Aaron Cripps

This got me thinking. I hear a lot of leaders say they're looking for cultural transformation, and want to shift in a direction that values reactivity, challenge confrontation, and collaboration. What they're describing is a design-driven culture. Many of these attributes are vital when UX is at the center. If that resonates, then looking at design maturity is the better route. #DesignMaturity #DesignDriven #Culture

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Pause, Clarify, and Strategize! In UX and project management, time pressure often dictates our pace, sometimes at the cost of deeper discovery. Yet, I’ve found that taking even a single extra day to review challenges with stakeholders can yield game-changing insights. This deliberate pause can illuminate nuances in stakeholder expectations and uncover potential roadblocks before they impact the project. While we’re often encouraged to ‘move fast and break things,’ I’ve seen how the mindful application of ‘pause, clarify, and strategize’ can create room for more effective, sustainable solutions. Taking this approach has led to a smoother process with fewer mid-project surprises and stronger buy-in from stakeholders, who appreciate the opportunity to voice their perspectives early.” #UXDesign #ProjectManagement

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🚨 Sneak Peak for next week's episode of Bounce Podcast ⚫️ with Laura Baker Having empathy for users is a guiding principle for product teams. But where is our empathy for each other? Laura says it best, “Leave your ego at the door.” Product designers + managers + marketers + engineers should rally behind the problem we are solving for customers and embrace empathy for each other. Join us next week for our conversation with Laura Baker, the Global Design Leader at Fearless. Tune in on Thursday, September 12th, for a fresh perspective on nurturing culture within product teams! #Product #Leadership #ProductDesign

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“Be who and where you are.” I’m still processing all of the amazing insights that came out of Clarity: A design systems community conference last week but several themes have been bouncing around in my head since then. → Get smaller and connect - Dan Mall and others talked about a trend towards smaller core design systems with surrounding layers of shared patterns like recipes, all being consumed by teams managing their own local libraries. This results in teams being able to move faster and eliminates the need for design systems folks to feel that have to be a bottleneck. → Be who and where you are - John Voss and others talked about building the system that your users and team need rather than conforming to what larger companies are putting out there or the oversimplified “stereotype” you yourself have unintentionally created for your product. → Listen - Ben Callahan and others talked about the need to reset our current mental models for how design systems teams see our roles and responsibilities. How do we move away from our perceived tactical responsibilities towards more listening and validating of the needs of our consumers and users? 💎 My personal takeaways from all of this have me reframing my own journey with my team from "a series of mistakes" towards "the necessary growth to become the team we are today." → When we implemented that now outdated framework, tried to centralize everything into a single bloated design system, or wrote all of that verbose documentation, we were doing what we needed to do to mature and are a better team as a result. → What my team is going through, we're all going through. The role of design in general is changing across the industry, not just in my organization. How lucky are we, that we have the opportunity to learn from each other as designers? → As team roles change, I’m curious to pivot my default stance away from “defend the designer's role”, and would be curious to see how I can facilitate “design” activities regardless of whether they are done by a designer, product manager, or engineer. I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such an amazing community and love the reminder that when you get a bunch of systems thinkers together in the same room, you're going to see patterns. Thanks again 🖤 Jina A. and all the speakers last week. #clarity2024 #designsystems #design

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I wish clients didn't put so much emphasis on WCAG conformance. I wish the emphasis was on making products accessible. I mean, sure, WCAG conformance is important. But it's just a tool to help you make your product more accessible. It's also the very minimum you can do to ensure some level of accessibility. Beyond that - I wish people understood how this standard is being made. Some things that I'm being asked about are not included in the standard. Not because they aren't important to accessibility. But because there were other topics that were addressed first. Or because one interest group was able to be more vocal and convincing than another. Please stop thinking "if it's not in WCAG, it doesn't matter for accessibility".

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I am so excited about this book. If you’ve ever found that working in design is difficult, political, or otherwise painful, you should read it…and check out Scott’s talk!

