To describe my role as a manager, I first need to describe the Pollux structure : it is the design branch of La Poste and Docaposte Group, staffing designers on various products and projects with an agency-like organization. Regrouping UX designers, UI designers, creative designers and project managers, Pollux scaled from 40+ members in 2021 to 110+ members in 2023. 

I was the third to join the UX management team in September 2022, and managed 10+ UX designers. We were each responsible for our maangees skills, staffing and well-being. As a team, we also had to recruit UX designers to meet the Group's staffing demands. We recruited 20+ while I was there. 

Sharing my time between management (25%) and designing (75%), I had the luck to be part of the big picture and help building something larger that what I could achieve as an individual, while still honing my design skills.

I understood the management process as follows : I defined the skills and aspirations of a designer to identify the adapted staffing, so a performant team can be built. 

In order to define the skills level of a designer, I went through many 1 to 1 meetings. Built on mutual trust, these meetings helped me identify the predilection domains of my interlocutor and their margin of progression. Then, we set up skills evolutions planning over a year. 

But, a satisfying staffing also needs a detailed job description. With the other managers, we went through several iterations of job descriptions and staffing demands expressions : Notion, Slack, e-mail... At the end, we used these three tools to optimize collaboration between product managers, designers and managers. 

To make sure a team was performing, I would then regularly exchange with product managers and staffed designers to understand how things were going, and if adjustments were needed.