Rosenverse

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
Ted Booth
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Michelle Chin
The DesignOps Starter Kit
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Carla Casariego
DesignOps in Wonderland
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Jorge Arango
AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Saara Kamppari-Miller
Theme Three Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Justin Entzminger
Risk and Reward: How to Diversify the Field of Civic Innovators and Designers
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Shipra Kayan
How we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Ignacio Martinez
Fair and Effective Designer Evaluation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Kat Vellos
Opener: The Other L Word
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Chris Moses
Stretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Tracy McGoldrick
IBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Bethany Brown
Rewiring operations with service design and AI
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Benjamin Real
Showing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Vanessa Varin
Feedback: The Other F-Word
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Sara Conklin
A UXer’s 12-Month Journey from Climate Concern to Climate Credibility
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group

More Videos

Dave Hoffer

"The portfolio should not be a forensic exercise pulled together last minute; it’s a journaling effort capturing weekly work."

Dave Hoffer Joanne Weaver

UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer

May 21, 2025

Liz Ebengo

"The tensions between host and refugee communities are more than poor service design; they point to chronic systemic issues rooted in resource allocation and social justice."

Liz Ebengo

The Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward

December 4, 2024

Bob Baxley

"Design-led does not need design-led—meaning leadership should push design mindset beyond just the design function."

Bob Baxley

Theme 4: Intro

January 8, 2024

Kim Lenox

"We have a Chief Creative Officer who leads design but also brand and workplace experience, giving design a seat at the executive table."

Kim Lenox

Leading Distributed Global Teams

May 20, 2019

Jen Cardello

"Users aren’t happy because they’re trapped; they have no sense of agency over the software they use."

Jen Cardello

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Christopher Geison

"Product and brand are two sides of the same coin, tied together through cultural trends."

Christopher Geison

Theme 1 Intro

March 25, 2024

James Lang

"Scaling communities is about propagation, not just growing as big as possible."

James Lang

If you can design an app, you can design a community

May 22, 2025

Abby Covert

"Collaboration is actually not anarchy in companies. There’s always this need for control."

Abby Covert Tomer Sharon

Panel: Collaboration Tools

November 6, 2017

Nidhi Singh Rathore

"Using modules or templates in co-design helps participants remix and add, making it easier to surface rich insights."

Nidhi Singh Rathore Amber Davis

Embracing participation to unlock deeper truths in commercial research

March 12, 2025