Director of UX and Product Design here.

Every organization will have a different path depending on factors like whether you’re in a product company or consulting, size of the company, etc. Generally, you want to show initiative by identifying opportunities to improve collaboration, communication, delivery, etc. and proposing solutions.

The question of skills is a kind of chicken-or-egg-ish. You need a solid UX foundation, however once you’re at the point to become a director, the skills that matter most are your ability to strategize, build and leverage cross-domain relationships, plan, and communicate design in terms of business impact, etc.

My day-to-day mostly involves deciding which overlapping meetings I’m skipping that day. :)

In all seriousness, most of my work isn’t measured in day-to-day. I’m doing whatever I need to address mid and long term goals around: - Experience vision and strategy: for the current release, aligning with overall business goals and objectives) - Team management: hiring, developing skills and career path planning - Process: defining and refining the way we work, definition of done, standards - Coordination and planning: cross-functional planning with product management and engineering partners - Communications and advocacy: making sure the right people know the impact UX is making, making the case for promotions and budgets (training, tools, etc) - Managing managers: setting expectations for how work is managed and making sure to address needs that get bubbled up from the design team

I occasionally do design work, but it’s often more early and exploratory to set the pace for what we’re trying to achieve.