This is part 4 of 6 in a series that gives guidance on how to manage employee performance for new product design managers — or those facing performance management situations for the first time. ← Read the previous article: “Performance Management as a New Manager: How to Assess (Part III)” …

This is part 3 of 6 in a series that gives guidance on how to manage employee performance for new product design managers — or those facing performance management situations for the first time. ← Read the previous article: “Performance Management as a New Manager: Who to Involve (Part II)” …

This is part 2 of 6 in a series that gives guidance on how to manage employee performance for new product design managers — or those facing performance management situations for the first time. ← Read the previous article: “Performance Management as a New Manager: An Overview (Part I)” When…

How do we measure design quality? This question has been asked at every company where I’ve led design, and it comes not only from designers but from stakeholders and executives as well. Solutions range from “we’ll know it when we see it”, to principle-based evaluation, to detailed and rigorous product…

We’ve all gotten career advice. Work hard, don’t settle. Ask for what you want. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of strength. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Dress for the job you want. Love what you do. Yada yada…

Self-awareness will help you hire and nurture a design team that’s curious, flexible, and authentic — What is the most important skill you can hire for when bringing on a designer to your team? I’m going to guess that many of you value skills like visual design, prototyping, or sketching, and you wouldn’t be wrong. There are certainly some core design skills that are basic table…

My friend asked me today how I write. She’s thought about it herself, picks up the rhetorical pen, but can’t go through with it. She asked me to write about writing. The short of it is, you just write. It’s really that simple. How, you say? …

True empathy is hearing and understanding in order to implement solutions to meet the actual user needs, not just our interpretation of those needs. — A crucial part of product design is learning how to approach user problems with empathy. Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of others. Seeing how other people experience things enables us to focus on what matters most—solving real problems that people have—rather than what we think…

When someone says, “I want to be more autonomous,” what does that mean? Autonomy is independence, freedom, self-government. In the context of design, autonomy can be perceived to mean: “I want to do this on my own, I can do this by myself.” I’ve often heard young designers ask for…