Summary
As UX teams scale, how might we evolve the careers of veteran individual contributors who feel compelled to go into management to advance or lead? Often we view management as the only option to lead others, be impactful, and grow their careers. There is an opportunity for talented ICs and their orgs to embrace UX leadership outside of management, leveraging their intuition and leadership skills to build better products faster. Edward Cupps will leverage his experience over this past 18 months, having moved from Director to Principal, to highlight the possible challenges, opportunities, and rewards of such a role for scaling teams and individuals.
Key Insights
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Leadership in UX should include distinct paths for individual contributors focused on craft and influence, separate from traditional management.
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Hybrid roles combining people management and creative leadership are unsustainable at scale and often lead to burnout.
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Edward’s inspiration to shift roles came after recognizing burnout and a desire to reconnect with hands-on design and creative problem solving.
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Successful IC leadership depends on influence, trust, and delivering impact through craft rather than through direct managerial authority.
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Large organizations benefit from creating principal or lead IC roles that parallel director and management positions in responsibility and status.
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Effective creative leaders often have deep cross-functional networks and the ability to communicate empathy across disciplines.
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Transitioning from management to IC leadership requires significant letting go of previous responsibilities, especially managing people and recruiting.
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Management and creative leadership require different skills; managers focus on people and process while principals steer vision, strategy, and craft.
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Peer-level structures where senior ICs and managers report to the same higher-level manager promote respect and collaboration.
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The UX industry needs to recognize leadership beyond organizational titles and promote career paths that encourage passion for the craft.
Notable Quotes
"When people are in their element, they connect with something fundamental to their sense of identity, purpose, and well being."
"Leadership is influence. You can influence people without being the person who signs off on their vacation requests."
"Managing and creative leadership are not the same skill set, though they overlap; they serve different purposes."
"I was burning out because I was trying to do both management and design leadership at the same time."
"The principal path is a path of leadership and impact focused on craft, intuition, and influence, not people management."
"I felt I was making a much bigger impact as a principal designer than I ever did as a director."
"It was a hard decision to let go of people management, especially working with reports I’d invested in."
"Senior ICs can be some of the best natural leaders through years of deep craft knowledge and building cross-functional influence."
"Managers don’t have to go it alone; principled ICs can be their key partners in coaching, mentoring, and driving design vision."
"Look for teams and companies that embrace both rich management and IC career paths, and try to find your element."
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