Four years ago, I was still very much a hands-on industrial designer with a focus on product design. I had just started a new job as a designer in a company that was growing fast. There was a need for product and project management and I stepped up. Before long, I was managing a rapidly growing team of designers and engineers. As 3D models turned into Excel graphs and ad hoc brainstorming into weekly status meetings, my memories of actual design work faded like sand drawings on a beach.

At the time, for me, an ideal manager in product development was someone who led by example, was right in there with his team, and found the time to do enough designing himself to stay competent and connected with the work. However, I quickly realized that leading a team of ten or so people and keeping up with all the developmental work needed in a fast-growing company wouldn’t allow me to concentrate on design work for any meaningful stretch of time. This took some getting used to.

When you make the move from a designer to a manager, you will unavoidably face a dramatic change in your professional identity. You won’t be doing the amount of design work needed to maintain your skills, and because you may not be doing any designing at all, you will be left scratching your head trying to figure out whether or not to even think of yourself as a designer. Gone are the days when you could demonstrate your abilities with visualizations and prototypes of product concepts. And it’s not like you all of a sudden have a new set of skills to feel good about either. Eventually, you will develop the competencies required by your new role, but a change in perspective is also needed.

As a designer or a specialist of any kind, you’re usually focused on your individual contribution even if you’re helping others. When you’re managing a team, you’re doing very little that you can call your own and have no choice but to concentrate on the contribution of your team. You’re also likely to start paying more and more attention to how your team is contributing to the success your company. In my opinion, this is the most valuable lesson that you learn after transitioning to a managerial position. You realize that the only real measure of your work is the extent to which you’re helping your company to achieve its goals.

I would recommend taking on a wider perspective and concentrating on your company’s goals regardless of your position. It will make you more open to collaboration and less vulnerable to personal setbacks and, in the long run, most likely lead to better results as well. This may sound obvious but can be surprisingly difficult in roles in which your contribution is limited to a specific area and clearly visible to others. Also, companies may incentivize their employees, on purpose or not, to limit their focus by rewarding them with, for example, bonuses or promotions based on just their personal achievements.

After managing teams of different shapes and sizes for the past few years, I’m now again more of a specialist. I’ve found that the change in perspective described above has indeed made me more effective in a specialist’s role as well. I would also argue that a broader view, a more thorough understanding of the market and knowledge of the inner workings of a company would make me a better designer too, although a very rusty one. However, after been exposed to great many new things and having my interests spread out like a shotgun blast, the biggest challenge in returning to design work would probably be to continue working in a much more specific area. I would imagine this to be the case in a transition from a manager to a specialist in general – it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle. Luckily, in my current position, although a specialist, I’m able to let my mind run free and may be doing some of my best work yet.