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
"Thou art community, connection, and meaning – the product is not just code or design, it is a shared experience between humans and dogs."
Kevin M. HoffmanTheme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
June 3, 2019
"If it’s not usable it’s not valuable."
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
December 6, 2022
"There are no guardrails in democratization, and that is dangerous."
Ari ZelmanowDark Side of Democratization
October 13, 2023
"The biggest improvement was confidence — walking into a room with senior stakeholders prepared to ask sharper questions."
Snehal PendharkarConducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows
June 10, 2026
"Emergence is a moral concept—it can be a good thing or a terrible thing that emerges from systems."
Luke Roberts Christian Bason, Ph.D. Amanda Woolley Ben ReasonPanel Discussion
December 4, 2024
"Learning velocity was a far better early signal than any other metric we were traditionally trained to look for."
Patrick Boehler Madison KarasThe service shift: transforming media organizations to create real value through design
November 19, 2025
"The division between haves and have-nots is real, but history shows periods of immense innovation and progress can follow."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"You are the reason why we are able to have such high quality programming that we do have at this conference this week."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
June 11, 2021
"Flexible Lego block operations let you build the shape you need when and how long you need it."
Kate Towsey Jake BurghardtResearchOps AMA with Kate Towsey & Jake Burghardt
October 16, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What role do non-player characters (NPCs) or agents play in intelligent collaborative interfaces?
How do UX researchers evaluate success differently in AI products compared to traditional ones?
How can non-engineers overcome fears and gaps when interacting with engineering codebases for the first time?