What do you think?
Rate this book
Liftoff!: Practical Design Leadership to Elevate Your Team, Your Organization, and You
Liftoff! is your guide to leveling up as a design manager and leader. Its experience–driven approach—written by designers for designers—will help you hire and scale teams, develop careers, learn why diversity matters to your business, and solidify design's role in your organization. Liftoff! will elevate your skills to lead your team and company to new heights.
384 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2020
62 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 27, 2021
Excellent and actionable tips for design leaders. I found several of the chapters immediately relevant for my role and have appreciated the clear guidance and thoughtful ideas for activities like creating a team charter and scaling a competency. I've recommended this book to several colleagues already!
November 21, 2021
Great reference for any type of design leader, including research, content, or engineering. Covers hiring, scaling, and advocating for your team.
September 28, 2020
Liftoff tackles 8/10 of the top problems of design leaders everywhere
Currently, I oversee one of the largest concentrated communities of design leaders - the Design Leadership Forum. I hear about the top problems members face at all sorts of different organizations. Startups to conglomerates, agency and in-house, you name it.
This book covers 80% of the top 10 member problems. It might not be the end-all answer to these issues, but it’s thorough enough to provide directional thinking on the topics you’ll need to be thinking about as a design leader.
This will be my top recommendation for any new design leader. Hands down.
Worth every dollar and some.
Currently, I oversee one of the largest concentrated communities of design leaders - the Design Leadership Forum. I hear about the top problems members face at all sorts of different organizations. Startups to conglomerates, agency and in-house, you name it.
This book covers 80% of the top 10 member problems. It might not be the end-all answer to these issues, but it’s thorough enough to provide directional thinking on the topics you’ll need to be thinking about as a design leader.
This will be my top recommendation for any new design leader. Hands down.
Worth every dollar and some.
August 24, 2020
I read every chapter carefully and wrote notes, so I will probably write a longer review somewhere else. To summarize, this is a good book which gives a lot of starting points for design leaders. This is not a bible about leading or managing teams though, which I expected a little bit.
A lot of the chapters give decent advice, but lack depth. For example the chapter about diversity inclusion had very little actionable guidance, except posting job ads in groups specialized in reaching minorities. Most of the guidance was imo just good management. Maybe my expectations were too high?
The chapter on design charters was one of the better ones. Step by step guidance on how (and why) to create one. This was definitely a high point in the book for me. Sometimes I would appreciate more guidance about handling potentially problematic team members. Many of us don't hire our teams, but take over existing ones with good and bad performers. Managing some of the more typical "bad team players" in such workshops is guidance I and surely others could really use. Also it's mostly talking about designers and design leaders in the US. There's quite a few points where this "bias" was very clear, because it can't be applied to my environment (central Europe).
There were some parts which were so shallow they might as well have been left out of the book. There is a full chapter on design crits, but only 1 1/2 pages on continuous feedback. I often compared the contents of the book to The Effective Manager book. To be honest, the comparison might be a bit unfair, but the guidance in Liftoff compared to this one book is sometimes very underwhelming and disappointing.
Overall, Liftoff is still a good, modern read, which gives a good overview over various topics. The sources and further reading suggestions are sound. I just wished the book itself would maybe focus on less things and give more meaty, actionable guidance. It's too often so shallow that I just can't rate it any higher than a 4/5 and that's generous. I would always have to add for most chapters "but you should also look into book A/article B" which isn't a sign for a truly great book.
If I could I would give 3.5/5 points, but giving 3 didn't feel fair, so I went for 4/5.
A lot of the chapters give decent advice, but lack depth. For example the chapter about diversity inclusion had very little actionable guidance, except posting job ads in groups specialized in reaching minorities. Most of the guidance was imo just good management. Maybe my expectations were too high?
The chapter on design charters was one of the better ones. Step by step guidance on how (and why) to create one. This was definitely a high point in the book for me. Sometimes I would appreciate more guidance about handling potentially problematic team members. Many of us don't hire our teams, but take over existing ones with good and bad performers. Managing some of the more typical "bad team players" in such workshops is guidance I and surely others could really use. Also it's mostly talking about designers and design leaders in the US. There's quite a few points where this "bias" was very clear, because it can't be applied to my environment (central Europe).
There were some parts which were so shallow they might as well have been left out of the book. There is a full chapter on design crits, but only 1 1/2 pages on continuous feedback. I often compared the contents of the book to The Effective Manager book. To be honest, the comparison might be a bit unfair, but the guidance in Liftoff compared to this one book is sometimes very underwhelming and disappointing.
Overall, Liftoff is still a good, modern read, which gives a good overview over various topics. The sources and further reading suggestions are sound. I just wished the book itself would maybe focus on less things and give more meaty, actionable guidance. It's too often so shallow that I just can't rate it any higher than a 4/5 and that's generous. I would always have to add for most chapters "but you should also look into book A/article B" which isn't a sign for a truly great book.
If I could I would give 3.5/5 points, but giving 3 didn't feel fair, so I went for 4/5.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2022
A very solid read on design teams, design leadership and how design can work within a larger organization while furthering the goal of fulfilling user needs without losing focus on business goals.
There are some bias and mindsets that come from the cultural context of the authors (USA), that can be iffy for an European readers, but it's easy to spot and to not add to your toolset.
There are some bias and mindsets that come from the cultural context of the authors (USA), that can be iffy for an European readers, but it's easy to spot and to not add to your toolset.
April 13, 2023
Краща книга по дизайн-менеджменту
Книга описує багато тем з якими я стикаюся щодня як менеджер дизайнерів. Мало води, купа корисних порад, видно хлопці писали з досвідом. Читається довго і важко як результат
Книга описує багато тем з якими я стикаюся щодня як менеджер дизайнерів. Мало води, купа корисних порад, видно хлопці писали з досвідом. Читається довго і важко як результат
April 4, 2023
Este livro será meu guia de consulta durante um bom tempo. Muito prático e com quase nenhuma bullshitagem.
Altamente recomendado para designers em todos os níveis.
Altamente recomendado para designers em todos os níveis.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews