22. Getting Promoted

(...) start documenting all of your achievements. Make this an ongoing habit, otherwise you won't be able to remember all of it when you come closer to the performance review. These are often called "brag documents"

[21. Advocacy (Community)] Action Items

Growth plan

Give a talk (at a company event/local meetup/conference). Next step: generate ideas for the talk.

Publish an article on your company's blog. Next step: generate ideas for the article.

Build your design team's dedicated website. Next step: list the content this website should include.

Build a public mentorship program. Next step: build a case to present to your manager including the goal, required resources, and timeline.

Submit an application for a design award. Next step: list relevant design awards and your design achievements to find matches.

Learning materials

For more information on public speaking, check out Demystifying Public Speaking by Lara Callender Hogan.

• For improving your writing, read Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick (even if you’re writing an article and not a book).

Generating ideas for articles and talks

(...) techniques you can use to generate ideas for writing talks and articles in case you're struggling: (...)

21. Advocacy (Community)

(...) Advocacy is one of the least critical competencies, but, as a by-product, it does a crucial thing for your career: it builds your personal brand. A strong personal brand could have a bigger impact on your career by itself than excelling in advocacy competency at any specific company. Many elements of advocacy (writing, public speaking, etc.) will expose not just the company's name but also your name to the outside world and bring new opportunities to you (more about this at the end of this chapter).

[20. Culture (Community)] Action Items

Growth plan

Improve your alignment with your company's values. Next step: go through the values alignment exercise.

Join or start an interest group or non-work related initiative in the workplace. Next step: check what interest groups your company already has.

[19. Hiring (Leadership)] Action Items

Growth plan

Source a few potential candidates for an open design position at company. Next step: go through your Linkedln connections looking for who could be relevant.

Create a list of designers whose work you like. Next step: create a list with a few designers you've met or seen online recently and with whom you'd like to work.

Contribute to portfolio screenings at your company. Next step: send two potential candidates' portfolios to the hiring manager.

Start participating in professional evaluations (i.e., whiteboard challenges, take-home exercises, and portfolio reviews). Next step: suggest to your manager a list of things you could help with in the evaluation process.

Volunteer to be an onboarding buddy for the next hire. Next step: notify your manager that you want to be the onboarding buddy for the next designer who joins.

Identify improvement areas for the current onboarding process. Next step: create a research questionnaire about the onboarding process.

Contribute to the documentation of the onboarding process Next step: collect the research results and identify what documentation is lacking.

Learning materials

(...) “skill mapping” by Nielsen Norman Group.

Behaviors to practice

‣ Identifying and sharing growth opportunities with team (...)

[17. Strategy] Action Items

Growth plan

Learn how your company makes and spends money and about their objectives (KPIS and OKRS). Next step: ask your manager during your next one-on-one if there's any documentation on these metrics.

Make sure you understand your company's vision and mission. Next step: check your company's website or internal documentation to find it. If it's not there, ask your manager at your next one-on-one.

Get familiar with the product roadmap. Next step: ask your manager for access to the company and product roadmaps.

Get familiar with the organizational chart. If it doesn't exist, take ownership over creating one. Next step: ask your manager for access to the company and product roadmaps.

Get familiar with your competitors. If a competitor analysis document doesn't exist, take ownership for creating it. Next step: ask your manager if there's a competitor analysis document you can access.

Follow competing companies and their leadership on social media and review their products. Next step: get access to or create a list of competing companies' web- sites, leadership profiles, and apps.

Learning materials

• UX Strategy by Jaime Levy is an excellent book that covers many business-related topics that should be applied in UX design.

• Swipe to Unlock is a book written by ex-PMs at Google and Microsoft. It explains how different technologies, businesses, and markets work in an easy-to-understand format, using questions such as: Why did Microsoft acquire LinkedIn? or How does Spotify recommend songs to you?

• Lenny's Podcast is hosted by Lenny Rachitsky, an ex-PM at Airbnb. It’s one of the best PM podcasts, and it’s packed with information about strategy and business.

• Product Management's Sacred Seven is a book from the same authors as Swipe to Unlock which helps PMs prepare for interviews. It covers all the important aspects of the PM position, including marketing and growth, data science, law and policy, economics, and psychology.

• nfng.pro/books is a list of books for PMs split into levels (beginner, junior, mid-level, and senior/director) by Anna Buldakova, an ex-PM at Meta and Intercom.

• 
  Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Zooming out and considering the bigger picture of the business and the industry context for your work.

• ‣  Translating design to business impact and vice versa.

Understanding a role's objectives will help you to understand the incentives that drive people at your company and their subsequent behaviors. For example: Some engineers tend not to care about implementing designs perfectly because they aren't often measured on how well the design performs.

People and teams

No strategic decision is made in a silo. You'll need support, buy-in, and collaboration with others within the company. That's why you have to understand the company's structure and roles.

