How to Lead Designers

Managing a team of creative folk is one of the toughest, and most rewarding, roles a person can have. Speaking personally, as a young designer I didn’t ever think I’d haphazardly work my way into a management role despite actually wanting it right from the beginning. Early on, I assumed being “the boss” was a seat of power where I got to make all the important decisions. But over time I came to realize that being a creative leader is actually a subservient role, where I exist to support and enrich my team members so they can do their best work possible. I believe this is true for all creative leadership roles, nay all leadership roles of any kind. Though, truthfully, creative employees require a slightly different management mindset in some ways than traditional, non-creative employees. This may stem from the inherently empathetic and more emotionally-driven nature of creatives, whose role is to translate the world around them into visual, tangible, inspiring output. Such is not the role of, say, an accountant or a nurse or a police officer.

With these realizations, over time I began to formulate a methodology that I’ve employed with every team I've built and led. Many of these realizations were felt, and not necessarily written, until now, while others existed as notes I jotted down when I came upon situations that warranted it. If you, as a creative leader, find this guide helpful then please by all means employ these methods within your own team. Or if you, as a creative employee, find this leadership style inspiring then by all means come work for me. Or if you, as a casual reader, find the snark employed herein too much to handle, then by all means stop reading.

1. Give them your implicit trust

Starting off, let’s talk about trust. When we make a decision to hire somebody onto our team, we are making a decision to trust that person right from the get-go. There is no window by which they must prove themselves worthy of the role. In truth, they proved their worthiness by getting hired. They went through the ringer, and jumped through all the hoops to land that job. You did vet them properly, right? And you did have them speak to multiple stakeholders and potential future teammates during the interview process, right? So why wouldn’t you decide that this new hire is worth your trust?

Many managers treat new hires as "liabilities until proven as assets" and by (unfortunately) doing so they are setting their employees up for almost-certain attrition. After all, it doesn't feel great not to be trusted, and that lack of trust permeates the work environment. It coats the air, kind of like the humidity in Florida. It makes for a poor culture, and causes ulcers and headaches. Better to just let go of the reigns, loosen up a little, and trust the smart person you hired to do the job they’ve already proven they can do. If they can’t do the job you hired them to do, then that’s your fault, not theirs.

2. Give them the tools they need

There are many companies that have a pre-set tool library, where IT has decided that every employee receives the same generic setup: standard-issue mouse, standard-issue keyboard, standard-issue computer, etc. This helps IT operationalize everything they do, reduce cost with bulk orders, and more easily maintain their equipment. Unfortunately it also tells your team that they’re just regular employees. Creative people are not regular employees, and they need irregular tools to work their magic.

“I’m sorry, designers, but the company needs you to literally invent the future of our product and marketing by using this uninspiring beige box. Do good work for us, please!” - your company, probably.

Don’t settle for this sort of treatment. Push to get your team the tools it needs to succeed, or else it cannot succeed, plain and simple. And if your new hire needs a weird mouse, get it!

3. Course-correct when things go wrong, with an emphasis on learning and not punishment

To err is human. We know that phrase well and yet it seems as though we don't truly internalize it. Making mistakes is simply part of being a human. Nobody is perfect, despite their best efforts.

With this in mind, as leaders we should not expect our teams to operate perfectly. Miscommunications and misunderstandings happen, lack of foresight occurs, and mistakes are made. This is natural. This is normal. Deal with it. What is important, during these moments of failure, is that we leaders approach the given problem appropriately: Discuss what happened, how it could've gone better, and how everyone will operate differently next time. Don't scold, just educate. And don't punish unless the same mistake keeps happening.

4. Communicate expectations clearly, but don't be overly prescriptive

Communication is paramount to being a leader. In fact, communication is 95% of what we do. Despite this, we so often fail to relay our expectations to our team members.

