Here are my thoughts on maintaining creative prowess in the face of big team management. A short snippet...
“As managers and leaders, we can never lose perspective on the work. This is especially important as your team grows larger and you are required to spend more time and energy on the wonderful arts of people management and team leadership. It’s natural that as you increase focus on your team, it becomes harder to maintain the perspective required to nurture great design into the world.
I started my career as a design intern at Adobe, apprenticing myself toremarkable creative talents. I learned the hard way, through tough and occasionally heated critique. When I was ready, I stepped into management. From there, my teams grew in size. From seven, to twenty, to eighty, and now to over 180. Through it all, one thing remained constant — we are all peers before the object (thanks Michael). In other words, after all the leading, managing, mentoring, supporting, and road-block clearing, the ultimate goal is to make the world a better place, to make people happier and more able, through the objects we design.
Throughout my career I’ve struggled with balancing the demands of management with maintaining the necessary focus on design. Perhaps you are struggling with it now. Here are a few tips I’d like to share that I hope will help you along the way.”
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