The Main Thing for Aspiring Senior Designers
One of my favorite quotes is "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing". It helps me filter out the less important so that I can make real progress by focusing on what's really important.
That got me thinking, how can we apply that to career progression? In many companies, there are rubrics used to determine what level you are as a designer. The problem I find is that there is not just one thing you need to work on, and that can be overwhelming. And it's difficult to keep referring back to this long list of things you need to do.
One way to overcome this is to focus on one thing at a time. For example, you could choose to focus on just your facilitation skills. This is a fair way to do it, it lets you focus your effort on one thing and bring it up to where it needs to be. But is there a better way? Is there a way where we can focus on one thing that will help us improve across the board and by doing so accelerate our career?
In this issue, let's explore what the "main thing" is for aspiring senior product designers.
Level 2 vs Level 3
Instead of focusing on one specific company, let's be company agnostic to make the analysis as widely applicable as possible. In the book “Org Design for Design Orgs” by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner, they lay out a rubric for how to level seniority.
I will be focusing on the key differences between a senior product designer (level 3) and a product designer (level 2). If you want to read more, you can check out the book or this article from Peter Merholz's blog.
The main differences between a product designer and a senior product designer as stated in the rubric are:
Achievements: A senior product designer has contributed to multiple shipped products. A product designer has contributed to a couple.
Scope: A senior product designer leads a solution for a product area e.g. "the conversion funnel". A product designer works on specific product features e.g. "the shopping cart".
Process: A senior product designer develops problem-solving processes. A product designer works within an established process developed by someone else.
Cross-functional meetings: A senior product designer is driving cross-functional meetings. A product designer is contributing.
Core skills: A senior product designer is an expert in one of the core skills. A product designer is not. (The book defines the core skills as user research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, writing, service design, prototyping, and front-end development)
Soft skills: A senior product designer is developing their facilitation and listening skills so they can solve complex problems with the help of others. A product designer is focused on developing their communication and presentation skills.
Leadership skills: A senior product designer is developing their leadership skills; strategy skills, empathy, and compassion. A product designer is not expected to.
Now, that is a lot to keep track of. Is there anything that shouldn’t be the "main thing"?
The Main Thing
Let’s start narrowing it down. I think we can filter out achievements and core skills. This is because they will take care of themselves.
You will inevitably contribute to shipping products. Additionally, as I mentioned in a previous issue, experience doesn’t guarantee expertise. It’s possible to get years of experience and multiple products shipped while phoning it in.
As for core skills, they can be deprioritized because we already have a strong base there, while the remaining skills are new.
We are then left with process, soft skills, and leadership skills which (mentioned in the book) are specifically
Develop problem-solving processes
Facilitation
Listening
Strategy
Empathy
Compassion
Looking at these, can think of one "main thing" that, if you focus on, will improve these skills across the board. It is to own the problem and outcome.
What Ownership Looks Like
Julie Zhuo, former VP of Design at Facebook and author of "Making of a Manager", describes ownership as "[doing] whatever it takes to get to a solution or favorable outcome". It's about being in control instead of being controlled by external forces. Let’s look at scenarios where someone taking ownership displays the 6 skills.
Developing problem-solving processes
Scenario: The product design team is facing repeated issues with meeting project deadlines and producing high-quality work.
Someone taking ownership: “Our deadlines are always missed, and quality is dropping. I should gather the team to analyze what’s causing this. Let’s create a problem-solving process together to tackle these issues head-on.”
Facilitation
Scenario: There is a lack of structure in meetings, which often end without clear conclusions or action items.
Someone taking ownership: “These meetings are a mess and ineffective. I'll create an agenda beforehand and facilitate the next meeting to keep it on track. We must end with clear action items for everyone.”
Listening
Scenario: There’s a disconnect between what the team is working on and what the stakeholders believe is important.
Someone taking ownership: “We’re not aligning with the stakeholders. I need to understand their perspective. I’ll set up a discussion for them to share their insights and concerns, and ensure that I actively listen and take notes.”
Strategy
Scenario: The team has been working without a clear direction, and their efforts are not aligned with the overall objectives of the company.
Someone taking ownership: “We lack direction and alignment with company goals. I need to take the lead in developing a strategy. I’ll work with the team and stakeholders to define a clear vision and roadmap.”
Empathy
Scenario: The product design team is developing a new feature but is receiving resistance and a lack of enthusiasm from stakeholders, who feel that their concerns and insights are not being taken into account.
Someone taking ownership: “The stakeholders seem unhappy with the new feature. I need to understand their concerns. I’ll organize a meeting to explore how the feature impacts them and ensure their insights are considered.“
Compassion
Scenario: Stakeholders are unable to provide timely feedback due to other commitments and constraints, which hampers the product development process.
Someone taking ownership: “The stakeholders are overwhelmed and can't give timely feedback. I should acknowledge their constraints. I’ll offer to reschedule meetings and provide summaries they can review when available.”
So, by taking ownership, you will naturally gravitate to finding solutions to the problems you find and finding ways to make it work.
How to Start Exercising Ownership
But what can you do today? If we look at Julie Zhuo's great Ladder of Ownership, it shows us that we should catch ourselves when we are judging others. It is easy to point out bad things. But it's not helpful. It is, however, an opportunity to get into an ownership mindset. So if you find yourself thinking "Well, this sucks", ask yourself "What can I or we do to fix this?" and then do that thing.
Keep doing it, and you'll have created a self-identity as someone who feels ownership through voting with your actions (as mentioned in Atomic Habits by James Clear).
Summary
The main thing to keep the main thing if you want to become a senior product designer is to exercise ownership. Feeling ownership over the problem and solution will force you to develop the skills that are associated with being a senior product designer. You can start exercising ownership by looking at how you can help things improve instead of negatively judging.
Happy owning!