Madhavi Jagdish believes in the power of design to spark conversations, bringing people together to build engaging and effective products that make people’s lives better. Recently she left the position of Director of Product design to become a Principal designer. In this interview, we talked about what this process was like and how she managed to keep focused on her craft over the years.

Becoming a principal designer (and what that actually means)

UX Collective: At what point did you realize that you wanted to become a Principal designer? What was that decision process like?

Madhavi: Before joining Salesforce, I was leading a team of designers and user researchers at Pear Therapeutics. At Pear, we designed prescription apps for people with serious diseases. As much as I loved all aspects of management from recruiting to coaching and sponsorship, I missed the craft of design and research which led me to my current position at Salesforce where I am Principal Designer on Health Cloud.

The decision process was an exciting one. Being an individual designer again meant that I could increase my skill level on design tools, sharpen my domain knowledge through conducting and synthesizing research, and contribute to product and design strategy. It also seemed like a great way to get up to speed at a new company with such a complex and wide-reaching set of technologies.

Absolutely, having the time to focus on design skills sounds like music to our polar bear ears. What were the biggest differences you noticed in your work and craft as you moved from being a manager to become a Principal designer?

Being a manager and a designer have a lot of skills in common such as effective communication and collaboration, and being able to prioritize and think strategically. As a manager of the different functions of design and research, I was fortunate to be able to learn from the amazing people on my team.

The couple of years that I managed the team were a masterclass in best practices from qualitative and quantitative user research to service design, design systems, and prototyping from the wonderful designers and researchers that I managed and coached.

The differences between management and being an individual designer are mostly around the outcomes and how you are measured. As a manager, you are responsible for the outcomes of your team as well as your own goals.

Leadership skills are a requisite for both management and IC roles, but as an individual designer, your sphere of influence can be more cross-functional. You can also be more strategic in your work and develop deep domain knowledge. You are more responsible for your own time and can find a flow state more often. As a manager, your reports are your priority and you should feel comfortable being interrupted all the time.

The other key difference is in the responsibilities you have as an individual designer vs. a manager. Recruiting, headcount, promotions, and raises are within your purview as you manage a team, and you might get a lot more insight on how the business operates (depending of course on how much your manager involves you in this process). As an individual designer, some of this information might seem more opaque but it is always good to have the context so ask a lot of questions to learn about things that might not necessarily be a part of your day-to-day responsibilities.

What’s the difference between lead, staff, and principal designer levels in your experience?

The differences in my mind are mostly those of scope, responsibility and visibility.

As a lead designer, your focus is the project, and your responsibilities are to ensure that you work cross-functionally with PM and Engineering to deliver high-quality work that meets deadlines and expectations.

Staff designers have a broader scope, their work reaches beyond their immediate functional and cross-functional teams. They contribute to design strategy at the company, and have more visibility with leadership and executives than lead designers do.

Principal designers have even more responsibility outside their teams and functions. They are seen as design leaders at the company, contributing to strategic growth not just technically, but also along the lines of team culture and growth. They use systems thinking to ensure their work can have far-reaching impact, and set the vision for the team and company’s creative work. They are also expected to have a deeper understanding of the business impact of their work and to communicate the value of research and design to executives.

The value of a good manager is to help designers understand the career ladder and provide sponsorship and coaching so everyone gets a chance at greater scope, responsibility, and visibility regardless of title.

How do you see your role evolving in the future?

I see myself growing as an individual contributor and a leader along three dimensions.

Business Value of Design: getting more visibility with leadership necessitates a deeper understanding of the business and sales/marketing side of things, and how design can help them achieve their goals. This deeper learning comes from more experience in this role, and learning about business and finance through books, courses and experts in the field.

Design Strategy and Systems Thinking: moving beyond project deliverables to systems thinking, putting frameworks and processes in place to facilitate and foster great design thinking, research and collaboration with PM and Engineering. This type of thinking is fostered by learning from more seasoned designers and design leaders within the company and the design community at large.

Teaching, Coaching, Sponsorship: It is our responsibility as design leaders to help the next generation of designers succeed. Giving back to the community through teaching and workshops, and helping junior designers on the team and in the community grow through coaching and sponsorship will help one grow and develop as a design leader.

Keeping in touch with your craft regardless of job title

Often in smaller companies design leads and the design manager are the same person. Is there space to grow for designers that want to be focused on their craft outside being a staff designer in a larger org?

Keeping in touch with my craft has always been very important to me. Not just to keep the connection to what I love about design alive, but to help my team in crunch times and have the tools and skills needed to express myself better. I think there is definitely space for designers to grow their craft as they manage or lead teams — being explicit about this will make it a whole lot easier. For example, one of my goals even as a manager was to run x workshops a year, or contribute x number of components to the design system. Demonstrating to company leadership the value of a hands-on design manager is key to making this happen.

Another way to keep skills fresh as a design leader is for the team to learn new skills together. Increasing the knowledge and skill level of the overall team gives design leaders unique opportunities to learn new skills and can be a great way to bring the team together. At Pear, we learned React Native and SQL as a team, inviting Engineers and Data Scientists as guest “lecturers”, thereby increasing the sense of collaboration as well.

What advice would you give to designers who are at a leadership level and want to keep focused on their craft and not necessarily move to a management position?

Whatever your role is, understanding how design fits into the overall goals of the company is critical to making impactful design decisions. Understanding the domain, business model, goals of leadership, company vision and strategy will help us all become more effective designers, whether we are individual contributors or managers.

Whatever your role is, understanding how design fits into the overall goals of the company is critical to making impactful design decisions.

For senior individual designers, mentorship and coaching are great skills to develop even if they are not part of your day-to-day responsibilities. You gain to learn as much from your mentee as they might from you, and these relationships foster empathy and perspective-taking.

I would also encourage all senior designers to collaborate across all functions, not just product and engineering, but sales, business development, marketing, etc. Our new remote way of working has brought the importance of great design to the forefront, and the more stakeholders we can bring along, the more impactful our solutions can be.

Finally, broadening your skills to include expertise in areas like accessibility, design strategy, design systems and increasing your business acumen will make you a much more well-rounded designer.