Here's an example of something I do, which I've received a lot of positive feedback around, that helps my new employees start off on the right foot: When any new employee joins my team, I like to overload their inbox with information (yes, overload). On day one of their new job, they open their new email account for the first time to discover many, many messages. At first, this may seem ridiculous—"Why would you want to stress them out like this on their first day?!" you may be saying aloud in your office while you read this. Well, dear reader, my emails are actually giving them a head start. Not only am I inviting them to all of the meetings and events they need to attend, but I am also giving them a full outline of how the company and design team operate, including my expectations of their role and a 30/60/90-day performance plan (i.e. what they should be accomplishing by each monthly milestone).

I also tell them fun facts and tips about their new co-workers, like "Bob might have a tough exterior but if you talk about his dog he softens up a lot." This is the type of workplace understanding that people usually spend 3 months developing for themselves, and I've delivered it to them on day one, setting them up for faster on-boarding and success. Sure, it's a pain to do all that writing, but I think the benefits outweigh the early onset arthritis it's causing me.

And hey, don't mistake this information overload for prescriptiveness. Designers need to know what you expect from them as a leader, in terms of performance, attitude, and team rules. But what they don't need from you is direct guidance on how to accomplish a goal. People thrive when they learn to solve their own problems and overcome their own challenges, after all. What they need are the boundaries that they should operate within.

Next time you hire a new person, try my method out. For now I'll call it my Overload The Inbox Method?. You're welcome.

5. Give them room to explore

One of the biggest struggles I encounter in design is time. Good design just takes time. There's no way around it. A designer requires a clear understanding of the problem at hand, and of the limits they're allowed to work within, and then space to play. That space is, basically, time.

Well, maybe it's time with a little sprinkling of distance.

As mentioned, there's also that "clear understanding" part. You know, clarity. Comprehension. Jiving. Picking up what you're putting down. Etc. Without a clear understanding of the problem they're trying to solve, the designer won't know how to identify success. And without limits to work within (boundaries, so to speak), they won't be able to narrow their focus and zero in on the best solutions. And without that space to play (time), they'll rush through the project without exploring the narrow avenues that their work uncovers along the way.

Does this mean a designer shouldn't have deadlines? No, not at all! Designers should have deadlines. But those deadlines should be realistic, not arbitrary, and should take into account that a designer will need some room to explore. As a rule of thumb, try to take whatever gut feeling you have about timing and double it. This way, you are giving the designer some padding, but still setting a deadline they can work towards. And if people scoff at the elongated timeline, ask them what they value: quality or speed. Because you can't have both.

6. Give them work they can succeed in

Time and time again, I see managers arbitrarily assigning projects to team members and treating every designer like they're equal to one another. “Hey, I’ve got three ad designers, and they all do ads, so I should just give them the same work,” says the hypothetical ignorant manager. Well, stop it! Designers are not all the same. Just like any one person, designers have nuances. Some designers may be really good in mobile product design but lack a solid understanding of web design. Others may be great web designers but just hate illustration. Etc etc. As leaders, it's our responsibility to give designers work they can feel good about and succeed in, so that when the job is over the designer can feel like they enjoyed the journey and they'll be looking forward to the next project.

If you’re still struggling to comprehend the notion, just think about the things you love to do, and the things you hate to do. Chances are, you’re good at the things you love to do, and you’re kind of bad at the things you hate to do. Wouldn’t it be great if you only ever got work that you loved to do and could do well? Wouldn’t you feel awesome if you just nailed everything you ever did? Sure, maybe nobody can always work on projects they love…but what if you could come close to that? Wouldn’t you want to keep working at the place that kept giving you stuff you felt really good about? It would, huh? Now apply that same thinking to your team.

7. Encourage in-person collaboration

In the tech industry, working from home (or WFH for short), is pretty commonplace. But in my 10+ years as a design leader, and 20+ years as a designer myself, I've found that there's no replacement for in-person collaboration. You can get big video walls where it looks like everybody is at a shared desk, but it’s not the same. And it comes down to the fact that meaningful collaboration can’t be scheduled, can't be faked, and can't be digitized. It just happens when you’re in physical proximity.

