DESIGN LEADERSHIP

For over three decades, my father worked as an electrical engineer for Honeywell, a building technologies conglomerate in the United States. Towards the end of his career, Honeywell transitioned my dad from a nice office to the back stocking room in a dark corner of the building.

While this was many years ago, I remember the disturbing feeling that came over me when I’d go visit my dad at work. I felt he had been betrayed.

It concerned me that someone with his tenure (30+ years of experience), knowledge of his craft, and someone who was the epitome of soft skills, could be so easily “tossed” into a back room. It appeared he was forgotten and left to finish out his career by doing inventory.

Having now built my own career of 20+ years, I’ve had some revelations about what could have happened to my dad. It’s possible Honeywell was able to pay younger engineers much less to do the same work. It’s possible my dad wasn’t performing at the level his leaders expected. It’s even possible the move to the back of the building was exactly what my dad wanted.

I may never know how it all went down, but I see a correlation with my dad’s story and one far too similar for designers working from home.

How designers fit into this story

When they moved my dad to the back room, they removed him from the day-to-day conversations. He was no longer giving his opinion on projects. His work was no longer contributing to business objectives or customer outcomes. He was no longer aware of their strategy or how his work was impacting the company. He had no direct line of communication with coworkers.

He was, in a sense, cut off — And that’s a scary place to be.

Similarly, it’s possible for designers to feel this same lack of communication. If a communication framework isn’t in place, we’re failing our designers. In turn, designers are feeling like failures. Without a “check-in” plan, you’re leaving your designers disconnected from outcomes. They don’t know why decisions are being made and have no insight into the impact of their work.

They don’t know if their work matters.

You have then, in a sense, moved your work-from-home designers into the back room. From that dark, dingy closet, designers cannot flourish. It won’t matter how glorious working from home appears on the surface — If there’s no communication, a designer’s time with your company will fizzle out and they’ll move on seeking transparency elsewhere.

What can be done?

Let’s keep our designers out of the dark, dingy corner of silence. They can’t thrive there.

Designers

If you’re a designer, have this discussion with your manager. Make sure your manager knows how you like to communicate and when. If the relationship is toxic and they won’t listen, seek HR’s help or get out. I know, easier said than done. But I promise you —You’re doing yourself a disservice by prolonging the debilitating pain of feeling disconnected.

Managers

If you’re a manager, talk with your designers. Establish a regular cadence to check in and see how your designers are doing. I don’t mean all business either. You’re a human just like they are. Is work really so rigid and your role so prescriptive that you can’t communicate with your team at a personal level? I doubt it. Talk to them.

Executive leadership

If you’re an executive leader, enact change. Make sure managers are checking in with their direct reports. Ask managers how their direct reports are doing. Involve designers in the process and ensure they feel connected to the work. Make sure voices are being heard and those under your care feel connected to the outcomes of their work. Make sure they know how what they’re doing impacts the business and the customer.

Here are 5 ways to get started

Throughout my years in the industry, I’ve found the following five activities effectively and honestly open the lines of communication at work. This is where designers, managers, and leaders have to get creative. Each company has its own vibe and culture. What works in one org may not work in another.

These activities work whether in the office or working from home — the key is, you have to use them. Adapt them to your team and if these don’t feel right for you, let them at least inspire you to find creative ways to keep your designers out of the dark.

I. The daily standup

As the name implies, each day, whether in the office or on Zoom, your team gets together to talk about the day ahead. Go around the (virtual) room and let each person briefly share what they are working on. Allow them to talk about what they did yesterday, what their plans are for today, and what help they might need from others to get their work done.

Almost by default, a daily standup practice, however you choose to implement it, keeps your designers aware of the work others are doing. In addition, it keeps designers accountable for their own work and helps them see how they’re needed in the process. As an added benefit, it builds team rapport.

II. Afternoon at the movies

Once a week, pick an afternoon to get together as a team and watch recorded sessions of your customers using your product. Try and recreate the problems as a team. Take the analogy further and bring popcorn. This is a time for your team to observe customers using the product you’ve built together.

If you’re not currently recording customer sessions with services like Hotjar, FullStory, or Smartlook, consider it, or at least invest in more user research. Get with customer service and listen to them tell you what’s going on with customers. Sit down with sales and ask them what they’re hearing. Or, interview customers directly and seek to uncover the problems as a team.

III. Retrospective

Used in both agile and scrum methodologies, a retrospective meeting is held to conclude a design and/or development sprint, or after shipping product features to your customers. A retrospective meeting opens the lines of communication. A retro helps to continuously improve the product and the cohesiveness of the team.

“To keep getting better, we should periodically reflect on our methods.” ~Nielsen Norman Group, Source

But who says a retrospective meeting has to be held to these constraints? Adapt. Make it your own. Get the team together at certain intervals to discuss what’s working, what’s getting in the way (roadblocks), and use this meeting as an opportunity to recognize team members for their accomplishments.

IV. The 1-on-1

My personal favorite. Managers, this goes out to you. Please sit down and talk with your direct reports. Weekly, bi-weekly, I don’t care — just get to know them. I’m not saying divulge all your deepest darkest secrets and expect designers to do the same — that’s not what being vulnerable means.

“Vulnerability without boundaries is not vulnerability” — Brene Brown

Develop the courage to share appropriately — have the humility to listen. Understand your role and don’t overstep personal boundaries (both theirs and yours). Give helpful, actionable advice and help them set goals to advance in the company. Remind them of the business objectives. This is your chance to “deliver meaningful, personalized feedback” as this Workfront article states.

Get to the point where you can sense when something is off and they trust you enough to tell you about it.

V. Live for the impossible

This one is borrowed from my time working as a UX Designer at 1–800 Contacts. Each quarter, the company hosted an event called, Live For the Impossible. It was also one of the company’s core values. The company gave all team members a day to work on whatever they wanted, insomuch as it related to improving the business.

They encouraged us to bring our ambitious, big ideas to the table. They opened all lines of communication and nothing was out of bounds. If you had an idea and you needed the CEO's input, his door was wide open. If you needed a software developer to bring your dream idea to life, you collaborated with them to see it through.

Then, all teams came together and presented their work. An enormous amount of innovation emerged from those events, but more importantly, an immense amount of networking took place. Barriers fell, siloes were no more, and it strengthened the organization as a whole. In your own small world as a designer, you felt a part of something magnificent.

When communication is nonexistent for designers who work from home, they feel as though they’ve been placed into the deepest, darkest corners of the company. It doesn’t have to be this way. Managers and leaders: establish these lines of communication. Designers, speak up too.

Use my ideas or come up with your own, but don’t lose your best talent when there are countless ways to keep them aboard.

Mike Curtis (aka Uncle Mikey) helps amplify people and products through human-centered design. With 20+ years experience in design, marketing, e-commerce, and UX, his passion is helping people & businesses apply their skills to the way they’re experienced by others. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or follow his writing here on Medium.