A year ago, I wrote the article 10 signs that indicate you are a senior designer. After being a senior for almost two years, I wondered what the difference between a senior designer and a design lead was.

With that question in mind, I learnt that a design lead’s role is more about people and business than the craft. In this article, I will use six metaphors to describe the responsibilities of a leader. Moreover, the story will show their discouraging and encouraging behaviours.

Let’s check it out!

1. A good leader is a matchmaker — they can match people’s expertise with business needs.

Discourage: mismatch people and tasks.

Encourage: listen to the team and understand the business to make a good match.

A matchmaker’s job is to match people and businesses to achieve the best result. When recruiting talent for a project, you need to understand the designer’s expertise, growth wish and business needs.

How do you deal with challenges in matching the designer’s skills, growth wishes and business needs?

1. Mismatch of the designer’s expertise and business needs
   Sometimes, new employees want to prove themselves by taking on a challenging project. However, their new work environment is already overwhelming. If they cannot perform and contribute meaningfully, they might burn out from the difficult project. In this case, a design lead needs to communicate and guide them through the work so that can show their skills. The best project is the one in which you need to stretch a bit to make it happen but not overextend yourself.
2. Mismatch of growth wishes and business needs
   Some designers might be experienced in the industry but feel bored with it. The client, however, wants a person with related experience to join the team. To contribute to the businesses and keep the people happy, the leader can ask if the designer can take on a different role (e.g. coach or team lead) in the project. This will help the work become exciting and challenging enough for them.

In short, to build a project team, a leader needs to understand if a project requires a technical, design/user and business point of view, and which teammates can contribute accordingly. They act as a matchmaker and connect the dots. Hence, we can guarantee a favourable project outcome and team performance.

2. A good leader is a captain — they can see the bigger picture and provide the team with direction.

Discourage: micro-managing your team

Encourage: providing inspiring vision and helping the team achieve it

A great leader inspires the team and elevates the people around them. They build a vision that engages and rallies people. With their craft skills, design leads can present the North Star with a powerful enough narrative to excite all disciplines.

Like captains, leaders don’t micromanage their crew. Instead, they provide direction. A design leader needs to provide headspace for people to explore a solution in their own way. Their job is to set the frame and milestones for the team to achieve the goal together.

“Hand out priorities, not tasks, and let your people be creative about their own execution. — Kavin Stewart”

3. A good leader is a diplomat — they represent the needs of the team, understand the needs of the client, and manage their expectations.

Discourage: trying to fulfil unreasonable requirements from the stakeholders.

Encourage: discussing the project limitations and proposing better solutions to the stakeholders.

As a leader, it is better not to pretend everything is feasible when it isn’t. Instead, talking more about challenges will help build trust with the client and prevent mishaps in the future. For example, if a client wants to create a master app that can do everything, we need to discuss how to create an MVP (minimum variable product) to achieve the business goal and meet user needs. Then, it is essential to present a road map for the long-term vision.

An expectation manager can build close relationships with stakeholders and protect their teammates from overworking and burnout.

4. A good leader is a cheerleader — they recognise their teammate’s effort and keep them engaged

Discourage: not recognise your teammate’s effort and present their work as your own.

Encourage: recognise your teammate’s efforts and give them room to shine.

Cheerleaders bring in positive energy and get the best out of their teammates. So how do they make it happen? Let’s check:

1. Keep designers engaged by giving them freedom and ownership.
   When a project starts, the design lead can set boundaries for the team that are in line with the expected outcome. Then, the team can split responsibilities based on their strengths and interests. After the designer has a task, provide them with a sense of ownership–they will have enough creative space to explore the solution and be accountable for the work. Therefore, they will work with passion.
2. Recognise the team’s efforts.
   People love to be encouraged. It is even more crucial for young professionals to build confidence at the beginning of their careers. The positive feedback also enforces positive behaviour and help people play to their strength.
3. Give the designer room to shine.
   Besides recognising their effort, it also motivates the designer if they can present their work in front of people. Thereby, the designers can build a personal brand by communicating their design principles, reasoning, and concepts. It is rewarding for any designer.

5. A good leader is a gardener — they cultivate a safe environment to enable the designer’s growth.

Discourage: building an environment where people don’t want to take risks

Encourage: cultivating a safe environment to share honest and direct feedback

A leader creates a culture of safety, positivity, and excellence that makes it easy for the team to exchange opinions and ideas. Bouncing ideas off of each other and giving suggestions enables better products and better people.

Why does a safe environment matter?

1. The teammates can grow.
   When the designers are trusted, they feel safe to take risks and give constructive feedback to each other. When feedback is properly delivered it reinforces positive behaviour, corrects any negative performance, and ensures that a strong culture remains in your team.
2. The leader can get some headspace.
   If the individuals do not feel safe making decisions, the leader will need to make decisions. The leader would have to micro-manage and the team would be demotivated.
3. The product quality will improve.
   When feeling safe, people tend to share unfinished designs for feedback. With continuous improvement, designers can improve the design quality. Hence, the team can hold a higher bar for the design quality.

So how do we build a safe environment?

1. Be vulnerable and authentic as a leader.
   When a leader shows that they are human and vulnerable, it creates a safe environment that allows others to show their real needs. Because the teammate will observe what the leader brings in and behave accordingly. If a leader is always right, the team becomes scared of failure.
2. Check in with your team regularly.
   It is good practice to check in with your team and see how everyone is doing. If you observe that someone might need support, talk with them to show that you care and ask what support looks like for them. A safe environment is built in the small moments.
3. Celebrate failure and integrate learning.
   In our company Futurice, we sometimes arrange celebrations for mistakes. Everyone takes a glass of champagne and talks about some failures and achievements that they had. By sharing mistakes, people understand that we don’t have to be perfect, and we can learn to get better. With this learner mindset, we explore and grow faster. In the end, you never fail, because you integrate what you learn from your mistakes to improve in the future.
4. Proactively encourage a design critique culture.
   For example, arrange design critique workshops, provide mentorship support, and encourage design sharing.

6. Sometimes a good leader is also a coach — they coach the team to guarantee the design quality.

Discourage: to criticise the outcome without constructive suggestions.

Encourage: provide support for the designers to foster a better outcome and encourage their growth.

The design leader is also responsible for the quality of the craft. When the team lacks experience, the design leaders play the coach’s role and support them to succeed.

1. Provide support to individuals to improve product quality.
   If an individual can’t deliver the expected outcome, help them identify the problem so that they can work to improve it. The conversation needs to be helpful, humble, in-person, private, and nothing about personality. You can help by getting them a new challenge that matches their skills or connecting them with more senior designers. Give them support and back them up.
2. Intervene in the unhappy scenario to solve the problem.
   If a conflict happens between your team and the client, you can intervene in the situation through open conversations. An easy way is to change the whole team to guarantee good outcomes. However, a good leader will get into uncomfortable dialogues to address the situation. Through open communication, leaders can support the team to work toward the same goal. As a result, the team can solve the problem and deliver a favourable outcome.

“Great leaders can let you fail, yet not let you be a failure. — Stanley McChrystal (More quotes from Stanley)”