One of the things I love about working at Facebook is the emphasis we put on personal growth and the objectives people have for their careers. We believe a person shouldn’t have to be a manager in order to lead people at the company. Strong leadership from individual contributors (ICs) drives product development, and as a designer it’s the best way to develop in your career. In fact it’s the reason the IC and manager tracks are parallel, not sequential. Becoming a manager isn’t seen as a promotion, it just means you’re shifting your focus.

1. WE BELIEVE A PERSON
SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE A
MANAGER IN ORDER TO LEAD
PEOPLE AT THE COMPANY
Andrew Lucas-Walsh

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BECOMING A MANAGER ISN’T
SEEN AS A PROMOTION, IT
JUST MEANS YOU’RE SHIFTING
YOUR FOCUS.

3. Andrew Lucas-Walsh 3
Andrew Lucas-Walsh
Originally from the UK, I now live in San
Francisco with my wife, Chloe and our
cats. I've been at Facebook since 2014, as
both a product designer and a manager.
Prior to Facebook I was in startups,
working on products for healthcare,
productivity and app A/B testing tools, as
well as some time working for creative
agencies in Bristol and London.

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Key things for
Becoming a
Design Leader

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1
Drive Discussions
A team I used to be on was thinking of ways they could grow a
particular metric. A lot of ideas that were gathering popularity felt really
hacky, people were focused on pushing the metric and not the end
experience. In this situation, simply saying no and pushing back against
these ideas was the most valuable thing I could do.
What’s the important topic that no one’s talking about?

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THE TOUGHEST PROBLEMS
GET SOLVED WHEN YOU CAN
HAVE HARD CONVERSATIONS
WITH YOUR TEAM.
Drive Discussions

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2
Drive Initiatives
A designer and researcher I work with were digging through research
insights during a design sprint. They highlighted an area our team
wasn’t really thinking about. By the end of that week, they’d developed
a prototype showing how we could tackle this opportunity. This got the
rest of the product team really excited about the idea, and it’s now on
our roadmap. If you think an initiative is important and you can prove
its value, you’re best positioned to make sure it gets built.
What opportunities can you see that no one else is working on?

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DISCOVER OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOUR TEAM, FRAME
AND PRESENT THEM.
Drive Initiatives

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3
Collaborate Beyond your Design Team
ICs I work with are active at maintaining relationships with other teams,
even when there’s not specific reasons to do so. These relationships
make future collaboration much easier.
What teams have a shared interest in the problem you’re trying to solve
and how could you connect them? So much of our work relies on the
relationships we form and how we can navigate and connect the dots
between people and teams. At companies of all sizes, it’s easy for silos
to form and similar streams of work to run in parallel.

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LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES
TO SHOWCASE WHAT YOU
WORK ON AND INVITE
OTHERS TO SHARE AS WELL.
IF THIS FORUM DOESN’T
EXIST, TAKE THE INITIATIVE
TO SET ONE UP.
Collaborate Beyond your Design Team

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4
Seek Feedback Often
I used to work with a product manager that carved out an hour 1:1
meeting for us every week. Most of the time (if it wasn’t raining), we’d
walk through Regents Park and talk about work and life in general. I
realized that these walks were the perfect opportunity to get feedback
on how I was doing and how I could improve. Product managers often
have great insight into the way you work with the rest of your team, so
lean on them for feedback.
Who are the people you work with that would give you the most useful, honest feedback?

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FINDING PEOPLE AND
TALKING WITH THEM
REGULARLY IS A GOOD
WAY TO GROW.
Seek Feedback Often

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5
Don’t wait on anyone else
Recently, a designer I work with ran a quality sprint, to fix design and
experience bugs for the products we work on. They weren’t asked to do
it and they didn’t ask if they should do it. They saw that it was valuable
and got people together to make it happen.
What processes can you start to do on your own? If you’re relying on
your manager to drive a project forward, or manage meetings and
communications with another team, these are all things you can do.

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IF A PROJECT ISN’T BEING RUN
THE WAY YOU THINK IT
SHOULD BE, TALK DIRECTLY TO
THE PEOPLE ON THAT PROJECT,
RATHER THAN WAITING FOR
YOUR MANAGER TO RELAY IT
TO THE TEAM.
Don’t wait on anyone else

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6
Mentor
When I was working in the London office, we had a mentor for every
new designer that joined the team. It was especially important in a
smaller office, where we had less people that could support new
people.
What are you great at that others can benefit from? Whether you
mentor people on your own team or beyond, there’s always
opportunities to help others develop

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A GOOD STARTING POINT
COULD BE TO SHARE
WHAT YOU’RE NOT GOOD
AT, SO YOU CAN SET
EXPECTATIONS AND BRING
OTHER PEOPLE IN TO HELP.
Mentor

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7
Be Vulnerable
Facebook was the first place I had conversations about personal growth
and career development. These conversations made me reflect on the
areas I needed to develop, and how I could tackle them over time.
What are the areas you know you need to develop in?

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TALK TO YOUR PEERS, YOUR
MANAGER AND PEOPLE THAT
HAVE FOLLOWED A SIMILAR
PATH. BE OPEN AND HONEST
WITH THEM, SO THEY’RE BEST
SET UP TO HELP YOU OUT.
Be Vulnerable

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These points aren’t meant to be a checklist. Leaders aren’t always
strong at all of these things and there’s not one approach that will
work for everyone. Focusing on one or two of these behaviours is
a great place to start.

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When I was starting out in the London office and the theme of
leadership came up, I was still relatively new to the company and it
was kind of daunting.
You wonder: What it is you can offer in the form of leadership?
I hadn’t totally realized the impact I could have on my team,
outside of just producing design work.

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After being encouraged to mentor people in the
London office, I realized it was something I really
enjoyed and was a large part of why I became a
manager. But, the point is that growing as a
designer and having more influence doesn’t have
to mean becoming a manager.

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IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO GROW AS
A LEADER, DON’T WAIT FOR
SOMEONE TO PROMOTE YOU INTO
THAT POSITION. UNCOVER THE
AREAS WHERE YOU CAN LEAD
AND JUST START DOING IT.
- Andrew Lucas-Walsh
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