Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We’re moving to a highly supported self-service model so researchers can recruit themselves with tools and vendors."
Sarit GeertjesPeople, not Petri Dishes: Stories from a Research Recruiter
September 23, 2019
"Jazz soloists draw from a lifetime of patterns, sometimes quoting TV theme songs like the Muppets or Sanford and Son."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
November 6, 2017
"The COP became the beating heart of our project, enabling quick credibility and community excitement."
Alexia Cohen Adriane AckermanIncreasing Health Equity and Improving the Service Experience for Under-Served Latine Communities in Arizona
December 4, 2024
"Persisting conversations in Slack instead of Zoom chat means folks can revisit and join conversations asynchronously."
Shelby SwitzerMaking Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
December 10, 2021
"When you go to a physician, you trust their diagnosis and treatment, not just the tests they order."
Aras Bilgen Ari ZelmanowResearch Democratization: A Debate
March 29, 2023
"Autoethnography and video diaries enable participants to capture aspects of their lives that researchers might not see otherwise."
Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA) Charley Scull Prabhas PokharelWhat Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking
March 11, 2022
"Many games are fully playable by the blind, despite being highly visual, through clever auditory cues and remapped controls."
Dane DeSutter Natalie Gedeon Deborah Hendersen Cheryl PlatzBeyond the Console: The rise of the Gamer Experience and how gaming will impact UX Research across industries
May 17, 2024
"We ran ambient workshops so folks could contribute on their own time and remove the friction of synchronous meetings."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"This is a journey with no end, and it’s amazing that we can continue the conversation beyond this session."
Husani OakleyTheme Two Intro
June 6, 2023
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What new workflows or tools have been effective in bridging the gap between design, engineering, and product teams using AI?
Why is it important for product teams to focus on questions rather than jumping straight to methods?
How can AI-generated visualizations complement but not replace human-drawn maps in collaboration?