This document summarizes Carol Smith's presentation on navigating challenges in information architecture (IA) people management. Some of the key challenges discussed include employees quitting due to poor management, lack of recognition, feeling overworked, company culture not being a priority, and lack of growth opportunities. The presentation provides suggestions on building diverse and inclusive teams, providing support to employees, conducting regular 1-on-1 meetings, setting reasonable expectations, recognizing good work, and helping employees transition when needed. The overall message is that navigating these people management challenges can help create great work experiences for employees.

1. Navigating challenges
in IA people management
Carol Smith @carologic
IA Conference
March 16, 2019
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
4.0 International License except where
noted otherwise.

2. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologicOwn Your Story. Donna Lichaw, donnalichaw.com, @dlichaw, 2019 Information Architecture Conference | Orlando, FL

3. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Why Do Employees Quit on Their Bosses?
1. Poor management
2. Lack of recognition
3. Overworked
4. Company culture not a priority
5. No growth opportunities
Why Do Employees Quit on Their Bosses? Because of 5 Common Reasons Still
Not Addressed, Says New Research. By Marcel Schwantes. https://www.inc.com/marcel-
schwantes/why-do-people-quit-their-jobs-exactly-new-research-points-finger-at-5-common-reasons.html

4. Most Managers Don’t Know How to Coach People. But They Can Learn. By Julia Milner and Trenton Milner
https://hbr.org/2018/08/most-managers-dont-know-how-to-coach-people-but-they-can-learn

5. Map of design research—research types in “An evolving map of design practice and design research”
By Liz Sanders, MakeTools. ACM Interactions, Volume XV.6, Nov - Dec 2008, On Modeling Forum

6. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
My Assumptions
Mature organization
Want to improve work experiences
Dedicated, specialized resources

7. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Specialists

8. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Building Teams

9. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Where do we fit?

10. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Structure
User group
Product
Skill set
Squad

11. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Levers
No team is alike
Build for who you are

12. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Technical/complex work
Relatively Simple Highly Complex

13. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Speed
Big Design (Waterfall) Fast (Agile)

14. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Regulation
Less regulated Highly regulated

15. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Research
Innovation
Future looking, broad research
Looking for new markets and products
Improvement
Usability testing
Iterative efforts

16. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Creation
Experimentation
Embrace messiness for learning
Prototyping
Visualization
Beauty
Comps

17. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Maturation
Developing
Low coordination
Inefficient processes
Mature
Regular critique
Design System

18. Maturation
≠
Boredom

19. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Solving Complex Problems
Not everyone "gets" it.
Biggest challenge
Detailed discussion

20. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Diversity

21. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Why better?
Focus More on Facts
Process Those Facts More Carefully

22. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Difference
Least diverse companies
—both gender and ethnicity
—29% less likely to outperform in profitability

23. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
“Crafting a truly effective inclusion
and diversity strategy is no small effort,
and requires strong and sustained
and inclusive leadership…
But we, and many of the companies
we studied in depth, believe the potential
benefits of stronger business performance
are well worth it.”
Diverse teams are still *really* good for business, McKinsey says.
By Megan Rose Dickey. Tech Crunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/18/diverse-
teams-are-still-really-good-for-business-mckinsey-says/

24. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
It’s all personal

25. No
Perfect
Hiring
Process

26. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Transitions

27. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Great employees
- make it easy

28. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
ACTIONS
Louder than Words

29. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Interventions
not enough

30. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Embrace
Challenges

31. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Team Management

32. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
There is no perfect manager
Authenticity, Logic, Empathy
Understand where you [and they] wobble
Frances Frei, Harvard Business School
https://blog.ted.com/how-to-rebuild-trust-frances-frei-speaks-at-ted2018/

33. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Support
Design Ops
Research Ops
Project management

34. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
1:1’s
Mentoring: advice hands-on problem solving
Coaching: open questions and offering reflections
Sponsoring: creating and giving leadership
and growth opportunities.
Balanced 1:1‘s worksheet. by Lara Hogan. https://larahogan.me/resources/Balanced-
One-on-Ones.pdf. See also: Questions for our first 1:1 by Lara Hogan.
Originally posted Jul 19, 2016. https://larahogan.me/blog/first-one-on-one-questions/

35. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Balanced 1:1‘s worksheet. by Lara Hogan.
https://larahogan.me/resources/Balanced-One-on-Ones.pdf

36. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Cultural Values
Inclusive
Welcoming
Supportive
Welcoming of critique

37. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Remote Teams
Clear expectations
Video On
Live collaboration tools
Chat tools

38. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Remote Culture
Celebrations
Virtual team activities
Large org - join local team
Budget for MeetUps

39. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Wait for need

40. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Reasonable
Expectations

41. Pittsburgh, PA - photo by Dave DiCello

42. Competition
is
fierce

43. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Why Do Employees Quit on Their Bosses?
1. Poor management performance
2. Lack of employee recognition
3. Overworked employees
4. Company culture is not a priority
5. No growth opportunities
Why Do Employees Quit on Their Bosses? Because of 5 Common Reasons Still
Not Addressed, Says New Research. By Marcel Schwantes. https://www.inc.com/marcel-
schwantes/why-do-people-quit-their-jobs-exactly-new-research-points-finger-at-5-common-reasons.html

44. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Sustainability
Careers are long
Rent is high
Progression is important

45. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Are leads needed?

46. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Recognition
not promotion

47. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Continuous
Improvement

48. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Navigate the Challenges
Set reasonable expectations
Build diverse teams
Support employees
Recognize good work
Transition as needed

49. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Create Great
Work Experiences

50. Navigating challenges in IA people management / @carologic
Contact Carol
LinkedIn – CarolJSmith
Twitter - @Carologic
Slideshare – carologic
SpeakerRate - CarolJSmith