Why is no one talking about imposter syndrome in design agencies?
I’ve been working in social design agencies since 2012. Unlike graphic design or advertising agencies, this work is broadly about designing solutions to challenges in human life by seeking to truly understand people and involve them in the design process.
My work spans user research and service design but wherever I work, and whatever my role, I find the same conversation happening with friends and colleagues. At all levels of experience; all of us suffer from frequent, sometimes debilitating bouts of imposter syndrome.
Over the 11+ years I’ve been working in the industry I’ve worked at 6 agencies (with a mix of permanent and freelance), and it’s a conversation I often broach within the first few months of getting to know teams. Now I’ve reached the level of manager and coach, I’m in a position to support others in understanding it better, as well as unpicking my own experiences with it.
One thing I’ll say is that, for me, it’s never fully gone away. It ebbs and flows but is always waiting in the wings to crop up when I take on a particularly challenging project or my resilience is low. Understanding how it’s impacted my career has helped me to be a better project lead as well as manager, coach and mentor. I wanted to write about this to share why I think it’s so rife, and what we can do about it; both practical tips for individuals at all levels of organisations, but also, crucially what agencies can do to try and create the right conditions for people to grow without unhealthy levels of stress and anxiety.
Confidence is an ongoing process, not a goal
As a society, we seem to have the illusion that we can ‘achieve’ confidence as a finite goal. That once we grasp it, we’re going to be able to keep that feeling forever. However, I would argue that a better approach to maintaining a healthy approach to confidence is about understanding the triggers and causes of low confidence and a challenge that often comes with it — imposter syndrome.
The nature of the industry I work in means staff have to learn to lean into uncertainty and trust the often ‘messy’ design process. And while experience will help you to trust the process, if you’re doing a good job of continuously pushing yourself and growing as a designer then you should be feeling uncertain at different points, because that’s what growth feels like. But this uncertainty is very different to the often crippling anxiety that assails a lot of us in the industry, and it’s this same anxiety that often seems to breed impostor syndrome.
Why design agencies breed anxiety and how we can address it
Unfortunately, design agencies are the perfect environment to breed imposter syndrome. Here are some reasons why:
- There are (almost always) tight or unrealistic timelines
This leads staff to feeling that because they are unable to complete a task within the given timeline, they are the ones at fault. There are a number of reasons why this may have been the case:
- the timeline was genuinely unachievable
- the project plan was created with a more senior and experienced member of staff in mind
- the particular task they are being asked to do is new to them & their learning curve hasn’t been factored in
- it’s simply a task that isn’t suited to their skillset
For instance, I’ve learned that writing user needs take me about twice as long as the average person. I’m dyslexic and my mind struggles to work in the strict ‘As a [X], I need [X], so that [X]’ format required to write them.
How can we address this? Encouraging open conversations is key here. Particularly between the bidding and delivery teams about what a realistic timeline looks like. This can also be boosted by encouraging end of project retro’s and relaying learnings (eg the recruitment time was too short) around what could have been done better for next time to the wider team.
2. Typically clients want to focus on outputs not outcomes
Often outputs (things like journey maps, personas or other glossy assets that can be shared to get stakeholder buy in) are agreed before the project has even started. This can make it hard to keep an open mind about findings and can lead to the team trying to fit insights into a format that doesn’t work for the project. Or they have to create unnecessary deliverables to give the client what was agreed. It can also lead to the team feeling constrained around the types of recommendations they can make — even if it would ultimately be more valuable to the client.
How can we address this? Agencies need to empower teams to feel comfortable challenging the brief and suggesting changes in approach that benefit the work. This should be happening at the start of the work during the pitching stage, right through to the final stages of the project.
3. Staff schedules are in constant flex and flux
Depending on the model your agency follows (putting staff fully on one project or on multiple projects at one time), you can have team members needing to multitask or jump from one project to another, losing focus (and time) each time. It can be challenging to juggle demands and prioritise tasks. For less experienced members of staff, or when you’re new at an agency, there is often an unrealistic pressure to be able to do this with ease.
How can we address this? Personally, I enjoy working on multiple projects at once however I know it’s not for everyone. Agencies should check in with team members and take their preferences into account. Depending on the level of seniority in the team, staff should be put on a maximum number of projects. I’d recommend:
- Juniors — one project
- Mid level — one to two projects
- Senior level — one to two projects ideally, three if the scope and role of all three are clearly contained.
4. Senior staff are great at their work, but often, are poor leaders
Many senior members of staff have progressed up the organisation because they’re extremely good at what they do. But they often have little or no management experience or people skills. I have met many excellent seniors who are bad at creating realistic project timelines, or offering support and guidance when their team is struggling.
How can we address this? Agencies should offer some form of management training, though I know for smaller organisations this can be a struggle to finance and/or find time for. At the very least, agencies need to foster a culture of discussion around this topic to improve management styles, techniques and share learnings.
5. Not having a psychologically safe space
This underpins all of the points above. Often, with the pace at which teams work and the frequency with which staff alternate teams, it’s hard to create a truly psychologically safe space for staff to call out the above points.
Imagine having the confidence to tell your superior that the time they’ve given you to do a task isn’t enough, only for them to tell you to work faster or that it’s just you that’s taking that long?
How can we address this? Building a psychologically safe space takes time and effort. Trust is earned, often slowly, through behaviours and actions. Here are a few of the techniques that I use within teams, ranging from easiest to hardest to implement:
- Having numbered check-ins: eg. 1 means I’m feeling terrible, 10 equals I’m feeling great. I usually use these in the first team meeting of the day to allow staff to indicate their current mood. They don’t have to elaborate on the number unless they want to and it allows teams to communicate if anything else is going on outside of work.
- Encouraging feedback that goes both ways: Reading Radical Candour is a great place to start for building this within teams. But of coruse, it’s harder to give feedback upwards in a company hierarchy. As a senior member of staff it’s your responsibility to facilitate this sensitively if you’re trying to encourage a more junior member of staff to feed back to you.
- Levelling up how you communicate and connect with team members: This can vary for each person but for me, learning how to listen and understand colleagues using non-violent communication methods has been the most effective. It has taught me how to connect and address the underlying, unmet needs a colleague might have when they are reaching out to me.
If you’re an agency looking to reduce imposter syndrome in your organisation I’m always happy to talk about this topic. You can reach me on sophie@sophiewalker.net.
I want to give a shout out to the wonderful @MelissaGates who helped me get this article over the line and turn it into something much, much better.
