People Management

Hiring

Onboarding

1:1 Meetings

Setting Goals

Promotion & Evaluation

PIP

There are several reasons why I got into managing design teams. First of all - I care about people. I like people. I love people. I can’t live without people because I’m one of the most extroverted extroverts you have probably met. Second - I always saw design as something bigger than just building interfaces. I wanted to apply design practices and problem-solving skills in building workflows, team processes, strategies, teams, relationships, etc.

Probably one of the most important things in this job is the spirit, the mood, the values shared across the team, and the sense of deep connection, based on trust, respect, and reliance. 

In the following paragraphs, you will find less romance and more straight-to-the-point explanations.

Hiring

As my manager once said: “Hiring - is the hardest part of our job.” - I can’t say I agree with this affirmation, but I don’t disagree neither. Hiring can be tricky, challenging, and inspiring. In the role of the hiring manager, I hired 4 Product Designers and 3 Graphic Designers. In two years (2019-2020), I have restructured the product design team and helped create a team of graphic designers in our office. Besides that, I helped hire the Product Design Director, multiple designers on the US side, engineers, product owners, product managers, people operations managers, etc.

In 2019 I had to reimagine our hiring process in the Moldova office. I needed to involve the members of the team from the San Francisco office. The most challenging here was to build a process that would work well considering the 10-hour difference. During one of my visits to the SF office, I had a workshop with my manager, where we have sketched the process on a whiteboard. I took it further and created a clear proposal, receiving approval from my manager and pitching it to our recruiters and people operations manager in the Moldova office. I have found out that they were thinking of adjusting the process similarly. The proposal that I did was very well structured, and it was taken as a base to change the hiring process in the whole Moldova office. 

The process doesn’t include anything that was not written in the books. But it was pretty new to a lot of people in Moldova. We started with recruiting call, after that hiring manager interview, design exercise, panel presentation, interview with colleagues from other departments, and an interview with designers from the Moldovan office. With time we realized that this process worked well, made several adjustments, and documented it.

Every candidate that I’ve met was very different. In the very beginning, I have prepared a template with questions that, as I thought, would help me identify whether a candidate was a fit for our team or not. But pretty fast, I realized that I couldn’t treat everybody in the same way, and I needed to adjust my conversation and its tone depending on the candidate. Designers had different backgrounds, levels of knowledge, skillsets, etc. So I started to prepare specific topics I wanted to discuss with each candidate, based on our Job Description, their resumes, and portfolios. During the interview, I used these topics to make sure that I covered everything I wanted. I decided to let the conversation happen naturally. And it was a great success.

Onboarding

Onboarding is a very sensitive topic for me because I have never received a good one from other companies in the past. So I wanted to make the new designers’ lives better. 

First of all, I had to understand what I needed to prepare for a new member. Second - I had to figure out how to provide them with a “soft landing” and assure that they have everything needed to work: hardware and software; documentation; time and space to get familiar with processes, people, and products. So I have created a 7-page managers’ guide on how to prepare for onboarding and how to onboard new hires. This document explained who’s responsible for what and touched on how to evaluate the new designer. The process was pretty bumpy in the very beginning. But thanks to the new hires who provided me with constructive feedback on how to make it better. Their feedback helped me to polish everything. As a result, I and my counterpart - the Product Design Manager from San Francisco - used this process to onboard 8 product designers. 

The first section was the onboarding process. It included four main areas: people, tools & processes, product & timeline, and the Product Design Team-related information. Each area explained its scope, what to do, whom from colleagues to involve, and what to expect from them and the new hire.

The next section described what needs to be prepared for the designer: hardware, software, and workplace. It also included reminders to: 

  • book time in other colleagues’ calendars to make short introduction meetings;
  • select a work buddy and explain what’s expected from them;
  • prepare the onboarding deck (newbie’s handbook);
  • populate the Product Design Onboarding Jira project with the tasks for the new designer to
  • help him get familiar with processes, read documentation, and meet colleagues. 

The last section of this document included recommendations and suggestions on what to do on the first day a designer joins, on the first week, and the second week. I have added recommendations on meeting and welcoming new hires, preparing a welcome kit, organizing team lunch, and explaining the onboarding process at Crunchyroll.

