Design As a Team Sport
I want to start this piece by making one thing abundantly clear: I’m pro WFH. I love being able to set my own schedule, to follow when inspiration strikes and lean into a flow that suits both my personal and professional lives.
That said, it can often be isolating. I work alone, and even when I’m technically working on a team project, I’m the only developer designing and creating the sites. With Week of the Website, I lead calls and am in charge of making everything happen only because I have the wind in my sails from a fabulous team of project managers.
Lately, I’ve been craving community. I’ve written about this before, how having others in my corner is when the best work gets done.
So, being a woman of action, I reached out to my team. When the upcoming wall feels especially close to hitting, I throw a flare into the air in the form of an SOS in Slack. Most recently, I was trying to accomplish some code that was taking up far too much space in my brain, rolling around on repeat. After days of troubleshooting it on my own, I posted my question on Slack and my team came together and solved it under an hour. Many hands = light work.
Another example, and one dear to my heart, is getting to having a report. Another SOS, sent out to a larger audience this time, was replied to by an amazingly talented designer that has sent our progress up the bell curve, situating us at the top and producing our new branding and website. The things we accomplished as a team —and candidly what we were able to accomplish because of new talent breathing life into things—was far beyond what I could do alone.
Coming from a perspective where I love to give recognition to others, when it comes to everything from design to my own career goals and needs, I’m quick to point fingers to teammates. I know I’m only as good as those that I surround myself with, and every day, I am grateful to be lucky enough to learn and grow alongside my community.
