BETA 082020

Grow your design career

This is a framework that will help you to identify, nurture, and grow your design skills and to practice four steps in designing your design career.

 
 
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READ.ME

What is this?

This is a prototype framework that will help you to identify, nurture, and grow your design skills. It also outlines four steps that can help you to design your design career.

It contains a set of lenses that will help you better understand your design career. Growing and shaping your path forward can be nuanced and this framework should help it feel less abstract and overwhelming.

It’s a prototype framework because just like design is never done, this prototype will always evolve. It will not have a final release version. There is no one way or one size fits all framework for growing your career. Your context and story matters and my hope is that you take this prototype and make it uniquely yours. Duplicate it, remix it, and build your own prototype. Adapt it to what works for you, your background, skills, capabilities, and the current season you’re in. 

Why does this exist?

We have to think differently about our design skills and capabilities. We need to grow our skills beyond just our craft and pixel skills (but not at the expense of those skills). 

We live in a complex world (learn more about VUCA) and challenges are becoming increasingly complex at scale. We need to quickly adapt, evolve our skills, and partner with other functions and professions so that we can tackle current challenges and co-create new systems and futures. 

Learn more: Changing Design Education for the 21st Century, Sorry UX, the party's over, “We are educating people for a world that does not exist” Roger Martin, The end of navel gazing

What is this not?

This is not a set of rules. It’s a guide and a foundation for you to build from.

This is not a career performance or design education framework. I’m simply sharing things that I’ve been privileged enough to have observed and learned from coaches, teachers, mentors, and leaders throughout my career.

The framework is not meant to be a rigid sequential process. Your design career will not be a rigid sequential journey. The framework might look organized and structured on paper but your career growth journey may be much more squiggly in nature.

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The skills that will help you to grow your career

The 5 design skill sets are: Craft skills, Process, People, Wellness, and Orbiting.

 
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Craft skills. Your foundation

What is this?

As a designer you use the craft tools in your toolbox to solve challenges, create stories, imagine futures, and deliver impact.

You learn how to use and master your craft skills in school, online, from others, or on the job, etc. The design industry highly values traditional craft skills (maybe too much since some craft skills are considered commodities) and there is an abundance of resources that can help you to master your craft skills.

Examples:

  • Defining an accessible contrast ratio system for your product (e.g. W3 contrast ratio)

  • Building a prototype to test and validate business strategies

  • Mastering design software tools

  • Creating complex system maps

  • Mastering typography

  • Crafting business-value proposition storyboards

  • Writing helpful UI copy

  • Designing engaging and inclusive illustrations

  • Designing a helpful 1:1 template for your 1:1s

  • And many more…

Why is it important?

As a designer your craft skills form your foundation. Having solid craft skills, continually practicing your craft skills, and always learning new craft skills will help you to solve new challenges and to stay relevant and valuable as a designer in the market.

Your craft skills are your foundation, but they are not everything. You need to augment your craft skills with process skills.

Heads-up! On staying relevant in the market. As designers, we are knowledge workers. We need to always evolve and learn new craft skills (but not at the expense of your wellness – more on wellness later).

Pause and reflect?

  • What craft skills are important to you? Why?

  • What craft skills are you good at? How can you further grow the craft skills you’re already good at?

  • What new craft skills might you need 2 years from now?


Process skills. Your secret sauce

What is this?

Process skills are the methods you use to work through design challenges. These skills are typically intangible and take time and experience to master. 

You will get better at operating at the intersection of your craft skills and process skills over time. 

Having solid process skills is a necessary and valuable part of being a designer.

“Process. Many people think of it as a bad word because it conjures up images of filling out paperwork or waiting in line. But process isn’t inherently good or bad. Process is simply the answer to the question “What actions do we take to achieve our goals?” … good process is what helps us execute at our best.” Julie Zhuo, The Making of a Manager

“Don’t confuse the process with the goal. Working on our process to make them better, easier, and more efficient is an indispensable activity, and something we should continually work on – but it’s not the goal. Making the product great is the goal.” Ed Catmull, Creativity Inc.

Examples:

Why is it important?

Using the process skills in your toolbox will help you to methodically break down challenges and identify opportunities to ignite change using your craft skills.

Your craft skills and process skills are not mutually exclusive. They overlap and work together. Your job is to find out how to make your craft skills and process skills work together.

Pause and reflect

  • What process skills can augment your craft skills?

  • What process skills do you find difficult? How can you develop those skills?

  • Why are process skills important to you?


People skills. Your differentiator

What is this?

