It's about damn time for Open Practice for Design.

One of my favorite memories of working at InVision was my conversations with Kristin Hillery, a creative director leading brand and content. We talked about ideas for content and events that would be interesting and helpful for designers. A lot of InVision’s stories and Design Leadership Forum activities focused on the people and programs of popular brands or large design programs. I understand why they did this, but I was always annoyed that was the only focus because I know there are so many more designers who work on small teams or alone. Much of what we celebrated through content wasn’t applicable because what works “at scale” is either impractical and completely overblown for tiny teams or will simply never work because of where design sits in the org chart.

This was even the case at InVision, the arbiter of best practices in design and design leadership! One afternoon I received a Slack message from a VP who asked if I could mentor her lone designer. She was stuck in the leadership org making presentations and other visual assets. I jumped at the opportunity because I’ve been there before, the long designer—and I’m there now—A design team of one. We set up 1:1s, reviewed her work, and came up with tangible goals related to her work. The designer and I have been friends ever since and I still mentor her to this day.

I tried to convince Clark and a few leaders that InVision should devote at least some time and resources to support our indivudal license holders but they all responded like I was crazy. Lone designers may never become a trending topic, but they are a large collective of unique people who do what they can to represent the practice and the profession. And many of them report directly to people who don’t know the first thing about design, let alone how to mentor, foster, and nurture their careers.

There's nothing wrong with this situation per se, that's how it goes for the majority of designers. But I think it’s time to address this issue and stand up a member-only organization for this humble group of professionals. A peer community grounded in learning and skill development with facilitated conversations, coaching, and communal activities to make lone designers feel more confident about their work and their careers.

I’m calling it Open Practice for Design, and that includes all design roles because lone designers have to do it all or try their damndest to anyway. If you work alone or on a very small team, Open Practice is for you. If you would like to join a group of people who can empathize with your work situation because they are in it too, Open Practice is for you. If you're ready to learn and develop new skills related to design and business, Open Practice is for you. If all of this sounds great and you’d like to learn more, then please visit this page on Same Team, complete the form, and be ready.

Also, if you have a designer on your team but you're not confident how to help them grow—you're not alone–and we can help you.