Design at Scale 2021-Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor (Edward Cupps)
—> We are hear to tell our stories and this is mine
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It’s a conversation about personal discovery from being director of UX to that of an individual contributor, or IC, and leading from that context
—> As teams scale, we need to talk about what an IC leadership track looks like
—> Three audiences:
- If VP, director, or manager of ICs who are looking for their next step
- If you are in management, but miss the IC career path
- If you are an IC, and wondering where your career might go, this talk is also for you
—> As we scale there must be path for IC leaders to scale as well. As industry we need to give them a path to reach for
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We’ve done well in management, but need an IC leadership path with the same level of attention
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I’m not the first to bring this up, as I’m just another messenger
—> Everyone has their own element
—> My own element is creativity, design, and solving ill-defined problems
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For longest time I tried another path, where I learned many things
—> Path began when I joined Workiva, having been in some form of UX for the past 25 yers
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Held creative director role for a decade
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People management in prior roles was someone else’s job but it interested me
—> I was brought into Workiva to become the lead at a growing start-up. It was exciting stuff!
—> People were encouraged into management, and there was traditional path for going into management, with tons of precedents
—> I would do less individual contributor work, and would coordinate people, and lead with host designers
—>I liked management and senior leadership encouraged me. I was promoted and the work came naturally to me
—> In truth, I started with a hybrid role as the company was growing
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Did management and design with work
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For small company, the hybrid role worked
—> But as you move forward and gain more responsibility, hybrid roles, if not scaled, lead to burnout
—> Soon, I didn’t design that much, and got away from what I loved
—> I tried to make me happier through contributing to my team’s progress, and organizational challenges
—> But I really missed design, and would rather be a designer
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Management wasn’t really my element, and design brought me happiness
—> Leadership and peers encouraged design, so I tried to do both roles (design while having the responsibility of management)
—> For long time this worked, or at least I thought it did, but more success, brought more responsibility
—> I was doing all of the things, and it was unsustainable and I was burning out from the work, and starting to make avoidable mistakes
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Work was a drag and I felt stressed
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But I felt locked into path in advancement, and felt responsible for reports, company, but not to myself
—> So lets go back to December 2019, and it all came to a head
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I realized I couldn’t do everything and couldn’t serve everyone all at once
—> My boss noticed me slipping, and asked me to name a role that best described what I liked to do
—> I picked the character of Winston Wolfe, the fixer in the movie Pulp Fiction, who crafted a successful solution to a thorny resolution
—> My boss said this role really wasn’t management.
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I was craving creative leadership, but not people management
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The C-suite recognized my success as a creative leader
—> I took the hint and was open to another path
—> The plan was to move me to principal role, take on major projects, and others would take over my current role
—> I was lucky, and my boss was willing to craft a creative lead role for me, but I couldn’t stick with both roles
—> My company made directors and principal designers equal in the group, so I felt I could step aside
—> I was now doing what I loved, and was supported by management
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I was practicing leadership, in the form of my life influencing others
—> My case was one of many, in these sense that advancing career through management was the only apparent path I had
—> All roads seemed to lead back into management
—> But you can influence without being the person who signs off on vacation requests
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Leadership is not a title, but a passion
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As leader you influence others, and be the person that people want to follow
—> We must empower those with the passion for the craft, to build impact, influence, and leadership skills. We must give them a path
—> I was lucky, but as an industry we require work with IC leadership
—> How might we scale the creative soul, and a career along with it?
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What does it mean?
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What are the benefits?
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How do we empower them?
—> The principal path is focused on craft, leadership and influence
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Not management, but involves leading people nonetheless
—> You show creative leadership to be parallel with people leadership, and teaching others
—> Designers love Venn Diagrams, but we have to acknowledge craft and people leadership leverage different abilities
Manager Duties Include:
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Responsible for people and processes
–> Principal Duties Include:
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Focus on craft, and stewarding the team culture and driving the creative direction
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Passion for big problems and make hard strategic decisions
—> Let’s talk details, as Senior ICs can be
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The best natural leaders,
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They have deep knowledge of craft, and have cross-functional networks across the industry
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The have the ability to lead projects assigned to them or that they kick off
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They demonstrate that they can communicate empathy across disciplines and across the ecosystem
—> ICs can also act in the following ways:
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Through team lead coordination others with expertise. Leads don’t have to be manager, but rather can be a domain expert
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They can be a point person on initiatives, and guide the vision architecture, and strategy
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They can also lead growth and skunkworks projects to move a project forward
—> Managers don’t have to go it alone, and can use ICs to their benefit
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ICs can take key assignments
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ICs can act as experts for team feedback and guidance
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ICs can partner with management on coaching and mentoring
—> The model is that IC leadership is rewarded as being parallel with people leadership
—> Like a lattice that encourages people to try and switch between different paths, and alternating between management and IC work
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People should be encouraged to do this
—> Let’s start with what a lead is
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Person who owns a specific product
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Lead high-impact and tactical work of product area
—> Principal would own UX around broad tiers of product and drivers the strategic work of the product
—> UX architect and creative director who would own UX at an ecosystem level and architect broad based experience and report to a senior director/VP of UX
—> My embrace of the path has challenged me and shown me opportunities
—> The number one challenge was letting go of doing all the things, especially with reports who were invested in doing them
—> Opportunities included being able to focus on being a creative leader
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I could now persuade based on my experience, as opposed to relying on explicit authority
—> So what were the results?
—> After over 18 months I was leading product initiatives, had direct impacts overall, and provided an example to others and made a bigger impact overall
—> I’ll end with a call to action to point out who the talk is for
—> For UX leadership: Try to build in career paths and a ladder of leadership that includes IC leadership, to help drive productivity priorities and direction
—> Would give ICs to reach for, and don’t make it a one way street
—> For Management who want to do IC: Moving sideways can be way for your career. It could be key for getting back into your element
—> Leadership is not management, but I learned a lot from it. Both paths are valid if different in focus.
—> Look for teams that embrace both rich management and IC Career paths, and try them out
- For the Principle level IC role, what qualities and responsibilities are defined for this individual contributor level at your company?
—> Someone who has built a boat on their own and ridden it around the world
—> Someone who has shown leadership throughout the career, and people know what they are doing
—> Collaborative person who knows craft intimately
2. As a Principal, what decisions do you have authority over? Who (if anyone) can overrule that authority?
—> I never have been overruled by a manager. If you can persuade them, they will give the same trust that has been given them
—> Ask about what’s best for the user, data to back it up, and professional opinion from data
3. Do Super-Senior ICs report to someone that they are on the same level as? Or do they report a level up?
—> Way he has it set up, it’s set at the same level and responsible for moving the career forward
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Wanted designers to report to same person
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So far it’s worked very well
—> Set up differently at other companies