I find great joy in helping others reach their full creative potential. My approach to design leadership is centered on people because they are the foundation of building remarkable things. By placing people at the core, I follow what I call the 4Ps of Leadership: achieving success for People, Partners, Projects, and Processes.
And this style is backed by substance: I’ve honed my leadership approach over many years of experience in multiple tech sectors, company sizes, and scenarios.
People are at the heart of my leadership style.
I achieve success for people by:
- Developing high-performing leaders who pass the elevator down
- Co-piloting the careers of my direct reports
- Caring about my team, peers, and partners as people
- Recognizing team members for good work
- Providing timely and helpful feedback, delivered with empathy and encouragement
- Building inclusive and diverse teams that have diverse design skillsets and backgrounds
Success is a collaborative effort, which is why I emphasize building strong partnerships both within and outside the organization. I achieve success with and for peers and cross-functional partners by:
- Getting design a seat at the table as a key part of product development process
- Ensuring design, product, and engineering work well together
- Amplifying business and operational goals we are striving for together
- Keeping the goals aligned through regular 1:1s and planning meetings
- Surfacing issues early, and working through them together
- Cultivating an environment of trust and accountability
Projects are the vehicles that bring ideas to life. My focus here is on delivering high-quality work that aligns with the overarching goals of the team and company.
I achieve success for projects by:
- Aligning projects to roadmaps, and quarterly and yearly planning goals
- Ensuring designers have enough maker time as opposed to meeting time
- Ensuring Design, product, and engineering have a shared sense of ownership over project success
- Helping increase the level of craft and business impact of each designer’s project work
I lead projects with a strategic mindset, ensuring that each initiative is well-planned, efficiently executed, and consistently aligned with user needs and business objectives. I prioritize setting clear goals, timelines, and measurable outcomes to keep projects on track and ensure their success.
Effective processes are the backbone of smooth operations. I ensure we follow the right processes, such as:
- Ensuring product development is customer-driven by incorporating user research and strategy properly
- Solving design debt, developing design principles, ensuring quality is upheld
- Aligning design ops, work flows, and structures with business goals
- Representing design in town halls, strategy decks, planning cycles, and org design
- Helping designers prioritize competing priorities from multiple stakeholders across multiple projects
- Evaluating processes for their ROI, and removing or simplifying cumbersome processes
By integrating the 4Ps into my leadership style, I build a strong foundation for team success, product excellence, and innovative problem-solving. This people-first approach not only drives results but also cultivates a culture where creativity, collaboration, and success thrive.
