Before taking your next role, figure out how and when you plan to leave.
illustration by Storytale
Early in my career, before I became a people manager, I would say that I knew it was time to leave a job when I was no longer learning. Learning my craft, new techniques or processes, how to manage clients or projects. As I grow in my career, I still want to learn, it’s a driving factor in each new role I take, but now I’m much better at finding new things to learn without leaving a job. Now my focus is on teaching, what will I bring to a company, to my team in order to feel like I’ve reached a level of success there, and know it’s time to move on, from the role, the team, or the company.
When I start a new job I immediately start the process of designing myself out of the role as soon as possible.
Every company is different and what they need from you is as well. Sometimes you start, thinking you’ll spend your time building the team, or shepherding the product forward, sometimes you end up doing something entirely different… What might those other things look like?
Establishing role standards for what is expected at each level of seniority, articulating the deltas between them to create a clear plan for growth and set expectations for performance reviews and promotionGrowing beyond legacy business metrics (funnels, basic click-through-rates, sales, cart value) into measuring actual user success, happiness, confidence, and frustration, at scale.Building links between functions, even successful products may still have chasms in the knowledge between the functional teams. Do engineers really know the design process? Do the designers understand how to read and interpret analytics dashboards. Respect, and eagerness to collaborate starts with understanding.What got you here won’t get you there, when you join a team at an established company things could looks great, meetings may run smoothly, people get along, and its business as usual. Will that get you where you need to be as a company? If not, you may need to be the forcing function for process or organizational change.
But upon learning more you realize the biggest impact you can have it something completely different, sometimes things that don’t even feel like design…
illustration by Storytale
Early in your career what are your goals? For many, its a specific title, a salary with a certain number of commas, a recognizable company name on your resume. These aren’t wrong, but you’ll get tired of them, I promise. One of the questions I ask when I’m interviewing for a role or onboarding in a company is, “what change in this organization would cause you to start looking for something new?” Going into a role it’s good to know what people consider core to their company and its culture, it’s not that those things are unchangeable, but you have to be sensitive and intentful when planning changes in those areas.
Challenge yourself now, what are your personal goal as a manager? For me it’s a team that wants me around but doesn’t feel they need me. Its getting my top performers promoted. Its getting my most insightful team members to write, give talks, teach classes, and share their knowledge. Getting my most quiet and introverted to understand they can be leaders (and if they want, managers) as well, leadership isn’t about speaking loudly in front of groups but in cultivating trust and influence.
Further Reading…
What Maslow’s Hierarchy Won’t Tell You About Motivation by Susan FowlerHow to Motivate Your Problem People by Nigel Nicholsonillustration by Storytale
For Individual Contributors
I would say to my team members, “design yourself out of a job and we’ll find you a better one.” It can be scary for some people to take steps that could eliminate their own role, or make it no longer level-appropriate through process improvements or automation, they may be concerned about job security, of overstepping bounds, or simply not being recognized for the work outside the scope of their current assigned role.
Do the job of your manager (but ask first!), look at what takes up your manager’s time and figure out what parts of that feel like a step up in responsibility, visibility, or complexity for you, it could be logistical things like running a reoccurring crit, stand-up, or cross-functional sync meeting. Handling an intern programme or on-boarding process for new team members, taking the lead in planning an offsite, sprint, or other strategic team event. Take a more active role in one of these things, and then approach your manager in a 1+1 and ask if they’d be open to you taking it over…completely. Let them know why you want to and how you’ll make sure they know the outcomes of it later. Focus on the win-win of them getting their time back to focus on something more appropriate to their skills and goals while you have the opportunity to work toward a stretch goal of your own.
Early in my career, especially at smaller companies you end up taking on every role; no Writer / Content Designer? That’s you now. No Prototyper? also you. At bigger companies things tend to get more specialized, that doesn’t mean you still can’t step into the shoes of another function, find someone who’s doing something interesting and ask to shadow them, see what they do, what tools they use, how they work with other function, and what their deliverables look like. Make sure to not miss any of the core requirements of your day-to-day job, and even if you don’t decide to go down that path, you’ll always be better at working with that person and their function in the future.
