After being a lead for several teams and mentoring others, I decided to pursue management when the opportunity came about. While a player/coach manager, I have focused on bringing the following improvements to help my team:
- A better process for design review and critiques
- Better and more efficient operation of product design function
- A better view of what the deliverables from the product design org were
- Team building and communication with product management and engineering
I meet weekly with each of my reports and conduct performance reviews. I worked on a monthly basis with each team member on career goals and helped them brainstorm ways to achieve those goals.
I work with my peers in R&D leadership to be sure design is aligned with business goals.
I consider myself a servant leader, and am strongly passionate about helping unblock my team's, strengthening their craft, and careers. Most designers have the right answers within them - I feel that by asking them good questions, they can often discover the right answer themselves.