by

Principal Experience Strategist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Dave Malouf
The Guide to UX Leadership
Best Practices for Leading Impactful Teams

Copyright 2016 by UXPin Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication text may be uploaded

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 Index

Introduction6

Understanding Before Leading 8

Know Thyself First 9
Learn Your Environment Through Others 10
Asking Questions With the Right People 11
Define the Outcomes 17
Plan for Influence 19
Conclusion  21

Evangelizing UX 22
The Religion of UX 22
What is Your Red Pill? 24
Adapt to the Maturity Level of the Business 25
Build Your First Flock 27
Spread Your Message Through Others 33
Conclusion  35
Leading People 36
Leading Without Authority 36
How Design Leaders Build Teams 39
Managing and Coaching Designers 45
Developing Your Designers 49
Managing Up & Across 52
Conclusion55

Crafting UX Strategy 56
Scoping Your Strategic Framework 58
Step 1: Purpose and Peak  60
Step 2: Charting Your Path 62
Step 3: Creating Evaluation Point(s) 65
Step 4: Plan to Validate Assumptions 67
Conclusion70
Author

Dave is currently the Principal Experience Strategist at HPE in their

Helion Cloud Business Unit where he helps the organization create a
viable insights and strategy practice based on empathy and data an-
alytics. He has worked in front-end design for the past 20 years. In his
previous role at Rackspace, Dave lead the interaction design team as a
Sr. Manager of Product Design. His other roles have included senior UX
positions and leadership roles at Motorola and Intralinks.

Dave is also an active speaker and writer. His work has been published
at BoxesAndArrows.com, Core77.com, UXMatters.com, UIGarden.net
and JohnnyHolland.com as well as in print for Interactions Maga-
zine. He has spoken at IDSA, Interaction, IA Summit, UI Conf, and have
taught workshops for private corporations and local UX organizations
around the world.

He is also the Founder of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA),

program co-chair of Rosenfeld Medias Enterprise UX conference, and
a former Professor of Interaction Design at Savannah College of Art &
Design (SCAD).
 Introduction

In this guide, we wont convert you into a global UX leader overnight.

No book can promise that.

The guide will, however, help senior practitioners better think about
themselves as leaders, and help UX managers to accomplish the most
important task for any design leader: driving results for the people
and organization they work for and with.

Leading is simply the act of taking personal responsibility (with

our without authority) to make sure that things go well within
a context(s) you choose.

Ill explain tips for how to orient behavior and mindset for helping
your organization and product team members be as successful as
possible.
 Introduction 7

Ive drawn the advice from my 20+ years of UX experience, including

most recently leading product design teams at Hewlett Packard En-
terprise and Rackspace. My goal is to distill all my lessons into one
compact guide that you can put into action right away.

Dave Malouf,
Principal Experience Strategist at HP Enterprise
 Understanding Before Leading
Context, outcomes, and influence

If we know anything as designers, its that empathy, understanding

and meaning are vital to all that we design.

Being a leader of anything is really just another design project.

First, you need to understand the players (of which you are one big
one), the environment(s), and what success looks like for those in-
volved.

This means not just doing observational inquiry, but also learning
from existing materials. Youre basically combining the cognitive
psychology of HCI research with your own practical ethnography.

Well do this work together. From learning about yourself, to under-

standing the environment(s) in which youll be leading, well learn
the frameworks and methods Ive discovered along my own winding
journey.
 Understanding Before Leading 9

Know Thyself First

For any leader, self-awareness is their most important trait.

I highly recommend the Strengths Finder framework. It doesnt just

tell you who you are, but suggests activities, tools, and mindsets for:

Strategizing your own growth path

Conducting your own gap analysis

Figuring out how to fill your gaps through either learning, behavior
change, or collaboration (my personal favorite)

Analyzing the strengths of others to build relationships

But knowing yourself isnt an exercise done in isolation. You require

peers and mentors to help you through reflection, criticism, and
practice.

For instance, I have founded &/or created communities (like the In-
teraction Design Association) that are focused on peer level coaching
and engagement. Local chapters of the UXPA are also useful for pro-
fessional development. Falling into a group of diverse professionals
has been the single most invaluable tool for my career as a leader.

Lead yourself first.

 Understanding Before Leading 10

Learn Your Environment Through Others

Its easy for most people to swim through their daily experiences like
fish swimming around the reef.

The reality is that, unlike fish, leaders of any type are not passive
participants in an ecosystem. Design leaders focus on change. To
catalyze that change requires an understanding of the building blocks
that will be mixed together anew.

To start out, I cant recommend enough the book First 90 Days for
grasping your universe and how to lead it. But more than any book
out there, you can immediately apply user-centered design princi-
ples to better understand the contexts and people whom you work
with and for.

Companies are social and cultural structures. Everything physical

about an organization is just a reflection of the people inside. To suc-
ceed as a leader, you must be genuinely interested in other people.
Empathy works both ways: for users, and for your colleagues.
 Understanding Before Leading 11

Designer Pro Tip

One of the biggest mistakes new design leaders make is not un-
derstanding their companys business model. When you become
a leader, it's not enough to understand design. You now need
to understand how design moves the needle.

Christina Wodtke,
Owner of Elegant Hack and author of Radical Focus

Asking Questions With the Right People

As a first step, identify the 5 most influential people in the organization.

They may or may not be executive leaders. Reach out to them and
ask for 1 hour of their time for an interview.

When youre done, try to repeat this process with at least 10 other
people (depending on the size of your organization) over the course
of 1-3 months. Include your peers, your direct manager(s), and their
peers in those 10 people. You can certainly scale this down or up
 Understanding Before Leading 12

according to your ability to stay on track with your first 30, 60, 90
days tasks.

Here are the 5 sets of questions to ask each person.

1. How did you get here? Why do you choose to be here?

By adding the line about Why did you choose to be here? you
reveal so much about the story of the organization, its myths, and
the surrounding culture.

At Rackspace, the phrase repeated again and again from especially

senior people was There is just a huge opportunity here. Now
everyone wants to go where there is opportunity, right?

But the there is a huge part of that phrase pricked up my ears.

Why is the opportunity described as huge?

