Designing your career as a designer: Individual Contributor or Manager?

Throughout my career I have always been a designer. Some days that means I have my headphones in and I am researching the problem space and competitors, other days it means I am with clients sticking post-it notes on whiteboards, some I am moving pixels around the screen to polish the ideas and bring them to life and more recently I am empowering my team to do all of these things and more.

There comes a moment in all designers careers where they come up against a choice; to continue refining their craft and solving complex business problems or to take a step in a slightly different path — into management. On this path, responsibilities shift from refining one’s craft to managing and empowering a team, which affects the team’s craft as well. For me this choice happened a few years back and since them I have jumped ship between the two based on roles, and business needs.

In my time; being both a craft leader, and managing a team of designers, I have discovered that both paths are unique and fulfilling in their own ways. There is not right, or wrong path — they are simply just different and which one best suits you as an individual, or at a point in your career only you will know. What I am going to do is unpack the skills and responsibilities that sit across these two growth paths, how they vary and more importantly, what they have in common, what are the skills that are used interchangeably that you should be aware of as you set out on the path —stay an individual contributor, or empower teams.

Before I get started I want to call out design leadership, regardless of your career you can always choose to be a leader and inspiration, or not. Leadership is not a position but a choice to lead an initiative, a project, people and more.

What makes a good designer?

The qualities that might come to mind could include; storytelling, pixel-perfection, problem solver, curious, empathetic and so many more….

At the core of being a good designer (in my opinion) is solving problems, for and with great people. The qualities and most of what was mentioned earlier can be categorised into 4 core pillar;

• People: The human skills like empathy, communication, intuition, curiosity etc.
• Product: The design craft skill set including things like methodology, processes, deliverables, visual design, quality and more.
• Leadership: The ability to lead a team or project, mentor designers, manage stakeholders etc.
• Process: The operational admin part of the role; onboarding new designers, hiring, performance reviews etc.

Nailing the soft skills as your foundation

Regardless of whether you choose to take the individual contributor or manager path, having strong soft skills is essential for success as a designer. Soft skills such as communication, collaboration, empathy, and leadership are critical for building relationships with stakeholders, understanding user needs, and working effectively with your team, regardless of whether you pursue the individual contributor or manager path.. These skills are essential for designers to be able to navigate complex business problems, build consensus, and deliver exceptional work that meets the needs of both the business and the end user.

Honing your craft as an individual contributor (IC)

If you decide that (or are already) perusing the individual contributor path, you will focus on honing your craft and becoming an expert in your field. You will be responsible for delivering exceptional work, staying up to date on the latest design trends and technologies, and likely in some capacity mentoring junior designers working on projects alongside you.

The primary responsibility of an individual contributor is to refine their craft. At the end of the day they will be in charge of delivering, and executing the final experiences — from user-research, user experience flows through to the final visual polish and ensuring that the developers build the product to specs. They are hands on, and in the weeds of the product and pixels. They will spend majority of their time on the tools (like Figma, Miro, Dovetail and more…) problem solving, ideating, and designing. They may be the only designer on the team, but chances are they are working in squads with development, product and design.

As an IC your role is primarily focused on projects and the deliverables. Depending on your seniority or company structure your role may extend to include; mentoring other designers on the craft, defining and upholding processes and operational at a project level and more.

Inspiring the next generation of designers as a manager

On the other hand, if you choose to become a manager, you will to an extend be trading the tools, for your team. Now your core responsibility are for the growth and development of your team. You will need to be an effective communicator, an excellent listener, and able to inspire and motivate your team to deliver their best work.

As a manager, your responsibilities extend beyond project deliverables to include the growth and development of your team, strategic vision, and by extension, the deliverables your team produces. Your time is no longer spend in the tools, but rather having conversations with your team helping them solve the problems and unblocking them. Your time is also spend thinking at a strategic level about your team, and what needs to be done to help grow your team. Being a manager required you to leverage those project, leadership and people skills you have from being an IC and completely rewire yourself from being the one doing, to helping others do. Rather than leading a project, you are responsible for leading people and guiding them to success on their projects, and in their careers. You’ll also find your days filled with a lot more operations like hiring, managing and onboarding designers to your team.

Let’s see how these paths compare at a high level.

• As an IC your key focus is on Craft.
  As a manager your key focus is your people
• As an IC your days will be spent solving business and project problems.
  As a manager your days will be spent helping, mentoring and guiding your team, so they can solve the problems on their projects.
• As an IC your output is tangible and easy to identify — it’s screens, flows, designs.
  As a Manager your output is less tangible and harder to quantify — it’s conversations, it’s helping others succeed and it’s unblocking your team.
• As an IC your input into hiring, onboarding new designers is minimal and as a buddy.
  As a manager you are responsible for hiring, growing and onboarding new designers to your team and setting them up for success.
• As an IC you are mentoring at designers on your project at a craft level.
  As a manager you are coaching, mentoring and responsible for their performance and growth.
• As an IC you should be protected by your manager.
  As a manager you are responsible for looking after your team (and your manager will look after you).

This list goes on but what I want to talk about briefly is the fluidity between these roles and the underlying skills which you as a designer should be focusing on building and developing. Strengthening the foundational skills will allow you to have more flexibility in your career as either a individual contributor or as a manager (or both!).

To recap for those wanting to design their career path to suit themselves my advice would be to remember that;

• There are two core career paths as a designer; Individual Contributor or Manager. Neither of these are more successful or more rewarding. These paths are just different. Are you someone who wants to solve the problems and be in weeds of the design? Or are you someone who wants to help others solve problems, and help people grow their career.
• Design roles are fluid and flexible. Just because you are an IC today, does not mean you always need to be a n IC. Just as if you have transitioned into Management and want to go back to being an IC that is normal. As I have mentioned, I have done both of these roles in the past two years and at some point may go back to being an IC. If you think this might be you it pays to ensure you stay on top of your craft and the skills.
• Focus on the skills, not the job title. Design is an ever-evolving dicipline and there is so much to learn when it comes to specialties, tools and techniques. But know that the job titles will always change — heck they have been for the last 10 years. Focus your energy on the underlying skills like communication, empathy, problem solving and design thinking that you can apply regardless of the job title and regardless of your path
• It’s your career, your future. No-one else knows what you know, or knows what you want, or cares as much about achieving it as you do. Take control of your career and seek out the skills you don’t have, brush up on the ones you do have and stay curious.

Have I missed anything? Let me know in the comments. 👇