First three months

To get started as a design leader at a new role a few things to look out for.

People

Goal: understand your team, members, place in their organisation.

Todos:

• Ramp up over time to 50% of direct coaching:
  • Establish 1-1s
  • Establish design dialogues
  • Do a project retro with each person
• Understand career ladder, each person’s place on it
• Start career coaching
• Establish team rituals
• Plan first team event
• Talk to senior stakeholders to understand performance and staffing challenges
• Establish team brand
• Establish role definitions

Practice

Goal: understand design maturity, establish program level goals.

Todos:

• Run maturity assessment
• Talk to senior stakeholders to understand challenges and positives
• Establish program roadmap
• Establish planning participation
• Establish ethics, accessibility, GDPR standards

Platforms

Goal: understand supporting systems

• Understand design system, establish working group
• Understand content strategy, establish working group
• Establish measurement plans around design team and product UX

Product

Goal: understand where the product is, where it could go, and how to get there

• Understand plans, visions, purposes in place
• Establish insight repository
• Establish design debt log
• Run product health check exercise with teams
• Create insight atlas
• Create experience vision
• Figure out how to be part of planning
• Establish design quality practice

Personal

Goal: set yourself up for success

• Transparent weekly housekeeping
• Set personal goals
• Set weekly rhythm
• 10% time on writing