Upon further inquiry, it turns out that senior people (even newly
hired ones) were expressing their hope with a feeling of being
overwhelmed with what they discovered. This isnt necessarily
bad, but it definitely reset my expectations about the scope of
work needed to resource UX projects.
 Understanding Before Leading 13

2. What is the most valuable thing our organization produces?

How do we know we deliver that value for customers? What are
the biggest obstacles stopping us from consistently delivering
value?
These questions help reveal any lack of consensus on how your
company adds value to customers.

For example, at Rackspace, the different product teams were cer-

tainly delivering value, but they all perceived and described their
contributions to customers in different ways in my interviews.

Youll find that lack of consensus is a common issue across large

organizations. Usually, the bigger the company, the more your role
needs to bridge that gap.

3. If you were new, what 5 things would you wish you knew about
the company? Why?
By asking this question early on with several people, I immediately
noticed several patterns for scope and decisionmaking:

Pattern: Any project requiring more than a quarter probably

wont survive.

Lesson learned: Think in small chunks, or your team will eventu-

ally burn out from dead-end projects.

Pattern: Rackspace is a relationship based organization.

 Understanding Before Leading 14

Lesson learned: Dig deeper into why. At first, I thought I knew

what the phrase meant, but I didnt really know Rackspaces em-
phasis on employee development until 6 months later. Cant learn
everything the first time around.

Pattern: At Rackspace, consensus is how decisions are made.

Lesson learned: Use your influencing muscle carefully. Observe

meetings, processes, communications, etc. to uncover the real
influencers for a given team and focus your attention on those
people. When I discovered an influencer for my work, the next
step was figuring out how to connect. Sometimes that meant sched-
uling 1-on-1 meetings. Other times it just meant taking them out
for coffee. Its just a form of politicking.

4. What are the next opportunities for you and the organization?
This question helps you understand if the person youre speaking
with is future-oriented or not.

When interviewing direct reports, it helps to set apart those who

are growth-oriented from those who like having a job.

5. Who else should I speak with to understand how the organiza-

tion operates?
You learn two things from these lists: who is special, and who is
an outlier.
 Understanding Before Leading 15

The special people are the names repeated often across inter-
views. For instance, the VP of Product, the CMO, and the Director
of Engineering might all mention the VP of Project Management.

The outliers, on the other hand, are the people who only certain
individuals mention. For instance, the VP of Product might also
mention a specific designer or support person, but that name
never pops up elsewhere.

Dont dismiss this person, however. This outlier may exert power
through a process they manage or approve.

6. Documenting the Results

When conducting these interviews, I recommend the #1 tool in a
designers toolbox: post-its.

I break down core concepts and constantly add to an ever-grow-

ing affinity diagram. As I do this, I sketch out visualizations and
immediately discuss them with the interviewee.
 Understanding Before Leading 16

By presenting visualized ideas to others, their reactions will not

just be yes/no. They will also be yes, and... and no, but... Both
are important to revealing hidden insights about the organization.

In my case, I did a lot of mind-mapping because most of the re-

sponses were related to connections between people, processes,
and systems. When visualized with a mind-map, the connecting
lines started to take shape, illustrating the system at Rackspace.

It very much confirmed that the company was truly not a hierar-
chical system at all.

When youre done with your research in your first 30 days, you
will have a clear picture of who and what your organization is all
about and your place in that world.

Designer Pro Tip

Securing a win in your first 90 days buys yourespect. It also sets

you up to make harder arguments about quality.

First you orient yourself, get to know the players. Most designers
are matrixed, so you have a literal boss and a business side boss.
 Understanding Before Leading 17

Find a way to get each something they need badly. If you have
to choose, choose the business side boss as your literal boss
hired you and is already invested in you.

A win can be metric based, like increasing conversions, or on

the soft side, like getting work delivered on time.

You could set a individual OKR around the issue you believe
needs fixing. But it's not about OKRs. It's about credibility. You
can't win an argument about something as subjective as quality
unless you've already proven you understand business wants
and needs.

Christina Wodtke,
Owner of Elegant Hack and author of Radical Focus

Define the Outcomes

Now that you know your environment, you can start planning.

Leading is not reacting. Leading is planning.

Create a clear framework. For me, I try to outline:

The desired outcomes (e.g. increase sales by 10% in 3 months).

How you will know through your senses that you achieved those
outcomes.
 Understanding Before Leading 18

The last part sounds intangible, but its actually quite practical. Let
me break it down below.

Mere KPIs, while useful, are not the same as sensory outcomes. Its
one thing to be told youre going 60 MPH. Its another to see the road
focused in front of you while blurry through the side windows.

You can also apply this to your work. It is one thing to reach sales
numbers after a redesign. Its quite another to triangulate the results
against NPS surveys and positive product reviews for a complete
understanding.

What does success look like? When will you know youve arrived at
some level of sufficient success?
 Understanding Before Leading 19

In the most tactical sense at Rackspace, one of my core plans was to

get organizational buy-in around what exactly a managed cloud
service looks like for customers.

Desired outcome: Changes in product roadmaps after a new vision

I created was approved by product teams.

How I knew through my senses: Witnessing the design team ex-

plain their rationale with data. Noticing more people discussing
the roadmaps.

By first defining success, you can back plan how you and your col-
laborators will get there.

Plan for Influence

Planning for success requires more than a series of JIRA stories. You
may conduct the following activities as you start executing UX work:

Creating/building relationships with stakeholders (e.g. stakeholder

interviews)

Visualizing assumptions

Creating value proposition canvases (e.g. Lean Canvas)

Doing culture mapping exercises

Running design sprints (ala Google Ventures)

 Understanding Before Leading 20

But beyond standard design activities, you need to also plan for in-
fluence. Through counsel with mentors at Rackspace, I followed a
staged plan:

Reach out to my network of peers (first built with the interviews

discussed earlier) and ask for their expertise on specific problems.
Invite them to design workshops to share insights.

Apply the learning from that workshop to create a focus (a story as

a framework), and next steps. Story as a framework means that
Id present the problem as a narrative (characters, plot, setting)
for faster stakeholder understanding.

Bring the feedback from workshop participants (along with the

story) to mentors and managers to close the feedback loop.

Create a quick story presentation for support from managers,

peers, and stakeholders. In our case, we created a video prototype.

Iterate from feedback, field research, interviews, usability testing,

and analytics. We eventually iterated the video prototype into a
rapid digital prototype. You can use something as basic as Keynote
or more collaborative and end-to-end like UXPin.