People skills are about your own emotional intelligence and how you communicate, collaborate, and interact with others. This is probably the hardest skill set to grow and nurture throughout your career, but it’s the most important.

Compared to craft and process skills, it has traditionally been difficult to find formal people skill training and educational content tailored for designers. Fortunately, this is changing (e.g. the Design Dept. by Mia Blume) and there is an endless amount of “non-designer” people skill resources that you should learn from and apply to your design career.

Examples:

  • Being self-aware of your own emotional intelligence including your strengths and the ability to identify and recognize your biases and blind spots

  • Conducting inclusive virtual meetings with cross functional teams

  • Influencing people (peers, teams, cross-functional stakeholders etc.)

  • Engaging in respectful constructive conflict

  • Navigating organizational politics

  • Setting the temperature for environments that motivate and inspire others

  • Practicing radical candor “care personally about people and challenge directly” and building relationships “relationships, not power, drive you forward.”  Kim Scott

  • And many more...

Why is this important?

Compared to craft skills, the people skill side of design is underrated (learn more: Why Designers don't have much power in companies, Don Norman).

Here’s the thing, most of design happens outside of your craft skills yet we tend to dedicate an over proportionate amount of time and focus on growing our craft skills (Design outside the screen, Daniel Burka). 

Design also happens when you build relationships, influence people, run effective meetings, navigate politics, and collaborate with teams and people to build and ship products.

To create meaningful change and deliver impact you need to continually grow and nurture your people skills. Just like your designs are never done, growing your people skills is a lifelong journey. 

Ultimately, solid people skills will differentiate and separate the best designers, teams, and companies from the rest.

Pause and reflect

  • What people skills are important to you and your role? Why?

  • What is one people skill that you can deliberately practice?

  • Who demonstrates solid people skills? What can you learn from them?


Wellness skills. Your dark horse

What is this?

Wellness skills are how you stay centered, take care of yourself, and practice mental toughness.

As a designer, you’re a knowledge worker and your wellness affects you, your work, and the people around you. It’s reflected in your communication, collaboration, process, and craft. 

Heads-up! Sometimes there are external forces, which just aren’t in your control. These forces can greatly impact your wellness. For the purpose of this framework, the focus is on the things that you can control. 

Examples:

Why is this important?

To solve challenges in an increasingly complex world it is crucial to understand that taking care of yourself is the most important design skill that you need to grow and practice.

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them–work, family, health, friends, and spirit–and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls–family, health, friends, and spirit–are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will irrevocably be scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.” Bryan Dyson

“...people who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and over-invest in their careers–even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.” Clayton M. Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life?

Finding the skills and habits that help you stay centered is a deeply personal exercise. Just like practicing and growing your craft, process, and people skills, you need to deliberately practice and grow your wellness skills.

Pause and reflect

  • What wellness skills do you enjoy practicing and are important to you?

  • Are there trade-offs you need to make so that you can focus more on your wellness?

  • How might you serve someone or the community?

Orbiting skills. Your magic wand

What is this skill set?

Inspired by the book Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie, this skill set is about how you rise above organizational constraints, the giant hairball (e.g. corporate bureaucracy), and status quo into orbit. In orbit you can find time and space for “non productive experiments and inspiration” (Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball pg. 33, 36) without “immediate, concrete evidence of productivity” and not “measurable in terms of output” (Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball pg. 197, 216).

“Orbiting is responsible creativity: Vigorously exploring and operating beyond the hairball of the corporate mind set, beyond “accepted models, patterns, or standards”– all while remaining connected to the spirit of the corporate mission.” Gordon MacKenzie

Examples:

  • Exploring how analogous industries practice design and solve problems (e.g. automotive, fashion, aerospace etc.)

  • Practicing and noticing the “uncommon beauty of common things”. Charles and Ray Eames

  • Creating time and space for yourself to think about ‘what if…’ questions. What if we do it in an entirely different way? What if we think about this problem in an entirely new way? (e.g. Are You Solving the Right Problems? )  

  • Getting out of your comfort zone and design bubble to find unexpected inspiration (e.g. study how professional chefs design their workflows, kitchens, and processes)

  • Working on side projects and hobbies “without immediate, concrete evidence of productivity” (Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball pg. 33, 36) (e.g. learning how to improve your writing skills)

Why is this important?

Orbit skills are important as you have to explore possibilities and futures outside of the day to day grind and realities...“we were cranking on the realities and not putting enough time on the possibilities.” Ivy Ross, Time Sensitive Podcast

Creating deliberate time and space outside of your work processes, projects, and organizational constraints to conduct non productive experiments might lead to renewed, refreshed, and unexpected inspiration.

