The Challenges of Design Leadership
I have recently become struck by how challenging it is to be a UX lead.
Being A UX Lead Is Unlike Being A UX Designer
It may seem that being a UX lead is the natural progression from the role of a UX designer, but in truth, they involve very different skills. Being a great UX designer is just the beginning of becoming a successful UX lead. As a result, many UX leads are thrown in at the deep end with little or no training.
UX Leads Face an Uphill Battle
To make matters worse they are often massively under-resourced with no chance of engaging with even a fraction of the digital initiatives underway across the organisation.
Also, a UX lead will find themselves confronted with a host of challenges around areas such as compliance, tech debt and internal politics.
Don't Wait Until Leadership Become Disillusioned
Eventually senior management become disillusioned with the impact of user experience design and inevitably blame the UX team despite it rarely being their fault.
Sadly, as we have seen a lot recently, this often results in redundancies and investment in UX being perceived as a failed experiment.
Learn How to Play the System
Whether you are already a UX lead or have aspirations of becoming one, it is essential that you learn how to play the system and work around the considerable constraints you face before the plug is pulled.
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A Masterclass in Design Leadership
With that in mind, I have decided to run a design leadership masterclass. In this workshop I will help you:
You can find out more about the masterclass and book a place here.
Persuading Your Manager to Pay
No doubt, you will be told there is no budget for training and you will have some convincing to do. Here are a few pointers that you might want to raise with the powers that be.
Investing in UX inevitably pays off.
This masterclass will provide tangible organizational benefits.
If You Cannot Attend, Still Reach Out
Hopefully, that will do the trick! But if it doesn't, reach out anyway. I am always happy to have an informal call, and I will share whatever advice I can. Just drop me an email to paul@boagworks.com.
Whether you join me for my masterclass or not, it is essential to improve your leadership skills in these turbulent times and to demonstrate your team's value as loudly and often as possible.