Invite key internal stakeholders when showing the rapid proto-

type to users. Ensure that stakeholders see the impact of the new
vision (and the criticism).

Return to the product teams with the most positive reactions and
start carving out areas for more iteration. Execute.
 Understanding Before Leading 21

The above framework helped me build influence by explaining a com-

plex design problem as a simple story. Once stakeholders understood
the story, Id involve them at different stages as needed.

Conclusion

All the above may not feel like youre coding, or moving pixels, or out
doing user research. The honest truth is that youll be performing
those activities anyway, especially if your current position is more
junior in the leadership continuum.

Some may think that leading is being in the front of the boat rowing,
instead of on the wheel steering.

The reality is that leading is all about doing. You cant lead without
managing and you cant manage without leading. The questions are
more to what level and in what quality.
 Evangelizing UX
Building your flock of believers

Did you know that once you became a UX designer, you were joining
a religion?

You didnt? Well, it is.

Once Ive explained our religion of UX, well explore how to gain
more believers.

The Religion of UX

Rituals
Contextual inquiry, affinity diagramming, usability tests, etc. are all
bizarre rites barely understood by lay people.

Relics & Totems

We worship the spirits of human beings. We place their images all
around us. We document their every move, and then hang those on
 Evangelizing UX 23

our walls. We carry around Moleskines and pen collections as if they

are as sacred as the crucifix.

A Sacred Space
Like many religions, not everyone has access to the sacred space. But
for those who do, it is a wondrous place. In our case it is called The
Studio.

Liturgy
Our books document our dogma. I bet you can name your top 4 books
that all UXers must read.

Of course, splinter groups are created from the dogma, but the over-
laps connects us. We have our Interaction Designers, Information
Architects, Visual Designers, and the most orthodox of the bunch,
the HCI folks.
 Evangelizing UX 24

Faith
Neuroscience and psychology guide us, but we also love magic. The
source of our magic is our steeped history and relationship to art.
That balance and tension between science and art drives us. It keeps
us passionate.

Evangelism and Truth

Like every faith, we spread or we die.

Whether you really believe that we are religion or not is irrelevant.

You believe in something that most people dont, and that alone makes
you a congregant.

Becoming a UX leader means you become clergy.

What is Your Red Pill?

I cant tell you what [user experience] is. I can only show you.

When a concept as abstract as user experience needs to be explained

in order to be supported, it will usually fail, unless you find a shared
experience for the truth you want to share.

Maybe youre the first UXer in a startup. You must constantly prove
to others that you need more people. People will question you about
the time required for your tasks. Why do you need more people as
 Evangelizing UX 25

youre only doing wireframes, right? Or, my favorite: If you just

coded that, too, then I could remove a developer from my payroll.

Maybe youre in an enterprise with a team of 10, and a new product

is launching. The VP of Product assumes the existing team can just
take on the new work. Unfortunately, your team lacks confidence in
the design so theyre pushing you for more research time.

So, one of your jobs at almost at every stage of your career is to make
others adopt your truth. You want others to be force multipliers for
UX.

Lets dive into a few useful tactics for spreading the good word of UX.

Adapt to the Maturity Level of the Business

A startup is clearly motivated by how the possible drives revenue

growth. A large enterprise is concerned more with optimization and
extension.

Assess where your company lies along the 8 stages of UX maturity so

that you can start building buy-in with the most influential groups
first.

For example, when I was in a management role over a decade ago

at a startup, the executive team was eager to grow towards IPO or
 Evangelizing UX 26

acquisition. One of their big liabilities was a system burdened with

legacy and tech debt. The company was motivated to refactor the
technology stack and better differentiate their core experience.

Given their rapid timeline, they were most responsive to ideas that
were immediately feasible.

This motivation led me to a two-pronged set of realistic tactics.

On one side, I worked closely with the CTO and his engineering
team to talk about how best we could work together. We drafted
an agile plan for execution to first show that our UX strategy was
immediately actionable.

On the other side, a new sales team was eager to ensure the value
proposition was right for the new market. I explained how the UX
strategy would help differentiate the product, and they helped
clarify how certain customer segments might respond.
 Evangelizing UX 27

In this way, I earned buy-in from the two most influential sides in
this context: Production (the builders) and Sales (the earners). Since
both sides were historically allied with executive partners, I received
budget much more quickly when presenting the strategy as a unified
plan.

Build Your First Flock

An evangelist is only as good as the stretch of their voice.

You cant be everywhere. If youre trying to scale across increasingly

larger organizations as your career grows, you must build a group
of disciples to shepherd their own flocks.

Photo credit: UXPin customer Sumo Logic

The first step is, obviously, about getting your own flock.
 Evangelizing UX 28

Of course you can hire for that. But you need two things: purpose
and cash. You probably have an abundance of the first and almost
none of the second.

Here are the steps as Ive experienced them.

1. Clarity
Anyone influential must understand your purpose as clearly as
you do.

As Im jumping into my current strategic role at HPE Helion, Ive

tried to place myself next to the following message,

By helping our organization understand what our customers

value, the Insights and Strategy team will increase customer
satisfaction, reduce churn, and increase sales.

Most of this messaging occurs in the meetings and 1:1 conversa-

tions I have, but its also like any political stump speech. Focus on
the keywords and use them whenever you can.

If you read the above the keywords are helping, value, strategy.
And then the ending emphasizes tangible ROI.

2. Vision
Vision is the story of your desired outcomes.

What will the organization look like if it was able to achieve your
goals? How will customers lives be impacted?
 Evangelizing UX 29

Your story must be dramatic, emotional, engaging. It needs to

draw people in. People need to make the story their own while
still retaining the core message.

The story should push boundaries, but not offend sensibilities.

When trying to build a strategic practice at Rackspace, we needed

to gain support. We literally created a video prototype in Keynote
of a new story that remained true to company values and its value
proposition, was based on feasible design, and showed how the
strategy would improve the lives of employees and users.

You can also try a more bite-sized approach. Segment your product
into smaller units. Take a very small unit (e.g. a feature) and create
a new vision for impact on the organization and customers. Shop
it around as support is gained, validate it internally, and maybe
even, covertly, externally.

