Cultivating Leadership Through Key Meetings
As a Design Leader, a significant part of my role is managing team dynamics and processes and cultivating the next generation of leaders within my team. One of the most impactful ways I do this is by empowering my senior managers to take ownership and lead initiatives while ensuring that the team runs efficiently, collaborates effectively, and aligns with our business goals. While there are many types of meetings, it's crucial to focus on the ones that promote leadership, accountability, and a consistent flow of feedback. Here are three key meetings that
I prioritize to help me lead by example and enable my senior managers to step into more strategic leadership roles:
Daily Design Review
Purpose: To present work, get feedback, and drive refinement.
Why it’s essential: A daily design review is the cornerstone of maintaining a continuous rhythm within the team. It ensures that all team members stay engaged, up-to-date, and aligned without requiring extra effort to communicate project statuses. The senior managers in my team play a vital role in driving these reviews, guiding their direct reports to present and receive feedback on their designs. This fosters a consistent culture of incremental refinement and frequent collaboration. Moreover, by involving senior managers in the process, they are encouraged to model best practices in providing actionable feedback and pushing the team to stay on course.
Best practices:
Set Clear Objectives: Senior managers ensure that each review session has defined goals, whether it’s focusing on visual elements, usability, or technical feasibility.
Create a Safe Space for Feedback: Senior managers help cultivate an environment where feedback is constructive, focused on solutions, and fosters openness.
Rotate Presenters: They encourage diverse perspectives by allowing every team member to present their work, which helps build confidence across the team.
Actionable Feedback: Senior managers facilitate actionable, specific feedback that guides the team in the right direction.
Document Insights: Senior managers take ownership of documenting feedback, ensuring that insights are captured and referred to in future reviews.
Skip Level One-on-One Check-ins
Purpose: To foster open, transparent communication between Design Directors and team members who are one level removed, helping to maintain a pulse on team dynamics and growth.
Why it’s essential: Skip-level one-on-ones are a powerful tool for gaining honest feedback and building trust across the team. As the Design Director, these meetings allow me to hear directly from individual contributors without the filter of middle management. Here, I can help my senior managers understand the importance of transparency, openness, and empathy when communicating with their teams. Senior managers are involved in preparing for these conversations, supporting the employees by addressing any challenges, and fostering career development within the broader context of team goals.
Best practices:
Prepare with Intent: Senior managers help gather relevant context on the team member’s work and goals before the meeting, ensuring that it is personalized and focused.
Focus on Listening: The purpose of a skip-level meeting is to hear from the individual, not to lead the discussion. Ask open-ended questions and give employees space to share their thoughts, challenges, and successes. This promotes an environment where they feel valued and heard.
Encourage Career Development Conversations: Ask about their career goals, skills they’d like to develop, and how you can support their professional growth. This helps them understand their aspirations and align their growth with the team’s objectives. Follow up with their managers to brainstorm plans and opportunities.
Address Challenges and Roadblocks: Allow space for team members to express concerns, whether about their current projects, relationships with colleagues, or issues with team processes. Offer actionable insights and support in overcoming these obstacles.
Be Transparent and Open: Share relevant information from your perspective as a Design Director, giving insight into broader team or organizational goals. Be candid about challenges and decisions that may impact the team while encouraging open dialogue.
Follow Up on Action Items: Ensure you address any action items or feedback raised during the one-on-one in future meetings or through direct follow-ups. This demonstrates accountability and builds trust.
Respect Time: These meetings should be monthly but concise—aim for 30-45 minutes. Respect the team member’s time and ensure the discussion is focused and productive.
Cross-Functional Experience Reviews
Purpose: Present design work to clients or key stakeholders and gather feedback.
Why it’s essential: Cross-functional experience reviews serve as a low-pressure opportunity to share work with leadership and stakeholders early in the process. When design work is shared frequently and transparently, it reduces the risk of surprises later on. This practice provides visibility into the work being done by designers and gives senior managers a chance to showcase their leadership.
The meetings are crucial in preparing the team to present their work, guiding the conversation, and ensuring alignment with business goals. By actively participating, senior managers also model best practices in communication and feedback, ensuring that the design vision is communicated effectively and that expectations are aligned across all parties.
Best practices:
Open Feedback Culture: Foster a culture where feedback is seen as a tool for improvement. Senior managers guide their teams to stay receptive to feedback while maintaining the integrity of the design vision.
Visibility and Ownership: Regularly present work early, allowing designers to showcase their contributions and receive feedback in a non-judgmental environment. This promotes visibility, encourages ownership, and builds confidence.
Incorporate Storytelling into the Design Process: Senior managers guide the team to tell a compelling story by framing the design within the broader journey. At the discovery phase, please focus on the insights gained and how they shaped initial concepts. During the iteration phase, emphasize how the team has refined ideas based on testing and feedback. In the final stages, highlight how design decisions align with the strategic vision and user needs, reinforcing how the design will meet business and user objectives.
As Design Leaders, our role goes far beyond managing day-to-day operations—cultivating the next generation of leadership, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that our teams are aligned and empowered. The three key meetings we've discussed—Daily Design Reviews, Skip-Level One-on-One Check-ins, and Cross-Functional Experience Reviews—are integral to creating a high-performing, transparent, and connected team.
By holding consistent Daily Design Reviews, we ensure that feedback is timely, incremental, and actionable, keeping the design process aligned and pushing work forward. Skip-level one-on-ones create a direct line of communication with our teams, enabling us to listen, address challenges, and support career growth while building trust and transparency. Cross-functional experience Reviews, on the other hand, allow for continuous visibility into the work being done, creating opportunities for leadership to emerge and for designers to present their ideas confidently, knowing that feedback is framed as a tool for improvement.
Together, these meetings help foster an environment where feedback is celebrated, ownership is encouraged, and design work aligns with broader business goals. As a Design leader, I aim to create an ecosystem where senior managers can step into leadership roles, empower their teams, and model the best practices that drive innovation and success. By prioritizing these meetings, we ensure the smooth operation of our teams and build the foundation for the next generation of design leaders who will continue to drive impactful, user-centered work.
