Kelly Hoffman

Solution mode

I tend to think about things for a bit before sharing with others. I also really like to fix things. This combination can sometimes lead to jumping into solution mode really fast when I’m discussing with others. This happened yesterday when I realized the person I was having a conversation with didn’t even agree on the same problem I was coming to him with. And I was already talking about potential solutions! Our conversation didn’t get far and I had to back up and start again.

Since a big part of my job is coming up with solutions, I think it’s important to get it right. It’s also important to know when solutions are necessary. I jotted these notes down based on my conversation yesterday and others that I’ve learned from in the past:

When someone is coming to me with a problem:

Listen.
Give them a very quick high level overview of what they are saying so you know you have it right.
Ask if it’s something they want help with solving or if they are just venting. If they are just venting, move on to other topics.
If they want a solution: Agree on the problem(s) they would like to solve. Contribute additional info and suggestions if needed.
Ask them for their thoughts on how to solve. Add your suggestions and agree on a path forward.
Follow though and follow up.

When I’m going to someone with a problem I’m observing that directly effects me:

Clearly communicate the problem from my perspective.
Ask if they understand to get on the same page with them about problem I’m trying to solve.
See if they agree it’s a problem to solve. If it is, ask the other person for their thoughts on how to solve. Add your suggestions.
Agree on a path forward. Make it clear who will do what.
Follow though and follow up.

Not just something to check off

I was recently reviewing a design iteration that wasn’t intuitive and lacked attention to detail. I thought to myself, “You (the designer) did research and checked out how others solve a similar problem. Go back to your research, look at your inspiration, and compare it to yours.”

Research, competitor analysis, or anything that you choose to do as a designer as part of your process to ship amazing things isn’t something just to check off. Refer back to it after every iteration. Ask yourself: Is my design as good as or better than this?

When you’re heads-down designing, it’s easy to get caught up in technical requirements and a million other things. Referring back zooms you out a bit to help you recall the bigger picture.

Proposing instead of asking

I recently joined a team of designers to lead. One of the patterns I noticed was a lack of ownership over the product areas some of the designers were working in. This came about in a few ways, but the biggest and most common sign was how someone approached a problem. Some designers propose a solution and others ask how something should be solved.

“Should the settings be in a modal or the sidebar?”
“Where should I show the error message?”

When I see a question like this being asked without an accompanying design, I reach out to the designer to learn more. I go about it differently depending on the person, but overall I remind them that this is their project. They are the lead designer on it and they were put on it for a reason! I ask them to use their experience to first ask the question to themselves and start exploring possible solutions. Then, when they had a good grasp and handle on the problem and many designs that solve it, to propose the best solution (or two) instead of asking others how to.

This is a small shift but I’ve seen it have a big impact over time on my previous teams. It leads to more thought out designs, fruitful collaborations, and a sense of pride and ownership over the final design that gets shipped and used by millions of people.

When you don’t have a Project Manager

The projects the designers on my team are working on are ones that don’t have a person whose full time job it is to Project Manage. This means that the job falls to different people. In the past, this job has fallen onto a designer, often as a second full time job. Over time, I’ve taken steps to make sure that doesn’t happen. After all, designers still need to design. Here’s the current way I’m approaching it.

Starting a project when you don’t have a full time Project Manager:

When a project gets identified as a priority, the designer assigned to it spends some time understanding the problem and fully wrapping their head around it through exploration, research, etc.
The designer writes out a list of user flows: all the things the user will be able to do when the first version of the project ships.
The designer shares this list with the devs and they both iterate on it until everyone is in agreement and feels a shared sense of ownership over the project.
The list then gets posted where everyone can see it and Github issues are made for each item in the flow, along with any corresponding dev tasks that are needed to support the flow. This provides a solid baseline and can help when issues “pop up” in the middle of design and dev cycles. The designers and devs can work together to decide if each one is worth adding to this release or the punting to the next.

Designs get added to issues, are iterated on with dev feedback, PRs are made, and as the product area comes to life, it can be tested. (The original list of user stories also makes for a great test plan.) Repeat a few times and ship it!

Not turning my problems into yours

I recently had a conversation with a design manager that started something like this:

“I want to start having my team to do daily standups.”
“Why?”
“Just so I can easily see what everyone is doing.”

