Discussion
Summary
In this session, Adam explains that at his company, all 1,500 designers are unified under the 'designer' umbrella instead of strict UX or front-end distinctions, spanning roles from product design to branding and client services. The panelists, including Ian, emphasize hiring designers who can clearly articulate their process, problem statements, and outcomes rather than jumping straight to solutions. They share best interview questions focusing on process, user understanding, and business impact. The conversation moves to managing globally distributed teams, with one panelist highlighting creative asynchronous collaboration using prototypes and commenting tools across time zones. Adam stresses the importance of 'triangulation' to read between communication lines and understand cultural differences, especially with more reserved team members. Ian discusses the fluidity and challenges of design titles, calling title debates distracting and arguing that behavior, delivery, and communication matter more than taxonomy. On career coaching, panelists advise honest, personal feedback combined with actionable next steps, particularly essential for junior designers. Finally, Karen urges design leaders to invest deeply in team management skills to handle complexity and deliver impact.
Key Insights
-
•
Adam’s company unifies all types of designers under a single 'designer' title rather than separating UX, visual, or industrial designers.
-
•
Effective interview questions focus on designers’ problem framing, user understanding, process choices, and measurable outcomes rather than just final solutions.
-
•
Managing remote, globally distributed design teams requires creative asynchronous collaboration tools and overlapping working hours to maintain team cohesion.
-
•
Cultural differences can make honest communication challenging; managers rely on triangulation of information to get a true sense of team morale.
-
•
Strong regional players with negotiation and influence skills are crucial in global distributed teams to balance local and global priorities.
-
•
Title granularity in design teams often distracts from actual work; what matters most is behavior, communication, and delivery rather than taxonomy.
-
•
A well-articulated story behind design work helps align distributed teams and promotes message consistency across a global organization.
-
•
One-on-one conversations yield far more honest, useful feedback than written 360 reviews or impersonal surveys.
-
•
Designers crave actionable development advice that pairs critique with specific next steps to improve their skills.
-
•
Good design management requires investing heavily in leadership skills to navigate the increasing complexity in business and teams.
Notable Quotes
"We don’t call them UX designers or front-end designers or visual designers. They’re all just designers."
"Can you show me your thought process? That’s really critical as the ability to articulate themselves."
"A really good designer tells me about the user, the problem, business and tech constraints before jumping to solution."
"In remote teams, we get prototypes up in front of folks in a short time window for collaborative comments."
"Triangulation is your friend when managing people from different cultures and reserved personalities."
"If you’re spending more time talking about titles, you’re not actually doing the design work."
"Just follow your heart and what makes you happy rather than the traditional career ceilings."
"The only thing that makes a title change is how you behave and deliver in the room."
"One-on-one conversations capture body language and tone you just don’t get in written reviews."
"Don’t be cool, be good. Work hard at leading and managing your teams."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"You’re not supposed to sell to the US public sector unless you’re WCAG 2.0 AA compliant."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"Data tells you what happens; qualitative research tells you why it happens."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022
"The hardest skill to recruit for is someone who can consult and ask the right questions to uncover what the request really is."
Janelle EstesUX Research Trends
January 28, 2021
"We often get designed into a corner by trying to fix words at the end instead of involving content designers earlier."
Craig Brookes Andreas Huebner Morgan Quinn"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
June 11, 2021
"Everyone goes through quite an extensive application process, but it was stress-free and informal."
Marc Fonteijn Ru ButlerIncrease your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
December 3, 2024
"The issue is not research ops being more organized researchers — the problems and scale are very different."
Kate TowseyThe State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory
June 20, 2019
"Creating safety requires specific, behavioral agreements you can observe and practice."
Alla WeinbergDesign Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
September 9, 2022
"We have over 30 contracting teams spread across roughly 10 vendors all working on parts of the veteran experience landscape."
Shawna Hein Kevin HoffmanCreate a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
November 17, 2022
"You have to find mentors and sponsors who leverage their privilege to help you get as far as possible."
Tricia WangSCALE: Discussion
June 15, 2018
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can you introduce play to new teams or virtual environments carefully and effectively?
Who are natural allies for healthcare UX professionals inside complex healthcare systems, and how do you engage them?
How can storytelling be used to extract deeper insights without being extractive in user research?