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
Sam Proulx
Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
James Chudley
Decarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Jen Briselli
Learning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Joseph Meersman
Sweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Edgar Anzaldua Moreno
Using Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Frank Duran
Partnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Lija Hogan
Practical Principles of Inclusive Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Barb Spanton
Doing Work That Matters: A Look Beyond The Idealistic Notion of 'Doing Meaningful Work'
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Landon Barnes
Are My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Stefanie Owens
Optimizing for Outcomes: Transformation Design in Systems at Scale
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Bryce Benton
[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Dan Ward
Failure Friday #1 with Dan Ward
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Mujtaba Hameed
The new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
Cara Maritz
The Art of Extrapolation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Victor Udoewa
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Kurdin Bazaz
Culture, DIBS & Recruiting
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold

More Videos

Kristin Skinner

"Empathy is essential now more than ever in measuring and supporting designer happiness during remote work."

Kristin Skinner Kamdyn Moore

8 Types of Measures in Design Operations

April 16, 2020

Sam Proulx

"Screen reader users need semantic structure that graphical prototypes typically don’t have, like labeled headings, controls, tables, and landmarks."

Sam Proulx

Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You

October 1, 2021

Emilia Åström

"Experimenting with collaboration methods helps you find what works best for your team."

Emilia Åström Jim Kalbach

Unlock Your Team’s Intelligence with Collaboration Design

June 9, 2022

Josina Vink

"Systems are shaped in the mundane, the insignificant, and the extraordinary every day."

Josina Vink

Navigating the pitfalls of systems thinking in service design

December 4, 2024

Jess Greco

"We can’t force people to partner with design, but if partnering makes it easier to meet framework requirements, that’s a win for everyone."

Jess Greco

Creating a Basis for Change: Scaling Design Maturity

June 8, 2022

Robert Schwartz

"In order to do this kind of work, you have to be willing to take a bloody nose. Those bloody noses are badges of honor."

Robert Schwartz

We're Here for the Humans

June 9, 2017

Sheri Byrne-Haber

"You want to code once and reuse components consistently for better UX; inconsistent skip-to-content links are a classic accessibility failure."

Sheri Byrne-Haber

The Importance of Accessible Design Systems

January 8, 2024

Christopher Geison

"The best entry point to organizational influence is solving the problems right in front of us."

Christopher Geison

Theme 1 Intro

March 25, 2024

Taylor Klassman

"The tool is only as good as the intention behind its design; we build AI the dscout way with transparency and ethics."

Taylor Klassman

The Evolution of UX Research Platforms

March 10, 2026