Leading Through Empowerment and Alignment

Building strong teams and stronger people—through clarity, connection, and continuous growth.

“My goal as a leader is simple: I want everyone who works for me to be better at their next job—ideally within my team, but even if it’s somewhere else. Growth is the only true measure of success.”

Context

Over the course of my career, I’ve led design organizations in every stage of maturity—from building teams from the ground up to inheriting established ones in need of renewed direction. I’ve managed teams ranging from 6 to 20 members, including product designers, researchers, front-end engineers, and marketing specialists.

In my most recent role, I inherited a product design team of four senior designers, one mid-level designer (later promoted to senior), one lead designer with their own direct report, and I hired an intern as a (junior) designer. Despite their experience, morale was low and collaboration inconsistent. The biggest challenge was adapting to inconsistent product ownership methodologies while maintaining design quality and alignment to business outcomes.

My leadership philosophy centers on empowering individuals to grow beyond their current role while ensuring that design’s collective work has measurable business impact.

Challenge

The inherited team faced two primary issues:

1. Low morale and unclear purpose. Designers couldn’t see how their contributions affected the business.

2. Fragmented collaboration. Product owners each had distinct frameworks, requiring constant adaptation from designers.

The goal was to rebuild team cohesion, reconnect design to measurable impact, and create personalized growth paths that empowered each team member to advance—whether that meant promotion within the company or preparation for a future role elsewhere.

Approach

1. Re-establishing Purpose and Business Connection

• Integrated business metrics and outcomes into every design engagement.

• Encouraged designers to discuss impact in the same language as product and business teams.

• Partnered with product owners to surface and celebrate measurable design value across the portfolio.

2. Structuring for Empowerment and Accountability

• Weekly designer-led one-on-ones: Each person sets their own agenda to focus on what they need most.

• Quarterly retrospectives: Used to diagnose friction points, celebrate wins, and continuously refine process.

• Weekly design meetings: Dedicated to pitching, critique, and skill-building.

• Daily standups: Maintained momentum and quick problem resolution.

3. Building and Growing Teams

• Built design teams from scratch in past roles—responsible for hiring designers, researchers, and front-end engineers.

• Focused hiring on curiosity, collaboration, and growth mindset as much as technical skill.

• Created a skills matrix outlining expectations and development pathways from individual contributor to strategic leader.

• Implemented StrengthsFinder assessments for all team members to identify their natural strengths and opportunities for growth.

4. Coaching for Growth—Even When It’s Hard

• Used targeted project assignments to flex strengths and close skill gaps.

• Maintained continuous coaching, including for employees on improvement plans—growth doesn’t stop even at exit.

• Reinforced a consistent message: your next role should find you stronger, more confident, and more capable because of the time we worked together.

5. Coaching Managers of Managers

• Held monthly or quarterly skip-levels depending on team maturity and individual need.

• Taught managers how to delegate effectively and grow leaders beneath them.

• Encouraged a shift from product-centric to organization-centric leadership—prioritizing the health of the design practice as a system.

6. Fostering Continuous Learning

• Established AI learning sessions to expand technical fluency and shared vocabulary.

• Created forums for ongoing learning through article discussions, certification sharing, and “teach-back” sessions.

Impact

Reflection

Leadership, to me, is not about maximizing output—it’s about maximizing trajectory.

Every person on my team should leave stronger, wiser, and more capable than when they arrived. Ideally, that means advancing within the company, but even when the next step takes them elsewhere, my role as a leader is to help them get there prepared.

This philosophy—combined with a focus on business alignment, structured feedback, and coaching through every phase of employment—has consistently produced teams that are highly engaged, low in attrition, and recognized for excellence.

At its core, my management style is about clarity, connection, and continuous growth—for both people and the products they help shape.