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Leadership Style
I am a strong, compassionate leader.
I invest in the team as a whole and in each individual. I value company and team culture and strive to foster an environment where hard work, fun, and learning are a priority. I encourage feedback to improve myself and the team continually.
I bring structure and processes to companies that are building a new team, reworking an existing team, or have gone through acquisitions and need to unify a group.
I enjoy creating a design vision and translating business objectives and customer insights into design strategy.
Principles I Value
Empathy - a great place to start.
Whether you're thinking about users, customers or colleagues, it helps to start from a place of empathy. Understanding others and their perspectives helps us collaborate better and deliver great solutions.
What gets measured moves.
The more you measure the more you focus. It's important to consider what a project or person is being measured against. Are they the right things? Creating action plans from retrospectives is worth the time, effort, and reflection.
Vulnerability, honesty and accountability are the builders of trust.
Say what you'll do and do what you say. Being accountable builds trust. Being open to feedback and giving constructive feedback is necessary for a team to level up. No one is perfect, not even leaders. Acknowledging this builds trust.
Processes and systems enable scaling.
Good processes, flexible systems, and clear expectations creates efficiencies, reduces miscommunications and sets the stage to scale successfully.
Alignment drives business.
A shared vision of the future across teams is invaluable!
When cross departmental teams collaborate partnerships strengthen, calculated risk taking becomes possible and innovation can thrive.
You are not your customer.
It's easy to fall prey to thinking we know our products best, but we must remember WE are not our users. It's only through UX research that we can understand our customers, their experience, and identify their pain points.
Micromanaging is for the birds.
With a streamlined yet flexible process, clear goals and expectations, and a culture of learning and collaboration, every team member can have autonomy to deliver great work they are proud of.
UX is a core function.
Companies with UX in leadership and who invest in research and human centered experience design and UX research and will see accelerated growth, have happier customers and stand out in the market.
Solutions are never permanent.
Every product, feature, or experience should improve and evolve with customer and business needs. Designers - remember not to get too attached to your solutions but rather anticipate change.
Look for your allies and get aligned.
Too often different teams have different roadmaps and inevitably find themselves at odds with one another. Always looks for allies from other teams because you can be the much needed bridge to get aligned and begin driving the business in the same direction.
Whether right or wrong - you learn!
Being wrong or making a mistake teaches you even more than if you got it right the first time. Keep a growth mindset because with everything you do, there is always something to learn making you better at what you do.
Collaboration and camaraderie are key.
There's something extraordinary about ideas that come from collaboration and knowledge sharing. It's rare for magic to happen in a silo. Maintain an appreciation for those who challenge your ideas because in those discussions are growth and innovation.
There is value in different ways of thinking.
Whether you're keen on Design Thinking, Agile, or Lean frameworks, keep in mind they don't necessarily need to be in competition with one another. Varied techniques can be applied to different scenarios. There is value in learning new processes and ways of thinking. Remember to seek diversity not agreement in ideas and collaborators.
TOUGHTS ON DESIGN
from a designer in tech
Every team member is unique - how they contribute in meetings, how they share their work, or how they learn - not everyone is the same and that is ok! As a manager I get to know each person and discover how they contribute, share, and learn best so that I can facilitate career development specific that individual.
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