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.

Customer-Centered Design Organizations
Gold
Thursday, June 8, 2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Share the love for this talk
Customer-Centered Design Organizations
Speakers: Peter Merholz
Link:

Summary

How do we shape design organizations to always be in service of the user? Peter Merholz talks about how everything changed when he focused on getting the organization operations correct instead of just getting the design right. Peter Merholz is the VP of Design at Snagajob and the co-author of "Org Design for Design Orgs."

Key Insights

  • Great user experiences require aligning design strategy, execution, and organizational structure, not just individual designer skills.

  • Centralized design teams offer community and consistency but often struggle with strategic influence and slow delivery.

  • Decentralized embedded designers gain ownership and speed but suffer loneliness, skill narrowing, and fractured experiences.

  • A hybrid centralized partnership model balances dedicated design skill teams with close collaboration across product teams.

  • Organizing product, design, and engineering teams around customer types and journeys creates more coherent, customer-focused solutions.

  • Strong team leadership is crucial: leaders must manage down (team empowerment), across (stakeholder relationships), and up (executive communication).

  • Design organizations benefit from diverse skill sets beyond interaction and visual design, including content strategy and research.

  • Clear, shared definitions of design quality and brand experience principles enable designers to be bold and focused.

  • Leaders must be willing to say no to overextension, preserving capacity to deliver high-quality design work.

  • Relying solely on process without attention to the content and quality of the work leads to mediocrity and frustration.

Notable Quotes

"Execution is in service of the user."

"It’s not enough to have great people; you need to create the space that brings out the best in them."

"Centralized design teams tend to be brought in after decisions are made, turning design into an us versus them relationship."

"Designers embedded in teams often feel lonely and their work leads to fractured user experiences."

"Organize your product managers, designers, and engineers around customers, not features or code repositories."

"Design is always going to be subjective, so you have to figure out what quality looks like in your organization."

"If you want your teams to be bold, you need explicit quality standards and the courage to say no."

"Team leadership means managing down to empower your team, managing across to build stakeholder relationships, and managing up with executives."

"Relying on process is not a proxy for quality, and divorcing process from content is a fatal enterprise mistake."

"When the design team is organized into coherent teams working across multiple squads, designers feel more supported and less isolated."

Ask the Rosenbot
Surya Vanka
Unleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Marissa Cui
Climate Design Product Showcase
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Nick Cochran
Growing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Husani Oakley
Theme Two Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Kit Unger
Theme 2: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Maggie Dieringer
Creating Consistency Through Constant Change
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
David Conrad
The Feeling of Data
2023 • Enterprise Community
Tess Dixon
C'mon Get Happy
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Kristen Honey
"Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design
2021 • Civic Design Community
Kurdin Bazaz
Culture, DIBS & Recruiting
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Taylor Jennings
Research Debate Club
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Theme Panel
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Mujtaba Hameed
The new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
David Cronin
Discussion
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Xenia Adjoubei
Empowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold

More Videos

Jennifer Bolduc

"We asked our employees if they wanted to come back and 95% said no to regular office attendance."

Jennifer Bolduc Diane Gregorio Emily Day

What's involved with getting people back to work?: A panel discussion

July 1, 2021

Dan Mall

"Design systems teams are most effective when they focus on serving the components and processes needed at scale by many teams."

Dan Mall

“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales

October 2, 2023

Leisa Reichelt

"Empathy walls emerged at DTA because teams needed a visceral way to bring stories back from the field."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

Dan Saffer

"AI can be magical, but it's also just not that smart."

Dan Saffer

Why AI projects fail (and what we can do about it)

May 14, 2025

Bassel Deeb

"Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, adjust to new ideas, remain vigilant, and face the challenge of change."

Bassel Deeb Will Osborn

Do More With Less: Equip and Lead Design Orgs Through Adversity

October 2, 2023

Lija Hogan

"Many companies start with vision accessibility because of legal risks, but accessibility should be broader."

Lija Hogan

Practical Principles of Inclusive Research

March 27, 2023

Steve Baty

"We lose fights as cyclists when confronted by cars, and that loss shapes my perspective today."

Steve Baty

Breaking Out of Ruts: Tips for Overcoming the Fear of Change

June 9, 2016

Deanna Washington

"You’ll never have enough context; being able to act with incomplete information is a crucial skill."

Deanna Washington Tim Allen Jeff Courcelle John Maeda Matt Raw Erica Tjader

Scaling Success: Paving the Path from DesignOps to VP

October 4, 2023

John Cutler

"Trying to force one preeminent model for the company is a recipe for disaster—embrace models and understand why people are using them."

John Cutler

Oxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)

December 3, 2024