My unexpected journey from IC to manager and back again
I get asked a version of this question all the time, mostly from mid-career designers, but sometimes from ambitious juniors too: “Should I become a design manager?”
It’s a fair question. And honestly, it’s one I asked myself for years before I finally tried it.
I’ve made the jump from IC to manager and then back again, and it gave me a perspective I didn’t expect. I’ve talked about it a lot in 1:1s with mentees, but I’ve never shared this full story before.
Why I transitioned to a Manager role
I was reluctant to become a manager to say the least. I had considered it for years and every year I decided to remain an IC. I like doing the work and I think the same goes for a lot of IC designers which is what makes this a hard decision. But a few factors converged in 2020 that made me take the leap.
First, the Social Impact org at Meta was growing quickly as we were launching new products like the COVID-19 Information Center, building up an Equity team, preparing for the 2020 election, and seeing growth in our existing products like Fundraisers and Crisis Response. We needed another manager on the team and I was a natural choice.
Second, I was looking around and seeing world-class designers doing the best work of their lives. While in retrospect, I was doing the same, it’s hard to not feel imposter syndrome and the creeping sense that “I’ll never be that good”. Think that long enough and you’ll start looking around for roles where you won’t be compared to the same people.
Third, I knew that one day I would leave Meta (that day has not come yet) and that new role would likely require managing or building a team. I wanted to learn the skills and build the experience necessary for when that day came and Meta is a very nurturing and low-risk place to build that experience.
So, needless to say, around the middle of 2020 I transitioned from an IC to a Manager, leading a team of 9 designers across three product areas.
Some reflections:
No matter where you are in your career, there will always be someone better than you. Don’t let that influence your career decisions because no matter what you do there will always be someone better. Just keep developing your craft.
It’s good to step outside your comfort zone in order to grow and develop new skills and experiences.
Transitioning from IC to Manager
“You’ll have no idea what to do on day one.” This was an insight I got from Meagan Ryan, a former Meta colleague who had made the transition a year or two before me. She was right. As an IC my days were filled with working sessions with my content designer, meeting with engineers to share designs and understand technical constraints, roadmapping sessions with product managers, reviewing in-progress builds with engineers and offering feedback, and if I was lucky, long stretches of heads down time to design. On day one as a manager I no longer did any of these things.
To better understand what I would be doing as a manager I read Julie Zhu’s “The Making of a Manager”. A key takeaway is that Managers are in charge of three things: people, process, and product.
People
As a manager, your clearest responsibility is for the people you manage. You gain their trust, remove barriers and blockers, match their skills and passions with work, ensure they have the resources and opportunities to grow in their career, and provide feedback early and often to ensure optimal performance and growth.
Process
As a manager, your peer group changes. Whereas before your peers were UX Researchers, Engineers, and Data Scientists, now your peers are UX Research Managers, Engineering Managers, and Data Science Managers. These peers are in a similar position where they too are no longer doing the work. Therefore, one of the main responsibilities of this management level is to create and enforce the processes that help the organization execute faster and with higher quality. This might include design critiques, product reviews, product demos, sprints, retrospectives, hackathons, quarterly all hands, and more. You, along with your management peers, are responsible for the health not only of your individual reports, but also of the entire org.
Product
Product is where you have the biggest overlap between IC and management. Both are concerned with product impact but they come at it from different angles. Whereas the IC designer is “responsible” for product outcomes, the manager is “accountable”. The way I like to think about this is if the redesign/new feature launch/etc goes well the IC designer gets all the credit; if it doesn’t go well, the manager gets all the blame. What this means for the manager is they should be providing steer and feedback, de-risking, ensuring the team knows what success looks like, setting proper expectations with leadership, etc.
The first year or so was a period of intense growth and learning as I adjusted to my new reality. But by the time I felt like I knew how to provide value and have impact was when I started understanding the toll the job was taking on me.
Some reflections:
The transition to manager can be a bit of shock, especially day 1. Ahead of time be sure to talk to other design managers. Get a sense for what their day-to-day is like and how they have impact in their role.
“The Making of a Manager” is a great book and lays out some great frameworks for how to be an effective manager. Highly recommend.
Why I transitioned back to IC
The first, which felt like a cruel irony was that, just like I had compared myself to other ICs, now I was comparing myself to other managers. And as it turns out, no matter what your role, there will always be someone better than you. I found myself surrounded by incredible managers: supportive, able to see around corners and provide incredible feedback and oozing empathy. I couldn’t compete on any vector.
The second was that I didn’t feel like I was providing as much value to the company. Of course it wasn’t a fair comparison because I had been an IC for a decade and a manager for a year but trying to project into the future, it didn’t feel like I was going to get to an inflection point where my management skills surpassed my IC skills. My rational mind tells me that was likely not the case, but it is how I felt at the time.