Pause and reflect

  • How can you create deliberate time and space for yourself to explore ‘what if’ questions?

  • What are some things you can learn outside of the design bubble?

  • What industry (outside of design) inspires you? Why?

Grow your career by practicing these 4 steps

Step 1: Become more aware of a broader set of design skills

Start by taking a small step. 

Simply find time to reflect on your career and become more aware that there is more to design than just your craft skills. Design is also about your people, process, wellness, and orbiting skills.

Step 2: Identify your skills

To identify the skills you want to grow in, work through the below set of questions. Use your journal or a doc to write down your thoughts. 

Heads-up! This is an example exercise. There are many ways to do this. Make it yours based on your current context.

Schedule one or multiple 90 min blocks of deep work time.

Define your context:

  • Why do I do what I do as a designer? 

    • I believe that ...

  • What do you want the pinnacle of your career to look like? 

    • My dream is to ...

    • I dream that ...

Look at your career through the 5 lenses (craft, people, process, wellness, and orbiting) and ask yourself:

  • What design skills do you want to grow? 

  • Do you want to invest more time in one skill set over the other?

  • Are you spending an over proportionate amount of time investing in one skill over the other?

  • What tradeoffs are you willing to make when growing a skill?

Write down your thoughts in your journal or doc.

Once you have a list of skills you want to grow in, ask yourself:

  • For each skill, what goal do I want to achieve?

  • How will I know that I’m making progress towards achieving this goal?

  • What does success look like for each goal?

Working through these questions, and making it yours, can help you become more aware of your current design skills, help you identify the skills you want to grow in, and ultimately help you grow your career.

Step 3: Make tradeoffs

Now that you have a list of skills that you want to grow, it’s time to think about your time. 

  • How much time are you currently investing in each skill set?

  • How much time do you want to invest in growing each skill set?

Your time is finite. You have to make tradeoffs. 

The amount of time you choose to invest in each skill set will depend on the season of life you’re in, your context, and the path you choose to follow.

“Design or be designed.” “Being designed, means letting technologies and norms around you dictate how you work, losing sight of what matters and how you’re measured in your role. “Designing,” by contrast, is the conscious act of owning your time and how you show up in the workplace.” Mia Blume, Design Leadership Coach. Founder of Within and Design Dept.  Design, or be designed.

“Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent ultimately shape your life’s strategy.” Clayton M. Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life?

Step 4: Grow and nurture your design skills

Now that you have a list of skills you want to grow, share them with the people that can hold you accountable (your peers, manager, partner, coach, mentor etc.).

If you report to a Manager have a conversation with them about taking on stretch opportunities that can help you grow your skills.

Revisit your notes often. Things change, life changes, priorities change. Revisit your goals often and iterate, iterate, iterate, just like designing a prototype.

Growing your career is a lifelong journey

Designing your design career is a mindset and a lifelong journey. Over time you will become better at identifying the skills you need to grow, deliberately practicing these skills, and acting on feedback from your community.

When you design your design career keep in mind that it’s not about finding an equal balance between these five skill sets. The time you choose to invest in each skill set will depend on the season of life you’re in and your context. It will change throughout your career and the career track you choose to follow. 

Growing your career is not a rigid sequential process. It’s squiggly and messy. Just like the abstract illustration below, your skills and the time you invest in each skill set will evolve, expand, and contract in an organic way during different seasons in your career.

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My hope is that this prototype framework will help you to become more aware of a broader set of design skills, which can help you to grow your career, and help you to deliberately practice designing your design career. 

I hope you take this framework and make it yours. Make it better. Treat it as a prototype and iterate on it so that it works for you.

TLDR;

  • Now more than ever, you need to think differently about your design skills and capabilities

  • Your design career is more than just pixels. You have to identify, grow, and nurture your people, process, wellness, and orbiting design skills

  • Designing your career takes deliberate dedication and practice

  • Growing your career is not a rigid sequential process. It’s squiggly and messy. Your skills will will evolve, expand, and contract in an organic way during different seasons in your career

  • You have to nurture and balance the time you invest in each skill set as you transition from one season to another

  • Approach designing your design career like you would approach a complex design challenge – breaking down large ambiguous problems into manageable chunks of work

  • There is no one size fits all career growth framework. Find what works for you. Make this prototype framework yours

  • One single takeaway: What is one (just one!) design skill in each area (craft, process, people, wellness, orbiting) that you can deliberately practice to develop that skill?


Thank you!

Thank you to all the designers and leaders that have inspired so much of my thinking. And thank you for all the comments and feedback from my family and Department of Illusions friends.