Keep a record of your successesand then slowly expand on your

successes until you reach the decision makers or the people who
influence decision-makers.
 Evangelizing UX 30

Designer Pro Tip

Sometimes, a new design vision isnt enough on its own (even

if its just for a small product segment). People may require
evidence of success before they support a new strategy.

In that case, consider prototyping your new vision and testing

small changes as a side project. If youre a UXPin user, proto-
type and record your tests inside the platform, then invite your
allies and stakeholders to see the users reactions.
 Evangelizing UX 31

Afterwards, invite the executive stakeholder to a 15-30 minute

in-person session to suggest next steps. Mention who supports
your ideas and describe how the stakeholder can scale up your
process. If you house your deliverables in the platform, you can
also reference the decisionmaking role of each artifact.

Marcin Treder, CEO of UXPin

3. Ability
This is where leader as doer is so important.

In most of the organizations, bias towards action is a common

reframe. But what is action? They dont mean any old verb. What
they mean is make something I can see, relate to (and most im-
portantly), use.

When I was at Intralinks over 10 years ago, I was leading a team of

4 or so. Sales-protectionism required that we constantly needed to
prove our abilities. Of course, convincing sales was just a means
to the end of proving we were trustworthy to upper leadership.

Since the company was less UX-mature, I needed to prove the new
vision by first showing a quick win.

In the first few weeks, my main vision was showing stakeholders

we needed to move from an object-based system (one that focused
 Evangelizing UX 32

on file lists) to one more focused on activities. But instead of show-

ing all the product flaws, I eased my way by first explaining how
we could tweak a niche area for a new persona. We built a new
UI for the niche feature, and new conversations started sparking
between designers, product, engineering, and even sales.

These new conversations evolved until multiple teams started

questioning the current standards for good enough or working
features. By that time, it was much easier to convince executives
that a new interaction model was viable and feasible.

Budgets were unlocked, peoples time opened up, and we were able
to get access to end-users. Leadership pushed account represen-
tatives to loosen their hold on the customers. As a byproduct, we
also set a new precedent of empathy for our different customers.

4. Internal Empathy
Speaking of empathy, we designers spend so much time on users
that we sometimes forget it takes a village to realize a design.

Can you as just easily put yourself in your collaborators shoes?

Demonstrate that you have your stakeholders back. Actively ob-

serve them. Internalize the criteria managers use to evaluate them.
When designing for a future outcome, account for their needs.

For example, in the larger vision work I did for Rackspace, we en-
sured that one of the primary characters in our video prototype was
 Evangelizing UX 33

always a Rackspace employee (in this case, a support operative).

We imbued in that character the primary values of the organiza-
tion, as well as showed that they win when the customer wins.

Spread Your Message Through Others

As an evangelist, youre only as powerful as the number of leaders

you harness around you. This means you move from voice, to coach,
from front of the stage to the side of the stage.

1. Empower other voices

Create and use platforms that allow your disciples to make their
own name and create their unique voice. Create opportunities
like lunch and learns and customer councils where your disciples
preach the good sermon for all to soak in.

2. Shine a light on others

Call out the success of those around you. Dont always focus on
your own voice.

When you get a quick win, explain the the specific outcomes (e.g.
reduced customer support tickets by 30%).

Explain who helped execute each tactic, especially if theyre out-

side the immediate design team. Give credit away. They will pay
you back many times over.
 Evangelizing UX 34

3. Turn from player to coach

Start mentoring people. When you cant mentor, educate.

For designers, give them your lessons not just in the topic of spe-
cialization, but in how to grow as a UX evangelist. Teach them
the lessons youve hard won. Dont make them start from scratch.
Tend to your flock.

Photo credit: UXPin customer LiquidPlanner

For non-designers, be generous with your knowledge and time.

Present case studies from related industries (not just the usual
suspects like Uber or Google). For example, when MS Office 2007
was ramping up, I followed the blog of the UX team intensely to
share with others the lessons of a company striving to be more
design-focused.
 Evangelizing UX 35

Share design insights from business publications. When evange-

lizing design, its much more convincing to share material from
Fast Company, Gartner, and Harvard Business Review than from
only UX publications.

Conclusion

Whether youre dropped into leading 5 people or starting from scratch,

your ability to build a following and create disciples directly impacts
your success.

Based on what you know about yourself and your environment, cre-
ate a plan where your voice is most effective. Then shift your plans
to make others more effective.

The skills needed here are empathy, communications, strategy, and

a strong sense of self.
 Leading People
Mentoring, coaching, developing designers

At some point, people will follow you, listen to you, or otherwise be

engaged with what youre trying to achieve.

Leadership comes naturally to some. The other 99% of us have to

work hard at it.

Leading Without Authority

More than likely, your first taste of leading is leading without au-
thority. Imagine your first project kickoff.

Youre perhaps a mid-level designer in a room of senior designers,

management, and seasoned members of other departments. How will
you get people to not just listen to you, but take you seriously and
follow you? As someone with no rank, you still have the power to
lead without authority.
 Leading People 37

Use soft skills to stand out in the crowd. Title and seniority dont au-
tomatically make someone a good leader. Its how you come across,
and what you have to say, that attracts the right attention.

1. Facilitate the solution

Pointing out problems is easy for most of us, but people focused
on solving problems get the most attention.

You may not be in a position to actually have the solutionespe-

cially if youre a more junior practitioner.

In these cases, being solution-oriented doesnt mean uncovering

the solution yourself, but helping the group do that. Using tools like
the 5 Whys or facilitated visualizations can help teams working
on discovery, problem framing, and solution synthesis.

2. Own the marker

You wont just pull solutions out of a hat. We work within complex
contexts as we design complex systems. It always requires a team.
 Leading People 38

Leadership is then defined by the person who drives the problem

understanding phase.

Doing this well requires understanding the 10 levels of zoom in

any direction. You can move the team forward by creating new
angles to help them frame the problem space.

By owning the marker literally holding onto the marker at the

whiteboardyou put yourself at the center in the room. Owning
the marker isnt about owning all of your ideas. Be a synthesizer,
framer, and facilitator who helps the roomand teammove for-
ward.

3. Be at service
Nothing gets you attention as much as being the step up person.

Dont step up for everything, but do step up for the things that
map against your abilities. If you have the slightest capability to
do well given your time constraints and skills, step up if no one
has or can (or even if the wrong person has).

4. Get credit
Make sure youre being noticed for your work, contributions, and
efforts. If you arent being noticed, you arent making an impres-
sion as an up-and-coming leader.

