How is being a design manager different from being a designer?
Atlassian recently collaborated with DesignUp to host a panel discussion on transitioning across design roles, ft. Peyush Agarwal, Sahil Karkhanis, and Bibin Mathew. The panel focused on design ladders, growing as an IC (individual contributor) vs shifting to design management, and how to decide to do this.
Both Sahil & Bibin shared some great reflections from their career journeys. I especially resonated with Sahil’s recent shift from being a Manager to IC — something I had also done after Gramener.
Key highlights for me from the panel
- As an IC you focus on managing design, but a design manager focuses on influencing people (designers & others) to impact design. (I found this framing to be better than merely managing people)
- You can grow in an IC role by focusing more on communication & influence, especially in more complex problem spaces.
- To decide when (or if) to make a shift to management, reflect on what energizes you vs what drains your energy. If some of the key aspects of management drain you, it might not be worth switching.
- Peyush mentioned that we should look at management as a design problem. I thought this was an interesting way to apply skills from your IC role into the new role — I’m hoping to read more on how other design leaders have done this.
Sahil also highlighted that it’s harder to measure the success of a design leader (vs an IC). His recommendation was to measure:
- Team health (through regular check-ins & surveys)
- Key Results (Project/Team/Org level)
- Experience Metrics
- Product Satisfaction scores
Overall, a successful design leader enables designers to be successful, which only happens when the product is successful.
It was great to be back at Atlassian for another DesignUp collab, and I loved the interactions after the event as much as the conversations during the panel. Kudos to the Atlassian team for hosting this!
Read more about the event on Atlassian’s Linkedin post and on my Linkedin post.