Kristie

Welcome back to another episode of Flux and today we are joined by Kimberly Callery. Great to have you, if you can tell us a bit about yourself, your journey into design and insight into your current position.

Kim

Sure Kristie, thanks for having me.

I am presently the Senior Director of Design at DataDog, I oversee a portfolio of data observability products, and I lead a global design team. My previous experiences include IBM, where I spent seven years culminating into my role as a design executive. I oversaw a team of 50 plus designers and I managed the Watson Customer Care and Business Analytics portfolio. My journey in design is complemented by experiences in user experience, gaming, teaching, and they've all enriched me in mentoring, coaching, my growth and leadership. I consider myself quite fortunate.

I've been immersed in arts, from a young age, I started oil painting, younger than I probably should have, thanks to my parents, and I continue to take art classes all throughout my career. I think my parents had a little bit of reservation when I announced I was going to art school, but they ultimately supported my decision. I attended the College for Creative Studies, where everything culminated, and my career began at that point. Becoming a design leader has always been a personal aspiration for me and I've been really blessed with a network of sponsors, allies and mentors who have consistently guided me on this path to leadership and design

Kristie

Thanks Kim, that was definitely a short version of an extensive career that you've had with some successful teams. I suppose a big question and something that is cropping up a lot more now is transitioning into a leader and how you go about that. So how did you transition from being hands on designer into taking on more of a leadership role?

Kim

Yeah, leadership is an integral in my identity, from the very beginning - to high school I wanted to be the leader of the flag team and I've always been that leader. But also, I credit my dad for instilling that quality in me, he's always been a leader as well. But throughout my career, I've found myself in leadership roles. If I go back even further, I worked at a tech computer camp over the summer, and I became the leader of those camps. I really cherish witnessing people's learning journeys, I like encouraging people to new do new things, even if it means facing failures and I like to provide the support for their growth.

Design leadership, for me is kind of the perfect blend of design and personal development and allowing me to be passionate in that area. So I've always let that be known to others and others have kind of learned that about me so that when these opportunities come up, they've been given to me or I've been given a choice to take them. I've been very lucky that I've held that goal all throughout.

Kristie

Yeah, I think for some people like yourself it comes very naturally taking on more of a leadership role whereas for other people it is a bit more of a conscious decision to change their characteristics or their natural way of doing things. What advice would you give to designers that are either looking to move into leadership role or take on more management responsibilities?

Kim

Yeah, it's crucial to possess a toolbox of skills to be an effective leader. While managing people is an important skill to refine, true leadership depends on the ability to chart this success for the business and the design team that you must work out. With design leaders, primary focus is driving success for users and products, which involves bridging those teams to foster a new perspective, innovative thinking and impactful delivery. To excel as a design leader, one must maintain a growth-oriented mindset, cultivate a robust network and be driven to make a positive impact for users. It's essential to start small, but continuously work on honing those skills. If you'd like I can kind of dig into those areas a little more.

Kristie

Yeah, that would be great to dig deeper.

Kim

Digging deeper, a growth-oriented mindset takes on various forms at different points in your career, but it really revolves around staying curious, perpetually evolving, consistently learning and with the ever-changing nature of our field and the world it serves to stay adaptable and evolving are paramount. If you're going to be a leader, not only do you have to continue to evolve, but your team is going to evolve, and you must evolve with them. If you're stagnant, if you're not reaching out, learning new things, trying new things, then you're not keeping up with your own team, or what your team needs, or what even you need as you grow.

Building that strong network that I talked about, this also serves multiple purposes. First, it gives you valuable insights into your performance. It helps you discern when you're at your best, or you need improvement. So, when you have a great network, those people are the ones that can also tell you like, 'Hey, this is not good, you need to improve.' They're also the ones that can be your cheerleaders and your supporters when you need it. Your network of mentors, allies and sponsors not only guide your personal growth, but also plays a crucial role in fostering the growth of your team, so a team member will come to you as a leader and say, 'I need help with this,' or 'I don't know where to go for this,' or 'how do I find out x' and if you don't have a network to point them to for the areas that you're not strong in then what do you do. It's not just a network as a solution. But it's another piece of that puzzle that can really make your team grow, and you grow as a leader.

