As a manager I don't like to micro-manage people. Everyone knows how annoying and disempowering that can be. I try to treat people as adults and professionals. Up front, I set expectations of work quality and behavior. And then I expect the designers that work for me to be pros.
I try to spend most of my time working side-by-side with my designers in the trenches ideating, sketching, white-boarding, designing, and helping them find solutions to problems — if they need the help. Otherwise, I encourage them to challenge norms and offer alternate viewpoints, mentoring them to become better designers.
I believe people and relationships matter the most and last the longest. To that end, I make it my goal to cultivate a casual atmosphere where people are more important than process, but where the work is taken seriously and everyone can do their best work.
I believe design is not just what something looks like — its the combination of what it looks like, what it feels like, and how it works.
As a product designer, I believe my job is to solve problems and make sure I'm solving the right problems. I do that by talking to people to identify needs, pain points, and delight factors. Then I work with technology teams to discover constraints and design the best possible solution that balances those constraints with business goals and user expectations.
My design philosophy is "less, but better". It is my experience that simplifying a design makes it a better design.
I work hard and expect others around me to do the same. I like to help people as much as possible and will go out of my way to deliver on a commitment. My philosophy is to under-promise, over-deliver.
"How you do anything is how you do everything."
— Fr. Richard Rohr
chuck.mallott.me
