Can you make me a better thinker?

“I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself.” — Joseph Conrad

There’s a moment every new manager goes through. It’s quiet. It doesn’t come with a promotion email or applause.

It comes when you realize… no one cares how good you are anymore. They care how good your team becomes.

When I first moved into managing UXers, I thought my job was to raise the bar.

Better reviews. Sharper critique. Cleaner outputs.

I was wrong.

My job wasn’t to raise the bar. It was to make sure everyone else could see it.

In individual roles, your value is visible. You write better. Design better. Think sharper.

In management, your value becomes… indirect.

Like tuning a car engine you don’t drive. If the car runs smoothly, no one notices you. If it breaks down, everyone does.

The First Lesson: Manage People, Not Work

Early on, I made the mistake most first-time managers make.

I managed output.

• This could be better

• That needs tightening

• This doesn’t feel right

And slowly, something changed. My team got quieter. Not less capable. Just less willing.

That’s when it hit me. People don’t grow under constant correction. They grow under understanding.

The Mindset Shift

I began to lead with curiosity first.

Not: “Why didn’t you do this?”

But: “What were you trying to solve here?”

That one shift changes everything.

Because most UX problems aren’t skill problems. They’re thinking problems.

And thinking needs space.

Borrowed loosely from the GROWW model:

• Goal → What are you trying to achieve?

• Reality → What’s actually happening?

• Options → What could you try?

• Way Forward → What will you do next?

It’s simple. Almost obvious.

But it works because it puts ownership back where it belongs.

With the person doing the work.

Managing a UX team is like being in the passenger seat of a long road trip.

You’re not driving. But you’re responsible for the journey.

You don’t grab the wheel every time the driver hesitates. You guide.

• “There’s a turn coming up.”

• “Watch the road ahead.”

• “You’re doing fine. Keep going.”

Good managers don’t take control. They build confidence.

A Google Project Oxygen study (one of the most cited leadership studies) found that:

Great managers don’t rely on technical brilliance. They rely on coaching, communication, and support.

Not expertise. Not authority.

Coaching.

The Hard Truth

You can’t scale yourself. But you can scale your team.

And that only happens when:

• People feel safe to think

• Safe to try

• Safe to fail

That safety doesn’t come from policies. It comes from you.

Takeaways

• Managing UX is not about improving work. It’s about improving people.

• Curiosity beats correction in almost every situation

• Frameworks like GROW create ownership, not dependency

• Your job is not to drive. It’s to guide

If you’re a manager, ask yourself this:

'Are you building better work? Or better thinkers?'