WHAT DOES A DESIGN MANAGER DO?
Published: Oct 18, 2024 - The Design Manager partners with product managers, engineers, executives, and other designers to enhance consumer security products. Grows and empowers a team of consumer product designers to create excellent user experiences, contributing to the expansion of knowledge across all UX disciplines. Advocates for outstanding Product Design throughout the organization, ensuring design quality, speed, and consistency are prioritized in product development.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Design Manager
1. Design Manager Duties
- Project Scope Coordination: Coordinates with project manager to determine scope, complexity and planning/scheduling requirements of projects.
- Personnel Assignment: Assigns department personnel to provide engineering and technical support and determines personnel needed with most appropriate individual qualifications.
- Cost Estimation: Prepares manpower and cost estimates for department.
- Quality Assurance: Ensures the quality, accuracy and completeness of departmental work as to engineering, design and CAD quality, compliance with established IPS standards, procedures, codes and ordinances, adherence to design and project schedules.
- Training Management: Provides adequate training, technical and administrative guidance and instruction to personnel with the department.
- Personnel Management: Manages various personnel functions, including, but not limited to, hiring, performance appraisal, salary position recommendations and employee development.
- Workload Planning: Plans and schedules work for the department ensuring the proper and effective distribution of assignments and manpower, space and facilities for subsequent performance of duties.
- Inter-Office Coordination: Contact person for inter-office labor, work sharing and outsourcing to consultants.
- Skills Development: Evaluates and Initiates the necessary training of the Design Group to insure pertinent technical competence, acceptable social/communication skills and personal development of leadership.
- Training Documentation: Maintains a Training Log for each Design Employee, and provides a quarterly report to the BUL, with appropriate recommendations for Training, with a quarter-by-quarter budget.
- Budget Management: Provides an annual budget for anticipated staff costs and equipment/office requirements.
- Policy Development Assistance: Assists in development and approval of IPS departmental policies and technical standards and procedures.
- Procedural Coordination: Assists in the development and coordination of divisional and inter-departmental policies, procedures and standards.
- Report Preparation: Prepares regular and special reports and analyzes, setting forth progress, adverse trends and appropriate recommendations or conclusions.
- Sales Support: Participate in preparation and delivery of sales presentations.
2. Design Manager Details
- Complexity Management: Help teams break down complexity and provide clear context and direction for work.
- Relationship Building: Build and maintain strong relationships and collaboration with suppliers, Buying and Promotions counterparts, creating opportunities for newness, trends, and sourcing.
- Team Leadership: Lead the team towards common goals to motivate and inspire others.
- Market Awareness: Keep up to date on sales history and range plans across both own areas of accountability and more broadly across all divisions to ensure designs are aligned to deliver on commercial opportunities.
- Interdepartmental Coordination: Coordinate across departments, buying, marketing, and CSR to ensure effective communication and that design projects meet all requirements.
- Collaboration Facilitation: Create links between teams and work and preempt where collaboration is needed.
- Direction and Oversight: Provide direction to all levels of the design teams, helping to manage the critical path to ensure they contribute effectively to the design process and deliver ranges each season and print runs monthly to the store.
- BIM Leadership: Lead the design team through shop drawings and coordination of Revit models (hosted in BIM 360).
- Revit Design: Design Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) elements in Revit.
- Construction Compliance: Oversee drawings issued for construction in compliance with applicable codes and calculations.
- Documentation Preparation: Prepare the customer approval, third-party approval, and other required submittal packages per project.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Lead cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end design projects, ensuring outcomes meet both business and user goals.
3. Design Manager Responsibilities
- Engineering Design Management: Manage all elements of engineering design within the project sphere including the design consultants.
- Compliance Assurance: Ensure compliance with all relevant contractual obligations including client specifications, design assurance, systems engineering, manufacturing liaison, configuration control, systems assurance, materials compliance and engineering change.
- Systems Implementation: Ensure that effective systems are implemented and utilised which deliver defined business objectives whilst ensuring overall compliance to regulatory and customer requirements.
- Resource Allocation: Ensure the appropriate allocation of resources to achieve the plan including overseeing budgeted expenditure.
- Values Adherence: Work in accordance with Downer’s Values and demonstrate commitment, active involvement and leadership regarding zero harm, client, people and financial accountabilities.
- Structural Drawing Creation: Creating structural drawings.
- 3D Modeling: Modeling in 3D from laser scan data.
- Rendering Production: Producing photo-realistic renderings.
- Team Leadership: Providing leadership and mentoring to SMA team.
- Constructability Improvement Coordination: Coordinating with Engineering to continuously improve the constructability of Structural Modeling & Analysis’ design.
- Design Support: Supporting design efforts with timely and accurate completion of contract drawings.
- Scheduling Coordination: Providing scheduling input, drawing and other coordination to fulfill contract requirements.
4. Design Manager Job Summary
- Collaborative Development: Partner with product managers, engineers, executives, and other designers to bring excellent experiences to consumer security products.
- Team Leadership: Grow and empower a team of consumer product designers to create excellent user experiences.
- Knowledge Expansion: Contribute to the growth of knowledge in all UX disciplines (Research, Design, Content) and deep domain expertise in consumer security.
- Culture Development: Grow a culture of designing and shipping with speed, consistency, and quality.
- Design Advocacy: Advocate for great Product Design throughout the organization by ensuring Product Design responsibilities, roles, and contributions to Product Development are understood.
- Strategic Execution: Help create and execute product design OKRs in collaboration with the Product Design team and UX Leadership.
- UX Prioritization: Ensure UX is prioritized by working with product leadership to identify opportunities for validation and better collaboration.
- Feedback Provision: Participate in Opportunity Canvas reviews by asking questions and providing feedback that focuses on a great user experience.
- Recruitment: Hire an excellent team of Product Designers.
5. Design Manager Accountabilities
- Design Leadership: Reporting to Lead Design Manager, be a key member of the Project Management team and responsible for all design aspects of the projects.
- Constructible Design Oversight: Provide visible leadership and direction to internal project management team to ensure constructible designs are delivered to Client's requirements.
- Client Relationship Management: Oversee design, forecasting, schedule, people and quality, whilst maintaining a strong relationship with the Client, internal and subcontract personnel as well as onsite construction teams.
- Design Process Coordination: Manage and coordinate all aspects of the design process to ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget and to the highest quality standards.
- Methodology Establishment: Establish the design and construction methodology and process, from end to end delivery to construction.
- Cost Plan Alignment: Manage the design works, including liaison with the Cost planners to ensure that the design deliverables meet the cost plan constraints for each trade package.
- Documentation Assembly: Liaise with the Contracts Team to assemble the trade package documentation.
- Design Review Management: Review all design deliverables for completeness and constructibility and manage the review of all drawings by the Project Team.
- Design Validation: Validate design status by identifying any gaps or omissions.
- Relationship Building: Establish effective relationships in the area in order to produce best concepts and solutions for Client.
- Innovative Design Integration: Incorporate constructability smarts and innovations in the design outcome.
- Cost Estimation: Understand and provide cost estimates for developed design options.
- Project Reporting: Produce and present accurate project reports and forecasts.
- Daily Activity Coordination: Liaise closely with the Lead Design Manager on all daily project activities.
- Systems Development Assistance: Assist with the ongoing development of company systems and standards.