Andy Polaine
How rules set you free to give great feedback
Agreed critique rules don't constrain, they free your team to give honest, specific feedback without the defensive heat. The magic circle, applied to design leadership.
Writing & Thinking
A mix of essays and commentary about design, innovation, technology, society, coaching, personal and leadership development. Since 1996.
Understanding Your Thinking & Communication Style
We assume others think the way we do. Understanding whether you''re an introvert or extrovert thinker, and how to bridge the gap with others, is a leadership essential.
Presenting your portfolio and yourself for interviews
Presenting your portfolio well means telling the story of you, not just your projects. Advice for designers preparing for interviews in a tough job market.
Why does quitting your job make it more enjoyable?
People often have the best days at work right after they quit. What this tells us about fear, learned helplessness, and how we relate to our employers.
Management & Leadership as Slow-Motion facilitation
Leadership and facilitation use the same skills: structure, cadence, reading the room, just at different speeds. If you can run a workshop, you can lead a team.
Starting at the End + Avoiding Pointless Meetings
Two coaching reflections: starting a daunting project by working backwards from the end, and a practical approach to avoiding meetings that serve no purpose.
Scaling Yourself + Two Tricks for Clarity & Stakeholder Management
How to stop being the bottleneck: making your internal quality criteria explicit so the team can work without reverse-engineering what''s in your head.
Managing Up and Meta-Communication
Managing up through questions, the importance of meta-communication, and why showing your working matters as much as the work itself.
Are you my 100th coachee?
Reflections on nearly 100 coaching clients: who they are, what brings them to coaching, and the themes that come up again and again across backgrounds and roles.
Mediocrity and the current state of design
Design aims for perfection while many stakeholders are happy with 70%. A long essay on mediocrity, AI, product management, and what the design industry is in the middle of.
Defensive Calendaring Tips
Your time is the fossil fuel of your life: finite and non-renewable. Practical tips for defending your calendar and making space to think, not just react.
Leaving Substack
Doctor''s Note is moving from Substack to Buttondown. The reason: Substack''s founders have chosen to keep actual white supremacist content on the platform.
Leading versus Enabling
Leadership fetishism misses the point. Thinking of yourself as an enabler, both positive and negative, is more honest and more useful than chasing a leadership ideal.
Busywork is junk food
Meetings, email, and Slack feel like work but rarely are. Busywork is the junk food of your career: filling, temporarily, and ultimately bad for your health.
YouTube Channel for Design Leadership Coaching Tips
Launching a YouTube channel with advice and reflections on the design leadership journey, for those who can''t access one-to-one coaching.