How to break up with a designer?
Intro to an elegant employee offboarding from a former Head of Design
All employment and project collaborations end eventually. Goodbyes are inevitable. You, as a designer, or someone saying farewells to a designer, might as well end in an organized way.
There are 3 key things to consider:
- Purpose — why offboard at all?
- Motivation — your and your team’s reasons for offboarding
- Plan — goals, roles and resources in an offboarding project
1. Purpose
Work is based on mutual contracts. These contracts describe job titles, roles, requirements, compensations, IP and all sorts of other perimeters. Such agreement details are vital for a professional relationship to exist.
Yet, while contracts are certainly practical, such matter-of-factness can obscure an important point when they are about to come to an end.
Regardless of the setup, all work relationships happen between humans. Humans have needs and feelings. Humans also observe, talk and create impressions.
People leaving, staying and joining to fill the new void, will all take part in a departure process from their own perspective. For them, it’s not really a clear-cut “contract termination”. It’s a transition experience.
Imagine, for example, walking into a party where someone just had a plate-throwing fight. Or being the person recovering from that fight, now nervously waiting for a cab. Or the host, who is now cleaning up the mess.
Now imagine a different atmosphere. You see a person in a party mood outside the flat you were invited to. They take a moment to let you in and connect you with the host. The room is filled with elevating chatter.
While the contract endings are seldom plate-throwingly dramatic, the experience will leave an imprint on the departing talent and their team.
The company can ignore the change collaterals and only handle the legal necessities. Some years ago that was the case, as only 29% of global businesses had a formal exit process set up.
Viewing the transition period as an opportunity is a more cost-effective and human-centred approach. Planning and running a formal offboarding benefits everyone.
2. Motivation
Offboarding covers tasks related to employment separation such as successor onboarding, handovers, workshops, and documentation.
Offboarding is a project. And since it’s a project, the team should consider whether it makes sense to do it at all. Occasionally, it’s not. For instance if
- the project ended as planned and there is no follow-up
- the team has been dissolved or the work ended for good
- there is significant tension or low motivation
- the person is leaving in a hurry, e.g. due to a family situation
In these cases, it’s better just to call the situation for what it is. Quickly handle the must-have paperwork and shake hands.
For teams that will continue to employ and evolve, investing in offboarding can be highly meaningful.
Before diving into planning, everyone involved should have a positively selfish reflection on what can I do and why. This is critical. End projects can be somewhat heavy — requiring emotional labour, flexibility and methodical work.
Designer’s perspective
It would be unfair to presume that the departing designer is automatically hyped about the offboarding project. Mentoring the successor, while packing assets and going through recruitment processes can feel taxing.
Yet, there are many perks to well-organised closure: letting go of demanding projects, collecting feedback from peers and negotiating transition rewards, such as career courses — to name a few.
Team’s perspective
Well-planned offboarding secures the team’s work:
- the team knows what has happened and where things are
- the team gets instructions and guides on how to carry on
- designing continues uninterrupted or, at least, with fewer delays
- company elevates its employer reputation
- the designer might return as a boomerang hire in the future
Purposefully communicated and carefully planned offboarding also ensures that people staying behind are catered to. It’s not unheard of that in teams where offboarding isn’t planned at all the remaining work is simply dumped on the person close by. In the era of quiet quitting and great resignation, such neglecting attitude “doesn’t pass the vibe check”.
3. Goals, roles and resources
Once there’s shared clarity on what offboarding is and why should everyone care, it’s time for hands-on planning. Depending on the goals, expectations and time at hand, there are two main ways to approach it:
- 1–8+ weeks — Offboarding project
- Less than 1 week — Emergency handover
In both approaches, planning and deciding what is needed specifically will construct the much-needed project boundaries for a little time remaining. Setting the scope and paying attention to communication is a valuable investment. Consider, for example, how discussing with a designer for a couple of hours compares to the cost of losing access to important vision ideas or extending the new designer’s onboarding by weeks or months.
All in all, offboarding is a relatively straightforward process. Ensuring everyone is excited and has time and motivation to commit to this final project is the crucial first step.
Sum up
Well-planned offboarding is a human-centred way to end an employment relationship.
It helps the departing designer to conclude their work on a high note and potentially get support with new opportunities. It also secures the team’s work, by ensuring that people staying behind are equipped and assisted to carry on. Being kind and mindful is mutually beneficial and a human thing to do.
What to do next?
- Tips on project managing offboarding for non-designing colleagues
- Offboarding guide for design leads
- Guide for emergency offboarding, when the team is limited on time
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