(...)

While mapping out the organizational chart, try to also list people's responsibilities and objectives. Later on, you'll be able to use that knowledge to know who to partner with and how to influence them when initiating projects or changes.

(...) Here are some examples of the objectives of different roles:

Product managers
Product usage metrics, feature adoption rates, customer satisfaction scores, time to market, business metrics.

Head of product
Company-wide revenue, product portfolio performance, customer satisfaction, market share.

Engineers
Code quality, bug rates, deployment frequency, system uptime.

Head of engineering
Team velocity, system uptime, code quality, technical debt.

Product designers
User engagement, usability test results, user satisfaction, accessibility compliance.

Head of product design
User satisfaction scores, completion of usability goals, design team performance.

Quality assurance (QA)
Test coverage, defect density, testing cycle time, release readiness.

Marketing
Lead generation, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, marketing campaign ROI.

Sales
Sales targets, customer churn rate, conversion rates, average deal size.

Customer support
Customer satisfaction rates, response time, resolution time.

Understanding the business

(...) Remember that every time the CEO looks at your design, the main thing they are asking themselves is, How does it help me to increase revenue or reduce costs? (...)

Luckily, companies define and communicate internally the beneficial metrics for them, so you don't have to do it on your own. To understand all these metrics that you'l need to contribute to in order to have a more positive impact, ask your manager for any team or company documentation on the following:

• • KPI (...)

• • OKRs (...)

17. Strategy

(...)

Be more like a PM

[PMs] have much more responsibility and impact because they have skills designers normally don't (financial modeling, developing go-to-market strategies, building and managing the roadmap, etc.). However, these are not skills we want to take on as designers. We instead need to focus on the skills that are often shared between designers and PMs: what to build next, advocating for the business and users, thinking of the end-to-end customer experience, etc.

[16. Independence (Ownership)] Action Items

• Growth plan

• Take ownership over a project or initiative. Next step: map out ownership opportunities, such as projects with no owner, responsibilities others would be happy to delegate, etc.

• Start prioritizing your work independently. Next step: apply the prioritization framework in your todo list.

• Initiate a new feature or project. Next step: build a case for your idea following the initiating work framework.

• Initiate outsourcing work. Next step: Map out opportunities for outsourcing following the outsourcing framework. (...)

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Tracking project success.

• ‣  Not requiring your work to be overseen.

• ‣  Doing work proactively.

• ‣  Reducing ambiguity.

• ‣  Taking responsibility for failures.

[15. Shipping (Ownership)] Action Items

Growth plan

Make a time audit. Next step: map out the activities you re doing and how you split your time between them.

Start practicing declining unnecessary meetings. Next step: respectfully decline meetings or move then toward email discussions when you believe your participation is unnecessary.

Start scheduling your meetings to maximize uninterrupted time. Next step: suggest changing the time of the next meeting you're invited to so it's closer to the beginning or end of your work sprint.

Apply the techniques of protecting your time. Next step: switch your phone to Do Not Disturb during work sessions or put it in a drawer or another room.

Identify what working interval works best for your workday. Next step: learn more about ultradian rhythms or the Pomodoro Technique and implement them for a week to see what results you get.

Start shipping before a product is perfect. Next step: put a sticky note on your desk to remind you, with a question: "Does it achieve its goal already?"

Start tracking time spent on projects. Next step: install and set up time-tracking software.

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Proactively unblocking others.

• ‣  Being decisive.

• ‣  Being aware of dependencies (...).

• ‣  Following through on responsibilities.

• ‣  Applying first principles in your work.

[14. Stakeholder Management (Collaboration)] Action Items

Growth plan

Manage the stakeholders involved in the current or upcoming project you have most ownership over. Next step: map out the stakeholders, following the framework.

Prepare for meetings as a participant. Next step: define your goals for your next meeting.

Apply the list of rules to have better meetings as an organizer. Next step: apply them to the next meeting you organize.

Start persuading others by talking about something in relation to their own interests. Next step: apply it next time you need something from someone.

Consider accepting requests to help build your relationships. Next step: be inclined to say yes next time someone asks for help.

Show gratitude every three months (with a physical gift or with words) to someone who helped you the most professionally. Next step: identify the person who helped you the most in the last three-month period.

Further learning

To learn more about influence and persuasion, read these two books:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.

If you organize or participate in a lot of meetings, check out the Harvard Business Review e-book Better Meetings.

• To learn about the power of giving, read Giftology by John Ruhlin.

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Making sure everyone has a voice in discussions.

• ‣  Directing discussions toward outcomes.

• ‣  Defusing conflict.

• ‣  Communicating negative news.

• ‣  Avoiding blame and providing credit.

Persuading Others

(...) [table]

Using this table, the next time you need an approval from a PM, you could tell them: "I need it by the end of the week to make sure we're on time to ship this feature and that we stay on track with the roadmap." Or, if you need help finding some as- sets from a designer from a different team, you could tell them: "I need help with this to make sure we keep a consistent experience throughout the app."