Always be humble, but know when to stand up and put yourself

forward. Put it in your status reports. Bring it up in scrum meet-
 Leading People 39

ings. Nudge your manager to talk about your projects in team

all-hands, etc.

Designer Pro Tip

Being a good designer does not make you a good leader. If you
want to step up to leadership, first think back to all your bad
managers. Avoid all those mistakes.

Do not presume that your new job title allows you to lead a
team. It takes time to build that level of trust and respect with
your team. So take it slowly.

Chris Thelwell, Head of UX at Envato

How Design Leaders Build Teams

Building a team that scales over time is one of the biggest challenges
for any leader.

The first order of business is to understand the factors at play and

imagine the future.
 Leading People 40

1. Visualize your teams future

Block out some time to sit and focus on the big pictureto sketch
out your team vs. the workload vs. imagined changes to the rest
of your organization.

Work with collaborators to ensure the vision is feasible (given the

workload and organization). Accept that the only constant in the
future is that it isnt predictable.

Start off by looking at roadmaps across your organizations port-

folio of products and services, then drill down into each one to
understand the tasks requested of you and your future team. From
there, work with your collaborators to create broad estimates and
roughly determine the scope of work required, plus the number
of UX team members youll need.

At some point you need to start with an estimate of the resource

required against that roadmap.

Lets say you see 6 projects emerging over the next 6 months to a
year. You take that map and layer over it your recruiting durations.
How long does it take you to recruit and ramp up a new hire? What
resource can you attach to each project?
 Leading People 41

Projects Resource Type % needed Person/Source Kick Off

Project A IxD 100% Employee A weeks out

Researcher 25% Employee B

Visual Designer 20% Employee C

Project B IxD 100% NEEDED 2 months out

Researcher 50% Employee B

Visual Designer 40% Employee C

Project C IxD 50% Employee B weeks out

Visual Designer 10% Employee C

Project D IxD 50% Employee B 2 months out

Visual Designer 20% NEEDED

If time is a problem because projects surprise you, you should

supplement hiring with contractor availability. Sticking with the
same contractors shortens ramp up time.

2. Break out the skills you need

Once you have a picture of the future, you then deconstruct the
skills required to achieve that vision.

Some skills may not be in your domain, but you need to list them
just so you know youve got them all. Create an affinity chart of the
skills broken down by category. Ask for cross-functional leaders
to evaluate them, add to them, and re-categorize as you all see fit.

Lay out the skills (not the roles) you need because our attempts at
categorizing what we do (especially in our world of digital design,
titles, roles) has been a complete failure (ironic, I know).
 Leading People 42

As you can see in the above image, I laid out the skills first in an
unattributed skills list. Then I use my expected roles and ensure
that all the skills line up to titles that Im confident I can hire for.
This is incomplete on purpose since the details and role groups
depend on your context.

Clearly document all the skills you need. Some may seem like
universal skills, but youll find it will make a difference later on
as an evaluation checklist.

3. Start your recruiting

Now, you build job descriptions.

Consider how roles will change during the time of the vision you
set out. You also need to imagine how people will be promoted
and gain leadership for themselves. Finally, you need to consider
how youll need to change and grow as a leader to keep up with
your team.

The trick is hiring for short term needs with an eye for longer
term needs.
 Leading People 43

When you hire your first 35 people, youll most likely hire broad
generalists (since no single function will have enough work to
separately hire, say, a visual designer, an interaction designer,
and a researcher). You may even need people who do all three of
those things plus front-end development.

The question is how and when you prepare to start specializing

within the organization. Like the evolution of any organism, at
some point, cells need to specialize more and more. Specialization
needs clear pathways for career growth and promotion, too.

Designer Pro Tip

At Asana (a 230+ employee company), we hire generalists on

product and marketing program work. We assign one program
designer for every PM or marketing program. We also have a
team of specialists including illustrators, motion graphics ex-
perts, brand designers and prototypers. The specialists work
horizontally across marketing and product programs to ensure
consistency and to make the important moments in the expe-
rience exceptional.

Amanda Linden, Head of Design at Asana

 Leading People 44

4. Evaluate and hire the right candidates

When it comes to actual candidate evaluation, the best methods do
two things: focus on skills and outcomes, and consider the needs
of everyone working with this individual.

How does a candidate tell their story about how their skills lead
to direct outcomes/results in their work?

When looking for a culture fit, beware that you dont make the
mistake of hiring people like me.

For this purpose, the book Hire With Your Head is a great read.

Designer Pro Tip

As a UX hiring manager, the most important criteria is team fit.

The team itself is our most valuable asset at Envato, so I need to
make sure the potential hire strengthens the whole team. The
wrong person will disrupt everyone, slow us down and reduce
our quality. Others might even want to leave. You can teach
skills and build experience. You can't teach personality.

Chris Thelwell, Head of UX at Envato

 Leading People 45

Managing and Coaching Designers

Once you have a team, leadership boils down to how well you oversee
and develop direct reports.

1. Become a buffer
Give air cover. Take the heat about negative team perception, and
defend the team without them knowing.

Remember that translating messages from executives is about

making it relevant. A strategy about meeting margin growth
through reducing redundancy needs to translate into something
that directly affects how the design team changes workflow. For
example, you can explain that the team needs to now create a
design system to help developers scale code over time.

Often as designers we get fixated with the answers we came up

with. Then we feel demoralized when we are told, But that doesnt
work for the business.

When I was managing the design team at Intralinks, we were

trying to increase our offering into new spaces. By explaining the
constraints of the design problems as a business driver, instead
of something we should feel victim to, we energized the team and
worked towards some pretty neat designs that didnt cost nearly
as much.
 Leading People 46

2. The One-on-One (1:1)

There are three types of 1:1 meetings you should be holding on a
regular basis that include (but may not be not limited to) your team:

With your direct reports.

With your peers.
With your supervisor.

Meet weekly with each member of your team and bi-weekly with
your peers. (You can add other people, should you feel regular
contact is important.)

Direct reports should own this meeting. The agenda of the meeting
needs to focus on how their current work addresses their short
and long term career needs its not a status update. This is a
coaching session, first and foremost.

Meeting with peers on a regular basis helps you limit surprises,

not to mention uncover situations where you can help. Control
the pace and own these meetings.

