Being a new product design manager can be a daunting task, but with the right mindset and approach, it can also be incredibly rewarding. In this talk, I will share my first-hand experience as a new manager and offer valuable insights on how to achieve success during the initial 90 days in this role.
The importance of relationships
One of the key aspects of being a successful new design manager is engaging with other people. It is important to build strong relationships with key stakeholders, your team members, executives, sometimes clients and/or users. By doing so, you can better understand their needs, goals, and expectations, and tailor your approach accordingly. What most leaders rightfully focus in their first 90 days is getting to know their new team. It’s not enough to just chat about their story and their current role. The first 1:1 meetings need to cover a range of topics: their expectations toward working together, preferred ways of working, aspirations, and simply understanding them in a broader sense than just their role.
Learn from my mistakes
Back in the day I was supposed to inheriting a team from my manager. The people who was about to manage were my peers at some point. I assume it will be easier as I already knew them and had good relationships with them as a peer. Oh boy I was wrong. It was much harder than managing a team of new people. Why? Precisely because of the relationship we had already. Not only we needed to unlearn how to work as peer but also how to work in this new setup. Rearrangement of working styles, expectations, and the way we communicate was not an easy task.
Relating to other leaders
While getting to know your team is crucial, cultivating harmonious relationships with fellow leaders is essential for a new design manager. You will need to work closely with other managers and leaders in your organization to achieve your goals. This involves building trust, communicating effectively, and collaborating to achieve shared objectives. That is true for other design leaders in the organization but it’s even more important with leaders from other functions. Having a feeling we play to the shared goal is building good trust from the start. Being able to tie the objectives of our functions to a bigger, overarching company strategy is a proven way to work across department successfully.
Listen more than you speak
Start each new relationship with a new team member, with a stakeholder in your business area, or with another leader you’re working closely with, with an expectation-setting discussion.
Ask questions like:
- How do you want us to work together?
- How do you prefer to communicate?
- How do you give and receive feedback?
- What do you expect from me as your manager? (to a team member)
- What do you think is the most important way a design team can help you with this challenge? (to a stakeholder);
See if that changes how you communicate afterwards. Let me know how it goes!
