Rosenverse
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design

Gold
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Share the love for this talk
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
Speakers: Maria Giudice
Link:

Summary

Design and research-driven leaders have evolved from being responsible for executing design concepts to having a crucial role in driving change across organizations. This is welcome progress, but with greater responsibility comes new challenges, especially when it comes to championing change in organizations likely to resist it. As design and research-driven changemakers have risen in the ranks of business, they’ve “learned on the job,” experiencing both setbacks and victories. We captured many of these learnings by interviewing over 40 design leaders and incorporating their shared wisdom in our book, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World. Whether these leaders worked at IBM and Google, a US government agency, or a small consulting firm, their insights and observations are applicable to all and well-worth considering. This presentation will offer an overview of what we learned. It will cover the top mistakes changemakers make as they navigate the messy processes and people issues involved in driving any type of change. You'll learn how to determine the ground conditions needed for success, how to find and align supporters, how to minimize detractors, and how to repurpose design tools, frameworks, and techniques to your advantage. Maria Giudice is the co-author of Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World.

Key Insights

  • The role of design leaders has evolved from product delivery to shaping organizational culture at scale.

  • Changemakers must assess 'ground conditions' like executive support and resources before accepting leadership roles.

  • Rushing into change without understanding the organization's history and culture ('coming in too hot') often generates resistance.

  • Building a shared vision requires inclusive collaboration where all stakeholders feel heard and represented.

  • Prioritization and focus on a few small wins prevent burnout and enable sustainable change.

  • Tools like the impact matrix help teams evaluate effort versus impact to choose projects wisely.

  • Vision without execution is futile; delivering tangible outcomes with prototyping and milestones is essential.

  • Failure is inevitable in change leadership; embracing mistakes with courage leads to growth and innovation.

  • Visual communication techniques enhance stakeholder understanding and trust during complex change efforts.

  • Changemakers don’t necessarily need formal design training but must adopt design as a mindset and problem-solving strategy.

Notable Quotes

"The best future leaders will embody the qualities and traits of a DEO — design executive officer — creative business leaders at the intersection of design and business."

"Change is fundamentally a design problem and therefore change can be designed."

"Before you accept a mission as a changemaker, ask yourself do you have a clear directive, champion support, and the right resources?"

"Coming in too hot means running into a burning building like a firefighter, ignoring past work, and rushing without listening."

"Nobody wants to be told to do your thing unless it’s clear that it helps their thing. It’s just human nature."

"Don’t boil the ocean. Get small wins before you go for the big change."

"You need maniacal focus to prioritize, but remain flexible as priorities will always change."

"Vision without execution is hallucination. You must make outcomes tangible and measurable."

"Failure sucks and hurts, but if you haven’t failed, you haven’t taken enough risks."

"When you hit the bottom, that’s where creativity flourishes and it’s time to iterate, evolve, and redesign."

Ask the Rosenbot
Sam Proulx
SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Onur Kocan
Understanding the Strategy for Civic Design in a Complex City: Istanbul
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Paula Bach
Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Dan Willis
Enterprise Storytelling Sessions
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Theme Four Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Robin Beers
Research as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Caitlyn Hampton
Compass 101: Growing Your Career In A Startup World
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Victor Udoewa
Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Dharani Perera
The mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Dr. Nikki Smith
Research Strategy: Connecting Insights to Outcomes
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Hands on AI #3: Claude Code for UX people
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Boon Yew Chew
Making Sense of Systems—and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Ana Ferreira
Designing Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Catherine Dubut
Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design
2021 • Enterprise Community
Marieke McCloskey
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Mike Oren
Improving Democratized Research with CustomGPTs and Gems
2026 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Billy Carlson

"Audible’s cancellation process intentionally uses unclear structure and multiple primary buttons to slow users down — a dark pattern."

Billy Carlson

Pro-level UI Tips for Beginners

September 9, 2022

Mark Interrante

"Up to 90% of time in work streams is delay or waiting time, not active work."

Mark Interrante

Collaboration Flows in Product Development

June 9, 2017

Joi Freeman

"Our Western view of power worked well in the US and Canada but didn’t play well everywhere else."

Joi Freeman

A New Vantage Point: Building a Pipeline for Multifaceted Research(ers)

March 30, 2020

Shipra Kayan

"AI is not just speeding up what I used to do, it's changing what I used to do."

Shipra Kayan Robert Kortenoeven Eileen Tang

Emerging principles for using AI in Design: What the product design team at Miro has learned from deeply integrating AI in their workflow

June 11, 2025

Patrick Boehler

"Traditional metrics create a dangerous illusion where we optimize for what we can measure, not what people actually need."

Patrick Boehler

Fishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI

June 10, 2025

Chris Geison

"Most people have a marketing or sales strategy, but many research leaders look puzzled when asked about their research strategy."

Chris Geison Cristen Torrey Eric Mahlstedt

What is Research Strategy?: A Panel of Research Leaders Discuss this Emergent Question

March 4, 2021

Jackie Ajoux

"Assume you already have a seat at the table."

Jackie Ajoux

Leveling-Up: A Single-Player’s Guide to the DesignOps Team-of-One

January 8, 2024

Alnie Figueroa

"AI is here to stay, challenging our norms and shaping our future."

Alnie Figueroa

The Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft

September 10, 2025

Andy Barraclough

"Providing stakeholders with real user voices alongside insights is key to internalizing and acting on research."

Andy Barraclough Betsy Nelson

From Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme

September 23, 2024