Your guide to resourcing discussions as a design manager
Budgeting and resourcing discussions are difficult conversations for most design managers. It’s hard for multiple reasons. First, nobody really prepares you for it. With engineering management, as an example, there is a need to have this resourcing conversation with the engineering team because their ability to deliver is critical
Do your 1:1s
If you’re a people manager, structuring and keeping your one on one meetings with your direct staff is critical in so many different ways. Whenever any manager complains about their ability to build trust, get better alignment, or drive faster decision making, I always ask if they have regular
Using a decision making framework: a deep dive into RAPID®
I’ve been thinking a lot about operational efficiency and how to build more efficient organizations lately. The velocity of decision making in an organization is at the core of how efficient that organization is overall. If you combine the velocity of decision making with the clarity and accountability required
Don’t assume all closed doors are locked
I once read a study that said if you close a room’s door without locking it and then ask people to go into that room, most people get stuck and won’t even try to open it. The point of the study was trying to highlight is how artificial
The lonely leader and compassion fatigue
Over the years, a common theme I’ve seen leaders across the industry talk about is the phenomenon of the lonely leader. Most leaders I talk to either feel or have felt at some point in their career, especially early in leadership journey, that their experience as a leader is
The surprising impact of sending thank you notes
Every week, I spend fifteen to thirty minutes sending thank you notes. I send them to members of my team, the larger cross-functional teams, and others across the organization. It's become a ritual for me and a ritual that is both satisfying and pays dividends in my relationships
Embrace the uncertainty
Lately, I’ve been enjoying jigsaw puzzles. Working on puzzles has been a relaxing activity for my wife and I to do together with The Office running in the background on near-silent since we’ve already memorized the episodes. Solving puzzles is the perfect activity to create enough of a
Making the case to decision makers: the presentation format to follow
I wrote before about the five questions you should be asking yourself [https://www.mynameisjehad.com/few-questions-to-ask-before-preparing-your-next-work-presentation/] before putting together a presentation. These questions should offer guidance on what you need to think about as you prepare your content, but they don’t offer a simple format to articulate that
The single pane of glass or the single glass of pain
One of the biggest user experience and product strategy challenges in large companies is the proliferation of products and services that try to address the same needs. There are many reasons why companies have so many products targeting similar personas with slightly different features and levels of quality. However, much
I hate acronyms
With dozens of new designers joining our team over the past few months, acronyms have been one of my enemies in making sure we’re building an easy on-boarding process and a more inclusive culture. A few years ago, I read an email that is supposedly sent by Elon Musk
