You’ve been promoted. Now what? According to Lynsey Thornton, Shopify’s VP of UX Core Product, the answer to that question is one of technology’s biggest crises.
In this first episode of the DesignBetter.Co Podcast’s second season, we sat down with Lynsey to discuss everything from building a leadership pipeline to governance of the famed design system Polaris.
Her advice and first-hand experiences also highlight major technology pain points—like implementing customer-centric business models and helping individual contributors successfully transition to leadership.
Key takeaways from the conversation:
-
- How she walks her team through FUD (or fear, uncertainty, and doubt)
- Her biggest piece of advice for other companies looking for org structure inspiration
- How office spaces across Shopify affect creative processes and the work produced
- Details about the branding exploration project that led to Polaris, and how the design system is governed today
“It’s certainly no accident that design has a place at Shopify.”
Conversation highlights
On what sticks with her most about her time at Shopify so far
One of the keys to being successful and why it’s been such an enjoyable job… really comes down to continual, accelerated learning. I’m constantly thrown into areas I don’t feel I’m particularly competent in.
On servant leadership at Shopify
“Coming in, this was one of the most refreshing things to me. It’s nice to have a leadership and management team that have confidence in their staff. I don’t know that anyone is ever truly ready to step up… but as long as it’s supported change, it’s okay to put people in a new area.”
On how she helps fill the leadership pipeline
Some of these skills are really missing in university… we address this by having in-house learning programs for leadership, but it would be nice if some of that happened at an earlier stage for sure.
Resources we mentioned:
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- Remote Research: Real Users, Real Time, Real Research
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unforeseen Circumstances That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
- No, You Go podcast
- More protips on design systems and growing as a leader
If you like what we’re doing, and want to hear the stories of more great designer leaders, it would help us a lot if you subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play and leave us a review.
Thanks for listening!
by Kaysie Garza
Kaysie is a content specialist at InVision. She's helped strategize and write launch campaigns across the company, including all DesignBetter.Co programs, The Design Genome Project, and more. You can find her devouring books, French fries, or hiking trails when she isn't working on words.
by Eli Woolery
Eli is the Director of Design Education at InVision. His design career spans both physical and digital products, and he is a lecturer in the Product Design program at Stanford University. You can find Eli on Medium or on Twitter.
