My personal role profile

I wrote about the Personal role Profile and why you should write yours too.

Purpose

What is your core mission?

In a time where execution is easier then ever. Having everything will not be enough. Design is becoming more important to curate what is important and what is left out on purpose. It will be about understanding the user in more detail and bringing the organisation closer to the users perspectives to make the right decision for a better product. This can be done with bold visions and detailed research.

How do you define success in your work?

I measure my success by an effective organisation that responds to changing user needs, changing business context and new technologies thus staying relevant improving faster than others.

Expertise

What is a unique skill you incorporate in your daily work?

One of my strength is systemic thinking. Not only on a product level but also when building and interacting with the organisation. I see dependencies, synergies and possible conflicts.

How do you contribute beyond role expectations?

As leader I can not avoid to mentor and adjust processes. But is by far the biggest impact to align stakeholder early on and visualise the journey ahead, so that eventually the different pieces slide into each other easily.

Influence

Who do you influence?

Of course the team itself, but beyond that executives and product manager to see the strategic value in some design aspects, considerations and findings from research.

How to measure the impact of your influence?

I would measure my impact by the speed to resolve conflicts, prepare teams for upcoming projects & and changes in the organisation and industry. Creating a positive and encouraging environment.

Principles

What are guiding principles for your work?

The normal collaboration of “Product”, “Tech” and “Design” will not lead to outstanding results, as outstanding results require unreasonable commitment. It almost impossible to agree on an unreasonable commitment in a company with many other stakeholder groups. In large organisations I found it to be more productive and collaborative to be more predictable and maybe a bit more boring, but a partner to rely on. So collaborating with “product”, “Tech” and other orgs might bring in compromises that get the support from other interest groups. So depending on the environment is it either “Collaborate and compromise” or “Unreasonable commitment for outstanding results”.

Another one is “Beautiful design is the cherry on top. First, it has to work. Beauty is something a designer can add after it works.” Meaning that the purpose of a designer is not to make it beautiful, but if the groundwork is done properly, the designer will make it beautiful to satisfy their own expectations.

How do you align design with business goals without compromising ethics?

Design still has a major role in representing the user within companies. So when the user interests and the business interests are in conflict, the best outcome is to transform the situation into a win-win for both parties. This might be an additional paid service that the business wants to rollout to as many people as possible, but let the user opt-in.

Leadership

What is your leadership style?

I am very collaborative. I do not force my direct reports anything, in rare situations I have strong recommendations, but it is still their decision. In uncertain situations, I try to help by asking questions the designer can use to objectively map out the situation to take the best action. I am happy to hand-over praise, but I have a high bar for quality and results.

How do the people you lead benefit from your leadership?

I still have not found a good format to get critical information and updates from projects and individuals. I am asking questions, but I can ask what I am aware of, not what I am not aware of.

Challenges & Growth Areas

What’s a common misconception about your role?

For me it is less, nit-picking visuals, and rather connecting the right people, giving business context. It is more being deeply invested in business strategy and how design can help to find the best solution to the given constrains.

Where do you see yourself evolving?

• Preparing the designer for a world of AI is for sure a topic. How do we use AI, how is AI used presented in products, but how does our collaboration within others through AI changes?
• But also building up a structure where I am no longer in direct contact with every team member on a daily base and are still able to positively influence.
• how to create a framework that all designer create products that work towards the same goal, same brand feeling.