Hey Reader,

Stepping into a design lead role can feel like switching operating systems—everything looks similar, but nothing works quite the same.

Balancing execution, strategy, and new responsibilities often feels overwhelming.

In today's email:

• From senior to lead: How to navigate your first 90 days: OKRs, planning, and stakeholder alignment
• Smart insights on design simplicity from the team behind the Dia browser
• UX/UI resources to sharpen your skills and grow your network

Design gems of the week

• ​Why Is Quality So Rare? A must-read from Linear on why true product quality is so hard to find—and how top teams get it right. If you care about craft, clarity, and high-impact work, this one hits deep.
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• ​UX/UI Hub by Vitaminak: Your go-to place for everything UX/UI—insider tips, exclusive resources, job leads, and can’t-miss events. The spot where designers connect, grow, and level up.
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• ​The Strategy Behind Dia’s Design: Why build a boring browser? The Browser Company shares how Dia balances calm UX, AI features, and just enough novelty to feel fresh—without ever feeling overwhelming. Smart thinking on simplicity and product restraint.​
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• ​UX for AI Summer Weekend (July 5–6): Join Micaela Dixon (@uxdesignforai) for a 2-day live workshop on designing clear, trustworthy AI products. Learn key AI concepts and UX patterns. Online, July 5–6, 2–4 PM BST. Use code FEMKE10 for 10% off (£210 → £189).

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From senior designer to design lead – your first 90 days

This week’s article comes straight from a reader question that really hit home:

The jump from senior designer to design lead isn’t just a title change—it’s a fundamental shift in how you think, communicate, and measure success.

If you’re feeling like you’ve been thrown into the deep end with conversations suddenly revolving around OKRs, timelines, and strategic outcomes instead of design critiques and task updates, you’re not alone. Here’s how to navigate your first 90 days and set yourself up for long-term success.

Understanding your new reality

As a senior designer, your primary focus was likely on executing design work. As a design lead, you’re probably more responsible for translating business strategy into design outcomes and ensuring your team has everything they need to succeed.

This means your 1:1's with your manager will naturally shift toward:

• Strategic alignment – How does your team’s work ladder up to company goals?
• Resource planning – Do you have the right people and resources to reach goals?
• Risk management – What could derail your team’s success, and how are you mitigating it?
• Team development – How are you fostering growth within your team and helping your team continue to grow?

Days 0-30: Listen and learn

Before you can lead effectively, you need to understand the teams landscape and domain. Spend your first few weeks conducting what I call a “strategic listening tour.”

Meet with key stakeholders beyond your immediate team. Schedule chats with:

• Product managers you’ll be collaborating closely with
• Engineering leads who's teams will be implementing your designs
• Customer success or sales teams who interact with users daily
• Other design leads or senior designers in adjacent teams

Be curious and ask a range of questions such as:

• What are the biggest design challenges facing the team right now?
• Where do you see opportunities for us to have more impact?
• What’s working well in our current design process, and what isn’t?
• How do you prefer to receive updates and feedback from the design team?

Establish your communication rhythm by creating systems that keep information flowing smoothly:

• Weekly team syncs to align on priorities and surface blockers
• Bi-weekly stakeholder updates sharing progress and upcoming decisions
• Monthly design reviews to maintain quality standards across projects

Days 31-60: Build your foundation

Your team needs clarity and alignment on what success looks like. Work with your manager and key stakeholders to define success metrics and principles that will help your team grow.

Clear success metrics that go beyond design quality:

• User satisfaction for key experiences
• Time-to-market for design deliverables
• Team growth development progress

Design principles that guide decision-making when you’re not in the room. These should be specific enough to be actionable but flexible enough to apply across different projects.

Support the growth of your people. Your team’s growth is now your responsibility. For each direct report, create development plans that address:

• Their career aspirations and skill gaps
• Specific projects that will stretch their abilities
• Regular feedback cycles beyond formal reviews
• Opportunities to present their work to stakeholders

Days 61-90: Establish your leadership style

Unlike your previous role where you influenced through the quality of your design work, you now need to influence through strategy, communication, and relationships.

Practice strategic storytelling:

• Frame design decisions in business terms
• Use evidence to support your recommendations
• Connect individual projects to larger company goals
• Anticipate and address potential objections before they arise

Build coalition support:

• Identify champions in other departments who can advocate for design
• Create informal relationships that make formal processes smoother
• Share credit generously and take responsibility when things go wrong

Create scalable processes. You can’t be involved in every design decision anymore. Build systems that maintain quality and consistency:

• Design review frameworks that other team members can facilitate
• Documentation templates that capture decisions and rationale
• Handoff processes that ensure smooth transitions between design and development
• Feedback loops that help you stay connected to the work without micromanaging

Setting yourself up for the long-term

Embrace the glue-work

A significant portion of your time will now be spent on what feels like “glue-work”—planning, coordinating, and communicating about the work rather than doing the work itself. This isn’t a distraction from your job; it is your job. The sooner you accept and embrace this reality, the more effective you’ll become as a leader.

Stay connected to craft

While your day-to-day might involve fewer pixels, the best design leaders maintain a connection to craft without getting bogged down in the details. Set aside dedicated time each week to review and provide feedback on team designs, ensuring you stay current with both the quality of work and the challenges your team faces. When possible, work on small, strategic design challenges yourself, whether it’s sketching out a new feature concept or redesigning an internal process.

Measure what matters

Success as a design lead requires tracking both team performance and your own growth as a leader. Pay attention to team satisfaction and retention rates, as these are leading indicators of your effectiveness as a manager. Monitor the health of your cross-functional partnerships through regular check-ins and feedback sessions—strong relationships with product and engineering leaders will make or break your team’s success. Track how design decisions impact business metrics, building a portfolio of wins that demonstrate the value of good design to skeptical stakeholders.

Your leadership journey

This is an incredible opportunity to multiply your impact. Instead of creating great design yourself, you’re now creating the environment for great design to happen at scale.

Remember: every successful design leader started exactly where you are now, feeling slightly overwhelmed and wondering if they’re cut out for this. Trust the process, lean on your network, and give yourself permission to learn as you go.
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