Matthew Rea

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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Time to deliver an output is so often mistaken with time to achieve business value.

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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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+1 to all of this, especially being an education major -> graphic designer -> logo/brand designer -> visual designer -> UX designer -> design systems practitioner Spoiler alert: the teaching degree has been the most helpful "role" to date, and every role after that was basically the same (simply with different problems to solve and artifacts to make)

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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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If we're not talking about design maturity, agile process, or craft, then us designers are probably talking about ✨quality.✨ I certainly see my interviewer's eyes light up when I mention this magical word. "Design is the one that has to hold the quality bar," I tell them. But what if that didn't have to be true? For a truly high-quality product, I don't think it should be design holding the line. It has to be something baked into the organization - everyone holds the quality bar. Even though "quality" is a slippery thing to define, if we can define it and hold ourselves to it, we can reduce the tension in the org and start to think less about the mere baseline quality for the product and more about raising that bar - delighting the user. I very much enjoyed Luke Anthony Firth's take on how they folded quality into their product building process. Have a read! https://lnkd.in/g4SenmYZ #designleadership #productprocess #productdesign #productquality #designquality #opentowork

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I recently wrote about design system metrics, including adoption. Adoption can be pushed as a mandate. Having seen hundreds of design systems up close Dan Mall points out that there is no definitive evidence that high adoption doesn’t hurt. But, it certainly doesn’t differentiate between useful design systems and that frankenstack monster that has documentation in Excel with hundreds of links to a private Git repo along with multiple swim lanes with infinite scroll. The only reason why adoption persists as a common metric is because even really bad design systems have the ability to generate significant value. Full article in the comments.

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Big is overrated. The more experience I have in this industry, the more I like to keep teams nice and cozy. Not understaffed. But also not sprawling. In our latest episode, we discuss the dynamic of medium-ish design system teams. We cover their pros and cons as well as why I'd prefer to work on a medium-sized team than a big ol' honkin' one. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gcRbSX6u #designsystems #podcast

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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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This! Designers must also understand that the higher they go, the more they need to think beyond design. Moving into leadership means embracing business goals, cross-functional collaboration, and strategic impact. It’s not just about creating great designs—it’s about driving outcomes that resonate across the organization. We do need more design leaders who can see the big picture.

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Are you ready for the rise of fractional design leadership? Here's my prediction: 👉 By the end of 2024, companies will commonly engage design leaders in a fractional capacity. 👉 This could either look like... A. Design leaders engaging in contract roles to strategize and lead specific product initiatives supported by in-house teams. or B. Design leaders joining agencies specializing in fractional leadership, creating a leadership-as-a-service model. This could include additional support from teams sourced from either the agency or the client. 👉 Companies right now are balancing cash flow with growth and innovation. The increasing risk of disruption in every industry underscores the need to adapt to survive. Fractional leadership can jump-start areas where product teams feel 'stuck.' Moreover, fractional opportunities can unlock significant career-growth opportunities for designers, a path that is traditionally more scarce and has lower turnover than IC roles. What's your take on this? Is fractional design leadership the future, or am I completely off? 🤔 #management #technology #careers #leanstartups #future

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The more that designers can think with a business mindset, the more effective they can be at influencing key stakeholders and driving desired outcomes.

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Have you thought about the physical accessibility of your digital designs? Getting physical controls right is really hard, and industrial designers spend a lot of time learning about how to use data as a starting point for making design decisions. As we create digital designs that we interact with using our bodies, it's going to become important for digital designers to understand physical ergonomics too.

