Leading design,
level by level
In 2026 a design studio lost its head of design, and every level of leadership was tested at once. This is how twenty years of practice answered, level by level.
I've always just wanted to do a good job, and I care, probably too much, about how things are made. In August 2026 that got tested. The head of design at the software consultancy where I worked left, after a year in which our studio had already watched colleagues go. Four designers in the US and the UK now reported to me. Before our first team session I wrote one question on the board, then took it off: is design being wound down? I took on the whole job, and stayed billable on my own client work.
It tested me, each designer, the team, the practice, and design's place in the company, all in the same month. What I had to answer with was twenty years of practice: designer to design director at a digital agency, co-founder of a design studio, nine years directing experience and product design at Wayfinder, principal and then design director at the consultancy, and co-founder of The Photographic Journal since 2012.
Each level below follows the same order: the need, what I did in 2026, where I learned it, and what came of it.
Safety first.
Then standards.
That was the order I worked in that August. People had to be able to say what was true before any standard I set would stick.
Lead by example.
The need. Credibility. A team copies what its leader does.
In 2026. I stayed billable on my own client work while leading the studio. When I needed to make a case, I built it: a working prototype as the spec for a no-code rebuild, and a live AI design demo for a client's executive team.
Where I learned it. I've never stopped making things. I grew from designer and producer to design director at one agency between 2006 and 2011. I colored comic books in my twenties, I photograph people, and I'm learning to sew; each one makes me better at the others, and at this job. On a digital health product I built a working AI coach prototype in two days. My former head of design noted in a review that I bridge design and development with front-end code. I was promoted to design director in early 2025.
Grow the person.
The need. Growth, and being seen.
In 2026. I held recurring 1:1s with each designer about how the work was going and how they were holding up. Three of the four told me they wanted to move from execution toward strategy, and each named the same blocker: what they got staffed on. Those conversations shaped where I placed them, and where I could, I put them on work they'd lead.
Where I learned it. At Wayfinder I directed a team of four to six designers for nine years. On a client engagement in 2023 I mentored the client's early-career designer until she was presenting design work herself. And the first interview The Photographic Journal ever published, in 2012, was me interviewing my friend Lou Noble. Lou went on to run the publication as editor-in-chief.
What came of it. Two of the four now lead engagements as the client-facing design lead. One wrote in a review: "I have never felt this level of support from a manager."
Make it safe to say the true thing.
The need. Safety and belonging.
In 2026. I committed to no restructuring in the first 30 days, and there was none. Before making a plan, I ran a health check in two sessions, one per time zone. We talked first, and the write-up carried no names. Then the studio moved onto one weekly sync that worked for both the US and the UK.
Where I learned it. In 2025 I stepped in to steady two client engagements that were in trouble. My former head of design wrote in a review that I did it by stabilizing those accounts and growing trust with stakeholders.
What came of it. Every designer was placed on client work within four weeks.
Teach the standard, then write it down.
The need. Clarity: what good looks like, and how to grow.
Competencies. The ladder had no design leadership level, and the competency tool had grown into a checklist of more than 300 items. I replaced it with a unified eight-level career framework: one track, competencies organized into facets, and an explicit expectation for working with AI. I've never believed every designer should be a generalist, so six specializations are treated as peers: UX, UI, visual, research, systems and UI implementation. Skills sit in a separate layer, used for staffing. Optional stretch goals, three for each of four senior archetypes, never gate a promotion. The language describes how people grow, and stays away from grading them. I shared it with the team, leadership and HR on the same day.
AI education. Every designer on the team had named AI as a goal for the year. When I reviewed the course catalog we used, its designer-facing AI titles were all about designing AI products. None of them taught a designer to work with AI. So I designed a six-course capability curriculum for designers: Context, Instrumentation, Councils, Evaluation, Reuse and Control. Shared coursework became the team's baseline, with the first assessed cohort planned for April 2027.
Where I learned it. At Wayfinder I defined the UX and UI standards across the organization. I've taught along the way: I created the brand for and spoke at my company's conference in 2023, hosted its podcast, and wrote a company-wide field guide to consulting skills.
What came of it. The framework is in review with the Chief People Officer and HR.
Earn design its seat.
The need. For design to matter to the business.
Design's value. I packaged design into small, fixed-scope engagements a client could buy first. Leadership adopted them as the way the studio sells design, and made the number we run a quarterly goal. With my head of design, I framed a healthcare proposal around the client's biggest risk, a platform migration, and pitched design as the way to get through it safely.
In 2026. I led design pursuits as the client lead: proposals, pricing conversations, and a live AI design demo for a healthcare platform's executive team, which then chose us.
Where I learned it. I've been in the room where work gets won since my agency years, pitching creative strategy. As a co-founder I gave the capability presentations, and at Wayfinder I shaped the service offering and the business development.
What came of it. Two design-led engagements won in two months, with a third client choosing us and the contract in progress.
Partnership at every level.
None of this was done alone. Here's what working with people looked like with clients, with executives and inside the studio, both in the big decisions and day to day.
With clients
Strategic: on an education platform, I made fixing the access model the design recommendation and worked it through with the client's product and engineering leads. On a healthcare pursuit, the proposal started from the client's risk.
Tactical: prototypes everyone could react to in the same room. On another engagement, prototypes built on the client's production code, so their engineers could take them straight in.
With executives
Strategic: I put the studio's open decisions on one board for my manager, and the staffing, the sales motion and two OKRs were decided from it. I took the career framework to the Chief People Officer and HR.
Tactical: recurring 1:1s with the CEO, the CPO, the head of sales and my manager. Designing a competitive tender's pitch deck alongside the CEO.
With the studio
Strategic: a career framework and an AI curriculum shaped around what the designers told me they wanted to grow into.
Tactical: pairing with a senior designer on user interviews and synthesis. A weekly sync both time zones could actually make.
Four weeks
Every designer placed on client work after the head of design left.
Two new leads
Two designers now lead engagements as the client-facing design lead.
A written path
An eight-level career framework and an AI curriculum, in review with leadership and HR.
The studio held.
Two months is too early for a lesson. What I can say: every designer was placed within four weeks, and two now lead their own engagements. We got there together, through the health check, the 1:1s and one weekly sync that both time zones could make.
What I'd change. I'd write down the scope before taking on the work. Leadership work got the leftovers of the calendar, and I felt that more than the team did.