Great managers are made, not born.

Being adaptable and willing to learn is a key trait of a great manager. I’m constantly challenging myself to continue learning and become a better manager, designer, and person. That’s why I’ve gone on to become UX certified with a Management Specialization by the Nielsen Norman Group. I also regularly involve myself in the local and international Design Leadership community in addition to conferences to make sure I’m sharing what I’ve learned and also learning from my peers. Finally, I regularly bury my head in books, some of which I keep coming back to like, ‘The Making of a Manager’ by Julie Zhou, and, ‘Org Design for Design Orgs’ by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner.

Management is a role. Leadership is a skill.

Myself and Philippe Jean, co-founders of the design team at Index Exchange. While I went on to manage the team, Philippe continues to teach me about design leadership, now from his role at Shopify.

A manager's job is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together by influencing purpose (why), people (who), and process (how). A great manager constantly asks how they can influence these levers to improve their teams' outcomes.

Leadership is the skill of being able to guide and influence other people. Trust + Respect = Influence. If you can pinpoint a problem and motivate others to work with you to resolve it, then you're leading. Leadership is also situational. You must learn to choose the right style for the right circumstance. Great managers should cultivate leadership not just in themselves but also within their teams.

The ultimate purpose of a manager is to help your team achieve great outcomes.

Purpose

Purpose is the outcome your team is trying to accomplish, otherwise known as the why. Everyone on the team should have a similar picture in their head of /why our work matters/? Often when the purpose is missing or unclear, you can experience conflicts or mismatched expectations.

A manager needs to ensure that your team knows what success looks like and that they care about achieving it.

People

The people on your team, otherwise known as who. A manager must know themselves as well as their team. I always ask myself these three questions:

Are the people on my team set up to succeed?
Do they people on my team have the right skills?
Are the people on my team motivated to do the work?

Process

Process describes how your team works together. If it's not apparent how everyone's supposed to work together or what the teams' values are, then even simple tasks become very complicated. Who should do what by when? What principles should govern decision-making?

As a manager I'm continuously trying to master these important processes:

Running effective meetings.
Future proofing against past mistakes.
Planning for tomorrow.
Nurturing a healthy culture.

My 2018 Index Exchange design team including my then-boss Drew Bradstock, SVP of Product at Index Exchange, now at Google. Drew first promoted me into management and has been an invaluable managerial mentor ever since.

The Value of a Manager Versus an Individual Contributor

Your role as a manager is not to do the work yourself, even if you are the best at it. Doing the work yourself will only have an additive effect on the total amount of work being done. Your role is to improve the purpose, people, and process of your team resulting in as high a multiplier effect on your collective outcomes as you can. Multiply, don’t just add.

The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued.

-Ken Robinson, Educator & Author on creativity

My Management Priorities

Strive to be Human, Not a Boss

The 2017 Index Exchange Design Team. Alyssa Baybayan and Martin Laws were the first people I ever hired and they continue to teach me a lot, now as dear friends.

I try to do the following with any team I work with.

Respect and care about my reports.
Invest time in helping and developing my reports.
Keep assholes off of the team.
Realize I don't always have to make it work.

Give Actionable Feedback

Giving feedback is one of the most difficult and important responsibilities of a manager. I try to do the following to make my feedback as effective as possible.

Make my feedback as specific as possible.
Clarify what success looks and feels like.
Suggest next steps.

Hire Well

My current design team at Index Exchange. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved in helping me build this design org, culminating in the great team we have today.

As a manager, you are ultimately the person who is responsible for the team you build. That’s why I believe it’s so important to design your team intentionally regardless of the pressures you’re under. So I try to do the following.

Remember the long term gain of the right candidate will always outweigh any short term pain.
Form close partnerships with the recruiting team to identify, interview, and close the best people.
Provide an understanding of the role, what it needs, and why it's exciting.
Make the time to personally connect with candidates.
Describe your ideal candidate as precisely as you can.
Develop a sourcing strategy.
Deliver an amazing interview experience.
Show candidates how much you want them.
Understand hiring is a gamble, but make smart bets by:
- Examining past examples of similar work.
- Seeking out trusted recommendations.
- Getting multiple interviewers involved.
- Looking for passionate advocates rather than just consensus.
- Preparing interview questions ahead of time.
- Rejecting ANYONE who exhibits toxic behaviour.
- Building a team with diverse perspectives.
- Hire people capable of more than just the job description.

Nurture Culture

I've had the pleasure of working on cross-functional teams with other designers, software and infrastructure engineers, I never shy away from a good Hackathon.

Finally, as a manager and leader, I believe it’s important to build a healthy environment for your team to thrive in. I try to do the following to achieve this.

Knowing what kind of team I want to be a part of.
- Understanding the current team.
- Understanding my aspirations for the team.
- Understanding the difference between the two.
Inventing traditions that celebrate our team values.
Articulate the value of design to the company.