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There are always adversaries to design systems. I love this article by Sara Fazzini outlining some of the common situations we run into in the world of #DesignSystems. Two points I wanted to "yes, and..." that are often used to reject the use of design systems. Design systems aren't fixed. They are mutable. They must evolve. Changes ought to be thoughtful and exceptionally intentional to serve broad needs. But they also aren't unchangeable laws of the digital universe. Design systems do limit creativity? Sort of. It depends on how you think about it. Design systems that are built with an atomic structure using tokens, base elements, components, and patterns can be combined in endless ways. It typically takes work to learn how to be creative with a design system. By their nature there are built in "limitations", but creativity ought to thrive when given the full power of a design system. Thanks for the clear and well-written article Sara! 👏 https://lnkd.in/g34VyzCZ

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Nice article by Mike Fortuna linking Design to Business. While it makes the case for cost savings by having reusable elements, I think the argument for cost savings could be reinforced by an explanation of the "opportunity cost" of also not being able to work on other design work.

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As a designer with over 20 years of experience, three resources have profoundly impacted my career: Dan Mall's talk "Should Designers?..," Josh Clark's article "Only One Deliverable Matters," and Joshua Seiden's book "Outcomes Over Output." For years, I took immense pride in the pixel-perfect design comps I meticulously crafted. But these resources challenged me to rethink what truly matters in our field. Dan Mall posed a critical question: "Should designers?" This simple yet powerful inquiry pushed me to consider when and where my skills are most valuable, ensuring that my contributions are always intentional and aligned with the bigger picture. Dan reminded me that while developers can create a website without a designer, a designer can’t create a website without a developer. This insight helped me refocus on what truly drives value in our work. In 2018, Joshua Clark taught me that it's not about the plethora of design deliverables we produce—it's about the single, most impactful thing: the working software. My CEO doesn’t care about the dozens of Figma frames and Miro boards I create; he cares about the business outcomes our team’s software delivers. Clark emphasizes that while we often focus on creating numerous artifacts like wireframes, prototypes, and design comps, these are merely means to an end. The ultimate goal is to create a functional, user-friendly product that delivers real value to users. This lesson was a turning point, prompting me to prioritize the end product over the process. In 2021, Josh Seiden’s book continued to shift my focus from the tangible outputs of my work to the outcomes they generate. It's not just about what we create; it's about the difference our work makes in the lives of users. Over time, I've come to realize that creating design comps is only a small part of our role. Understanding the problem, validating our designs to ensure they meet the proposed outcomes, and building relationships and trust with our stakeholders are just as important—if not more—than the comps themselves. These lessons have transformed the way I perceive my craft. I'm no longer just a designer creating beautiful interfaces; I'm a strategist focused on meaningful outcomes and collaboration. My skills include user research, workshop facilitation, prototyping, usability testing, and visual design—whatever it takes to make our product owner and tech team successful in delivering positive outcomes. The partnership with the product owner and developers fosters trust and collaboration, ultimately earning a valued position within the team—not by demanding it, but through consistent contributions. If you're a fellow designer, I encourage you to think beyond the pixels and dive deeper into the impact your work can have. #ProductDesign #UX #OutcomesOverOutput #Agile #Collaboration #CareerGrowth

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If you want to be really, really good at UX... Focus on what really matters and avoid making dumb mistakes. What matters: -Stakeholder buy in and commitment -Good user research -Iterative design + testing with users -Detailed specifications and robust component libraries -Extensive QA testing to flush out the bugs before shipping Dumb mistakes: -Berating design suggestions from non-UX team members -Behaving like design prima donnas, thinking that designers can do no wrong -Whining about not having a seat at the table when you have neither earned it nor demonstrated the capacity to sit there -Criticizing engineers and PMs for behaving like engineers and PMs Note: both lists are incomplete, but hopefully they give the gist #ux  #userexperience  #userresearch #design

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Some good discussion going on here today.

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It has been my continuous struggle to showcase the contributions of the design team to business. Slapping the rules at product level seems unjust. Finiding out a comparative for a specific feature becomes difficult to assess. I am on my journey towards putting a right measuring metrics for the same. Let's connect if you are also looking out or something that might have worked well for you. #uxdaily #productmetrices #designmetrices #productstrategy #designstrategy

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