Foundations of Design Management
My approach to Design Leadership is tailored for each company. Depending on my mandate and goals, I will typically start off from one of the following 2 models and fine tune it to the org's needs:
Suppose I'm going to develop a DesignOps practice. In that case, I start from this model, as it allows me to focus on the main areas (people, practices, tools) and/or their intersections (culture and community, operations and governance, craft).
Regardless, there are two additional areas in which I will always invest a great deal: Partnerships and Strategy.
This model can combine multiple focus areas, like the example below. It all depends on the org, my mandate, and my goals.
- Strategic Leadership
- UX Strategy
- Organizational Alignment
- Collaboration and Cross-functional Alignment
- Talent Management
- Continuous Improvement and Innovation
- Design Standards and Guidelines
- Metrics and Analytics
- User Research and Insights
- User Advocacy and Customer Centricity
- Etc.