# Carrie's Manager Readme

**Staff Product Designer & Design Manager at Fortis Games**

# Leadership tenets

My philosophy on leadership focuses on creating clarity from chaos, building psychological safety, and focusing relentlessly on outcomes.

## **1. Clarity from Purpose, People, and Process**

I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all management or communication. 

I align teams by making the "why" crystal clear, pairing the right team members based on complementary skills and stretch goals, and adapting processes to reduce thrash and drive momentum.

Progress over perfection!

## **2. Feedback is a Structured Gift**

Feedback shouldn't be a guessing game. I use clear, structured frameworks (like Situation-Behaviour-Impact) and explicitly check for mental bandwidth before delivering it.

Whether it's coaching a designer to senior level or having a tough conversation, candid honesty always trumps delaying uncomfortable truths.

## **3. Lead with Empathy, Design with Intention**

Great products come from healthy teams. I lead by example (or provide it when asked), maintaining a coaching mindset and prioritizing team morale. 

I actively fight burnout, embrace neurodivergent-inclusive practices, and guide teams through the messy middle of the design squiggle to find clarity and deliver real impact.

We often forget about the journey when we solve problems, so I make sure to add some fun and remember we're all humans doing our best.

# My Management Playbook

## **1. On Management**

My approach to management is heavily influenced by Julie Zhuo's _The Making of a Manager_: I focus on identifying the right questions, understanding the outcomes and motivations of my team, and finding the best ways to support them.

I also view leadership through James Scouller's _Three Levels of Leadership_:

- **Personal** : Over the years, I’ve recovered from burnout, learned to reframe my perspective, and overcome perfectionism. This self-awareness makes me a stronger, more resilient leader.
- **Private (1:1)**: I focus heavily on mentorship and will work towards your goals. I recently coached an Intermediate Product Designer through self-doubt and after our work together, the VP Platform Product noted, "She made tons of progress and is now performing as a very reliable senior."
- **Public (Team)**: I foster psychological safety and collaboration, especially as remote environments can feel isolating. For instance, I introduced weekly design jams to support remote-friendly creative exercises and team bonding.

## **1. On Feedback**

Drawing from Sheila Heen's_Thanks for the Feedback_, I recognize that people look for three things: appreciation, evaluation, or coaching. I spend a lot of time giving kudos and mentoring, but when it's time for constructive feedback, structure is key.

**My Feedback Framework:**

- **The Consent Check** : "I'd like to share feedback on [situation] because of [reason] so that [goal]. Do you have mental bandwidth to process it now?"
- **The SBI Model** : Situation, Behaviour, Impact.

Here's an example: When I kept missing key project updates from an Engineering Manager, I used SBI to address it. Instead of saying "Stop forgetting to communicate with me," I shared:

- **Situation** : During the last three incidents
- **Behaviour** : The solutions weren't communicated with me
- **Impact** : When you were away, I couldn't provide sufficient updates to leadership and had difficulties identifying ways design could have helped our users (Impact)

I also utilize HubSpot's feedback spectrum to clarify the weight of input when making updates:

- **FYI** : Just so you know.
- **Suggestion** : Try this, or don't.
- **Recommendation** : I strongly advise this, but you own the decision.
- **Plea** : We need to do this.

## 3. **On Design Philosophy**

The design process is never a straight line. Newman's Design Squiggle and Yamashita's writings on WIP perfectly capture the dynamic nature of building products (read more on my[Medium article](https://carriemahplay.medium.com/how-the-design-process-has-changed-in-the-last-decade-307e20afeeb9)).

The key is learning when to lean back to the process, and accepting when you need to go rogue so that you and the team can drive outcomes. Test ideas rapidly, use AI to prototype and validate faster, and apply learnings immediately.

**The Expectation** : Perfectly follow a design method with zero issues.

**The Reality** : Uncertainty → identifying patterns & insights and moving towards Clarity.

## My Core Design Principles:

- **Be thoughtful and intentional** : Develop "human judgment." Learn how different cultures work, observe actual user behavior, note industry shifts, and analyze how other disciplines create.
- **Experiment, learn & adapt quickly** : Know when to stick to a process and when to go rogue. Test ideas rapidly, apply learnings immediately, and focus on driving outcomes.
- **Progress \> perfection** : Accept the unknowns. Make the best possible decisions with the available info, budget, and time. Move forward with incremental improvements and bring others along for the ride.

## 4. **Design Leadership Philosophy**

These are the core tenets I live by day-to-day:

- **Seek the root cause** : Understand the "why" and root cause over making assumptions.
- **Lead by example** : Outcomes always matter more than outputs.
- Move quickly, choose deliberately, and refine relentlessly (Credit: Yamashita, CPO Figma).
- **Work out loud** : Share and test work early, often, and communicate frequently.
- **Feedback is a gift** : Use structure (HubSpot's FYI, suggestion, recommendation, plea) to make it actionable.
- **Leave no one behind** : Guide people through the journey. If someone is struggling, let's acknowledge it, find a reframe, and create a concrete plan with measurable data.
- **Embrace trade-offs** : There is no single "best" approach—only trade-offs and risks to mitigate.
- **Candor over comfort** : Honest conversations are better than delaying the inevitable.
- **Protect the culture:**  Team morale is paramount. I actively flag toxicity and poor fits to maintain a healthy, high-performing environment.

# 5. 1:1s

I usually book weekly meetings with direct reports and minimize shifting because working on your development is one of my top priorities.

I let you drive the 1:1, so I invite you to come with questions, concerns and thoughts. It's not just a status report but a pulse check - how are you doing as a person and what can I support with or unblock you from?

Every month / quarter, I typically ask a list of reflection questions because understanding your performance shouldn't wait until review cycles.

# 6. Personality quirks

I have a neurodivergent brain so please be a bit patient with me if I need something repeated or clarified a few different times. I would also prefer candid feedback over silence and am committed to adjusting my approaches and systems based on the individual or team.

Likewise, I provide a lot of context because my brain likes to fit in missing puzzles pieces, so don't be afraid to interrupt me!

Thanks for reading!