Off-boarding

On-boarding varies greatly from job to job, and that makes sense as only you know what information and processes need to be shared up-front to get someone ready to be successful and independent enough to do the job.

However, most design orgs have little to no formal process around off-boarding, instead leaving that to the HR reps who only gather info they care about.

As part of my role at NM and Blizzard, I began using a collaborative whiteboard session in Figma / Mural as a way to gather thoughts and opinions from designers before they left us for their next job. My focus was on...

Anchors: what things were blockers to them doing their best work,

Engines: which things empowered them to excel in their role,

Ideas: what changes/improvements they think could make a difference.

I also like to capture their feelings about the org at the moment (usually their last day) and how they feel about potentially coming back in the future (or whether they’d recommend us to a friend or colleague).

Making Use of this Data

Depending on the person and conditions of their tenure, it might be beneficial to everyone to keep the source of this data “close to the chest” (e.g.: protected).

If you already have

Check-ups⁠

scheduled as part of your

Org. Maturity⁠

, I recommend anonymously adding things from your off-boarding sessions into the appropriate column or location so that data is treated the same as everyone else’s. What I’ve found is people are the most open/honest about their time at your company on the way out, but those feelings and frustrations don’t leave with them; others on the team share them and don’t know how safe it is to speak up.

This isn’t necessarily a failing on your part, the world is tense and building a teams psychological safety only goes as far as executive decisions / policies allow. Things like R.T.O. enforcement, layoffs, restructuring, and even larger industry trends all contribute to people clamming up and not giving the softest of feedback.

So, having your off-boarding feedback mixed into quarterly and/or yearly pulse checks can give others enough courage to at least +1 a card someone else added and round out your holistic feedback.

...

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Resources

⁠

Offboarding Figjam Template⁠

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Screenshot of the Offboarding Template on Figjam

Screenshot of the Offboarding Template on Figjam

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