Design leaders need to play a lot of roles in order to succeed. This talk shares the four archetypes of the Design Leader: Coach (managing down), Diplomat (managing across), Champion (managing up), and Architect (shaping orgs as they scale.

1. Architect
Champion
Diplomat
Peter Merholz
COACH
peterme@peterme.com
@peterme
Org Design for Design Orgs

3. For leaders, the solution is almost never
MORE STUFF

4. Let go

5. Leadership is about leverage

6. COACH
Diplomat
manage down
manage across
manage up
DL
Champion

7. COACH
Getting the most out of your team
Pat Summitt,
most NCAA
basketball wins

8. Your team is not an
extension of yourself
COACH

9. Provide a vision for success
COACH
Tell the broad story, let the team figure out the details
Focus on outcomes, not output
Maintain optimism and positivity

10. Teach technique in the various methods
Lead constructive critique…and speak last
Team stuck? Reframe the problem
Provide guidance
COACH

11. One size never fits all
Acknowledge strengths and weaknesses
Let team members be themselves
People, not resources
COACH

12. Strength in diversity
Common mistake is to build your team with people just like you
Seek people with all kinds of backgrounds and experiences
COACH

13. It’s how we learn
If you cover for them, that becomes a crutch
Let them mess up
COACH

14. Team members notice when others our allowed to slide
Make clear what’s not acceptable
If you’re aiming just for “likability,” you’re not doing your job
But hold them accountable
COACH

15. Diplomat
Working cross-functionally to ensure
design’s voice in the process
Eleanor Roosevelt,
First chairperson of
the UN Commission
on Human Rights

16. Diplomat
Design leadership is a lot more
talking than doing

17. Appreciate cross-functional peers’ perspectives, clients’ perspectives
(most folks still don’t really know what designers do,
and someone needs to tell them)
Diplomat
Engage with non-designers

18. Design shouldn’t be a black box that
receives requirements and spits out artifacts
Welcome people into your work;
make yourself a part of their work
Diplomat
True collaboration, no agency model

19. Diplomat
Assume
positive intent
Avoid victim stances
Everybody is doing their best
Diplomacy doesn’t mean being a pushover
Have principles and purpose
Stand strong for
your ideals

20. KEEP
DESIGN
WEIRDDiplomat

21. Champion
Fighting for your team
and your function
Shirley Chisholm, first black
woman Congressperson,
champion for at-risk populations

22. (Over-) Communicate about the awesome work your team is doing
Champion
Evangelize

23. Don’t let your team get run over or spread too thin
Champion

24. Fight for your team’s good work
Stand up to executives who don’t know better
Provide cover for team members’ worthwhile pursuits
Champion
Protector

25. Don’t give up on what your team needs –
staffing, hardware, software, facilities, policies, education, pay
Champion
Relentless

26. Scaling from a design team…
DL
PD PD
PD PD
CS CD

27. …to a design org
HD
PD PD
PD PD
CS CD
UXR
DL
PD PD
CS CD

28. Architect
Shape your org as it scales
Julia Morgan,
pioneering
California architect

29. Figure out your organizational model
Architect
Make
an
Appointment
Buyer
Design
Team
Seller
Design
Team
S S
D D
TL
S S
D D
TL
Growth
Seller Tools
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
Shopping
Cart and
Checkout
Reviews
Buyer
Experience
Seller
Experience
D

30. Define Roles and Build a Levels Framework
Levels
Job postings
Candidate
assessment
Training
Performance
reviews
Recruiting
and hiring
Professional
Development
Team
composition
Delivery
Architect

31. http://bit.ly/levelsframework

32. Develop agreed-upon criteria
(brand personality characteristics,
experience principles,
design systems)
Embrace subjectivity
examples of quality work
Establish design quality
Architect

34. Get serious about operations
Architect

35. (none of this takes the
place of human interaction)
Architect

36. Architect
Champion
Diplomat
COACH
You need to do all of this
(and no, that’s not fair)

37. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Peter Merholz
peterme@peterme.com
@peterme
Org Design for Design Orgs

39. BONUS
Hard, or at least annoying,
truths about design leadership

40. Your most common drawing tool…

41. Designers are a pain to manage

42. No one understands what you do;
they all think it’s easier than it is

43. You won’t get the people or
resources you need

44. Recruiters are bombarding your team

45. 10,000 ft to 1 ft and back
without getting the bends

46. Any meaningful measure for
design is the same as product
management or marketing

47. The Head of Design
typically has no one to turn to