Scott Berkun

This week in ux-clinic: managing sensitive designers

This week in the ux-clinic discussion group:

I’m managing a small team of relatively young designers. They’re smart and sassy, but have trouble being told no – as in “no we can’t build this”, “no it’s too expensive” or “no there are more important things than this idea.”. They basically shut down if the rest of the team doesn’t unanimously swoon over their ideas: they don’t argue, complain or even put up a stink in private. But they do shut down and stop doing their best work, or any work at all.

In our org’s culture they need to be able to push back, but more importantly, not give up because someone doesn’t follow their thinking on the first try. What should I be doing to help them along?

I’ve tried the basics, but there seems something very personal/sensitive about their design work to them and I don’t know how to help them get past it.

- Managing SDS (Sensitive designer syndrome)

• Posted Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 3:23 pm


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