Helping Your Team Embrace a New UX Role

UX Insights - User Experience Leadership and Strategy

As I said in the last lesson, if your team doesn't change how it works, nobody else will either. This shift is not easy. It means asking your people to take on a very different role from what they're used to.

The transformation has four pillars:

• Providing consultative services across the organization without owning every deliverable
• Creating resources like design systems and user research that others can use
• Enforcing standards and compliance with UX best practice
• Educating colleagues so they can apply UX principles in their own projects

It's no surprise that some team members might push back with, "I didn't sign up for this." Many enjoy building interfaces and being hands-on. But this new approach solves many of the frustrations they already face.

Why the Shift Benefits Your Team

When I talk to designers about this change, I highlight several benefits:

Greater influence at a strategic level

When your team steps back from just making screens, they get a seat at the big table. Instead of being brought in after decisions are made, they start helping shape the direction of products from day one. It's that shift from "make this pretty" to "help us figure out what to build" that most designers are secretly hoping for.

Stronger career progression and better salaries

Let's be honest - the ceiling for implementers is lower than for strategists. When your team becomes internal consultants and educators, they develop leadership skills that open doors to senior roles. I've seen designers nearly double their salaries by making this transition. The market values those who can guide others more than those who just deliver pixels.

The chance to work on foundational projects like design systems

Instead of redesigning the same button for the fourteenth time, your team gets to build the systems that make those repetitive tasks unnecessary. Creating design systems, research repositories, and educational resources is deeply satisfying work. It's like building a machine that keeps producing value long after you've moved on to the next challenge.

Less repetitive work and more variety in day-to-day tasks

No more spending six weeks on dropdown menus. This new approach means your team might facilitate a workshop on Monday, review designs on Tuesday, train colleagues on Wednesday, and develop standards on Thursday. The variety keeps things fresh and helps prevent burnout. I've noticed teams working this way seem genuinely happier. They're solving problems rather than just implementing solutions.

That doesn't mean the change will be painless, but it does mean there are real rewards for embracing it.

How to Support Your Team

Your job is to make this shift possible. That means three key things:

Build confidence and provide support

The biggest hurdle for most teams is simply believing they can do it. Be there alongside them during those early workshops, training sessions, and stakeholder meetings. Show them how it's done before asking them to take the lead.

Shield them from organizational politics

When your team shifts their role, you'll inevitably hear complaints like, "Why aren't they building this for us anymore?" or "We need them to just make the screens, not tell us what to do."

Your job is to absorb those questions yourself while your team gains confidence. Be the buffer that gives them space to grow into their new responsibilities without constantly defending themselves. This means taking some heat yourself, but that's part of leadership.

Invest in proper training and resources

New roles demand new skills. That includes facilitation, coaching, documentation, and influence without authority. Make sure your team has access to the resources they need.

This doesn't always mean expensive courses. Peer mentoring, shadowing opportunities, and practice sessions can be just as valuable. The key is to acknowledge that you're asking them to develop a different skillset and giving them the time and support to do so.

Involve Them in Defining the New Role

This can't be a top-down mandate. Invite your team to help shape what this transformation looks like. Rather than imposing changes, help them think through and adopt this new role themselves.

Encourage them to imagine new possibilities by asking questions like:

• What would you want others to do differently if you had full control? This helps establish the standards they'd like to create.
• What resources or tools would you love to create for the organization? This identifies opportunities for building systems and repositories they're passionate about.
• What skills do you wish colleagues had that would make collaboration easier? This reveals educational initiatives your team might lead.
• What work would you gladly stop doing if you could? This clarifies which services they'd prefer to guide rather than execute.

This isn't just consultation. It's a way to create excitement and ownership. When people help design their own future, they're far more likely to embrace it, even when it's challenging.

Start Small and Learn Together

Don't expect everything to change at once. Start by ringfencing one day a week for strategic work. Encourage lunch-and-learn sessions, create space for peer mentoring, and celebrate small wins.

Most of all, take your team with you. If you don't, you'll be battling resistance on two fronts: inside and outside your group.

In the next lesson, we'll look at how to democratize UX across the wider organization, turning colleagues into active participants in the process.