VP of Product Design Julie Zhuo shares how she learned to be a new manager at Facebook.
It can be uncomfortable to move from team member to team manager, but keynote speaker, blogger, and author of The Making of a Manager Julie Zhuo says that managers bring a unique skill set that isn’t in competition with individual players.
As one of Silicon Valley’s top product design executives and the VP of Product Design at Facebook, Zhuo’s work has directly impacted global design culture and transformed the way we interact—on and offline.
Zhuo started as one of Facebook’s first interns when the fledgling social media company was still a small platform exclusively for college students. She says at the time, she didn’t even know that design was a profession, but as the company’s growth accelerated, she was unexpectedly asked to step into a managing position.
Here’s what you need to know about managing from a highly influential design leader known for building first-class teams:
Be a great listener.
“I’m the last one to give my opinion,” said Zhou of her natural tendency to want to hear all sides. “I really want to hear what everyone else has to say first.” This open friendliness was a trait that her manager first noticed that likely made her realize Zhuo was a great candidate for management.
However, as Zhuo matured in her role, she also learned that not finding her own voice would ultimately be a barrier to effectiveness because managers are frequently called upon to define, direct and defend their teams.
Don’t feel awkward.
“At first it can be awkward to go from joking and trading stories with a co-worker to having a formal one-on-one meeting at work to discuss work obligations,” said Zhuo of how she often felt like an imposter. “It’s not you as the manager saying that you’re better at your job than they are,” she said of her highly specialized design team. “It’s simply that you’re there to be helpful to that person in a new way.”
You’re not competing.
“The world’s top athletes all have coaches,” said Zhuo. “But those coaches aren’t better at the sport.” A good coach is there to push, improve and challenge a team. Zhuo says managers are not competing with their team as an individual contributor and don’t need to prove that they can out-perform the team. “The only actual skill you need is to be a force multiplier for your team.”
Create trust.
”I really believe that you can learn something from everyone you work with,” she said of her open attitude to communication. She aims to foster trust so she can access the authentic part of each member on her team. That might mean losing the authoritarian or know-it-all attitude in favor of creating a bond through being honest about your own vulnerability.
Zhuo then uses this trust to start a conversation with people about what’s going well and what’s not—and then take those answers to help build the team. She makes it her goal to understand the goals of each of her employees, what they enjoy doing and what they consider their strengths and areas for growth.
Then, she uses that information to help them apply those attributes to solving the problems that face the team. Good managers get people to work together to ensure the output results in something far better than someone could have done on their own.
Julie Zhuo has many more management insights she shares in her book The Making of a Manager, considered one of the Best Books of the Year So Far by Amazon.
Carolina Starin is a reporter, storyteller, and television, radio and podcast producer. Her varied work has been seen on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Medium, KCRW and The Moscow Times. She holds a master’s in international business policy from Columbia University.