That doesn't mean working from home is bad or should be frowned upon by your team, but instead that it's good to encourage team members to come in and share a physical space with fellow employees or stakeholders. Talking through ideas and problems, and maybe even drawing stuff on a whiteboard together, is always more productive and successful in-person than over a video chat or digital collaboration tool alone.

I also think a portion of the struggle with working from home really comes down to distractions. When two employees are "collaborating" over a video chat, they're looking at their computer screens which are full of notes, emails, chats, notifications, and more. In person, these same two people are less bogged-down by distractions and can just focus on the conversation at hand.

8. Happily allow working from home

Wait, didn’t I just say working from home was bad? No, I didn’t. Read again. Encourage in-person collaboration, but allow working from home. Why? Because sometimes designers just need to eliminate distractions and focus on their projects. More about that in the next section, but before we cover focus, let’s…focus…on "working from home policies." While many tech companies allow for working from home, some don’t. Yahoo (prior to crashing and burning and then getting acquired by Verizon to merge into AOL to form the really-well-named “Oath”) famously eliminated work from home, and required employees to be physically present unless explicitly authorized by their managers. This flew in the face of a historically relaxed policy around work from home time, and caused a bit of an uproar. And obviously this new rule wasn’t just another hiccup in a string of poor management decisions that led to Yahoo’s downfall, right?

When many managers think about working from home, they think about the worst-case-scenario: an employee using it just like it’s a day off and not being productive. But maybe there’s a best-case-scenario: your employee stops getting distracted by your knowingly-bad open office floor plan and is able to work through a problem she’s been struggling with for days. What if that happens sometimes too?

Also, what if managers just pay closer attention to the work their employees are doing and let adults make decisions for themselves? What if that happens? Think of the chaos that could ensue!

But really, when managers “require” nothing but in-office time, they’re really just optimizing for payroll so the number of hours an employee is paid matches up with the number of hours their feet touch the office carpet. Carpet time does not equate to productivity. Not by a long shot. So loosen up, and let your adults work from home when they need it…unless you secretly long for a career as a babysitter. In which case, perhaps you’re in the wrong industry.

9. Encourage focus time

Now, let’s focus on Focus. While there's no real replacement for collaboration, that doesn't mean designers should be collaborating every hour of the work day. In fact, too much collaboration can be detrimental to productivity and output. In my experience, it's absolutely best to set aside time every week where designers can be free from distractions and interruptions, and can simply focus on the problems they need to solve. Traditionally, I set aside Tuesday as a "design focus" day, where every designer on my team is invited to a meeting that blocks out their whole calendar. This way, they're almost never invited to a meeting, and can spend the day executing.

Why Tuesday? Well, in my research I found that Tuesday was the most optimal day for a few reasons:

• Monday is the best day to refresh a designer's memory around context and goals for the week. They're also usually not in a very creative mood on Mondays, as they're still recovering from the weekend. Best not to have them do too much design work this day, and instead just let them ramp themselves back up.
• Tuesday offers designers the ability to recover from the weekend (thanks to Monday) and have context around goals for the week (also from Monday). Using the whole Tuesday, they can just put headphones on and power through all of the problems placed on their laps.
• Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to use as follow-ups on the work done on Tuesday. Usually these days have several meetings where stakeholders want to see how work is progressing. The designers can take notes and iterate, but there isn't quite enough time to truly "focus."
• Friday, as the last day in the work week, is usually lowest on productivity since designers are looking forward to the weekend and just trying to wrap up their loose ends. There's no energy to focus on Fridays.

As leaders, if we want to get the best out of our designers we need to give them time to focus on their work and, if you want to take my advice (you’re reading this, after all), Tuesday may be the best day to do it.