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If you're looking to move into design systems leadership, the number one skill I'd recommend focusing on is facilitative leadership. In my experience, leading design systems is much different than building them. When you build design systems, you focus on things like component architecture, design + dev alignment, and producing scalable, repeatable choices. When you make the move to leading design systems, you need to participate in a very different game. You move from software systems to people systems. Here's what facilitative leadership looks like: - Creating a non-judgmental space for conversation, input, and feedback. - Connecting the dots between various organizations and priorities. - Providing teams with a framework to debate difficult decisions and then crafting diplomatic solutions. - Building bridges between cross-functional leaders. - Decreasing your own presence, so others can increase theirs. - Giving others the chance to do things they want to do, even if they haven't done it before. - Managing up. Setting realistic expectations with your leaders about what the Design System can feasibly achieve. These lessons could perhaps be applied to any move into leadership, but I've found them to be particularly important for Design Systems.

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Now that Config is over here's a good recap for design execs:

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Simple portfolio presentation tip for design leaders today: Include something about why this job. Why do you want it? What do you like about it? Don’t overcomplicate. I added one slide at the end when I applied for the Maps role. Idea is it helps you confirm what you think this role is going to be about. AND, it tells the interviewers you understand the challenges and the landscape.

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Why is it still so hard to to create, design, build and launch products people love to use? (Two words: Executive Alignment) It took me years to understand this principle and even longer to make it a key part of my product leadership toolbox. Fortunately, you don't have to wait that long because the UX Researchers Guild is hosting an event this Thursday (Aug 15) featuring Tamara Adlin on this exact topic. I'm not one to endorse LinkedIn events often, but after following Tamara's work for some time, I can honestly say her experience and practical approach to helping product professionals advance their career is second to none. If you're a product leader, researcher or simply want to create better alignment between cross-functional teams & executive needs... Then you don't want to miss this event. 🗓 Mark your calendars! 🗓 https://lnkd.in/eshTB4Nc (Repost for others ♻️)

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Breaking Free from Micromanagement in Design: A Designer's Guide to Owning Your Process Did you get another Slack message asking for a design walkthrough you've already documented? You're not alone. Designers often face the challenge of micromanagement - but here's the thing: it's usually not about control, it's about confidence and trust. Here's what I've learned about transforming this dynamic: Micromanagement isn't a personality flaw - it's often a symptom of insufficient trust and unclear communication channels between designers and leaders. The solution? Take ownership of your design process through: • Daily project logs tracking decisions and rationale • Proactive sharing of research insights • Data-backed design choices • Clear success metrics and timelines The game-changer: Systematic documentation. Spend just 5 minutes at the end of each day updating your project log. Include: • Key design decisions • Open questions • Potential blockers • Areas where you need guidance The result? More productive design reviews, focused feedback sessions, and a stronger, more confident working relationship with leadership. Remember: Breaking free from micromanagement isn't about pushing back - it's about stepping up. Own your process, document your journey, and watch the trust grow. What strategies have you used to build trust in your design team? Share your experiences below! 👇 #DesignLeadership #ProductDesign #UXDesign #Communication #DesignTeams

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"The strategic design gold rush is over." While this might sound like a scary sentiment at first, I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity for design leadership. It's a chance for reinvention of what role design led teams can play in corporate settings. Users are increasing their demand for simple and straightforward user experiences. Every company continues to need more user and customer advocacy and design leaders are perfectly positioned to be the fabric of that advocacy and stitch together the functions required to deliver it to market. Rather than being relegated to a subordinate capability in product-led companies, design leaders can now redefine their purpose, leveraging their skills in user empathy, strategic experiential planning and continue to tie together the often disparate agendas at play in organizations. #Design #Leadership #Reinvention #Innovation

