The thing that I wished I told myself was that my focus needed to shift more toward advocacy of what my design group is doing. I was happy to share their triumphs alongside them but I was failing to do the more important job of sharing with other people, upwards and outwards. One of the problems that design has is that many people don’t know what we do. Some people think we talk forever and produce no tangible value. It is important to counteract that sentiment through clear communication and advocacy. This is one primary function of a design lead in a large org. There are the practical aspects of the role, but the hard part is instilling confidence that what your people are doing are the right things.

Yours, Older Nate.