Design Manager Principles

I have developed a framework to help me make more consistent decisions as a leader. It is a 4x4 matrix that cross references four areas of responsibility with four leadership principles. I have found this framework helps organize my thinking so I can bias toward swift action while still meeting my commitments and upholding my principles.

The Matrix

Areas of Responsibility

The People
It starts with my immediate team and expands in concentric circles to our partners, our leadership, our clients and our customers. I am responsible for their physical and emotional safety, personal and professional growth. I am responsible for supporting and safeguarding my people.

The Discipline
As a design leader, I am responsible for the growth and rigor of our praxis. I love bringing new tools to the table and building communities of practice. As a design evangelist I bring our partners into the collaboration and help mature the discipline within our company.

The Business
I am always driving my team to create great business outcomes through our design. In my experience, meaning-making is money making so my designs must be delightful AND profitable.

The Experience
Ultimately, I am responsible for the quality of the experiences we design. Everything that goes out the door has my name on it. I strive for the highest standards of accessibility, usability, efficiency, and delight.

Leadership Principles

Leading Through Advocacy
The heart of my role as leader is to advocate for my team, our partners, the business, and our users. It’s never to push my own agenda or to highlight my own voice. It’s to capture and share the needs and the voice of those that aren’t present and able to advocate for themselves.

Supporting the Edge Effect
When diverse ecosystems collide, creativity burgeons. This is a commitment to diversity of culture, of experience, of disciplines, of thought, and to fostering an environment of collaboration. My job is to create the conditions for collective genius.

Learning Toward Outcomes
This principle is a commitment to the process of uncovering, documenting and sharing insight. It’s so easy to either get trapped in learning cycles or to run with our first idea. Instead, I drive for alignment on a desired outcome, then lead the team through the process of asking and answering the right questions to uncover the right direction.

Nurturing Growth
I come from a long line of educators and mentorship is central to my work as a leader. I seek to develop a humane space for my team (and our partners, and the business, too!) to take risks, to fail, and to learn from it. Much like tending a garden, my job is to ensure that the conditions are right for growth, to put a scaffold in place, then get out of the way so the light and the soil can do their thing.