Design Leadership

What Design Teams Can Learn from Air Traffic Control

When pilots call up air traffic control (ATC), they don’t just announce their presence—they request a specific level of service based on their needs. For small aircraft, this often starts with a basic service, where controllers keep track of the flight and notify emergency services if something goes wrong. If pilots need more, they can ask for a traffic service, where ATC provides warnings about nearby aircraft. For even greater support, there’s a deconfliction service, where controllers actively give instructions to help pilots avoid collisions.

This structured approach got me thinking: Should design teams operate in a similar way?

Being a Player Coach: Is it the best or the worst of both worlds?

At some stage in your design career, you may find yourself at a bit of a crossroads. One path is the path of the craftsperson; a path you’re very experienced and comfortable with. Down the other path is the lure of management, and all the power and riches that entails.

Hard vs Soft Design

Martial arts often distinguish between “hard” and “soft” styles. Hard styles focus on direct, powerful strikes—punches and kicks designed to break through an opponent’s defences through sheer force. This is the approach many design leaders take when "battling" their organisations for greater influence, hoping to raise design's impact by pushing hard for recognition. While understandable, this forceful, head-on approach can be counterproductive, especially when designers face opponents with more authority or entrenched interests.

Is Product Management the Same as UX Design?

Peter Merholz recently published a thought-provoking article suggesting that “Product Management is UX Design.” While this may hold in certain contexts, I believe it’s largely meant to spark debate rather than capture a broad truth.

Just Grow Up: Why Design Maturity Models Might be Harming Our Industry!

Designers often look to design maturity models as benchmarks, comparing their own companies to idealised industry standards and thinking, “We’re so behind!” This can spark a drive to “improve” the company’s design maturity, which often translates into attempts to “educate” leadership on what they’re doing “wrong” or how the organisation can “catch up.” But is maturity really the most useful framework here? Or might labelling a company as “immature” potentially miss the point? 🤔

Moving from “System One” to “System Two” Thinking for Product Decisions

Every day people approach company leaders with problems in need of a quick fix. “The team is going to miss its deadline if we don’t do something about it” they’ll say, or “we just had some some really bad customer feedback and we need to make good. What do you think we should do?” Leaders want to feel helpful and decisive so they’ll often think about the problem for a few seconds before coming up with a solution. “Let’s bring in some freelancers to get the project over the finish line on time” they might say or “let’s give the client a free upgrade to keep them on side”.