One year as a Principal Designer
Earlier in the week I ticked past one year as a Principal Product Designer (and one year at Xero). I’ve only been a Principal at Xero so it’s impossible for me to separate the role from the company; making this a reflection on both, I suppose.
TL;DR: I love what I do. I’ve found ‘my thing.’
I had a discussion with my leader last week and I think my fondness boils down to one thing:
I’m able to thrive in this role because of everything I learned over 15 years as an entrepreneur. It feels good to put all that time to use. For years I was afraid that would never be the case.
As a backstory, and among several other factors, I was initially attracted to the role at Xero because:
It was craft leadership. I enjoy mentorship, coaching, and people leadership, but I drifted too far from ‘the work’ in my previous role as a Director and wanted to get back to it.
Xero were looking for someone with consulting experience. A self-starter who could identify problems, work through which ones to address, and build and execute a scope of work to do just that. This was exactly what I did as an entrepreneur. I couldn’t believe how closely my experience matched what the team was looking for. It felt like those 15 years gave me a clear advantage.
Before reflecting on the past year there’s one thing I want to make clear from my experience as a super-senior IC, especially for mid-career designers looking to pursue this track (and for me as I continue taking steps in my career):
You won’t move up by doing what you do now. It’s not about improving the quality and efficiency of your work. That’s the floor, not the ceiling.
On that note, and as I reflect on the past year, the following themes emerged as areas where I think craft leaders need to excel (myself included):
Hunt for work. There are no Jira tickets and very few assigned tasks from elsewhere. Sometimes hunting means taking advantage of opportunities that walk right in front of you. Other times you have to keep moving and really dig for areas where you can add value. In either case, it helps to have connections in the org who can act as your eyes and ears and know how to identify the right opportunities for you.
Sell, sell, sell. Selling is different in this role. You’re not often selling what’s already been done or something that’s easy to describe (e.g. presenting UI design work). You’re selling the possibility of a non-existent future by getting people onboard with the activities, projects, or approaches you think are necessary. Subsequently, you’ll be selling the future state of a product or experience and convincing stakeholders that the vision you’ve helped shape is worth pursuing.
Make the model, break the model. You won’t find the perfect approach for any scenario in a book or course. You need to be aware of different frameworks and methodologies, including how similar problems have been solved internally, but comfortable in reworking them or creating new ones based on the outcome you’re after.
Lift those around you. This one might be my favourite. I miss some aspects of being a formal people leader. Helping others understand their purpose in the org and the value they provide to customers is rewarding. Though a Principal isn’t a formal people leader, having the ability to motivate, support, and coach is critical. Better still is when you can make this happen as a result or offshoot of the work you do. You are the tide capable of lifting everyone around you.
Strong positions, loosely held. You need the confidence to make decisions that could shape the work of many people with the curiosity and humility to alter that course when new information emerges.
Build bridges to business strategy and customers/users. This one could be unique to my role. A big part of my remit is shaping regional experience vision and connecting globally-dispersed product teams to that vision (and to the region itself). In this theme I function not only as a conduit, but the arbiter of which information should travel through that conduit, when it’s necessary, and how to package it in a useful way.
Go into the weeds but recognize when you’ve been there too long. Having a broader horizon means you won’t spend as much time in the feature-level details of what’s being delivered. Yes, there’s plenty of opportunity to work there but you need to be aware of when you’ve been doing that for too long. The bigger risk (by far) is never getting to that level of detail in the first place. You need to understand how product teams operate, the challenges they face, how value is delivered to customers, if/how they understand their user(s), and what their connection to strategy looks like. Gaining this understanding can only be done ‘in the weeds.’
It’s an uncertain time at Xero and my personal future is still TBD. I’m part of a role reduction, but just who remains as one of the (now fewer) Principals is currently being worked out. For now, I’ll continue reflecting, focusing on what I can control, and doubling-down on what I’ve grown to love over the past year.