Meet as a team a couple of times a week, typically in the morning to get everyone going for the day, sync on projects and let the team know of anything impacting your work (blockers). 10 minutes tops and be remote friendly with a giant TV for colleagues to feel life size.
Capture what we should stop, start and keep doing to keep it positive. Essential to follow up and be accountable for all changes the team want to see. I prefer the format of Keep Doing, Stop Doing & Start Doing which keeps things actionable and positive.
Note: I wish I ran the spotify health check for the team and will endeavour to do so soon.
Spend at least 30 minutes, every week, no exceptions. Try not to move them, definitely don't skip them. Don't take up a meeting room - get out of the office, go for a walk, get coffee/beer/tea. Spend 90% of the time listening. Have goals, have outcomes, have committments and follow up on them.
First thing I did was cancel recurring meetings. Schedule new ones, only what you absolutely need. Make meetings productive and actionable by:
Pro tip: For any meetings that have more than a few attendees, get food, make it interactive. No one wants to spend an hour listening to someone talk on and on.
Switching off is really important. I encourage my team to take time off or vacation as often as they can and work from home when they need to. Provided their team knows where they are and can contact them during work hours then I don't care where they work from.
...you can help this by not sending emails, commenting on work or lurking on slack at night or on weekends
Encourage your team not to check email or slack outside hours. As a manager you can help this by not sending emails, commenting on work or lurking on slack at night or on weekends. Let your people be.
Find ways for your team to talk directly with users. We run a bi-weekly session where designers can speak directly with users via video chat or phone call. We also have the team run a sanity check on a new design by wandering around the office with your phone. It's a great way to meet folks and see how someone reacts to your design with minimal context.
No. Not that one. I'm big on visualising work and storytelling. Design is powerful in that it inspires and creates something real that the whole org can get behind. Manage the workload digitally but have the team sync as a group and update the physical wall during standup.
Hire for tenacity, curiosity and passion. You can teach anyone how to design, you can't teach them to give a shit.
(No. Not when you expect your team to be in the office. Be a good team mate, be visible, available and create value & impact: it doesn't where you're sitting).
I borrowed 'Office Hours' from Che Douglas who headed up design as SVP at Wall Street Journal. Experimented with this idea of sitting in a room and having folks drop in at their convenience to riff on design ideas. Set aside a couple of hours a week and let the team book time to spend with you collaborating on work. Super productive time.
Formal reviews are 2 hours each week, not mandatory for the team to attend. Designers can book a time to present their work to keep our distributed team aligned and aware of work in progress. With people spread across three offices it's essential to keep everyone in sync and for the design leaders to know what's going on. Super casual and the focus is on concepts, wireframes and early thinking as opposed to final high fidelity work.
Encourage your team to pick something they are passionate about, or already pretty competent at. It's harder to become world class at something you're not quite in to or good at.
We use OKRs at each of a corporate, product function and design team level. Designers are encouraged to formulate an additional Key Result which allows them to persue an individual interest or passion that ultimately would roll up to the greater objective.
We also created Development Plans for each team member, definining career objectives, short term goals and core competencies they wish to become world class at. We craft the document together, the team member drives to achieve the goal and my role is to support and aid in any way to ensure they are setup for success.
Much like Jeff Bezo's decree that two pizzas should cater for any meeting, I strongly believe the best meetings are interactive and fun. People on their phones or laptops is a terrible waste of time. In fact, if the meeting is no good or I'm not contributing, I leave.
My meeting invites have an agenda, almost always have food and ideally have sharpies, stickies and piles of paper to encourage sketching, taking notes, capturing ideas and giving everyone a voice. Super important to ensure quiet voices in the room are never drowned out by extroverts or HIPPOs. Would also encourage people to not accept a meeting invite if it doesn't have an agenda or outcomes.
Huge fan of dogfooding, unfortunately it's tough in the property game as folks just don't buy that often. Instead we run competitions pitting teams against one another to uncover usability flaws, bugs or unearth new features. It's a great exercise to constantly put your team in the shoes of your users. Find a way to unlock genuine intent from your team and have them use your apps/site in real time.
Design tools are rapidly changing. Sketch Figma Principle Framer Proto Flinto Webflow the list goes on. But with a packed roadmap and busy days, how do we find the time to learn these or get better at them?
Every couple of months we run the Design Playground: a one day hackathon event where everyone is encouraged to try a new tool for the day and showcase what they create at the end.
Along with user testing, my favorite part of the process. Organise an open space, pair with your PM partners, order some food and invite the organisation. Let the conversations flow over prototypes and solicit feedback. You can read all about it in the showcase post.
In addition to showcasing work in person, always be working offline. TV monitors around the office plastered with updates & designs and regular email comms help evangelize design through the organisation.
It's vital to celebrate even when you're distributed. Find a way to put everyone in the same room.
Celebrate your people! Workaversaries are really important time to show your team how much they are valued.
Folks get funny about their birthday, but by all means celebrate each year that your colleague is with your company. I prefer to surprise them with a card signed by the team (and a few executives for extra measure) and get cake and coffee or snacks for the team. We've even done it remotely!
Hire for tenacity, curiosity and passion. Inexperience is totally fine if they care. You can literally teach anyone how to design. You can't teach them to give a shit.
I personally am *not* a fan of handing out design exercises or case studies, or making the candidate do whiteboard exercises.
My current formula:
I basically need to know if you can work with me, if I can work with you and if you can do the job.
1) Look after your people.
2) Don't be an a$$hole. Best leadership advice I ever got
Celebrate their achievements: write a blog post for the intranet, call out their achievements and have a farewell. Get the team to sign a card and ensure their final memories in your team or at the organisation are warm and fuzzy.