Leadership

Great leaders are multipliers, creating the space and the support for teams to do their best work and release their superpowers. Research and design leaders should know how to inspire and make creative space for teams, while removing barriers and creating processes and programs that keep team members doing what they do best.

The best leaders work well on every level of research and design, from understanding the big picture, aligning with business strategy and communicating to stakeholders to obsessing over customer needs, wicked design problems, communication with impact and pixel perfect designs.

Research and design leaders have to balance many things. They need to have a wealth of experience and knowledge but still know that there is much to be learned. They need to be constantly curious. Some describe this as "strong opinions, loosely held" but strong opinions can quieten voices. The key trait is humility: being happy or even excited to have your mind changed or iterate on an idea with others and see it grow.

3 key elements to UX leadership:

Vision and strategy

Understanding the importance of placing a flag in the future of where you want to be, even if you don't know exactly how you'll get there.

Building a design strategy that combines customer, business and technical needs and takes into account the whole customer journey from brand and marketing to design and development. Prioritizing all projects and new ideas against delivering that strategy. Constantly validating the strategy and knowing when to evolve and pivot.