How Did Your Organization Evolve?

DESGIN LEADER INFLUENCE

IMPACT

When a design leader joins an organization they should create change and/or growth. Here are questions a design leader should be able to answer around the impact they had on an organization.

As a design leader, you should bring something new to an organization. And that org should evolve not only in tangible ways but evolve in cultural ways.

One question for leaders in interview should be:

“How did your organization evolve since you joined?”

In my experience, there are a few things a Design Leader should look to make change on. Here’a rough list with some related questions.

Collaboration

  • How did collaboration improve within your design team?

  • How did the design team collaboration improve with other organizations?

  • What new relationships (ie with other departments) did you form?

PROCESS CHANGES

  • What process improvements did you introduce?

  • What processes did you move away from?

  • What processes did you work on with others?

  • Where did design fit in the overall product development process and how did that change since you joined?

DESIGN CULTURE

  • What was the design culture like when you joined and how did it change? Would look to see how this applies both, within your team but also within the company.

TEAM IDENTITY

  • How would you describe the team identity when you joined versus when you left?

CRAFT

  • What changes did you make to level up the craft in the design organization?

Careful With Craft

Many design leaders focus solely on craft. And it is important, don’t get me wrong.

But it’s not the only thing.

This who only elevate craft - or can only speak to craft in depth - probably aren’t design leaders. They’re probably more design facilitators. Able to refine processes or able to call out designs that need to be re-worked.

That’s not a bad thing, but not true design leadership.

BUSINESS IMPACT

  • What we design’s impact on the business and how did it change since you joined? Specific numbers here preferred.

  • Was there any specific strategies put in place to support the business?

For each of these a design leader should be able to answer:

  1. What made you think this was an issue or something that needed to be changed? Or why this change?

  2. How do you know you were successful in the change?

And I'm not saying a design leader has to be able to answer every single one. It's quite possible they can join a company with a high level of craft but little collaboration. So they spend their time fixing collaboration.

The general idea is, a design org should evolve and design leaders should be directly responsible for making those changes.

What questions would you add?