I’ve been covering for one of our design managers* who has been out of work for a little while. It adds to my workload, but it also lets me get closer to the day-to-day activity happening within several teams. Suddenly I find myself digging into project planning and research analysis and (heaven forfend!) actually designing stuff. This is extra work and thus it puts a strain on the operations and programme-level management work I normally do. It also means that various side-of-desk projects are really suffering. But whatever, so be it, I love this part. I am now thinking about how and to what extent I might reorient the way I engage with teams.
This is part of the normal dance of the lead designer, mode shifting between manager and strategist and principal doer. I know that. What I am noticing is that in the moments where I am afforded the chance to really dig in to a specific problem my limbic system whirs to life in a more substantial way than when I am only skating across the surface of tens of projects. Clearly I miss doing the doing. I don’t think this kind of work is more important that team coordination or wider strategic activity, but it is certainly more fun.
Some examples:
- 15 minutes in a pub discussing where one project is getting stuck with Danila and Simon, spitballing ways to reorient the work. I was so disappointed that we couldn't just go back to the office right then and there to figure out a new plan because this was the most exciting moment of the week and I wanted to keep going.
- Multiple discussions with Tosin about how to set up a new discovery related to our design system and tech stack. It helped that the first round of this was in person, but subsequent conversations were equally engaging. Normally, I become less involved with projects once the brief is written. It was refreshing to be able to go further and begin working through an implementation plan.
- A day long workshop in which I had a stop-start multi-hour conversation with a receptionist from a GP practice. The structured workshop activities were good, but being able to riff on a few topics was incredibly helpful for developing a deeper understanding of the texture of her work.
What all of this highlights to me is that I’m a bit starved of the pleasures of doing hands-on design work. Getting fully into the details of the work provides a feeling akin to some long-absent hormone being suddenly reintroduced into my bloodstream. In fact, that might actually be what’s happening (dopamine, endorphins, I dunno). I enjoy the meta-work of setting up the conditions for teams to be able to do a good job, but I love doing the work myself. Maybe this is what growing up feels like (lol), but I’m not sure that I’m doing the team any favours by not getting deeply involved. The question I am now asking myself is how might I engage at this level more regularly without burning out?
* For context, our current team shape involves clusters of multi-disciplinary teams, each of which has a dedicated design manager, who report in to the discipline leads that sit at the senior leadership level (I’m one of those latter people).