To make your points even more convincing, combine the interests of the person with the reasoning techniques from the "articulating your reasoning section of the Communicating Design chapter.

[13 . Written an Oral Communication] Action Items

Growth plan

Consistently present at design critiques. Next step: present at the next design critique.

(For solo designers) Find a sparring partner to practice presenting with. Next step: make a list of potential people you know who could be relevant or places where you could find them.

Record yourself and analyze your speech by yourself, with software, or with a coach. Next step: record a meeting you're participating in.

Apply the Pyramid Principle in your communications. Next step: apply it the next time you are trying to convince someone of an idea using multiple arguments.

Start providing facts instead of qualifiers in your communications. Next step: start noticing every time you use qualifiers or review your recent written communications and check which qualifiers could be replaced with facts.

Apply these concepts in your writing communications: clarity, consistency, removing redundancy, structure, shorter words and sentences, hierarchy. Next step: apply these in your next written communication or review a written document and improve it.

The Pyramid Principle [idea, argument {n}, evidence {n}] is a communication method created by former McKinsey consultant Barbara Minto. It helps organize and articulate complex ideas. Originally, it was created for presentations, but you can also use it for any type of written com- munication.

I believe in the value of design critique meetings (...)

First of all, here are the benefits of these sessions:

You're able to practice presenting and providing and receiving feedback.

You can practice presenting to someone outside of your company as it requires explaining your company's vision and objectives to provide all the necessary context.

You will get feedback from an outsider; someone with a fresh perspective on the problems and solutions you present.

You will meet fellow designers, learn from different industries, and share your experience and advice.

[12. Feedback (Communication)] Action Items

Growth plan

• Take ownership of implementing a method of feedback prioritization (similar to FlashTags at HubSpot) in your team. Next step: present the case for implementing this method in your team to your manager.

• Provide non-design feedback. Next step: think of a colleague who did or is doing something positive that you'd like to encourage and provide them with that feed- back next time you talk to them (or initiate that conversation).

• Apply the receiving feedback framework. Next step: use this framework or its elements the next time you receive feedback.

• Apply the providing feedback framework. Next step: use it next time you provide feedback.

• Create a routine of tracking the feedback you receive to find patterns and learn. Next step: build a spreadsheet and track the feedback received at your next meeting.

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Presenting work frequently.

  • ‣  Asking for feedback.

  • ‣  Becoming comfortable with arguing and challenging ideas.

  • ‣  Avoiding being defensive when receiving feedback.

Receiving design feedback

(...)

1. Understand the root cause

a. If the feedback is unclear, ask questions until it is. (...)
b. Clarify what problem the person is trying to solve. (...)

2. Evaluate relevancy

Check if their feedback is relevant considering the project context (...) You can respond to this type of feedback with: “Thanks Angela. I’d like to focus on the general flow of the user right now and not the visual design. I’ll take it into consideration when I’m working on the high-fidelity design next week.”

3. Prioritize

(...) To take feedback prioritization to the next level, you can apply the FlashTags technique shared by Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder of HubSpot.³² It consists of four hashtags that you can add to communications to signal how strong you feel about it:

#fyi (...)
#suggestion (...)
#recommendation (...)
#plea (...)

4. Respond

(...) Your response will belong to one of these four categories:

Yes (...)
Yes but later (...)
Requires research (...)
No (...)

[11. Communicating Design] Action Items

Growth plan

Apply the presenting framework or its elements when presenting work. Next step: start using it at one of the next recurring meetings (design critique meetings, approval reviews, etc.).

Start consciously asking yourself what the reason is for your design decisions. Next step: practice it while work- ing on your next design.

Articulate that reasoning to others. Next step: start communicating it at one of the next recurring meetings.

Further learning

‣ Read Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever to learn more about presenting.

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Influencing others.

• ‣  Presenting to large groups.

• ‣  Developing your confidence while presenting.

• ‣  Applying the skills of storytelling.

A framework for presenting designs

(...)

3. Present the solution

(...) 5W1H is a set of six questions: what, when, where, who, why, and how. It's used in journalism, research, and police investigations for information gathering and problem-solving.

Why are we building this? (...)

Who are we building this for? (...)

When and where will it be used? (...)

What should we build? (...)

How can we measure it? (...)

[10. Tools and processes (craft)] Action Items

Growth plan

Implement the process improvement framework. Next step: check if the organization already has a process diagram.

Behaviors to practice

• ‣  Discovering and experimenting with new tools.

• ‣  Discovering (...) best practice in relation to process.

Prioritize competencies to develop

The assessment you did (...) with your manager, is already a good indicator of where you should focus your growth efforts. Start with the competencies that have the biggest gaps; those in which you are the furthest from where you want to be.