10. Defend them

Being a designer is very tricky. Unlike engineers, designers encounter armchair aesthetists left and right who believe they have good taste and know how things should be designed. After all, they have eyeballs and know how nice things should look (and they’ll mention how they really admire Apple products), so that must mean their opinions are just as valid as the next guy's, right? Subjective opinions are on unlimited supply, and so as a leader it is critical that you help your designers retain their sanity and stay focused on what matters. Not to be cynical, but the reality is that 90% of the comments a designer receives from stakeholders or co-workers are garbage. And half that time, the comments are inflammatory.

"I could've done that."

"That looks just like the last screen you designed."

"Why is this taking so long? The design should be easy to do. Any idiot could do it!"

Comments like these are more commonplace than they should be, and (apart from exemplifying an underdeveloped understanding about the way design operates) can really take the wind out of a designer's sails. So, as a leader, defending your team is very important. When poor commentary gets in the way, it's your job to separate the garbage from the gold and keep the designers focused on what matters. It also helps that the designers get the sense that you're there for them, and you've got their backs.

How do you defend them when comments get off-track? Try reframing the discussion, and ask for more clarification. “I’m hearing you’re saying ‘my dog could’ve made that design,’ but I’m not hearing any actionable guidance and, furthermore, your comment only serves to insult this design work and is not at all constructive. In the future let’s try to make sure our commentary is objective, and focuses on actionable takeaways so we not only avoid insulting the effort put into this project by the designer, but also know how to improve the work in your eyes.”

You can copy and paste that as much as you want—you have my permission.

11. Spotlight them

I could also title this section "save the spotlight for the designer, not for the leader,” but that seemed a little long-in-the-tooth. The basic notion is that designers need to feel appreciated for their efforts, and when those efforts pay off (as in, a project got shipped, or a campaign was done on time, or a client signed on) the designers should take center-stage. It may be tempting, as a leader, to walk up in front of your company and take a bow. After all, you were the conductor and the designers were your orchestra, so why not take the credit you deserve?

Because that’s a terrible way of thinking about your role and you should be ashamed.

In fact, you should openly reject credit for yourself. If your name is Bob, and your CEO stands up in front of your company at an all-hands and says “I want to thank Bob for his amazing work getting this project done on time,” you should walk up in front of the crowd and say “Thanks, CEO, but honestly it was all Susan (that’s the designer’s name) who made this happen. There’s no way we would’ve gotten this done without Susan’s incredible efforts.” And then you point at Susan and embarrass her, and everybody claps. And she might hate the spotlight and the attention but, deep down, she appreciates that she was made the hero of the day. And that will stick with her…in a good way.

12. Praise them

It's fairly commonplace for leaders to expect that their direct reports know they're doing a good job. That expectation being that they...just know. I'm guilty of this expectation myself. I will oftentimes realize that I haven't told an employee they did a good job on that one project, recognizing that I was relying on the lack of corrective action as a sign that I approved of their work.

But this isn't how people actually operate and not how real people think.

People need compliments and praise to know they're doing a good job, else they may not actually know they're, you know, doing a good job. We leaders can sometimes go days, weeks, or months without singing the praises of our team members and this can cause unseen, subtle damage to their morale. Try to be conscious of events or times where you can tell somebody they've done a good job, and make sure it's known—not just by them, but by others as well.

13. Give them opportunities to grow

It’s easy to hire a person and think of them as an unchanging asset. You’ve hired Jeff, who is great at motion design, and he’s going to work on all of your commercials. He’ll do great in that role, and you’re going to make sure Jeff has projects that he can succeed in. But it turns out, Jeff doesn’t know how to work well in Photoshop. Do you give Jeff the opportunity to learn Photoshop, or do you just keep him focused on his motion design work and let some other employee hand stuff off to him?

Or there’s Susan, who is a great digital designer but has never been to a press check. Do you keep Susan focused on exclusively digital work and let the one print designer on your team just handle the print designs?