The Onboarding Deck for new designers, which was initially planned as a document to present the team and the processes in our department, became something bigger. New employees started to use it as a handbook. It had all the necessary information: 

  • overview of our department and partner teams;
  • org charts;
  • tools and processes around them; 
  • design workflow; 
  • scrum ceremonies; 
  • documentation and best practices;
  • communication channels.

I wanted new designers to feel welcome, to understand the vibe, the culture of the team. At the same time, I wanted to provide them with a list of useful links and a centralized place to go to if they had any questions.

The official onboarding period at the company was considered three months. During the first two weeks, designers would usually get familiar with processes, products, meetings, and people on different teams. Starting with the third week, we would assign them their first easy, small design task and let them execute on it for the next two weeks (1 sprint), following all the processes and scrum-ceremony rules they have studied. By the end of the first month, I would already have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. That would help me to do two things. First - to work with leads to ensure that a specific type of job is assigned to the designer. Second - to work with the designer toward their personal goals or OKRs. They would need to show significant progress on these goals by the end of the trial period. During the following two months, I would regularly have 1:1 meetings with the designer to review how they were doing.

There was not a single designer on my team who did not accomplish all the goals and OKRs we set together for them.

1:1 Meetings

In collaboration with my direct reports, the 1:1 meeting is a time and space to open, be who we are, and share everything. I have a very special attitude towards my design team. I strive to build a trustful relationship. The 1:1 meetings for my team and me were always considered a time and place to pour out everything we had. And that was always much appreciated on both ends.

Before creating a process around the 1:1 meetings, I had to study the best practices and understand what I needed and what the team needed from the 1:1 meetings. On my end, I wanted to make sure that we have the opportunity to discuss all areas of designers’ responsibilities (even if they don’t have anything to share at the moment regarding a specific area). I wanted to make sure we didn’t forget to discuss anything. Besides that, I needed time to review how they are progressing on their goals, share the feedback on their velocity, skills, etc. And I wanted to store all that information in a document to get back to any topics at any point if needed.

To understand what designers want, I have created a survey and given them plenty of time to answer the questions. The results helped me to create a template of questions I could use for all designers. In plus, I have added some specific questions to particular team members to address the areas they considered critical. 

Initially, I thought about creating a google doc, where I would store all questions, answers, and notes. But one of the designers proposed to create a google form that would be sent to them several days before 1:1. Everybody else was supportive of that. And it ended up being a good working solution.

With time we have realized that the best cadence for this 1:1 meeting is once per month. But we agreed that we could schedule a meeting to chat at any point of day or week if needed.

I have scheduled these 1-hour 1:1s in the first half of the day, where designers and I don’t have meetings, offering us an opportunity to run the meeting longer if needed.

Two days before the meeting, I would send a reminder email with the 1:1 questionnaire, giving designers time to think and write their topics. Also, it would allow me to prepare for the meeting. I have a special place to put notes and feedback for each designer in one of my reminders and notes tools. Before the 1:1, I would go through my notes and structure them to touch every topic. 

Every such meeting would have a unique and personal touch from my end. I would always start with a side conversation on topics specific to each team member, whether it is football, video games, or hiking. This step would work as an ice breaker. The next step would be checking on the previous 1:1 action items for both of us. After that, we would go in discussing every topic they raised and the topics from my notes. During the conversation, I would set up action items for the designer or me. In the end, we would go through action items and agree on priorities and deadlines.

Setting Goals

At Crunchyroll, we had two performance reviews per year: mid-year and end-year. Usually, during the reviews, we would discuss how the designers progressed on their goals and work with each of them on setting new goals. The goals could be connected to company OKRs or simply target soft & hard skills development. 

The question is how to set correct goals that would be achievable, and designers would be interested in working towards them? And also, how to make designers contribute to their list of personal goals? First, I had to remind them about the job description for different levels and ensure they understood their current responsibilities and what they should do to grow and climb the career ladder. Second, I addressed them one question and gave them a month to think about it. The question was: “What do you want to be when you grow up”? Although they are between 30 to 40 years old, I wanted them to think again about what they want to do with their lives and which direction they want to grow. The design field is pretty big, and there are a lot of different directions they could choose. And it doesn’t matter whether they will achieve what they want at this company or somewhere else.

After a month, in our 1:1 meetings with each designer, I have raised this question again. It was great to see that designers took it seriously. They came with a good explanation of the direction they want to grow and potential paths to get there. 

