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| # SFIA Role Guidance: Lead Designer | |
| - [SFIA Level 5: Ensure, Advise](https://sfia-online.org/en/sfia-7/responsibilities/level-5) | |
| - [Job description](../lead_designer.md) | |
| ## Summary of role | |
| Lead Designers are expert practitioners who influence and mentor others. They work with teams and clients to design and deliver public services. They do this by setting the direction, assuring the quality of design delivery across teams, and by leading multiple, or highly complex, services. They have an important role in creating a healthy user-centred design (UCD) community and culture at Made Tech. | |
| ## Required competency for the role | |
| ### Autonomy | |
| Self-initiates and works with little direction of where to focus energy to design and deliver good public services with their team. Takes responsibility for the team designing the right solutions for their problems. Works to define and assign design tasks to themselves and others. | |
| #### Examples of behaviour and responsibilities | |
| _Below are examples of behaviours and responsibilities a person in this role might be expected to demonstrate. The list is provided for illustrative purposes only._ | |
| - Quickly assesses what design leadership a team needs and fulfils the role without being asked to. | |
| - Assures the quality of design work going into software production. | |
| - Shares good practice from own experience and other sources for how and why a team does activities like in-depth interviews with users or low fidelity prototypes. | |
| - Starts community show and tells. | |
| --- | |
| ### Influence | |
| Drives team towards design excellence by influencing team, stakeholders and partners. | |
| #### Examples of behaviour and responsibilities | |
| _Below are examples of behaviours and responsibilities a person in this role might be expected to demonstrate. The list is provided for illustrative purposes only._ | |
| - Works with the client product owner to set team priorities for the coming sprint. | |
| - Creates tangible, understandable vision for a service's design and direction. | |
| - Advocates key user needs with their team and client organisation must focus on to deliver a successful service. | |
| - Shows they are a role model for less senior designers and set an example for how to be professional, supportive and effective. | |
| - Successfully challenges major team decisions not informed by user research. | |
| - Designs the key stages of a service that is delivered to users. | |
| - Coaches senior designers; establishes line management and grows the practice within the team. | |
| --- | |
| ### Complexity | |
| Leads service design with their team within a wider programme of work in multi-organisation stakeholder environments. Shows the minimum design to deliver value, that balances complex user needs, client goals and legacy processes or systems. | |
| #### Examples of behaviour and responsibilities | |
| _Below are examples of behaviours and responsibilities a person in this role might be expected to demonstrate. The list is provided for illustrative purposes only._ | |
| - Facilitates a team to visualise and agree on what its service is from end-to-end, front to the back of user interactions and internal processes. | |
| - Prototypes a minimal viable service, balancing complex user needs, urgent client goals and legacy systems or processes. | |
| - Establishes design sprints activities and structure within a team previously not working in an agile, open or user-centred way | |
| - Breaks down silos within their team and has UCD roles and people in other disciplines working towards the same goals. | |
| - Shares research with other delivery teams within the client organisation and shows the need for close coordination between teams. | |
| - Works with a content designer to turn a new government policy into prototypes to test with users. | |
| --- | |
| ### Knowledge | |
| Develops a deep understanding of design and policy landscape in the UK public sector. | |
| #### Examples of behaviour and responsibilities | |
| _Below are examples of behaviours and responsibilities a person in this role might be expected to demonstrate. The list is provided for illustrative purposes only._ | |
| - Can fully explain the purpose and activities of each GDS phase of service delivery to clients unfamiliar or uncomfortable with that way of working. | |
| - Gets teams to choose the suitable type of testing for hypothesis, communicating the strengths and weaknesses each type brings. | |
| - Advises other leaders on how to set up their team for effective design work. | |
| - Regularly seeks feedback from peers, teammates and clients. Acting on and sharing what others feel they are doing well and could improve upon. | |
| - Seeks out new design tools being used and developed by other organisations and tries them for their own and others practice. | |
| - Answers internal questions about what is ‘policy design’ and how it is and isn’t different from service delivery we’re familiar with at Made Tech. | |
| - Puts in place new standards for how we review design work across different client teams. | |
| - Quickly assesses the suitability of a Designer role for someone interviewing to join Made Tech. | |
| --- | |
| ### Business Skills | |
| Demonstrates leadership. Communicates effectively, both formally and informally. | |
| #### Examples of behaviours and responsibilities | |
| _Below are examples of behaviours and responsibilities a person in this role might be expected to demonstrate. The list is provided for illustrative purposes only._ | |
| - Represents user-centred design at Made Tech at public and internal company-wide events. | |
| - Brings together designers to do a retro about challenges felt across the discipline. Works with others to begin actioning priorities. | |
| - Holds senior management to account for improving their team conditions and ways of working. | |
| - Decides how to most effectively use their time on the team to help it achieve its outcomes. Explains to teammates and stakeholders the value of using time in a certain way. | |
| - Facilitates workshops with indecisive stakeholders to achieve teams goals for the coming weeks. | |
| - Work with engineers and delivery managers to design and deliver an MVP live services with a client. | |
| - Advises on the achievable target for a design sprint on a live service, prioritises value for users and impacts for the client organisation. | |
| - Drafts the team shape and delivery rhyme bid proposal with a new client to do a discovery for public service. | |
| - Highlights the risks their team shipping a live service with solutions not proven with any research or other evidence. | |