The third reason was that, as an introvert, I felt drained by the day-to-day tasks of management—wall-to-wall meetings, endless 1:1s and internalizing the needs and emotions of others. As knowledge workers, and especially as designers, we think about work outside of working hours. In the car on the way home, in the shower, while falling asleep at time. As far as I’m concerned, this is a not bad thing; the idea of work-life balance isn’t the goal people think it is. But for me, the types of work problems that consumed my mind at home were not energizing. They were stressful. How do I help so-and-so overcome the hurdle they’re facing on that project? Does so-and-so have enough scope to get the promotion they’re hoping for? How do I help resolve the interpersonal issues between so-and-so and so-and-so? How am I going to land feedback tactfully to so-and-so. Not only would I come home drained from meetings but then these were the things that would fill my head.
The breaking point was becoming a father. It put into perspective the toll all of these things were taking on my mental health and home life. I needed to feel like I was having more impact and to come home with more energy. The decision made itself—I was switching back to an IC role.
Some reflections:
Comparison is the thief of joy. Similar to my first reflection, no matter what your role, there will always be someone better than you. Although it’s hard, try to keep your blinders on and focus more on your impact and your growth than on that of others.
It’s impossible to not think about work outside of working hours. Attempt to reflect on the way this impacts you. Is it stressful? Is it energizing? What does that tell you about your role?
Transitioning from Manager back to IC
A change like this can often trigger imposter syndrome. I had been out of the game for a bit and needed to prove that I still had it. What I didn’t expect was that my three years as a manager gave me skills that made me a far more skilled and effective IC.
While I advocate strongly for the Super IC career path, for this reason I also encourage everyone to try management.
☝️I learned how to manage up
There’s a sayings that goes: "One of the best ways to get ahead is to make your boss look good." I’ve found this to be true. Here are the ways I do that now as an IC:
Understand my managers goals: You can’t effectively manage up if you don’t know not only your manager’s goals, but also their weaknesses and frustrations. An understanding of these will help with the following points.
Make my manager better at their job: A main job of managers and org leaders is to review documents and strategies and offer feedback and guidance. As a Super IC you are often the one drafting or working with the team leads to draft these documents. Take that insider information and brief your manager on the fine points and nuance. Offer specific talking points or areas to poke. Not only will it help them provide more focused feedback but they will also look highly informed to their peers.
Make my manager’s life easier: Another main objective of a manager is to unblock their team and give them the right environment to do their best work. As a Super IC you can make their life easier by unblocking yourself. Don’t just bring them a problem. Bring them a problem paired with a solution and solicit feedback. Better yet solve the problem and let them know about it later. Take initiative and unblock yourself.
Finally, as a manager one of your main jobs is to move information around. You take in information from leadership and partner teams and move it down to your team. You take in information from your team and move it up and out to leadership and partner teams. Knowing how this flow of information works as an IC makes you a better communicator and collaborator with your manager, your leadership and your partner teams.
🤝 I learned how to have impact through others
Most product impact is had completely indirectly as a manager. Through providing feedback, clearing hurdles, and mentoring members of the team you indirectly impact the product outcomes. As a Super IC this has helped me better influence others, collaborate with partner teams and align goals.
It’s easy to say “here’s how I’d do that”. It’s much harder to say “how would you approach that?” and then gently nudge and prompt them to the desired outcome.
It reminds me of the movie Inception. DiCaprio explains that you need to plant an idea so deep that the dreamer believes the idea was theirs. In much to same way, if you just tell someone how to do something they aren’t internalizing it and may reject it as it is not part of their process. On the other hand, if you ask questions and gently guide then they came to the outcome on their own and can repeat the process.
🤜🤛 I learned how to help others grow in their career
Similar to understanding the goals of your manager, it helps to know the goals of your peers. I try to get to know my coworkers on a personal level which breaks the ice to have deeper conversations about their growth areas and career goals.
I’m able to identify opportunities and gro wth areas of others and use that to build a strong bench and have more impact together than we could each have individually.
By understanding this you are better to able to contextualize their actions and give them wins that further their goals. By lifting up your coworkers you are empowering the entire team.
Some reflections:
During any career transition, you can find ways to carry over skills or insights from your previous roles. It’s worth reflecting on what went well or what skills you learned and how it can apply to your new role.
In a world where IC and management career ladders are parallel, switching between the two is neither a promotion nor a demotion. So if you switch to management and it’s not for you, you shouldn’t feel bad about switching back.
Overall I’ve been incredibly pleased with the transition back to IC. This story and these insights are what led me to start writing about the Super IC. The professional and personal impacts the transition has had on my life are immeasurable.
While I believe that all designers should be able to grow in their career without needing to switch to management, I also believe that management is a great learning opportunity that can help you be an even better Super IC.