Reflections on design management

Tips from managing a UX intern

Every summer, a new batch of talented interns join our UX team at Salesforce. They come from undergrad and graduate programs from across the country, bringing new ideas, fresh perspectives, and an appetite to do something that matters. Internship is a fundamental part of how we mentor young talent — providing opportunities to learn and take risks in the real world while also creating pathways to join our team full-time. It’s important that our interns have a meaningful experience and as design managers we play an important role in making that happen.

This summer I had the opportunity to manage one of our interns. As a product designer new to design management, I’d like to share five themes I found important in my first experience managing and provide tips that I hope can be helpful to design managers and interns alike. Below are my thoughts.

1. Goal Setting

When first meeting your intern, there’s a lot to cover, but one of the essentials is goal setting — defining a North Star for what success looks like. That sounds simple enough, but the reality is that success can be defined in any number of ways, and various stakeholders may have different expectations of how it’s defined. For example, what design management might consider success could look…