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
How to Identify and Increase your "Experience Quotient"
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Theme 2 Intro
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Do you want to work on climate? (Climate UX Discussion Series)
2023 • Climate UX Interest Group
Alissa Briggs
How to Coach Enterprise Experimentation
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Andy Warr
Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Jack Moffett
SAFe or Sorry?
2019 • Enterprise Community
Briana Thomas
When Design Ops Comes in H.O.T. : A Tale of a Transformed Design Org
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Anna Nguyen
Why Our Voice of the Customer is Better Than Yours
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Todd Healy
Driving Change with CX Metrics
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Kaitlin Tasker
Fast and Fearless Inclusive Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Bria Alexander
Theme 1 Intro
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Maggie Dieringer
Creating Consistency Through Constant Change
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Noreen Whysel
Short Take #4: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Ari Zelmanow
Dark Side of Democratization
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Alfred Kahn
A Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Steve Baty
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold

More Videos

Melinda Belcher

"The agencies don’t often know what happens to their work after they deliver it unless they hear about it third hand years later."

Melinda Belcher

Insider preview of Enterprise Experience 2020

May 28, 2020

Laura Smith

"Our role shifted toward building communities that tackle common challenges and build a robust ecosystem."

Laura Smith Tom Gayler

Embedding Service Design and Agile Practice within UK Planning Teams to Create Services that Last

December 3, 2024

Dana Bishop

"Attitudinal data alone doesn’t tell us the why behind customer feelings or behaviors, leading to missed improvement opportunities."

Dana Bishop

2022: The Year UX Demonstrates its Business Impact

March 11, 2022

Joerg Beringer

"This is real serious analysis, not pre-prepared or fake data."

Joerg Beringer Thomas Geis

Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes

September 10, 2025

Llewyn Paine

"The choices we make about AI are about much more than speed versus quality — they define how we value research and our relationships."

Llewyn Paine

Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration

March 11, 2025

Deanna Smith

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Deanna Smith

Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process

September 23, 2024

Weidan Li

"Many of ChatGPT's organizing themes are at the same level as the basic themes, which is confusing and inappropriate."

Weidan Li

Qualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?

June 4, 2024

Asia Hoe

"Collaborate and involve design early and often to better align on user goals and reduce friction."

Asia Hoe

Partnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design

November 29, 2023

Ian Johnson

"People just don't get that the design and the process is fundamental."

Ian Johnson

Latent Scope: Finding structure in unstructured data

June 11, 2025