Well, ask yourself two simple (compound) questions:

1. Do you care about the careers of these employees? Do you want them to gain new skills, talents, and grow as individuals? Do you want them to find new success when they inevitably move on to other companies?
2. What will you do when the Photoshop guy, or the print design gal leave? Will you wait weeks, perhaps months, to find a suitable replacement and just leave all relevant work to pile up? Or will you grow the capabilities of everyone on your team, so when some of them inevitably leave you can cover all your bases?

If you detected the snark in the above questions, you already have your answer.

14. Show them respect by only hiring, and keeping, the best

When you’ve spent your time, energy, and money in building the best possible team you can amass of creative talents, it can sometimes be easy to want to rest on your laurels. And if you’re desperate for a role to get filled, it can be easy to settle for second-best, just to get the work done (somebody’s gotta do this work, right?). Unfortunately, “settling" does remarkable damage to your team culture. Your existing employees will know that the new hire isn’t quite up to par, and they’ll resent them for not pulling their weight. And the new employee won’t be able to make important interpersonal connections with the rest of the team (because they’ll all be resentful).

Beyond new hires, also be mindful of your current team. When people on your current team start to fall behind, or just aren’t performing like they ought to, I’m not saying you just outright fire them (because they’re people, and deserve an opportunity to improve), but you certainly should not ignore the problem. Work with the challenging employees and find ways to help them improve. Ask them if they’re experiencing troubles in life, or in the workplace, and try to collaborate to solve those problems you have control over. Give them feedback, and do so often, to ensure they are growing into the type of employee you need on your team. Nay, the type of employee the rest of your team deserves.

15. Treat them

This one’s easy. Take your team out to lunch, or out to dinner, or out to drinks. Just take them out. And make the company pay for it. Here’s why: when the company pays, everyone is more willing to go. The time away from the office builds team culture, team trust, and team connections. And that only happens if you have everyone tagging along for the ride.

16. Fight for the best pay possible

Many managers treat pay as if it's secondary to passion. "We need to find people who are passionate for what we do. If they're really passionate, they won't worry about compensation." That's a real quote I heard somebody say, and it's totally clueless. We're all working for a living, and if you fail to pay your employees the best you can, they'll look for an opportunity to leave as soon as reality sets into the work and starts to negatively impact the passion (and it always does, at some point). If you want to hire the best people, and keep those people long-term, you have to pay them like they're actually the best. Fight for raises and/or bonuses at every opportunity. If you can't always give them money, give them something else that's valuable to them (extra time off, for example). Ensure they are compensated like they're your whole reason for being employed (because they are). Money isn't everything, but it's a huge part of why people do their jobs, so don't forget to fight for what your team deserves.

17. Be a leader, not a boss

Put simply, a leader says "we," and a boss says "you" or "I." Leaders gather the troupes and march together towards a common goal. Bosses just tell others what to do. Leaders share the victories and own the defeats. Bosses hog the victories and point fingers to others during defeats.

Your job, as a leader, is to inspire your team, but not control them. You help identify the best path forward, set up the right boundaries, and encourage your people to do what they do best. And if you screw up along the way (and you will screw up), you've got to own that failure and never ever place blame on an individual.

18. Listen

Your team is full of interesting, unique individuals. They have unique backgrounds and unique stories to tell. And they also have unique problems. Just sitting down on a regular schedule and listening to them can do wonders, not only for their mental health, but also for your connection. Learn about who they are, what they love in life, and what’s troubling them. Remember that as a leader, part of your job is to help them solve their work problems, but your job is not to necessarily help them solve their life problems. Sometimes, just listening is enough.

So, be available, and when you’re having a discussion, actually listen to your employees. I know it’s hard to put down your laptop or phone, but maybe if you find a little willpower inside of you and actually listen for a change, you’ll be able to improve your employee’s work life.

In Conclusion…

While leading a team of designers can be a significant challenge, it can also be one of the most rewarding experiences in your career. Just remember to stay humble, stay kind, and stay objective.