My Style

My leadership style is a reflection of my personality. At its core, my style is about making connections to the people and processes around me with passion and enthusiasm. With those authentic connections, I help guide my team to successful outcomes in their work by fostering collaborative relationships, thoughtful reflection, and empathy.

I see myself as a mountain guide to my teams. I can’t climb the mountain for you, but I can help show you the trail, provide my expertise at critical steps, and help to train the skills you will need for your own journey to the top of whatever mountain you are climbing in your career.

My Values

Be human. Work ultimately gets done by the people on the team and the best work gets done by the happiest people. My most important value as a leader is making sure I treat everybody with respect as a human. 

Solid communication. I believe that humble, open, and timely communication can solve most of the problems that regularly occur during the course of work. It is the foundation on which to build relationships and effectively collaborate. I strive to be a model to my team in this area,  and I see it as my role to help foster this when it is needed. 

Quality relationships. Although you do not need to be friends with everyone you work with, in your career you will need to work with a variety of people. Being able to build authentic relationships with empathy and understanding will go a long way. Make real connections with colleagues – it will positively impact work and can help eliminate many issues. 

Tinker and build. Unapologetically build things without worry of failure. The best design results from observation, iteration, and at the end of the day by simply doing. It is always better to get an idea out of your head to a shareable format. Once we do that, we can begin to learn about the successes and failures of a design, and improve it. 

No vacuums. Design is not an ivory tower. Design is every day, it is universal, it is core to being human, and it is inclusive.  Design cannot happen in a vacuum, it needs feedback and it needs to be created in and for the context that it will be used. I put extreme value in external feedback to make sure that the work is universal. Don’t be afraid of showing me (or anyone else) work in progress. I’m not a fan of a big reveal or a surprise unveiling. I’d rather see things early.

Keep growing. I think that one of the most worthy pursuits in life is learning. I value personal and professional growth opportunities wherever they arise. It might be a new challenge or problem to solve that requires the acquisition of a new skill, or it might be a lecture or course on a new topic of interest. Either way, we should be excited for new information and constant learning because our own potential grows with each new thing we learn. On top of that, our potential is magnified with each piece of knowledge we can pass on to others around us. 

My take on various work issues

Your family and your health come first. Period. If you have personal or family issues that you need to attend to, please do so. Just communicate your plans and needs to me and your teams. When attending to these issues, there are no expectations about your being on mail or responding to work issues.

Work/Life Balance is a priority. Study after study shows that working more hours does not mean that people are more productive, it is actually the contrary. Stay fresh and don’t burn out. We will all do our best work if we are engaged together at the same time. It is more important to me that you can show up to an environment that enables and inspires creativity than being on call around the clock. So make time for life to happen, and create separation where possible.  Use your vacation time regularly. We all need to reset and make some time for ourselves from time to time.  Work will always be around and there is never a perfect time, so just make a plan with your team and get to relaxing.

Work Hours. As for your work hours, there are no hard and fast rules when I expect you to be at the office or online. You do not need to ask permission to go to the doctor, take care of errands during the day, and so forth. Just let me know when you will be gone. We are all adults, and I am no babysitter. Use your judgment about weighing priorities on your presence or absence during the day. Keep people informed.

One-on-Ones. I schedule 1:1s with each of my direct reports once a week. This is time for us to create those authentic working relationships. I typically follow a framework inspired by Giti Shorish to stay up to date on project work. I also take time to have freeform discussions  about anything that is going on that might be harder to say in public. It is your time to let me know about anything going on in your world, work or otherwise that you need to talk about. 

Career Development. Career development is a partnership. You should bring to the table a career development plan, with goals and an idea of what you want to accomplish and where you want to take your career. I will provide a framework to record and capture your goals, and will assist you in getting there. I am here to help you get where you want to go, but expect you to be the driver in determining your destination, and keeping track of your progress towards that. 

