t just ask your manager either. Ask your peers, teammates and direct reports.
Adapt to the Culture– Watch the patterns of how people communicate, think and act. What are shared assumptions and values? How do things really work in the organization from the perspective of creating influence, holding meetings, executing work, dealing with conflict, and recognition?
So that’s it. This is what works for me. When it’s your time, be deliberate about your on-boarding and find the methods that help you adapt to your new environment as quickly as you can.
