The Importance Of Recognition For Designers
Recognition is important for all employees - I talk specifically about why it's important for designers to be recognized.
I came across this post on Reddit a couple days ago. A Designer vents about how a Product Owner presented design work but only gave credit to the front-end developer.
It's a common occurrence in the design field. An area that can really benefit from proper design leadership.
The Importance Of Giving Recognition To Designers
Obviously all employees should be given recognition. But I want to talk about designers and the benefit it has on overall product development.
Seen and Heard.
If you go through that post, you'll find comments like this one:
"This happens literally every project I work on. No mention of me who did the design. I’m used to it by now."
or this
"It has been my experience that Product Owners get all the credit for design decisions and designers are treated like they were just pixel pushers"
It's unfortunate - and by no means an accurate state of UX - but it's not uncommon to see designers feel like they are never mentioned and only treated as pixel pushers.
I've been there myself and had many other designer friends who felt the same way. It almost feels like you're lesser than your peers. Not a fun feeling.
So, giving proper recognition helps designers feel seen and heard and that can do wonders for employee engagement. A more engaged designer will work better with Product and Engineering resulting in better product.
Confidence In Work
One of the best ways to build confidence is through recognition. And it doesn't have to be much, simple words of encouragement can do the trick. A more confident designer leads to better designs.
Fosters Collaboration
We know - and in some ways are still learning - how important collaboration is at building software. A healthy Product x Design x Engineering working relationship leads to well designed software built efficiently.
When peers to design give a designer recognition it helps to nurture the relationship. It's a form of feedback. Do this over time and it builds trust and the designer has a sense of confidence from their peers.
And us designers don't always get it right and we need others to tell us so. If you nurtured the relationship, built up trust, the designer feels like you generally think they are doing a good job - then it becomes easier to deliver constructive feedback. Easier for you to give and easier for a designer to receive.
Keeps Tribal Knowledge
This is way of saying retention. Software development comes with so many nuances, history of decisions made and the why, and quite often specific domain knowledge. When a designer leaves you have to find another one and get them up to speed on all the lost tribal knowledge. This ultimately slows down product development.
Career Advancement
Designers aren't the most vocal about their work and making it know what they did. This can hurt career progression. A peer to a designer can help.
At most companies there's some form of evaluations and typically peer evaluations. These are tied to promotions, new opportunities, and raises. If a designer's peers are not aware of the work they did or the emplace they had, it may not show up in the evaluation.
If for for example you're a PM and you recognize a designer for there work in a demo meeting, now others are aware. Say a developer. And that can show up in that developers peer evaluation.
Or, it can even open the eyes of the designer manager to the work. Design managers aren't always aware of everything their reports are doing.
Overall recognition is highly valuable for all team members. There are specific reasons as to why it benefits the entire product team when designers are recognized.
So if you're a peer to a designer - or even their manager - don't forget to give that recognition!
// Coleman
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