Liftoff!
Liftoff! is your guide to leveling up as a design manager and leader. Its experience-driven approach—written by designers for designers—will help you hire and scale teams, develop careers, learn why diversity matters to your business, and solidify design’s role in your organization. Liftoff! will elevate your skills to lead your team and company to new heights.
Published: July 2020
Paperback: 384 pages
Paperback ISBN: 978-1933820-80-4
Ebook ISBN: 978-1933820-40-8
By Chris Avore & Russ Unger
Practical Design Leadership to Elevate Your Team, Your Organization, and You
Foreword by Kim Goodwin
Chapter 1: Surprise! You’re in Charge of People Now
Chapter 2: Designing Diversity and Inclusion in Your Teams
Chapter 3: Designing Your Hiring Process
Chapter 4: Performance Profiles and Interview Guides
Chapter 5: Screening Designers
Chapter 6: Interviewing Potential Team Members
Chapter 7: Offers, Negotiations, and Onboarding
Chapter 8: Unifying the Team Culture with Charters
Chapter 9: Designing the One-on-Ones
Chapter 10: Leading Continuous Critique
Chapter 11: Presenting Work
Chapter 12: Saying No
Chapter 13: Developing Designers
Chapter 14: Scaling Design
Chapter 15: Designing Influence
Chapter 16: Escape Velocity
Table of Contents
Other prominent design leaders agree:
A practical guide to the real-world challenges of design leadership and design management. Each chapter felt like a resounding affirmation of hard-learned lessons. The perfect read for those newer to leadership and those always looking to reflect and grow their approach.
A rare design leadership and management playbook that offers comprehensive and practical examples to teach designers how to make an impact.
Kristin Skinner
Author, Org Design for Design Orgs
Design Executive & Advisor
Meriah (Garrett) Moulton
VP of UX at Google
Copyright 2025 Chris Avore and Erova Studios LLC