Rosenverse
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design

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 Yen
Driving Organizational Change Through Design? Do more of this and less of that
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Shan Shen
Translating UX Terms into Business Contexts
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Todd Healy
Driving Change with CX Metrics
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Corey Long
Hiring in DesignOps: A Critical Study on How to Hire and Get Hired
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Robin Beers
Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Robert Reimann
Taming Design Complexity with UX Models
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Suzan Bednarz
AccessibilityOps for All
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Peter Levin
Solve a Problem Here, Transform a Strategy There: Research as an Occasion for Expanding Organizational Possibility
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Melinda Belcher
Bridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Simon Wardley
Maps and Topographical Intelligence
2019 • Enterprise Community
Amy Brana Stuart
Rest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
The power to heal and harm
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Lena Shenkarenko
Collaborative Wireframing for Creating Team Alignment and Shipping Better Products
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Dr. Nikki Smith
Research Strategy: Connecting Insights to Outcomes
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Beth Chappell
Leading through ambiguity: Supporting a design team relearning their craft
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Louis Rosenfeld
Welcome / Housekeeping
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold

More Videos

Mike Oren

"Position your discovery work as de-risking investments rather than just fuel for innovation or empathy building."

Mike Oren

Why Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking

March 28, 2023

William Newton

"You can draw a convincing dotted line between a UX improvement and a hard business outcome if you practice."

William Newton Jenny Chang

How to Lead With Data, and Without Data

June 7, 2023

Alison Rand

"People often go along with the outcome if they feel they were part of the process."

Alison Rand Sarah Brooks

Scaling Impact with Service Design

March 25, 2021

Brendan Jarvis

"Are the questions that you are asking and the stories that you are telling yourself serving you?"

Brendan Jarvis

Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

June 8, 2022

Bria Alexander

"All the videos and decks will be shared almost within minutes after each presentation so you can relax and enjoy."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

June 11, 2021

Paula Bach

"If we don’t respect legacy habits, we risk interrupting workflows and causing users to have a bad day."

Paula Bach

Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?

March 11, 2022

Jeff Gothelf

"The hardest part is changing the measure of success from output to outcomes, specifically changes in customer behavior."

Jeff Gothelf

The Intersection of Lean and Design

January 10, 2019

Jackie Ho

"Growth boards are really aimed around being very honest about the health of your product, not just painting a rosy status update."

Jackie Ho

Lead Effectively While Preserving Team Autonomy with Growth Boards

January 8, 2024

Alexis Lucio

"If you’d rather exclude a group of people from using your product than do accessibility, then think about the impact you’re making."

Alexis Lucio

Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems

June 9, 2022