For 1:1s with your manager, take what your direct reports said,
then flip the roles. Everyone needs coaching and youre not ex-
cluded no matter how senior you are. Hold yourself responsible
for making sure that your manager doesnt highjack the meeting.
 Leading People 47

Youll also want to meet with these roles on a regular basis:

Technology heads
Key cross-functional people
Human resources representatives.

Technology heads (monthly)

Stay up-to-date on the technology of the business, its progress, and
trends. Meeting with people inside the technology groups of the
organization will help you prepare for what is coming your way.
Own the agenda of these meetings, but let them pivot in reaction
with the conversation flow.

Consider asking the following questions:

What are the expected upcoming roadblocks? (Especially be-

tween your teams and theirs).

As a manager, what issues do you face related to your teams

development? Is there any way I can help?

Key cross-functional people (monthly)

Whether this is product management, sales & marketing, or cus-
tomer service/engagement, you must connect yourself to the pulse
of the organization.

Each one of these departments helps you develop insight into the
business and keep ahead of problems. They will also help you set
your teams long-term agenda.
 Leading People 48

Here is a generalized list of questions to stay on track with each

department:

How can my team help with any problems your team is expe-
riencing?

What is your schedule? (Does it line up as expected with your

own?)

What issues are keeping you awake at night?

Human resources representatives (monthly or bi-weekly)

Most leaders seem to forget these meetings. Believe it or not, HR
is an amazing resource for you.

Reviewing your staffing, current performance, and future needs

against the business demands gives you a source of reflection from
a key advisor available to you. Too few managers really use their
HR team in this strategic way.

This is less about questions and more about a chance to get good
council. Consider discussing the following points:

My team is having these pains, do you have any suggestions for

helping us get back on track?

Here are my recruiting needs. How can we meet those needs

more quickly?

Is there anything coming down the pike that Ill need to be com-
municating to my team soon? What can I do to prepare now?
 Leading People 49

Developing Your Designers

Theres a half-true statement bandied about among managers: Peo-

ple dont leave jobs. People leave their managers.

Personally, Ive left jobs even when I loved my managers, so I know

this statement is only partially true. A good manager is actually at
the heart of why people stay.

The managers we remember most are the ones who helped us

grow.

Focus on these two areas on when developing your team.

Short-term tactics.
Long-term development.

1. Short Term Tactics

Discuss assignments in full detail, then have them lead you through
the places where they expect the work to be easy, or possibly a
stretch. Dig down and understand what they mean with each an-
swer and whether or not that maps against your own experience.

There is even an entire framework developed for this purpose

that I highly recommend called Situational Leadership II (Dont
forget the IIit matters.) The framework helps a leader and a
team member assess their situation and figure out the right level,
type of guidance, and support they need.
 Leading People 50

1:1 meetings also help you hold each other accountable through
its shared language. This will set up the near-inevitable periodic
evaluations that inform bonuses and pay increases.

2. Long-Term Development
For your junior direct reports, long-term development is about
helping them understand possibilities.

Whenever I work with someone new, I always ask them What

do you want to do in 5 years? Its a nice time frame, one where
hopefully a new employee still sees themselves at the company,
yet also far enough out where the level of achievement is really
up to them.

In these conversations, you need to create a job matrix (see below)

that outlines the levels of each employee against the skills, behav-
iors, and outcomes expected from someone at that level. This way,
everyone in the organization sees their growth path. They know
whats needed to move from step 1 to 3 in a period of time.
 Leading People 51

A few details to note in the above image:

1. Each role has number of years experience, but also number of

years expected in that position before growth to next level.

2. Ive plotted out where core qualities should fall on a spectrum

of proficiency.

3. Ive summarized each core quality with a simple quote that

represents mastery.

Like any strategic agenda, the patterns are the same:
 Leading People 52

Understand the vision.

See the possible paths for achievement.
Pick the initial steps along the way.
Set clear goals explaining impact on the individual and business.
Evaluate and adjust as you go.

Managing Up & Across

Im sure many people are familiar with the phrase managing up.
In my experience, what it means is owning your relationship with
your manager.

But how do you do that? Well, leading is making sure things go well,
right?

Here are some basic tips (that youll also find helpful with cross-func-
tional peers).

1. Dont make people guess what you mean.

Theres a training opportunity for you hereits called Precision
Q&A. The gist of it is that you can always better clarify your words
and intent.

If I say I need a tall building, thats great, but how tall is tall? Shouldnt
I give scale? Isnt there a big difference between a 10-story build-
ing and a 100-story building? Or, if I ask for something, perhaps I
should mention who its for and why its required?
 Leading People 53

In other words, be crystal clear when making requests.

Being a leader also means listening to requests. Own the respon-

sibility of clarity there, as well. Ensure you fully understand what
you think you heard. If nothing else, repeat the request back to
the person in your own words to double-check.

2. Be visible in what you and your team do.

People usually dont notice what happens in their peripheral
awareness, especially if it doesnt catch their attention.

Thats why its so essential to highlight your contributions, pro-

mote your team, and speak up about their business value. (And
especially, dont ever take credit for other peoples work.)

Designer Pro Tip

When sending out a weekly status email to the larger manage-

ment team, I highly recommend the following tips by Christina
Wodtke:

Start by explaining your level of confidence in the team

meeting quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results).
 Leading People 54

List last weeks priorities, and explain if you did or didnt achieve
them. Then list out and briefly explain next weeks priorities.

Clearly call out any blockers or risks to projects.

When we use UXPin, we minimize back-and-forth email chains

with project notifications. To keep our notifications straightfor-
ward, our internal team only sets the following statuses:

In progress
Waiting for review
Accepted
Paused

Marcin Treder, CEO of UXPin

 Leading People 55

Conclusion

Leading requires followers. These followers need to respect and

value you. The best way to do this is to build them up, protect them,
and forge new paths so they can grow.

Like everything so far in this book, this requires specific actions:

Analysis
Vision
Planning
Evaluation
Communication

To see that anything goes well at scale requires good people next to
you, behind you, and in front of you. Taking ownership of your 360
degrees of relationships is the strongest guiding principle for success.
 Crafting UX Strategy
Purpose Peak Path Point Plan

The alternatives to strategic decision-making are kind of scary, if you

ask me. When theres no data, no planning, no vision, and no path,
all you have is a direction that sounds strategic.

