The Myths of UX Project Leadership
As 2009 came to a close, EightShapes staff and management conducted a series of reviews and goal setting activities for the upcoming year. A theme that struck a chord with every person on staff – including EightShapes’ two partners – was being a project’s “User Experience (UX) Lead.” Nearly every staff member correlated professional growth with increased project leadership, with comments like:
- “lead at least a couple of other team members and provide more direction”
- “lead a medium to large scale UX project, working directly with the client with minimal supervision [from my own management]“
- “independently lead and deliver on major design initiatives”
We realized that we had not yet articulated what a lead is, why the role exists, what it is responsible for. As we discussed recent project experiences, we all agree that being a project lead is a role, not a job title or a position within the EightShapes org chart. But beyond that, nothing quickly emerged as a clear, shared definition.
What is a User Experience Lead?
At EightShapes, every project has a leader who is ultimately accountable for a project’s design success by:
- Directing other creative staff assigned to the project, if any
- Establishing strategy by understanding the problem and establishing objectives
- Guiding teams to a solution by bridging brainstorming to detailed execution
- Planning the project, selecting activities, and balancing design and research
- Driving execution, delegating tasks, and sustaining momentum
The latter two points depend on the project, since if a project manager is also a part of the design team, then a project manager owns those responsibilities instead. For larger projects, a project manager facilitates collaboration, communicates progress, and monitors tasks, time, resources, milestones, dependencies, and costs. On the other hand, a UX lead can cover those responsibilities for smaller projects without help from a project manager.
Successful projects at EightShapes have strong leads who can do the five things listed above. As a result of our goal-setting discussions, however, we realized that there are some misconceptions about what it means to be a lead.
And we suspect this is true regardless of how your organization operates.
Myth #1: It’s All About Creativity
Great designers are great leaders, right? Not necessarily. The ability to break down a problem and design an effective solution does not imply a talent to strategize, inspire, plan, delegate, and drive a project to success. Likewise, at EightShapes, being a UX lead doesn’t imply responsibility for creating an awesome design. Transcending creativity, a lead must be skilled at something more. A lead must:
- Communicate design clearly. Whether it’s effectively communicating ideas to designers when collaborating or stakeholders when presenting, it is essential for a lead to be able to tell the story, spirit, and rationale of a design idea.
- Envision what will drive success. Critical here is that success is choosing the best strategy, not necessarily most creative idea. Leaders appreciate both the big picture and the small steps that get you from start to finish. That sensibility is quickly evident when a lead is challenged to rattle off what the project is, where it’s at, and what steps remain to get things done right.
- Establish an plan. Good designers show vision and planning in their own work. Good design leads can extend these things into strategic vision and orderly plan for a whole team. If you aren’t driving your own tasks to completion, setting appropriate goals and accomplishing them, then how can you be expected to do that for others too?
- Witness opportunities and challenges. Finally, a lead pushes, nudges, and bends other’s understanding to see what’s possible, but also knows when back off, too. Everyone on a project – stakeholders and designers alike – depend on the leader to identify opportunities and recognize pitfalls, roadblocks, and dead ends.
Reality: A designer may be an effective communicator. Or well prepared. Or very organized. Or savvy at explaining strategy and design with clients. You don’t have to be designated a “project lead” to be any of those things. But, if you are a project lead, then you better be able to do all of them.
Myth #2: It’s All About Control
All the power rests with the leader, right? Who doesn’t want a position of advantage to dictate what goes on the screen? Designers may be motivated to lead by an underlying desire to not have someone looking over their shoulder, telling them what color, word, or design pattern to use.
Actually, no EightShapes designers or leads have the ultimate power on any project. We are design consultants, answering to our clients, and ultimately, to the project’s sponsor that controls the money. Any control we have is implicitly through influence we gain by making and communicating good design decisions.
Just as important as making the design decisions, however, is the ability to give up control. Leaders push designers to improve their design ideas, point out alternatives, and actually cede control so contributing designers can realize the solution themselves. Sure, sometimes those solutions are not viable or could be destructive, and it’s important for a lead to step in to guide designers that own an idea. This ensures the team addresses every aspect of the design problem, formulating the solution in a way that’s easy to communicate to stakeholders.
Reality: Project leadership is recognizing what you can and cannot control, and when to relinquish that control for the better of all involved.
Myth #3: It’s All About a Destination
Some see the role of UX leadership on a project as an ascension, a clear signal that you are no longer just a designer but something more. That you’ve been promoted into a higher or even highest rank. Once you established yourself as a lead, you are there to stay. There is no turning back.
Being a great designer does not require being a project lead. In fact, some designers (me included) often recognize – even yearn for – less project leadership responsibility to free their minds and focus on doing better design. Some also recognize that specialization(s) can even complement their leadership goals and potential. A deeper foundation of knowledge and skills in a specific area or technique serves as a great baseline to lead better.
Truth is, being a project lead is a role played to varying degrees depending on the client and the project. At EightShapes, individuals may oscillate between being a designer and lead, or even serve in both roles on separate but simultaneous projects. As practitioners, that helps us keep our saws sharp, and also protects us from burnout that occurs when you drift too far from design into management.
Reality: You don’t have to lead projects to optimize how successful, respected, or satisfied you are.