Leadership & practice

Nudge first

The real job is helping people work through problems themselves. I'd rather give them a better way to think about the problem than hand over my answer. That way designers come to their own conclusions rather than just executing someone else's. That said, I stay closer at the start, partly to make sure we're heading in the right direction, partly so I know enough to give meaningful feedback later.

When to step in

Ideally a nudge is enough, but if something's truly off the rails, the buck stops with me. I'll take a bigger role until it's smoothed out, then hand it back. The goal is always for the team to lead, not take orders.

Invite critique

Pressure-test work before it hits a client. You don't want to hear a hard challenge for the first time in the room. Inviting critique builds that muscle, and fresh eyes catch things you've stopped seeing.

Strengths over gaps

Everyone has things they're better at than others, and you get more out of people by leaning into that. I'd rather raise the ceiling than shore up the floor. Skill gaps still matter, that's what mentoring is for, but the goal is helping people be exceptional, not just adequately well-rounded.

Tracking growth

To make development conversations concrete, I put together a skills framework and KPI set. Self-assessments across research, strategy, visual, and technical areas, paired with outcome-based indicators like defending design decisions and earning repeat business. The framework matters less than the conversation it creates.

Problem first

The most common failure I see is skipping straight to solutions. UX process should work like a funnel. Start wide, understand the problem space, then narrow. No big reveals, everyone aligned before anything gets built.

Just enough process

I built our UX process from scratch, and the biggest lesson over time was that just enough is usually right. Research, definition, fidelity, all of it gets calibrated to what the project actually needs. The process is a toolbox, not a checklist.

Estimation

Estimation is part art, part science. Early on you're working with unknowns, so you're making educated guesses. You hedge by breaking it down as far as possible: deliverables, patterns, production complexity, client dynamics, approval process. The more specific you get, the more defensible the number.

Build a user-first culture

Design thinking isn't a workshop, it's a default. The strongest version is when everyone thinks like a user advocate, not just designers. PMs, BAs, devs, all of them. You get there with a mix of top-down expectation, hands-on involvement in the work, and a little instigation where it's needed.

Healthy friction

UX is the user advocate, product is the business advocate, engineering owns feasibility. Each role brings a different lens to the same question of what to build next, and the answer is usually a negotiation. When design gets treated as a service function instead of a peer, the user voice gets quiet, and you can usually see it in the product.

Question, don't argue

When a stakeholder is heading the wrong direction, I don't argue the point. I ask questions until the weakness in the idea surfaces on its own. Laddering why? why? why? — respectfully — usually exposes whether something is a real conviction or just an assumption. The goal is to avoid building the wrong thing, not to win the argument.

Persuasion is part of the job

Being a good designer isn't just about craft, it's also about being persuasive. If you can't make the case for a decision, stakeholders won't follow your lead, and they probably shouldn't. I push the people I work with to build that skill alongside the design work itself.

Win on substance

If something becomes a battle of wills, whoever has the most authority wins. That's just how it works, so the trick is not letting it get there. Ask the hard questions early, before positions harden, and bring evidence when it counts. Opinions are easy to overrule, research and user data are harder.