Teaching UX is hands-on training for real leadership in design operations.
- Learn how leading a classroom mirrors managing a cross-functional design team.
- Discover why teaching sharpens strategy, feedback, and coaching skills.
- Understand how educators build salable outcomes: one student, one case study at a time.
We’ve all heard the phrase: “Those who can’t do, teach.”
It originated with playwright George Bernard Shaw. But context matters. Shaw was critiquing revolutionaries, not teachers. Somewhere along the way, the phrase was hijacked to diminish educators.
Aristotle had the better take: “Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.”
And here’s what most people miss: Every person stepping into leadership must learn how to teach.
It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s the whole gig.
Leadership isn’t about task management. It’s about people development, guiding others through ambiguity, coaching them through conflict, and helping them realize their potential.
Every manager should have a five-year growth plan for their team. But how do you actually get them there?
That’s where teaching comes in.
So when I say the classroom was my design ops lab, I don’t mean it was like leading a team.
I mean, it was leading a team. 15 of them, simultaneously.
Lesson 1: Teaching UX Is Leading UX
I’ve spent years designing systems, building products, and managing cross-functional teams. I’ve also taught UX and UI design at the college.
What I didn’t expect was how much teaching would sharpen my leadership edge.
Every semester, I run what is essentially a DesignOps. There’s a curriculum to define (strategy), personalities to align (team dynamics), and feedback to deliver (performance coaching). I guide students through tools like Figma, design systems, and user research. I’m accountable for outcomes: every student builds a job-ready UX case study.
That means I’m overseeing 15+ unique design projects. Each has its own blockers, personalities, and learning curves.
And I coach each one toward quality, clarity, and completion.
If you think that’s easier than a team lead role, let me stop you right there.
Lesson 2: Curriculum Is Strategy
Leadership is about mapping a path forward and adapting along the way.
In teaching, the syllabus is the strategy. I build timelines in Miro, manage tasks via a Kanban board, and scaffold learning across weeks. But first, I teach students what these tools are and why they matter. Introduce the process before the performance.
The curriculum sets expectations, aligns priorities, and evolves in real time.
It’s fast, flexible, and deeply human.
Teaching UX helped me build strategic clarity, grounded in outcomes and responsive to change.
Lesson 3: Classrooms Are Cross-Functional Teams
No two students are alike. Their skills, backgrounds, and goals vary wildly.
Sound familiar?
A classroom is a microcosm of any design team. As a teacher, I mediate conflict, create shared goals, and build trust across diverse personalities, all without formal authority.
Leading a product team is one thing. Leading 15 unpredictable humans without the power of an org chart? That’s next-level leadership training.
Lesson 4: Feedback Is Culture
In both classrooms and companies, feedback is the culture.
In UX education, critique isn’t optional, it’s embedded. I teach students how to receive and apply feedback, but more importantly, how to give it to others.
Sometimes, that means explaining why their Figma file needs to be rebuilt using components, styles, and variables, because they’ll need a scalable system for the next assignment.
Teaching taught me how to coach, not just correct.
Lesson 5: Accountability Without Authority
I can’t give raises or promotions. Technically, I can give extra credit, but that’s not why students show up.
They show up because they trust the process. They believe in the work. That takes clarity, consistency, and care.
And honestly? That’s how the best teams function, too.
Real leadership is about building momentum without mandate. Direction without coercion.
I learned that in the classroom, and it made me a better leader in the studio.
Lesson 6: Every Student = A Project
By semester’s end, each student ships a UX case study. Research, flows, wireframes, testing, visual design, storytelling. It’s all there.
And I guide each project from kickoff to completion.
I manage timelines, unblock issues, and hold the bar for quality. Ensuring every student has something they can present with pride in an interview.
It’s design management, mentorship, and delivery leadership, compressed into 15 weeks.
We Need More Leaders Who Know How to Teach
Teaching UX isn’t a detour from industry.
It’s the ultimate preparation for leading within it.
It taught me how to build a strategy from scratch.
To inspire without authority.
To manage complexity while coaching creativity.
To deliver outcomes and grow people, at the same time.
So the next time you meet a candidate with a UX education background, don’t ask if they’ve been “out of the game.”
Ask what they learned managing 15 design projects at once.
Because they might already be doing the job you’re hiring for.
“Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.”
-Aristotle
Summary Takeaways
- Teaching UX is hands-on leadership development in strategy, team coaching, and delivery.
- Educators lead real-world projects, manage diverse teams, and coach a wide range of learners.
- The skills developed through teaching, feedback, clarity, influence are foundational to high-impact leadership.
