Transparency Isn’t Optional — It’s the Foundation of Design Leadership
Clarity about pay, feedback, and priorities is the opposite of risky — it earns trust.
Most designers have experienced it: big changes are clearly happening at the company, but leadership stays quiet. Projects shift, promotions pause, the vibe changes — but no one says what’s really going on.
Sometimes leaders do this with good intentions. They don’t want to alarm the team. They think staying positive is protective. But in reality, withholding information doesn’t preserve trust — it erodes it.
In a recent article, I wrote about how the concept of loyalty in the workplace is often weaponized — used to keep designers stuck in roles or under conditions that don’t serve them. But transparency is the antidote to that dynamic. If you’re in a leadership role, transparency isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s your job.
What Designers Actually Want: Clarity, Not Comfort
Designers don’t need sugarcoating. They need predictability in how decisions get made, what success looks like, and how growth happens. They want to understand the business context, even if it’s not perfect.
More than once I’ve had to let designers know a newly vacated seat wouldn’t get backfilled at a time when we all felt like we couldn’t take any more on. I found that trusting them with the financial reality of the business and brainstorming plans together eased stress and ultimately got them more bought into necessary adjustments.
Another real example is acknowledging the level of investment our company or our client was willing to invest in a given project. No one likes to produce work that is less polished than they are capable of, but budgets and deadlines move for no one. Again the answer is just acknowledging in the open “I know you can and want to produce A+ work and I will go to bat for that to be possible next time around, but let’s get this project in front of us to a solid B+ and then we have to move on.”
Over time that designer can decide if they are in the right place or not because they know exactly where they stand.
What creates safety isn’t silence — it’s clear, respectful communication. Especially when the news is hard.
Three Areas Where Transparency Builds Trust
1. Compensation and Advancement
Designers don’t expect exact salary breakdowns across the org, but they do expect fairness.
Share how compensation bands work, how promotions are evaluated, and what metrics or behaviors actually drive advancement.
2. Performance and Feedback
Most people would rather hear something hard than nothing at all.
Make a habit of timely, thoughtful feedback. Make it two-way. Acknowledge out loud when someone’s doing great — or needs support.
3. Business Direction and Project Priorities
Don’t let designers find out company goals have shifted only when their work gets deprioritized.
Bring them into the decision-making where you can. Show them how their work supports the business — especially when the business is under pressure.
When You Don’t Share, You Don’t Protect — You Lose Credibility
The moment people sense something is off and you say, “Everything’s fine,” you’ve planted doubt.
That doubt snowballs. Designers start filling in the blanks. They assume the worst. And worst of all, they stop asking questions because they no longer believe they’ll get straight answers.
Good design thrives on clarity. So do good teams.
What Transparency Looks Like in Practice
You don’t have to share everything. But you should:
Be clear about what you know and what you don’t.
Give designers context for how and why decisions are being made.
Explain tradeoffs. Why this project, not that one? Why this hire, not that promotion?
Talk about constraints openly — budgets, org structure, client demands — so designers can work within them creatively, not in the dark.
If you’re new to this, start small:
“Here’s what I can share with you about the upcoming shift in priorities…”
“We don’t have full clarity on raises yet, but here’s what I’m advocating for and how I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“You’ve asked some really fair questions. I don’t have the answer yet, but I’m going to find out.”
Transparency isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being honest.
How This Ties Back to Loyalty
Transparency gives designers the information they need to make informed, empowered choices about their careers.
Some will stay. Some will grow into new roles. Some may eventually leave. But they’ll do it with clarity and respect — not because they felt misled or kept in the dark.
I wrote about loyalty and how it gets misused in my piece Loyalty Is Overrated. If you’re serious about building a better culture, transparency is the counterbalance.
Final Thought: Design Leadership Is Built on Trust
You can’t ask for loyalty without offering clarity.
You can’t build trust without telling the truth.
Designers don’t need to be coddled, they need to be informed.
Start there.
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I write weekly articles for designers and design leaders who want to grow their impact, lead with clarity, and build careers that actually feel sustainable.