Leadership Values
The most innovative teams are led by people who actively create a culture of trust where individuals feel supported and encouraged. To achieve this, I live by my values of honesty, vision, and understanding.
I lead seven user experience designers and three content designers who live across the US and Europe; we work and communicate using remote collaboration tools.
Contents:
Honesty
Honesty is an absolute requirement for building a high trust team. I model this by being transparent (when I can, but clearly communicating when I can’t).
“Thanks for always advocating for integrity and reason on the projects you’re on. It matters”
Melissa Vander Wilt,
Content Designer
“Such a pleasure to watch you wrangle and run a UX discovery session at CDCR! I also very much appreciate your candor and advice regarding work and all things design”
Lea Alcantra,
Design Director
“Thanks for the brainstorming session on our 1:1. I always appreciate your honest feedback.”
Ben Grace,
UX Designer
Vision
Once the brainstorming has happened and the discussion is over, it’s my responsibility to ensure the team has both clarity of purpose and consensus for action.
“Very much appreciated the discussion about vision & strategy for [experience] design this week.”
Chris Wallace,
Vice President, Experience Design
“Taylor does a good job of pulling the team back to connect the dots and see how everything fits together — specifically when teams start to silo and get hyper-focused on their own deliverables.”
Anonymous Coworker
“Pushing the UX standards at 10up forward – we are constantly evolving (in a good way) and Taylor’s leadership during this evolution is key to the success of 10up’s experience design team.”
Anonymous Coworker
Understanding
Human-centered design hinges on the ability for design teams to understand and empathize. Building highly productive design teams requires a similar effort—everyone wants to feel understood and heard.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate having your support and guidance as I explore my career here at 10up. You (and MVW!) have created an environment where I feel supported, empowered, and challenged (in a good way), and it is giving me so much more insight into myself, my work, and the things I’d like to learn and explore in the future. Having the freedom to share the not-so-nice things about myself (anxiety) and have you help me troubleshoot or point me in the direction of something that can help me grow is invaluable to me.”
Stephanie Leith,
Copywriter
“Being empathetic to your employees and their needs – more often than not I feel validated when I come to [Taylor] with an issue…”
Anonymous Coworker
Icon Attribution:
Scout’s Honor by Adam Parry from the Noun Project
Mountain by Normansyah from the Noun Project
love and care by Victoruler from the Noun Project