The Ideas That Followed Me From Design to Coaching
I spent ten years in design before I became a coach, and the empathy and curiosity that make up the backbone of user experience work have daily application to my coaching practice. I find myself continuing to reach for concepts from my design leadership days as I’m working with both one-on-one and workplace clients.
My favorite saying started as a book title about entrepreneurship but gained traction in product management, especially design: “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” UX is often approached with a solution already in mind and asked to “just make it,” but that limits possibility. Framing the problem to the entire team creates room for everyone to bring their expertise into the collaboration, which yields the best solutions. In coaching, it's the same instinct, just aimed differently: my job isn't to hand a client a solution. We partner to get clear on the real problem underneath whatever they walked in with, and then I guide them to find their own way through it.
Another phrase I use over and over again is in reference to Brené Brown: “Paint done for me.” She goes into detail about this in her book Dare to Lead and similar to the phrase mentioned earlier, it’s about providing context around the vision of the result instead of assigning tasks. It’s a great way to get stakeholders to think about and articulate what they’re expecting to see. As a coach, it’s a very helpful reframe for clients to envision where they want to go and what their expectations are.
Finally, I reference the saying, “Slow down to speed up” about once a week, lately as it relates to so many companies rushing to roll out AI without a plan, measures of success, or a change management strategy. Building a strong foundation beneath any change is what makes future work move quickly and efficiently. But rushing the start of something new, from a new process to a new team to new goals as a coaching client, leads to backtracking later. Change won’t stick if the work isn’t put in up front.
None of these sayings started as coaching advice, or even design leadership advice, but I lean on them often now to empower my clients to do their best work.