Senior-to-Leader
Become the right design leader
Looking for a coaching and training program that teaches you all the skills you need to make the jump from doer to leader? Keep reading.
There are many leadership courses, loads of design courses and oodles of conferences. What’s often missing is education and support for senior designers who want to define and prepare for their next career leap—and make the commensurate jump in salary.
That’s where we come in.
Designers are often left to their own devices as they transform from practitioner to leader—thrown in the deep end, you might say. We know there’s a better way. The Senior-to-Leader program offers continuous learning and support for mid-career design professionals—a sound alternative to deep-end floundering.
By building these skills and clearly defining the best leadership journey for you, you’ll be perfectly positioned to make the jump from Senior Designer to Lead Designer. And according to a recent survey of design professionals, that comes with a $20,000 median pay increase.
If any of the following sounds familiar, this might be the program for you:
Are you a UX researcher or designer with 5-7 years of industry experience?
Do you need more support and skills to grow your practice?
Are you unsure which direction to take your career?
Are you a designer or researcher wanting to become a design leader?
Are you unsure whether to follow a principal route, become an operations lead or a people leader?
Mags Hanley has distilled all she’s learned over 25 years in the field—she was doing UX before UX was a thing—into a unique, personalised and structured program designed to help senior designers not just move into leadership roles, but excel.
If you’re looking to work with someone who can help you reach your full potential, Mags is that person. I’ve had the privilege of being a part of the Senior-to-Leader coaching group for almost 2 years. In this time Mags has played an integral part in helping me develop my leadership skills in UX and product design and has positively influenced my career trajectory, helping me build confidence in the ever-changing digital landscape.
-Josephine Abbatangelo, Graduate of the Senior to Leader program
The Senior-to-Leader Approach
Leading requires a different skillset than doing. And to ensure that you’re developing exactly the right mix of skills you’ll need, it’s important to define what kind of design leader you want to be—do you want to lead designers, design work or a design practice? All are valid options, but to excel you need to be clear on where you’re heading. All too often, businesses don’t take the time to develop and nurture their future leaders—instead throwing them into that deep end with little to no support or guidance.
That’s where we step in. This coaching and training program will ensure you develop the skills and confidence necessary to lead people, projects, practice and products.
Move from doing to leading
The 2-year course is broken into 8 modules, with a new topic delivered quarterly. This allows you to build on what you’ve learned and fully integrate the information. While each quarter covers a different topic, you’ll find a reassuring rhythm emerge, with each quarter including the following sessions led by Mags Hanley:
LEARNING: 6 interactive workshops per quarter
COMMUNITY: 3 group coaching sessions per quarter and a private Slack group for participants
COACHING: 3 1-hour 1:1 coaching sessions per quarter (included in Tier 2)
Over the 8 modules, you’ll cover all you need to know to be a successful design leader across 4 main topics: People, Business, Strategy and Practice.
Modules include:
Project and Workstream Leadership
ROI and value
Product and service strategy development
Stakeholders and managing up
Design Practice development
Leadership
Introduction to Design Strategy
Leading People
Every design leadership journey is unique
The course is limited to 15 people, ensuring that each individual receives the personalised support and coaching they require. Because we understand that every design leadership journey is different, we’ll work with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses and define your natural leadership style. You’ll choose where to grow your skill set in accordance with your values—not by doing whatever’s needed to avoid drowning in the deep end.
We’ll work with you to define your personalised goals for the program—and ensure that you meet those goals.
Examples of goals previous students have had include:
Building a baseline of leadership skills: teaching the basics of people leadership, coaching and mentoring to new and emerging leaders
Retention of new leaders: ensuring that designers are not just thrown into the role, but helping them to be successful
Shared experience for senior designers: bringing a cohort of designers together to give each other support during and after the program
Over the past 3 years of running both public and in-house Senior-to-Leader programs, we have developed a strong understanding of the baseline skills required by designers as they move into lead roles—and how best to apply them in a variety of organisations.
Work in a consultancy? Senior-to-Leader can provide support in Client Management and Balancing Client and Leadership.
Leading a team in a product organisation? Managing up and influencing skills may be of more importance. All are covered in this course.
When I started out my professional journey in UX, I had felt very overwhelmed, not really sure or confident of what I needed to do, develop, and how to navigate the professional workplace. I had the foundations, but was not very confident in my ability to apply them and what value my skills and Design would bring to the teams I was working in.
I am lucky to have studied under Mags at General Assembly and immediately jumped on board when she announced that she was starting her mentoring and group coaching services. The value I have received in having Mags as my mentor cannot be quantified, but rather it's best to say that she has helped me gain the confidence I needed to quickly advance my technical skills, how to work with other stakeholders, and what to focus on in my growth as a Designer leading to my exponential career growth.
I would highly recommend Mags to anyone who is looking for their next step in Design or needs a guiding hand in their career. She is one of the top coaches in the industry for sure.
— Johan Pang, Graduate of Senior to Leader program
Investment
We offer two different tiers for participants. Both include all of the workshops and group coaching, but 1:1 coaching is only included in the upper tier. An hour of 1:1 coaching with Mags is more than on its own, meaning this tier offers exceptional value.
Tier One: Workshops and group coaching only: $249/month
Tier Two: Workshops, group coaching, and 1:1 coaching $349/month
Discounts are available when you pay annually.
Ready to start leading? Get in touch.
FAQs
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No, it is possible to join for only a quarter, but we strongly advise giving yourself at least 6 months to immerse yourself in the program.
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Absolutely, you can pay monthly for ease or annually for a discount.
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Yes! This course is designed both for those looking to move into design leadership roles and those who’ve been thrown in the deep end.
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This course will offer you tangible skills that will have a direct impact on your work and make life a whole lot easier for your boss.
Here’s a few bullet points:
Excellent value: an hour of 1:1 coaching with Mags would normally cost you $500 alone. Tier 2 includes this as well as all of the learning, group coaching and community support for half the price.
Proven expertise: Mags has been working in the industry for over 25 years, and running this specific course for over 3.
Leadership skill development: Many companies don’t have the time or skills themselves to help support their senior designers through this career transition—leaving staff to figure it out on their own. This increases the risk of losing staff (like you!), who don’t see a clear career path or skill development framework at the company. We give you this, leaving your boss to benefit from your increased capabilities. And if they’re keen, we even have some materials to share with them as well.
Stakeholder management: We often hear from managers who bemoan the fact that their staff don’t understand how to manage senior stakeholders effectively. We have a module that covers exactly that, as well as understanding value and ROI.
Communicating effectively with product and engineering: This is a common refrain from many design teams. It is possible to work effectively with product and engineering, improving these relationships—and often increasing capacity along the way. We’ll cover this in the course too.
Project and workstream management: Project Management is not an innate skill for most people. We have an entire module dedicated to project and workstream management which will lift your game and help your program run more smoothly.
Increased capacity: With improved leadership and project management skills, your team will be able to take on more projects. That always makes the boss happy.
In short, this course will save you time and pain (and maybe the deep end), allowing your employer to benefit from your new skills and knowledge without increasing headcount.