And finally, focusing on making an impact for users is integral to design, product design, the tech world, user experience, whatever words you want to use. I firmly believe that design is pivotal to a business's success, particularly in the software realm. And so, when users can perform their tasks more efficiently, swiftly and securely, it's a win for everyone involved. Design leadership is all about creating this positive coordination between business and user satisfaction and I think we need to make sure that we're not just focused on one or the other. It's not about just people management, it's not just about the users, but it's about bringing all this together getting your team to really deliver an impact to the bottom line.

Kristie

Throughout your career, what are some of the toughest challenges you faced as a designer?

Kim

Yeah, that's a good question. I probably have two big challenges I come up against on a regular basis. In my experiences across the board, I've often found myself working with strong intelligent engineering leaders, typically male, while in the tech industry. And these individuals are driven and confident in their abilities, they're smart, they're fabulous people.

I often find myself in a position advocating for change, encouraging them to take a step back, invest more time in certain areas, and that may not always yield immediate visible results and so that's scary, I'm the risk. Bringing that change to these people, and then having them also be these leadership figures is always a balance I must bring in my life and in my career. And I think it's one that has influence how I become a leader, and what kind of leader I am sometimes, and I must keep myself in check on that as well.

The other one would be that I'm always challenged to have the right presence and influence in the room. I'm an extrovert, I naturally am confident, but when transitioning to new companies and new projects, there's a need to build understanding, facilitate learning, establish trust, especially since, again, I'm typically brought in to drive significant change. And so, my role involves leading and reshaping people's perspectives and gaining their trust all well remaining open to learning and adapting to the unique dynamics of the new product and company. I rely on my background and user research to navigate these. But I think each new encounter, you know, I have fresh lessons and opportunities for growth.

Kristie

Looking at the future of design, what excites you most?

Kim

I think the world of design is like endless opportunities for leaving our mark right now. It's a field that's continuously evolving, it presents new challenges and possibilities. As technology and AI continue to advance, we find ourselves entering a software landscape where opportunities are plentiful. I personally find fulfillment and working on projects that addressed real world issues and solve problems for people. It's a deeply rewarding aspect of design for me, and I believe there's untapped opportunities and space for us to kind of grow and adapt, and help people do what they're already trying to do.

Kristie

What is the best piece of advice you've been given?

Kim

I've been given a ton of advice in my life, which is good.

I think one of the ones goes back to college, so I'll tell a little story. I was at my college orientation, it was a small college at that time, your orientation group was around 5-10 students max touring the campus. And we had bulletin boards, yes, I admitted that we had some bulletin boards on the wall. And they got up there and emphasized how these bulletin boards hold opportunities for trying new things, finding employment, staying informed about campus events. And then they said, but most students don't look at the board and so they miss out on job prospects, financials, money, and so you should but most people don't. I took that very much to heart and I made it a habit to regularly read that bulletin board, which led me to securing scholarships, meetings, and internship, so this habit of staying informed and seeking opportunities has really stuck with me through the years. Obviously, the version of bulletin board has really changed nowadays, but trying to be involved in different things, not do at all, but have your pulse on things is important. I try to stay up to date and try to continue to learn and grow.

Kristie

Goes back to what you had said earlier about staying curious, which is a big thing for designers naturally. Going backwards - what advice would you give your younger self?

Kim

I would tell myself to embrace the opportunity to experiment, explore, and most importantly enjoy the journey more. I'm a pretty heads down person and well I want to be curious I think I could have done even more of that in my in my lifetime.

Kristie

Well, I always look at your career and think you've done an incredible job, you also must pat yourself on the back sometimes and realise how well you have done.

Any books or podcasts either about design or not about design that you would share with us?

Kim

The books that I still reference on a regular basis is Design for the digital age by Ken Goodwin. That book really talks about getting to how we think and why we're doing things. That's an invaluable skill that's not going away any anytime soon. From a leadership perspective, I tell a lot of people that are looking into leadership to read Herding Tigers, be the leader that creative people need by Todd Henry. That book helps people even if you're not a manager, but just a leader. If you're a leader and you want to know how to influence without authority, you want to know how to run things, that book gives you a nice base and I think it's a good reference guide.

Kristie

Lovely, I'll look at those. I always love hearing what advice people give on books or podcasts. Because like you said, some people are more prone to reading books and some podcasts - it's about finding your niche.

Thanks so much for just sharing your advice with us today, it's been short and sweet, and I really look forward to sharing it.

Kim

Thank you for having me, Kristie. I really appreciate it.

Kristie

Thanks, Kim.