Case in point: the grand tactic a.k.a. Hail Mary. These projects
come from on high because someone single-mindedly wants them
to happen. There is no destination, no sense of preparedness, and
no planning. Or how about hill grabbing capturing small bites of
the market simply because its possible.
 Crafting UX Strategy 57

Strategy, on the other hand is based on greater purpose, where the

pieces make up a greater whole; measurement, analysis, & evaluation
happen at key moments; and finally, the ends and the means work
in harmony toward a greater impact.

Great strategists seem to be oracles, born with powers to see whats

coming. In reality, they analyze information and put it to work; they
have a solid grasp of contextthe probabilities tightly connected to
the pulse of their marketand are prepared to act. Theyve learned
the subtle art of looking around corners.

In the fields of observation chance favors

only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur

So, what is strategy?

Doing your homework/continual observation

Using frameworks to process what you know and observe
Analyzing information and putting it to use
Learning and improving all the time
Grasping context and looking at all options

What isnt strategy?

Forging ahead without data

No contingency
No direction, purpose, or vision
Productivity for productivitys sake
 Crafting UX Strategy 58

Direction without measures of success

Brand positioning

Scoping Your Strategic Framework

You cant make assumptions and expect to reach your goals.

When we have a Purpose and set goals for ourselves (like hiking to
the top of a mountain), we identify our objective (the Peak), then
determine the best way (the Path) to reach that goal and how well
carry out that Plan (the tactics).

Every strategy needs a solid framework to get started and stay on

track. Sticking with the metaphor of a climb, lets look at the 5 core
elements of strategic frameworks.

1. Purpose Why am I climbing this thing in the first place?

Is the goal clearly stated and understood? Has it been validated

as something worthwhile to pursue? For whom? Does the team
working toward this goal understand its purpose?

2. Peak Choose your destination or at least aim in a general

direction. You may sometimes hear of companies focusing on
their North.

3. Path How you get to the peak matters.

 Crafting UX Strategy 59

How you climb the mountain matters. The path needs to help the
organization not just meet financial targets, but also mature the
organization in the process.

4. Point Opportunity to pause, analyze, and measure.

Points on the path arent merely deliverables or activities. They

should regularly confirm and/or adjust your goals and the path
toward that goal.

5. Plan Every expedition needs a plan for tactics.

I need the right training & equipment. I may need other people
(Who should I bring versus station remotely?). Do I need to let
others know where Im going?

A lot of people mistake the Path for the Plan. True, each activity is
a step toward the goal, but tactics are only one part of the strategy.
The path is not a collection of tactics.

Constantly re-evaluate your framework to keep your strategy on track.

 Crafting UX Strategy 60

Step 1: Purpose and Peak

Purpose ties into your vision of the intended outcome. Its the first
thing you define. I always start there.

Defining purpose means asking questions like:

Why are we here?

What value will we create?
Who benefits from this value?
Why will they care?

The Peak or vision (your intended outcome/destination) clarifies
your purpose:

Communicate the pain felt if the purpose is not achieved.

Demonstrate one way the problem(s) get solved.
Show how the problems solution adds value to users.
Propose a realistic means of achieving the solution.
Clarify any data that supports the purpose.

To make any peak truly valuable, it needs emotional and tangible

merit. It cant be expressed as a collection of features. Features only
list the ingredients in your recipe they dont convey the whole expe-
rience. This is why artifacts like roadmaps and layer cake graphics
cant express value meaningfully to stakeholders.

Heres an example from an initiative I led at Rackspace.

 Crafting UX Strategy 61

To define the purpose and peak, I dug into what Managed Cloud ac-
tually meant. I gathered a cross- functional group of people together
for 2 days. First, we dove into What is managed? We deconstructed
the term to identify the value for our customers.

I had to break through a lot of jargon bear trapsyou know, the ones
that leave you saying, But that isnt what managed means. Youre
making up random meanings. Reflect peoples definitions back to
them so that they gain a better understanding.

Photo credit: Kaplan Test Prep UX team.

I then led the team through a storytelling exercise, where each person
created a story with a customer (a Rackspace employee) and a scenario
that reflected the new value. People didnt simply tell fanciful stories.
They explained what was wrong today and how we might improve
that situation. By seeing the negative stories against a brighter future,
our Purpose became more relevant and approachable.
 Crafting UX Strategy 62

We then captured that story in a shareable artifact that could discuss

with other departments. In this case, we created a short photo essay
with voice narration. A simple vision prototype.

We played the video in front of internal and external stakeholders

and got a tremendous amount of positive feedback about what was
working and what wasnt. Once we connected user research to the
points made in the video, buy-in soared. Product design, product
management, and engineering all started prioritizing backlog items
based on our new Purpose and Peak.

Step 2: Charting Your Path

The Path you choose to reach your destination isnt the only feasible
route. Each possibility requires weighing a variety of factors before
adjusting course. Dont decide your Path by thinking the end justi-
fies the means.

1. Weighing the Options

Lets look at our mountain again:
 Crafting UX Strategy 63

Lets say the red line has the following properties:

Cheap.
Fast.
Quality (whatever that means to the organization).

Sounds like a good option. But is it? What if we throw in some

factors that may or may not work for you?

Requires reassigning key players from other projects (of lower

priority, of course).

Creates technical debt without a plan for paying it back.

Doesnt account for team development (to be ready for the next
thing).

The product releases on time, but lacks coordination with par-

allel sales & support efforts.

Fewer points in the process to validate assumptions or apply

lessons learned.

No ability to instrument deliverables and offerings.

Does the red path still look appealing? What other options (and
factors) can we consider?

If we go with the blue line, the path looks like this:

A bit more expensive (short term).

 Crafting UX Strategy 64

Takes longer to get to market but more confidence that we

deliver value.

Results in better quality than wed otherwise get which leads

to surpassing customer-based KPIs (like NPS changes).

Provides definite answers to the bullet points associated with

the red trail.

By taking the blue trail, you ship in a way that delivers the greatest
value for both you and your customers.

2. Choosing the Right Path

How do you find the right path?

Start by understanding your own organization. Know thyself is a

key tenet of leadership growth. The same goes for an organization.

