Design Leadership Handbook

by Aaron Walter, Eli Woolery, Joey Schaljo (Narrator)

Get your bearings as a leader, gain confidence, and learn tactical approaches from experts who have been in your shoes so you can support your team and advance your career.

This book includes:

• How to become a design leader with insights from Netflix's Andy Law
• Learn how to hire people with the right balance of skills and find the best structure for your team
• Evaluating team members' performances, coaching to help them grow, and minimizing conflicts
• Standardizing the design feedback process, manage projects, and coordinate with other teams
• Building connections with other leaders and executives to ensure your team gets what it needs
• Crafting the vision for your product so yo have a North Star to guide all teams in the future

©2019 Aaron Walter (P)2019 Aaron Walter

Genres: Design, Leadership

Audible Audio

First published August 28, 2017

Reviews

[Jaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not 100% the target audience but still enjoyed reading this book (as PDF). Lots of good outside links, too. Heavily focused on UX and product design teams but still some valuable lessons for other design fields.

A good starting resource for thinking about design leadership at a high level, with a few specific techniques or ideas that you can implement if you're in a leadership role. May also be of interest to people who are designers with interest in exploring leadership areas, or just want to better understand the responsibilities of design leaders.

I really enjoyed the section on feedback and think I'll walk away with some reminders about externalizing the work-in-process to get spontaneous conversations going. Perhaps especially important on a team that is not used to working remotely but has to do so due to covid-19.

Available for download at https://www.designbetter.co/books

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick refresher on leadership principles. Nothing earth shattering but always nice to be reminded of some best practices. A bit all over the place but maybe it would’ve been easier to follow in non-audio book form.

[Mihkel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very general leadership overview with some hints and tips towards Design. For anyone who is on the starting path or needs a basic reminder about leadership (in Design), this is a good overview. Otherwise there's nothing new or game-changing for those already with experience.

[Cara Embry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. Has some interesting facts that would be useful for one pursuing design leadership and facilitation.

[Lewis Ngugi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take about design leadership. It's like using the Agile UX way for Designers.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like an informational interview, in book form. Not a deep dive, but an introduction to core ideas, with many links to learn more.

[J. Terrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit light. Too many links to outside content.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful for anyone leading a design or content team

[Kevin Gutowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good reference book to find other resources. Content didn't dive into things too deeply. The audiobook was nice to listen along to on my walk.

[Ciprian Sf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some basic knowledge but overall it doesn't worth your time.

[Alphonso Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quick primer on design leadership. Can help set up direction for deeper dives in other books

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little book in itself, but it's secret treasure is in its bevy of 'further reading' recommendations.

Plus, free, so there's a star right there!

[Arnold Saputra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book are so short and full of hyperlink to other's articles especially to Medium. This book just explain so many basic and common sense how to be leader especially in design industry. Very short and not so insightful. Btw this book are free to download and what can I expect from a free book?