Does your manager care about good design? Is he or she an advocate for good design? This post will help you discover how ‘design enlightened’ your boss is—and show you how to turn an unenlightened boss into a design advocate

Have you ever had a conversation like this?

You: “Um, boss man?”

Middle Manager: “Yes, my amazing designer, what can I do for you today?”

You: “Did you see my e-mail about buying those two fonts for our site?”

Middle Manager: “Uh… yeah… of course… I always read my team’s e-mails first and respond to them quickly as possible. But, uh, I don’t remember seeing it. Must be that darn Exchange server again. Remember how it lost that e-mail when you wanted to update your Photoshop software?”

You: “Ah yes, I do remember.”

Middle Manager: “So, how much are these fonts?”

You: “Well, these fonts would account for $400 of the project’s $400,000 budget.”

Middle Manager: “WHA?!? $400 for a couple fonts? My machine has tons of ‘em. Arial, Verdana, Wingdings,you name it! Can’t we just use one of them?”

You: “We could use Georgia,I guess.”

Middle Manager: “That sounds great! But don’t worry, I’ll ask the management team and see if we can find some budget to apply to this. No need to follow up on this, I will just send you an e-mail, blah, blah, blah…”

You: “Sigh.”

If this conversation sounds familiar, your middle manager is probably in the zero phase of design enlightenment—otherwise known as designer hell. Fortunately, there are ways to get your manager out of hell and into design enlightenment. Here’s how:

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement is the first phase of design enlightenment. It consists of convincing your manager that design is good for the project/team/product/business. This is where you want to begin managing up*. Some of the tricks and tips you can use are:

• The holiday season is approaching. Get your team to chip in on a subscription to Fast Company (no, I’m not getting paid to say this!) or other design-advocating publication for your manager. You could even do it anonymously.
• Pull the Apple card. There’s a chapter about Apple in almost every design book I read. And since Apple creates a lot of products known even to your boring manager (iPods, iPhones & iPads), you can easily demonstrate how the company used design to get where they are. Remember to mention that you’ve always thought your manager would look good in a black turtleneck.
• Talk about the new design hotness around the water cooler. Here’s the dirty little secret of middle managers: they hate to be out of the loop about what the cool kids are doing. So when your manager is around, start saying things like “Hey, did you see the corporate library just got Change By Design? It’s sick!” or “I’m glad we started thinking about UX before (insert your manager’s nemesis) team did.” and maybe even “I’m totally getting a shirt from Threadless that says: Human Centered Design is the new black!”

I’m being cheeky, but the goal is to get your manager exposed to and thinking about good design.

When your manager says something like, “we should spend more time thinking through how someone will use this before we work on implementation,” he or she has probably completed Phase One. 

Acceptance

During the Acceptance phase, your manager begins incorporating design into the process and treating it as important as implementation. The manager also realizes that design is much more than aesthetics in this phase—it’s the whole of the problem.

At this point, your boss is finally starting to “get it”. But this is also the phase where upper management will ask why there’s a $400 charge for fonts on his expense report or why the schedule is taking 20% more time than the last project. So be sure to give your manager ROI (return on investment) facts that show how design phases (e.g. user research, brainstorming, ideation, etc.) are valuable to the project.

Trust

Trust is probably the hardest phase for managers, because they have to really put their faith in you and the team. I can attest that this phase is especially difficult for middle managers, because upper management places the burden on them to deliver.

How do you help your manager trust you? Make it easy. For example, don’t mail it in. I can see when someone has mailed in on a design. Always put your best work forward regardless of the constraints you’re under.

Also, treat your design as you would the code for a health care app. If you’re using a certain color or font, for example, be prepared to say why. It’s perfectly acceptable to say that you just used your judgment or thought the color blended well with the other colors in the site. Bonus points for referencing the color palette. Responding with “I dunno” isn’t acceptable.

A manager who approves your latest design even though “they aren’t feeling it” is probably in the Trust phase.

Advocate

In the Advocate phase, managers not only get it, but also become advocates for good design. Elevating design beyond aesthetics to design thinking becomes a personal mission, and your manager is willing to fight for design.

Tell Us Your Stories

You can support your manager by being an advocate yourself, and by showing others how design can solve all kinds of problems. I wish I could say that I’ve reached the Advocate phase. But at least I’m aware of where I’m at and continue to strive toward Advocacy. I suggest other middle managers do the same. So let me ask you this: Would you add another phase? How have you helped your manager on his or her way to being an advocate? Or just tell us your horror story about a middle manager’s lack of design empathy. Please share in the comments below.

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