This sort of scenario is pretty common and I’ve actually done this myself in the past. (Standups on their own aren’t the issue here, its any task managers ask their team to do that is strictly for the manager’s benefit only.) I now question every non core-work related task I add on to my team’s workload. Otherwise, it will quickly add up and a designer will spend more time not-designing than designing. It will also send the wrong signal: that I care more about the meta work than the core work.

Back to the original example: If you have trouble seeing what everyone is working on, I bet there’s another problem. Focus on that instead. For me, it was just not being used to working in Github after using another system for so long. I ended up finding a solution that surfaces each team member’s comments with images (designs) attached. That way, I can give design feedback without asking my team to add an additional thing to their to-do list. After all, I want them to focus on their work, not on fixing mine!

It’s not obvious

Note to self:

You have expectations. Don’t make people guess what they are.

Write them down. Share them openly. Refer to them regularly. Put them in context of the work. Let everyone know where they stand on each. Alter the expectations as things change. Repeat.

A good design lead

Today my coworker Brie asked me,

“What do you value most in a design leader?”

I think a good design director/boss/manager/leader is someone who:

Leads by example.
Sets and upholds a high bar of design quality.
Has an efficient & high performing team.
Actively works on growing each designer.
Knows the strengths & weaknesses of each designer and assigns them work that is compatible but challenging.
Knows the difference between guiding and prescribing.
Is resilient and can lead through change.
Knows when to listen and when to instruct.
Can manage up as well as down.
Gives both praise and critical feedback.

What did I miss?

2019 in books

Last year, I read and listened to 20 books. This was way more than usual. I think its because I didn’t work for three months and because I discovered Libby, an app that I hooked up to my (okay, my sister’s) library card and it just made it super easy to find and download audiobooks to listen to on road trips. (I took a lot of road trips.)

I use Goodreads to keep track, which also tells me I read 6,225 pages across 20 books. They were, in no particular order:

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Commonwealth by Anne Patchett
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Hunger by Roxane Gay
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan
The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

I bolded ones I would recommend to anyone reading this. Personal highlights include: finally reading a Joan Didion book after watching her documentary, discovering Murakami, and reading only one management/work-related book. (I find them mostly to be not great and too long/repetitive.) I’m excited to read more Didion and Murakami in 2020.

Don’t do anything

Soon after I started managing managers, I promoted a few designers to a Design Director role, meaning they went from designing to managing designers. I had a few conversations with some who were very eager to get started and “make their mark”. One particular high achiever wanted to “do” something in their first few weeks as a manager and asked for my advice. I thought for a moment and said:

“I wouldn’t _do_ anything.”

Focus on being a human first. Build real relationships. Listen. Look for patterns. Be yourself instead of an exact replica your boss or someone you think is super awesome. After all, you were promoted because of your unique qualities. (And if you don’t know why you were promoted, ask!) If you focus first on forming a genuine working relationship with each of your direct reports, trust will form. Then your real work can begin.

It’s about the work

When I took on a new role, it was in addition to running a product design team. In order to do both jobs well, I decided to take a good look at what I was currently doing on my product design team. Turns out, there were things that had crept into my routine that were not truly necessary.

While being in a managerial role comes with some admin and process-related tasks, I’ve seen it overtake people’s job to the point where they start think and then act as if its their primary job. And this can leak through to the team. Process becomes the proxy for productivity.

I decided I needed to be pretty ruthless with how I approached my days in order to carve out the space to do my new job really well. So, if it didn’t directly effect the quality of my designer’s output, I cut it out of my job description. Some things I delegated the things that still needed to get done to the Design Directors below me, and others I stopped doing all together.

I sort of came to the realization that: at the end of the day, the final output is all our customers sees; they aren’t there for the planning, the research, the iterations; they only see and use what we ship. While everything leading up to it is imperative and directly effects the final output, I didn’t want the process of it to become my main focus. I hired and built an awesome team, so I trust my design directors and designers (along with their project teams) to do that! I decided to focus in on the design output and giving feedback on each design iteration until it was something I knew we would be proud to ship to our customers.

I did trimming down and refocusing exercise because of a major change and role shift, but I think I would benefit from doing this more regularly, even without such a big event. Things creep in and can really add up over time if you don’t take the time to look and reassess.