A Hands-On Leader's Approach
The digital product teams I work with have deep expertise and complex challenges. They may know what success looks like, but the path to it is unclear. They're navigating competing priorities and impossible decisions while everyone's at capacity, fighting fires. Quality's dropping, deadlines are slipping, and frustration grows - on the ground and in the boardroom.
This is where I get my hands dirty.
Bring On The Player-Coach
When direction is unclear and delivery is suffering, I join teams to help them focus, align, and deliver what really matters. I operate at two levels, moving fluidly between executive-level strategy and team leadership, and hands-on product design, prototyping, and testing.
Last week, I had an enlightening conversation with a design leader, a peer I've known for years. She was surprised to learn I still design experiences. Her surprise inspired this post.
We met years ago, working at the same consultancy and became close friends. In the years since, our careers have diverged. She moved brand-side, leveling up into leadership at a large enterprise SaaS company. There, leadership meant she was no longer hands-on designing - she had to focus on executive strategy and team leadership.
Meanwhile, I've never stopped designing.
Even in my most senior agency roles leading large teams, I've remained hands-on. Sometimes I'm a design team of one. Other times, my small team doesn't have the specific expertise our challenge demands. And even with a large team, it doesn't always make sense to move one resource off a task and onto another, particularly when timelines are short, onboarding will cause delays, and I can deliver the solution.
It's not about ego or ownership - I'm happy to delegate, direct, and coach. It's about getting the work done, and done well.
Strategic Design, To Me
I work directly with business, product, and technology leadership to establish clarity. We identify root challenges, moving well beyond the symptoms. We make priorities explicit and decisions actionable. We refine processes for efficiency while making space for exploration and innovation.
At this level, you'll find me facilitating difficult conversations. Asking "why" until we get to the heart of the business. Engaging customers, often for the first time, to understand what they actually need versus what we think they want. Opening up our collaborations to include team leads who are closest to the work and know what's actually possible.
This creates alignment. When customers, executives, and teams help define challenges, balance priorities, and envision solutions, they see themselves in the work. They become natural advocates. Decisions come quickly. Conflicts diminish. Roadmaps and requirements are more easily defined.
And still, strategic clarity doesn't ship products.
Gotta Do The Work
With vision, strategy, and priorities in hand, program leaders must now shepherd their teams along the path to success. This is where my ability to navigate executive strategy, team leadership, and hands-on experience design is fully realized.
I direct creative teams specializing in research, strategy, UX, visual design, content, and testing. I jump in directly when speed or expertise needs elevating. Sometimes that means facilitating collaborative design sessions. Other times it means sketching concepts myself, mapping customer journeys, generating prototypes, or running usability studies - anything to unblock the team.
This player-coach approach ensures our executive-level decisions echo throughout every stage of the program lifecycle. It emphasizes input and iteration, reduces feedback and revisions. Perhaps most critically, it enhances team capabilities and cultivates our next generation of leaders. They learn by seeing and doing - not just through team updates and design critiques, but through direct collaboration.
Range Can Be the Difference
My leader friend helped me see what is perhaps most unique about my approach. Seems most folks operate at one level or the other. They stay designing - not interested in or able to lead business, strategy, and teams. Or, they level up and out of the day-to-day.
Neither has been me. Early on, I started running my own freelance business, then leveled up through agencies that demanded hands-on leadership, and today I'm serving my own clients and building my own product - doing whatever needs to be done.
In moments when direction is unclear and delivery is suffering, range can make all the difference. My ability to operate strategically, lead disparate teams, and step into the work is often what’s needed to ensure our vision becomes reality.