As a next step, I took time to analyze and think about how I could offer every designer possibility to grow in the desired area. Our design department (probably like many others) has a lot of tasks or initiatives and not enough hands. Understanding who wants to do what helped me prioritize some of the initiatives from this dusty backlog and transform them into specific goals for each designer. At the same time, designers spent several weeks thinking about the goals and steps to achieve them.

During our next 1:1 meeting, we have discussed the plan that designers came with and the plan that I have prepared for them. The meeting slightly has transformed into a working session, where we were brainstorming and creating a plan with goals, ways to achieve them, and understanding how to measure the success. 

As a result, designers can work on tasks in the area they want to grow and the direction that is interesting for them. This type of work brings them joy and raises the level of loyalty and accomplishment. At the same time, they help the department and the company clean up the “dusty backlog” of initiatives and bring the processes, collaboration, and designers’ life quality to an entirely new, higher level. Because designers do what they like, they make it with extra interest, they are proactive, and, as practice showed, the result is much better than anyone could imagine.

Promotion & Evaluation

Promotion is a fun part but very time-consuming because of writing the business cases. When managing the product design team at Crunchyroll, I have promoted three mid-level designers to the senior position, one junior to mid and senior, and one senior to lead. 

Evaluating designers is even more complicated. And probably the most challenging part is to explain to them why they or their peers have a level and position they have. To be able to do so, every design team needs a well-elaborated job description for each level. I worked with my manager to create these documents. We then shared it with the whole team, and I had an opportunity to go with each designer through their position description. The document clearly stated the level of hard skills, soft skills, and responsibilities for each position. This helped raise transparency in the team and show each individual what they need to achieve or how they need to behave to receive the desired promotion. And, of course, I used it to evaluate designers, making sure that everybody was at the correct level.

Besides that, at Crunchyroll, we had a 360 degrees review approach implemented. Reviews allowed me to understand better how my direct reports’ peers see them. A non-biased perspective from a partner team’s peer helps to look at designers from another perspective. Of course, not all the time reviews were written well. Sometimes peers would simply leave 1-2 sentences saying how amazing a designer is. But in most cases, the reviews included pretty elaborated constructive feedback that I used to help designers become better.

PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)

“What do you consider a successful PIP: when an employee is let go, or when they succeed, improve, become better, and bring value for your team”? - these were words I once heard from a manager at a conference. 

In my opinion, the fact that a manager needs to put their direct report to a PIP means that the manager failed to do their job well. They have been unable to understand employee’s needs and beliefs, successes and problems; goals, and uncertainties. The manager simply failed to do their job well.

In my experience as a manager, I had to put an underperforming designer who was spreading a toxic mood across the whole organization on a 3-month PIP. The designer left after a month from the day he signed the PIP papers. This has happened at the beginning of my career. When I look back at what has happened, I clearly understand and see where I failed. This doesn’t mean that if I address some issues earlier, the designer won’t leave. Maybe they would do this anyway. But if I had taken actions earlier, there would have been much less stress for the designer, the team, peers, and me. 

The PIP consisted of 6 pages and included a well-elaborated improvement plan. The designer was mature enough to agree with every point that I have mentioned. They realized that, indeed, they were not doing that good. After we signed all necessary papers, the 3-month trial started. Every Friday, I checked in with the designer, shared feedback, and told them how they were doing. They went ahead of what I was expecting during the first two weeks, and I became very excited about it. The third week, however, changed the game completely to the opposite side. At the end of the fourth week, during our 1:1, I gave the designer several questions: “Do you really like what you do at this company? Do you feel that you are doing your job? What is it that you want?” - The designer went idle for a minute, and suddenly, an “aha” moment happened for them. “I think you are right! The problem is not in the company, processes, or peers. I simply don’t like the product design job at a product company.” - they said. This was the moment when I saw how grateful they were for helping them understand and realize this. That day was their last at the company. 

We stay in touch. Now this designer is achieving excellent results at an IT agency, creating designs and experiences for multiple start-ups.

So, how should I consider this PIP? Was it successful or not? I don’t know. The only two things I know for sure are:

  1. I helped the organization by excluding an underperforming employee;
  2. I helped the designer to realize they were in the wrong place doing the wrong job.