Start close to the work
The people doing it can usually show you where the system and the story have come apart.
Page record 01Meet Tre
I lead through the work.
I’m a hands-on design manager and former principal designer. I take tangled product work, help a team see the decision inside it, and give designers room to own what comes next.
The work
The work starts before the screen is clear.
I’ve worked in aviation, retail, identity, telecommunications, media, and the internal tools that keep large organizations moving. The details change. The work often starts in the same place: a team is trying to do good work inside a system that makes the next decision harder than it should be.
The constraint is usually process or trust, or a product that’s collected so many rules nobody can see the actual experience anymore. I help the team find the decision in front of them and give it a next step people can use.
I stay close to the product while we do it. A strategy has to hold up at the screen, in the workflow, and with the people responsible for shipping it.
In the room
What I keep coming back to
The methods change with the problem. These three habits tend to travel with me.
Name the decision
Turn assumptions, ownership, tradeoffs, and next steps into something a team can inspect and act on.
Give away real authority
Designers grow when their judgment changes the work.
Field note
A little more personally
I’m self-taught and from Baton Rouge. I learned in public and kept learning from the people around me.
Away from a screen, I’m usually on a trail. It keeps me honest about progress. Look for the next marker. Keep going.
For me, it starts with listening before leading.