Why Trying New Things Makes You a Better Design Leader
Breaking Out of the Design Bubble
When you’ve spent years refining your craft in UX or web design, it’s easy to fall into patterns. You rely on instincts, past successes, and proven frameworks — and while that’s efficient, it can also trap you in predictable ways of thinking.
Learning new things outside the office - karate, rock climbing, even audio books about nature - helps me think about connections and patterns that are useful back at work. The best design leaders don’t just optimize within their field — they step outside of it to bring in fresh perspectives. That’s where the Beginner’s Mind comes in.
A Zen concept, Beginner’s Mind means approaching experiences as if you’re seeing them for the first time — without assumptions, without expertise, just pure curiosity. It’s about being open, adaptable, and unafraid to ask questions.
That mindset isn’t just useful for personal growth — it makes you a stronger, more creative, and more empathetic design leader.
Breaking Out of Your Default Thinking Patterns
Design leaders spend years honing their “go-to” approaches — user research frameworks, usability heuristics, wireframing techniques. But if you always approach problems the same way, you’re limiting your potential solutions.
Trying something completely different — say, learning to play chess, taking a woodworking class, or experimenting with photography — forces your brain to work differently. Suddenly, you’re seeing concepts, patterns, and relationships that don’t exist in Figma.
💡 Example: A UX lead takes an improv comedy class and realizes that the best ideas come from “Yes, and” thinking — building on what’s already there instead of shutting things down. That insight completely changes the way they run design critiques, making them more collaborative and constructive.
✅ Takeaway: New experiences loosen the grip of your default solutions, making room for fresh, unexpected ideas.
Learning to Be Comfortable with Discomfort
As a design leader, you probably don’t remember what it feels like to be completely lost. At some point, you became the expert — the one who has answers, who sets direction, who provides clarity.
But here’s the problem: When you forget what it feels like to not know what you’re doing, you risk losing patience for those who are still learning.
Putting yourself in a beginner’s shoes reminds you what it’s like to struggle.
💡 Example: A senior UX designer decides to learn front-end development — not to become an engineer, but to better understand the constraints developers face. Suddenly, they see how tricky responsive layouts can be, how technical debt affects design decisions, and why that “simple tweak” is actually a massive rewrite.
This experience makes them a more empathetic collaborator, improving relationships between design and engineering.
✅ Takeaway: Being a beginner again makes you a better leader by strengthening patience, empathy, and adaptability.
Seeing Unexpected Patterns and Relationships
New skills often surface unexpected connections — concepts from one domain that apply in another.
💡 Example: A design director takes up landscape photography and realizes that the same composition principles — balance, contrast, leading lines — apply to UI design. They start applying photographic framing techniques to their interface layouts, leading to cleaner, more visually harmonious designs.
Creativity thrives when different disciplines collide. The best designers aren’t just good at design — they borrow from architecture, psychology, storytelling, music, and even nature to create better experiences.
✅ Takeaway: When you explore new fields, you make connections you never would have seen otherwise.
Gaining Better Communication Tools Through Analogy
A major part of design leadership is explaining design decisions to people who don’t speak “design.” Stakeholders, engineers, executives — they all process information differently.
The best way to bridge that gap? Analogies.
💡 Example: A UX lead plays jazz on the side. When executives struggle to understand flexible vs. rigid design systems, they use an analogy:
A rigid design system is like classical music — structured, precise, predefined.
A flexible design system is like jazz — it follows a structure, but allows for improvisation.
The lightbulb goes on. Suddenly, the stakeholders get it.
✅ Takeaway: New activities give you a richer set of metaphors to explain complex design concepts to diverse audiences.
Expanding Your Perspective Beyond Design Thinking
Many design leaders reach a point where they realize their real job isn’t just about pixels — it’s about business impact.
Trying something outside of design — like learning negotiation tactics, studying behavioral psychology, or diving into financial modeling — can completely change the way you approach leadership.
💡 Example: A product designer takes a negotiation class and learns:
How to frame design recommendations in terms of business value.
How to handle difficult stakeholder pushback with confidence.
How to advocate for user needs in executive meetings without getting shut down.
They go from reacting to stakeholder requests to actively shaping product strategy.
✅ Takeaway: Exposure to other disciplines makes you a more strategic and influential design leader.
Final Thought: Always Be a Student
The best designers — and the best leaders — never stop learning.
Adopting a Beginner’s Mind isn’t about starting over — it’s about staying curious, open, and adaptable. It’s about stepping outside of your comfort zone so you can bring fresh insights back to your work.
💪 Challenge: Pick something completely unrelated to design — something that interests you but feels totally unfamiliar. Give it a try, and pay attention to how it shifts your thinking. You might be surprised at what you discover.
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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.