Know your organizations culture, business, competition, capabil-

ities, etc. Simple SWOT analysis helps, as well as the resourcing
matrix explained in the previous chapter. Another tool I find tre-
mendously useful is theCulture Map, as popularized by XPLANE.
In this canvas, you uncover how the more intangible aspects of
culture impact outcomes.

As you evaluate your options, consider the following criteria:

How much technical and UX debt are we creating? Is it accept-

able given our current state? How do we plan to pay it off?
 Crafting UX Strategy 65

What other projects need to be deprioritized to accommodate

our path? What will that cost the organization?

How much time are we afforded to validate our assumptions

periodically?

Are we allowing enough time and leeway for non-design stake-

holders to understand decisions (or weigh in with their own)?

Step 3: Creating Evaluation Point(s)

Back in the days before GPS, we followed directions to get around,

and the quality varied greatly depending on the person, their navi-
gation skills, and their familiarity with the area.

At some point, you need to confirm youre on course. Re-evaluate

successes and failures, not to mention refine your target Peak.

We follow a cognitive process called OODA: Observe, Orient, Decide,

Act. OODA (I pronounce it OO-dah) takes place at a stopping point
to allow for:

Data collection
Analysis of that data
Reflection on the analysis
Synthesis of a set of hypotheses
Evaluation of hypothesis value
Amendment to the existing plan based on new insights
 Crafting UX Strategy 66

In an Agile process, lets say that each segment of your path is the
equivalent of an epic. Your strategic stopping point is then the Sprint
Epic +1 (shown below).

Just like how we use the Sprint 0 for UX research and discovery,
we schedule a sprint epic +1 to reflect on the past epic based on
agreed upon metrics. Beyond a basic post-mortem or retro, we ded-
icate a full sprint length for analysts, designers, and product team
members to dive deep into each success and mistake then adjust
the path accordingly.

We review the whole epic because the tight timing of a sprint might
hide deeper insights around the overall vision. The extra time is a
worthwhile investment in giving everyone a larger perspective be-
yond features.
 Crafting UX Strategy 67

Step 4: Plan to Validate Assumptions

Your success at the Points in your path is 100% affected by how well
you Plan.

The best way to create a plan is to work backwards to answer the

question, What do I need to achieve this?

Start by creating post-its for the beginning and the end, sticking them
to the biggest wall you can find. This methodology is called back
planning. You start with your intended outcome, then keep evaluat-
ing backward until you reach the point where you know youll have
what you need to start.

Below, Ill explain how I might complete this exercise in an enterprise

setting for an IT ticketing system.

1. The final outcome

Help customer IT managers better communicate with our IT op-
erators across multiple channels. The new system isnt just for
messaging, but incorporates workflow management that reacts to
decision making, and allows end-users to customize governance.
Our goal is increasing NPS scores by 10 points.

2. Our current state

Currently, we only offer email notifications with no contextual
information. The notifications dont always target the right person
on the customers team.
 Crafting UX Strategy 68

Our IT operators send notifications with a basic ticketing system:

Little customization

Only works on a desktop browser

Can only send in bulk to one person. The IT manager recipient

then needs to resend to people on their team.

3. Our rough plan

Now that we know the beginning and end, we start filling in the
gaps between. You can work backwards or forwards (I prefer
working backwards).

In this case, working backwards, I first deconstruct both the ex-

perience and functionality of the end point as best I can:

1. We need a mobile application that scales to tablet.

If we have one already, what can/cant it do that maps against

the end point?
Ill need to research what platforms my customers are using,
but will probably have to use the top two major platforms.

2. We need to create or buy a business process management en-

gine.

Well need to create scenarios of governance, co-designing these

with our customers.
Once we understand the scenarios we can map against build
or buy scenarios.
 Crafting UX Strategy 69

3. A notification engine based on a new monitoring stack will be

needed.

Trend analysis to aid in predictions

Graphics engine to better add visual context to notifications
(build or buy question to discuss with development and prod-
uct management)

4. Our IT operators need a compatible console of their own to

work with the new notification system.

Does the existing system have the necessary APIs to work with
the new business process management engine?

While these ideas might change once you start designing and test-
ing, you at least create a plan for stakeholder discussion. For each
of these line items, you start answering the question, or at least
outlining the requirements and success criteria.

You start creating a backlog. Based on where we are today, what

do I need to start working on this backlog item? You just keep
repeating these steps until the dots are connected into a series of
loosely defined epics and sprints.

During this planning, youll also reveal questions not directly related
to the product. These questions relate to other strategic consider-
ations around team building, culture, customer management, etc.
 Crafting UX Strategy 70

For example, if no existing team was familiar with mobile devel-

opment or responsive design systems, you now need to also start
planning for training or recruiting to fulfill that competency. An-
other example is aligning sales, support, and delivery teams so that
they receive training materials to understand the new customer
experience. You may need to plan some quick sessions with dif-
ferent leaders to explain how teams can deliver on a new era of
open communications, and empowered customers.

Both of these types of change management require time, deliber-

ation, acculturation, and planning.

And of course, lastly, you need to also write in your research needs
for generating ideas and validating design concepts.

Conclusion

Strategy is intent with purpose.

In the stirring introduction of the Think Different ad campaign (the

first led by Steve Jobs after his return to Apple), purpose was touted
as the one missing element in all the years he was away. Apple was
playing a numbers game chasing speed and space (CPU & hard drives),
and it wasnt driving revenue.

The ad campaign wasnt merely about selling. It was about being.

 Crafting UX Strategy 71

With Think Different, Apple re-associated itself with the woman

throwing a sledge hammer at the screen. It was also a call to Apples
own workers about the organizations values. What followed was
some of the best design and engineering the organization ever pro-
duced, resulting 5 years later in the iPod (the precursor to the mobile
revolution).

But that is just the top of the mountain. Organizations like IBM, GE,
Honeywell, Intuit, CapitalOne, USAA, and many others have all dedi-
cated tremendous resources toward design as an organizational and
executive competency.

As design teams grow in large organizations, so too does the demand

for good design leaders. To stay competitive today, design leaders cant
just be masters of process. They need to craft a digestible vision that
aligns with the bottom line, vet it against customers and stakeholders,
and create a clear plan for fulfilment.

Use your tools of story and visual artifacts to bring visions to life.
Develop your team to build (and even challenge) that vision. And
always remember to communicate how everything connects with
the greater goals of the business.
www.uxpin.com