The Challenges of Design Leadership

I have recently become struck by how challenging it is to be a UX lead.

Being A UX Lead Is Unlike Being A UX Designer

It may seem that being a UX lead is the natural progression from the role of a UX designer, but in truth, they involve very different skills. Being a great UX designer is just the beginning of becoming a successful UX lead. As a result, many UX leads are thrown in at the deep end with little or no training.

UX Leads Face an Uphill Battle

To make matters worse they are often massively under-resourced with no chance of engaging with even a fraction of the digital initiatives underway across the organisation.

Also, a UX lead will find themselves confronted with a host of challenges around areas such as compliance, tech debt and internal politics.

Don't Wait Until Leadership Become Disillusioned

Eventually senior management become disillusioned with the impact of user experience design and inevitably blame the UX team despite it rarely being their fault.

Sadly, as we have seen a lot recently, this often results in redundancies and investment in UX being perceived as a failed experiment.

Learn How to Play the System

Whether you are already a UX lead or have aspirations of becoming one, it is essential that you learn how to play the system and work around the considerable constraints you face before the plug is pulled.

A Masterclass in Design Leadership

With that in mind, I have decided to run a design leadership masterclass. In this workshop I will help you:

• Take control of your role by crafting your strategic vision.
• Impact every digital project despite limited resources.
• Transform your colleagues into UX practitioners.
• Boost your influence and the perception of UX.

You can find out more about the masterclass and book a place here.

LEARN MORE / BOOK YOUR PLACE

Persuading Your Manager to Pay

No doubt, you will be told there is no budget for training and you will have some convincing to do. Here are a few pointers that you might want to raise with the powers that be.

Investing in UX inevitably pays off.

• There is a recognition among CEOs that UX is a massive differentiating factor with an 18% increase in investment in a single year.
• 75% of users judge a company's credibility based on its user experience.
• Every dollar invested in UX results in a return of $100, representing a 9,900% ROI.
• Design-centered companies outperformed the S&P by 228% over a 10-year period.

This masterclass will provide tangible organizational benefits.

• Highlight how the masterclass will equip you with skills to enhance your team's productivity and output quality.
• Emphasize that participants will learn to better align your team with broader business objectives, leading to more impactful projects.
• Stress that the masterclass offers a concentrated learning experience, providing valuable skills and knowledge in a short time frame, which is more cost-effective than extended training programs.
• Explain that the skills learned can be applied immediately, resulting in quick improvements to ongoing projects and processes.

If You Cannot Attend, Still Reach Out

Hopefully, that will do the trick! But if it doesn't, reach out anyway. I am always happy to have an informal call, and I will share whatever advice I can. Just drop me an email to [email protected].

Whether you join me for my masterclass or not, it is essential to improve your leadership skills in these turbulent times and to demonstrate your team's value as loudly and often as possible.