Performance Feedback. I like to keep track of goals and performance year round. Review time should not be full of surprises. I provide consistent, clear, and on-going feedback to my team. My positive and constructive feedback throughout the year is intended to ensure expanding the team’s skills, and goal achievement. I am a fan of candid discussions that are honest, straight forward, and empathetic. I also need feedback to make sure I am giving you what you need.

Recognition & Praise. Let me know what level you are comfortable with. I have a hard time with receiving recognition, but I know that not everybody is like that. I believe it is important to receive validation in our work lives, especially in the field of UX which can be quite ambiguous at times. I will work to bring visibility to the great work you do so that you get the level of recognition (or not) that you thrive on. 

Open Communications. As I mentioned, I am a huge advocate for humble, open, and timely communication. It is the foundation to effective collaboration. There will always be hard challenges to solve, both in the work we do and in our working environment. Actively listening for understanding, with empathy, goes a long way. Being able to triage all of the communication coming your way  in a fast paced connected world is important. Even if you don’t have the time to talk or answer immediately, acknowledgement and a simple statement shows respect and partnership. 

Transparency. In the spirit of open communications, I am a huge believer in transparency. I will let you know what I can, when I can. If you have questions, it never hurts to ask and I will be upfront with my answers. 

Decision Making. Designers have a valuable role to fill to help business decision-making. It is not a single individual’s activity, so be a good partner and speak up. If you have ideas and observations, bring them to light. We are driving the business together and to make the best decision we need your input. I am always available to help figure out the best channels to communicate your ideas. 

Cross-Group Collaboration. Collaboration is essential in any project. I like to measure not only on the outcome of projects, but also in the way you communicated, negotiated, and interacted with the teams you worked with. I meet with cross group partners often, and use it as time to solicit feedback from other teams that are working with us to develop great working relationships. 

Meetings. Many workplaces have meeting heavy cultures. It is often a good idea to get the right people in the room at the same time, to avoid back and forth. That being said, a good heuristic for a meeting is if there is no agenda defined, you should do more investigation to see why it is important you attend.  In your invites you should focus on giving a valuable description to tell stakeholders why your meeting is a valuable use of time. 

Do as I say, not as I do… You might notice I send and reply to email at all hours every day of the week. I am a night owl and this is absolutely NOT an expectation of anybody on my team. Stick to business hours. There are no extra points for late night weekend emailing, and nobody is up to see that email then, anyways. 

What I Expect from Designers

Presence, Curiosity, Having a Point of View and Courage. Show up and get excited. Learn to hunger for knowledge, and become an expert in your field. Read and share what you learn. Challenge the norm. Ask why, and then ask why again. Form opinions, defend your opinions, and other people’s opinions if you agree with them, and good ideas in general. And gracefully pivot when your idea is not the best.

Learn from Your Mistakes. Mistakes happen. Learn from them. 

Communicate regularly. Don’t catch me off guard with something that has been going on over time, because it sets us both up for failure, or a miss on our goals. 

What Designers Can Expect from Me

I have a map. I can guide you to do what you need to do—then I will do my best to stay out of the way and let you climb your own mountain.

I will be your coach. I will cheer you on and give you support and feedback, even the critical kind, that you need to succeed and grow. I will never take credit for your work.

I am an open book. I am always honest, upfront, and open to frank conversations to further our work together. 

I am your air support. I will do my best to defend you and take blows for the team as needed. I will stand by your work and choices that you make so long as you bring me in, in time to enable me to provide the cover (see communicate regularly above).

Steal this Document. I based this letter off of a concept shared by Smartsheet’s VP of Design Feridoon "Doon" Malekzadeh with input and ideas from my colleagues, peers, and manager. I was encouraged by them to steal this document and make it my own.  So take what you like, even if it is just the concept of a leadership letter and run with it to make your own version. Articulate your thoughts, verbalize your values, and document how you lead.

Thanks for reading.

Jon