↵

AMA: Aarron Walter, Started UX at MailChimp, Author of Designing for Emotion, VP of Design Education at InVision

7 years ago from Aarron Walter, VP of Design Education at InVision

  • Kenny Chen, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    Hi Aarron,

    Love the work you did with MailChimp. I have a few questions:

    1) Any recommended books or articles about managing a design team?

    2) When starting a new design department, what are some of the key tasks that should be done in the first few months?

    3) How do you manage internal and external design request from different departments?

    Thanks ahead of time!

    0 points
    • Aarron Walter, 7 years ago

      Hey, Kenny.

      1. Julie Zhou at Facebook has recently written some great articles about managing design teams.

      2. Before you start to build your team, take some time to identify the core values that will guide you. Here's an example of a team values doc. This will help you hire the right folks and guide your team. Hiring will be the most important thing you do. Make sure you put in the time to find the right people and don't hire in a hurry. It's easy to hire, hard to fire.

      3. Design requests from other departments should flow through the team lead to protect the productivity of the team and make communication efficient. Be realistic about what your team can deliver. It's okay to tell colleagues you can't get to a project right now. If it's important they'll get back in touch later. If it's not the project will disappear.

      4 points