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Currently a lot of design leaders I coach are feeling stuck. And some are falling into self-sabotaging mental traps that don’t help. Do any of these four sound familiar to you? • No alternatives • No hope • No time • No need (for leadership) That phrasing isn’t mine, but is from the HBR article “Why Real-Time Leadership Is So Hard: Four obstacles and how to overcome them”. It’s worth a read, as it highlights questions to ask yourself and actions to take to get yourself *out* of such mental traps. But sometimes we need more than the insight of an article to help us get unstuck. We need the support of someone who we can talk to openly, and without fear of judgement. And we need someone to hold us to account to take the action that will ultimately get us back onto the path to thriving. If you’re a design leader: ⚪ DM me about 1 to 1 coaching (we can have a free, confidential chat to see if it’s for you) ⚪ Or sign up to the Group Coaching Programme for Design Leaders that I run together with Clearleft : https://lnkd.in/dBQpigBR (Act now! It starts on September 17th!) #design #designleadership #Coaching #GroupCoaching #LeadingDesign #stuckness

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Over the last few weeks John Cutler has been dropping the truth bombs on the world of Product (and design/engineering). There is definitely a sea-change going on - especially in the large complex corporates that I tend to work with. Transformation (usually digital and therefore usually spearheaded by a product-led org) is broken and not delivering value. And one of the key factors is nearly always because the org isn’t aligned around what is of value to deliver and frankly because the “product” metaphor itself needs to be retired. Starting with when you are talking about research. We will need to go further than this - to understand the systems that we are transforming. Product is a term that exists because of a particular delivery model. It’s not a good operating model metaphor and it doesn’t reflect a good metaphor for engagement model with consumers/customers/employees. There are two things it frequently encourages orgs to ignore by “productising” change: - There is no digital transformation without organisation wide transformation. - You must understand the system you seek to change before you attempt to change it. There is so much more but for now let’s start with John Cutlers call to drop the term product from discovery…. Amen to that!!!!

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Like every good product, design systems need investment, a dedicated team, a roadmap, marketing, and loyal users. (paraphrased from Design that Scales by Dan Hall) Having design system is not a success in itself. You need to treat it like any other product with OKRs and accountability. Never lose sight of the goals and regularly validate.

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I've treated my entire career as a journey to get as many snaps as possible to make what was once unknown for me (making, doing, thinking, directing, delegating, etc.) into a highly developed muscle that situationally flexes as necessary. AND I continue to adapt to my surroundings, and sacrifice what I may have once considered to be core to my integrity as a design professional in order to meet the moment fully. It hasn't felt like a clear progression into the commodification wall that Ryan describes; more like bits and pieces, here and there, more or less in various domains. Operating today in an early stage startup within a speculative industry (tech) for a conservative problem space (pharma & healthcare) yet with intelligent leadership who are true SMEs creates a stew of interesting trade-offs and opportunities as a function leader. Generally speaking, I've experienced what Ryan describes, but as with analytics in basketball, there's a big difference between a generalized approach to manifest offensive efficiencies and the individual choices one must make in a game seven. Matchups dictate adaptive strategies.

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If you're intent on delivering truly valuable solutions for the people on the other end of this screen, you’ll eventually hit a point in your design career where process begins to feel constricting. This usually happens within your first few years—three, five, maybe more. At some point, the structure that once provided clarity now feels like a limitation. People above you will try to keep you operating efficiently, focused on the task at hand. If they’re confident and experienced enough, they may nudge you into spaces where you can think and create more freely within looser frameworks. But even those frameworks can eventually start to feel hollow. By the time you’ve spent a decade in the field, these frameworks might start to feel like invisible containers of collaborative noise—more commotion than clarity. And that's when the wandering begins. In big tech, you might start bouncing across teams, searching for a niche that feels fresh. In smaller, zero-profit spaces, the greener grass of other opportunities might start calling your name. This is the cocktail of aspiration and self-doubt—when you start questioning what really matters. In these critical moments, pause to reflect on how well you understand the business, how you formulate design strategy, and whether you can determine when your work is good enough to drive outcomes. Here’s the secret no one tells you: craft isn’t only found in visual or interaction design. Yes, there’s important craft in making things beautiful, intuitive, and experiential. But true craft is on display in how well you align your efforts with your team—how you balance differing perspectives to create something of value for the people who use your service. These people, the users, are those who move the actual needles of business. They have needs, and your business is making a promise to them—a promise that the service you design must deliver. You have to be able to effectively collaborate, because the business always wants more.

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