So you’ve been hired to lead and possibly transform a design or a central platform team, especially within an enterprise company. Where do you even start and what do you do?

I’ve led design at @VMware over the past few years, here are a few things I learned.

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First, look inward. What is the culture of the design team? Are they insulating themselves & focused on protecting their work & value (as many teams do) or are they out there partnering with eng and PM teams, opening up the design process to everyone, and facilitating collab?

Most of the work you’ll need to do in order to set up your team for success happens from within. Focus on understanding the challenges they’re facing & the cultural shift you might need to bring. It’s easy to blame others, etc. However, that’s not how change happens.

Now that you have a clear understanding of the team, you need to focus on 3 things:

1. Build relationships with key engineering and PM leaders. This is personal. Build those relationships not just for your team but for you too. It’s important that you are a visible advocate.

2. Understand processes in the company. How does annual funding work? Which spreadsheet do you need to add a “UX” column to in order for the question of UX funding to be asked, etc. This is tedious yet extremely important work.

3. Work to hire top talent in your team at the management and IC level (don’t ignore the importance of having amazing design architects that can partner with engineering architects). Hiring top design management roles is NOT enough.

From there, it’s about expanding influence through these 3 channels. It’s not easy work but it’s work that ends up shaping the fabric of how design gets involved in the strategic, tactical, and process-based discussions.

As you build your team’s influence, never lose track of the culture. Build a diverse team where best ideas win & where designers feel their voice is heard & they’re empowered to take risks. When ready, hire junior designers. The energy & dedication they bring is infectious!

Lots more to share but the above are the top lessons that mattered the most in my experience. Happy to answer questions.