Leading without authority
I love coaching future design managers and leaders. I regularly hear 1) I'm not sure I want to be a manager, and 2) I'm not sure how to lead without being a manager. The key thing to understand between both of these comments is that leadership is not just management—you can lead without being a manager. In fact, I highly suggest all designers learn to lead as an IC first before even considering management.
As an IC design leader, you influence and guide projects and teams through your expertise and creative insights, rather than through managerial power. Here are some resources that provide advice and tools to help you effectively navigate what this means. You'll want to learn how to leverage your skills in collaboration, persuasion, and innovation to lead and inspire your colleagues. The goal is to help you make a more significant impact in your team and projects, gain a wider purview and scope, while still maintaining your focus on the craft and design work.
Staff.Design
Staff Design is a collection of interviews exploring how product designers navigate the individual contributor path to its highest levels.
Where do IC designers go once they peak?
Blog post by Tanner Christensen exploring how to set up this role for success
Should you become a design manager?
Catt Small breaks down her experiment with management, why she chose to be an IC design leader, and some simple guidelines to help you decide if management is right for you
Leadership without management: Expanding our Product Design career path
Intercom has a great article that walks through how they created parallel career growth paths for their team.
Reference public leveling guides
In addition to exploring what leadership means to you, referencing industry leveling guides is highly beneficial for lead/staff/principal -level designers. Though they may vary across companies, these guides offer a clearer roadmap for career progression by outlining the skills, experiences, and accomplishments needed at each stage of your career.
They serve as a valuable benchmarking tool, helping you identify your current position, set realistic goals, and understand what it takes to advance to the next level. By aligning your personal growth with these frameworks, you can more effectively navigate your career path and enhance your leadership impact.
These links were pulled from various articles:
Books, if you learn well from books
Books are not for everyone, but I personally have learned a lot from book club discussions. Here are some that I recommend for anyone moving into leadership, helpful whether or not they want to become managers:
More formal learning
Design Dept has a workshop series called "Design Leadership for Individual Contributors" that is worth checking out. I haven't taken this, but I love the description of the course.
Frank Bach is hosting a live cohort called "Developing Confidence to Influence and Lead" which is geared towards those looking to move from Senior Product Designer to Lead Product Designer. It's split into two modules, "How to improve self-confidence to influence and lead" and "How to build visibility and credibility".