Real leadership has little to do with seniority, no matter what your role is, identifying something the company should be doing and isn’t (or is doing and shouldn’t) is a way that you can show leadership in your role, no matter how early in your career you are.
Further Reading
Articulating your value as an individual contributor by Caio BragaMaintaining a growth mindset by Ed Orozco
For People Managers
What do manager goals look like? Shepherding a major project from concept to launch, growing a team in size, skill, or creating structure that helps get work done more effectively. Creating a safe and supportive space. These are just a few examples. For me, these tend to make the top of my list over and over again:
Identifying the big bets (and the critical small ones): As a manager, you need to be able to spot the opportunities that have the potential to significantly impact the company or team. But, just as importantly, it’s about recognizing those small, often overlooked projects that can provide immediate value, spark innovation, or refine processes. Both the big and small bets require careful thought, resources, and attention to execution.Finding who is bored and needs something new and challenging: Keeping your team engaged is one of your core responsibilities. People don’t thrive in stagnation. It’s important to stay attuned to the energy and enthusiasm of your team members. If someone feels uninspired or stagnant, it’s up to you to identify those individuals and work with them to find new challenges or opportunities for growth. This not only increases motivation but also helps retain top talent.Identifying what parts of your job are appropriate to delegate: Effective delegation is a hallmark of strong leadership. As a manager, you can’t (and shouldn’t) do everything. The key is understanding which tasks can be handed off to others, whether they are operational or more strategic in nature. Delegating work helps empower your team, build trust, and also frees you up to focus on bigger priorities. Delegation doesn’t mean abdicating responsibility, but rather giving others the space to grow while you concentrate on shaping the bigger picture.Creating an environment where people feel safe to fail, and take on big challenges: A big part of your role is fostering a culture where risk-taking is encouraged, and failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. People are more likely to innovate and take on big challenges when they know it’s okay to fail and grow from their mistakes. You must lead by example — showing vulnerability and resilience in your own work, admitting when you don’t have all the answers, and making it clear that trying and failing is a normal part of the journey.Being okay with handing off some scary stuff: Often, as a manager, you’ll feel the instinct to protect your team or shelter them from high-stakes or difficult tasks. However, giving team members the chance to tackle challenging, sometimes intimidating, responsibilities helps them grow in confidence and skill. Stepping back and allowing them to take the reins builds trust, empowers them, and develops their leadership potential.Cultivating successors: As a manager, it’s your responsibility to not only build and strengthen your current team but also to prepare for the future. This means actively identifying high-potential team members and mentoring them into leadership roles. A good manager works themselves out of a job by cultivating successors who can step in and take over key responsibilities, ensuring that the team and the organization continue to thrive even after you move on.
Doing Your Manager’s Job
Every one-on-one you have with your manager is an opportunity to talk about what takes up their time and mental bandwidth. It’s important to manage up and down. While you’re focused on your own leadership responsibilities, don’t forget that your manager likely has their own set of challenges and priorities. Understanding how you can help alleviate their burden or take on certain tasks can strengthen your relationship and demonstrate initiative. Ask them questions about what they’re struggling with, what projects need attention, and how you can help them make more strategic decisions. This transparency and collaboration make you more effective in your role and show that you’re a valuable partner, not just a direct report.
By understanding the nuances of your manager’s role and the pressure they’re under, you’ll become better at supporting them while also excelling at your own leadership tasks. A reciprocal relationship where both parties understand each other’s challenges and needs allows both of you to be more successful and aligned.
illustration by Storytale
Find your motivation, here and elsewhere
Work is a lot like dating. Each role, each company teaches you something new about yourself — what you like, what you don’t, and how you collaborate with others. You get better at recognizing patterns in your own motivation, communication, and work style. Just like relationships evolve, so does your career.
When you’re just starting out, motivation may come from tangible markers: promotions, titles, recognition. Over time, it shifts. The excitement of proving yourself fades, and what becomes more important is the impact you’re making, the people you’re mentoring, and the larger picture you’re contributing to.
You may notice patterns in the roles and companies that excite you. Some people stay in their first job or with their first employer for years, often out of comfort. But like any long-term relationship, it can lose its spark if growth isn’t there. The trick is knowing when to move forward — when the job no longer challenges you or aligns with your evolving goals.
Each job is just a chapter in your career story, and you’re the one writing it. The key is to keep evolving, to stay connected to what drives you, and to be open to new opportunities that align with that. Whether it’s finding new challenges within your current role or seeking something entirely different, remember: motivation is not static. You get to define what success looks like as you go.
illustration by Storytale
Hand off the scary stuff, not just the boring stuff
I once heard being a Manager likened to being a janitor… It’s your job to do the things that need to be done, but that no one necessarily wants to do. Preparing for emergencies that may never happen, ensuring the mental space the team occupies is ready for anything, and doing the cleanup (backlog, documentation libraries, onboarding materials, processes, and contact methods, are always up-to-date and relevant) that keeps a team running smoothly.
It’s not always about success, sometimes it’s about trying! Its ok to fail, its ok to take the wrong path, its ok to “waste” time… as long as you’re learning from your mistakes. As a manager it can be tempting to be the one in the front of the room, representing your team’s achievements, being the one who answers the hard questions from executive leaders, after all you have the most training, know these stakeholder better than anyone on your team, and you trust yourself. Don’t do it! Step back, and shine the light on your team, be the note taker sitting at the edge of the room, sit in the eyeline of the people on your team presenting their work, there to offer a calming smile, a reminder to pause, breathe, and take their time.
Role playing, and rehearsing presentations can be helpful mentally preparing your team members for difficult or challenging things they need to in the course of their work, but the reality is they may never get over their nerves (you might not either) and that’s ok. Don’t protect your team from every opportunity to get hurt or scared, instead, prepare them as best you can, and be there for them when they need you.
illustration by Storytale
Leave a legacy, but also leave some room
When choosing to leave a team or a company it can feel like you need to spell out everything for your successor, but being too detailed and too prescriptive can cause patterns to ossify. It’s always a bad sign when you ask why things are done a certain way at a company and the only thing people can answer is “its just the way it’s always been…”
When I worked at Google we had a saying that was a response to someone asking what the “Google way of doing something” was, we’d say, “what’s the best way to do it?” What we meant was that when you hire smart, creative people, making those people conform to some standard way of doing things didn’t make any sense. Instead, every hire is an opportunity to improve, learn, and grow from that person’s experience and expertise, no matter if they’ve been working for 15 years or just graduated the month before. New ideas come from inviting people to try doing things differently, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t.
So how do you leave just the right amount of guidance? Unfortunately there is no formula, every team is different, but I’ll outline some best practices.
Make sure the team has evergreen goals and motivations, not just a roadmap and a mission statement. Work with your team to define a plan that is durable enough to weather changes to annual planning cycles, the whims of changing tech landscape, and the comings and goings of team members.Set up processes that improve quality, and are self explanatory, no one likes process for process sake. If you’re clear about what the goal of a process is then later, people can improve on it, with the intent of getting even closer to the original goal of the process itself!Ensure people feel trusted and empowered, constantly reinforce that you, their manager, are not there to police them, to reprimand them, but to create an environment for their success, their growth, and to be their biggest champion. While it will be a shock, and possibly even hurtful to them when you leave, if they feel empowered, they will continue to create the environment that you fostered even without you.Plan short and inspire long. So much can change in a company and with the product landscape in a very short time, finding the right balance between annual planning (too long!) and quarterly planning (too brief) is critical, work with your team to define longer term vision (multi-year), but plan work towards those goals at a much shorter time span.
Wrapping it all up
At the end of the day, the journey of being a design manager is about evolution — both for yourself and the teams you lead. It’s not just about building processes or hitting milestones; it’s about creating an environment where your team can thrive without you, where you can step away and see them continue to grow. Your impact is measured not just by what you accomplish, but by how you set others up for success.
Remember that the goal isn’t to hold onto a job forever but to build a foundation that allows you to pass the torch smoothly, knowing that you’ve created something sustainable. Embrace the messiness of it all — processes will fail, things won’t go as planned, and there will be moments of doubt. But that’s where growth happens. Both for you and your team.
So design yourself out of a job, but also design in a way that leaves room for the next chapter — one where you can look back and feel proud of what you’ve built and excited for what’s to come.
Design yourself out of a job… so you’re ready for the next one was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
