Summary
Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on how we are building a thriving team of designers empowered to drive digital transformation at scale. Hear about our challenges and lessons learned. We will talk about team building, employee engagement, design thinking, and design maturity.
Key Insights
-
•
JP Morgan Chase’s digital transformation is accelerated by the pandemic and requires culture change alongside technology and design evolution.
-
•
Esther’s team manages 'Access,' a treasury management portal used by clients representing about one-sixth of the US economy.
-
•
Ruthless prioritization is critical for impactful design leadership, as highlighted by Esther’s mentor Deborah Danielson.
-
•
Successful digital transformation requires cross-team collaboration between design, product, and tech, including shared KPIs and goals.
-
•
Maintaining design quality despite increased demand is a core challenge due to pressure to scale rapidly without diluting outputs.
-
•
Behavioral change is difficult; training alone does not make teams collaborative or innovative without ongoing coaching and support.
-
•
New joiners benefit from buddy systems and small study pods to accelerate domain learning and foster interpersonal connection.
-
•
A growth mindset and resilience are essential designer qualities given constant change and complexity in the banking context.
-
•
Design leadership involves humility, stakeholder mapping, and knowing when to drive and when to collaborate in a large firm.
-
•
Design is not here to save the day but to help organizations progress steadily toward better client experiences and innovation.
Notable Quotes
"Ruthless prioritization is really the outcome of conversations that helped me focus on where I can make the most impact."
"Banks have 144 years of tech baggage making digital-first mindsets hard, and culture change is just as important as technology."
"We’re paddling in the same boat, aligned with product and tech, sharing goals and KPIs to deliver great client experiences."
"Behavior change doesn’t happen after two days of training; it takes ongoing support, coaching, and modeling."
"The pandemic collapsed many roles onto fewer shoulders without the usual context switches, amplifying burnout risk."
"A new joiner meeting someone 10 months in who’s still meeting new people shows the scale and complexity of JP Morgan."
"Design thinking works best with executive sponsorship combined with grassroots enthusiasm to set organizational expectations."
"Empathy and imagination combined with collaboration behaviors can help us live together more peacefully and improve the world."
"Design isn’t here to save the day but to see things through to the next day."
"Having a designated buddy for new hires proactively soliciting questions creates a supported partnership and eases onboarding."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"These four keys aren’t about color contrasts or automated code tests; they’re about the actual lived experience of users with disabilities."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
November 29, 2023
"It’s really important to understand your own mental bandwidth and not take on too much even if the project excites you."
Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah WickesAssessing UX jobs for impact in climate
August 14, 2024
"We pivoted big parts of our weekly all-hands to just personal connection because work stuff can happen anytime."
Shipra Kayan Tess DixonHow Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro
October 1, 2021
"Design always means change; if it amplifies what’s already working, that itself is change."
Bob Baxley Sara Asche Anderson Sharon Bautista Frank Duran Jamie Kaspszak Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaTheme 4: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"Our first superpower is systems thinking — thinking about interconnections that are often invisible but vital."
Janaki KumarInnovate with Purpose
June 14, 2018
"You don’t have to be a designer to participate; over 90% of our community are not design professionals."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"You don’t have to be a CFO or accountant, most of the time you won’t even touch balance sheets or cash flow statements."
Giff ConstableFinancial fluency for product leaders: AMA with Giff Constable
April 11, 2024
"Zane’s team works life-centered, collaborating with plants, animals, and ecosystems, expanding Civic design beyond human systems."
Meghan Hellstern Joanne DongThe Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?
December 10, 2021
"AI is ambiguous at best because we’re fully in the realm of probabilistic rather than deterministic programming."
Sarah BarrettAI in Real Life: Using LLMs to Turbocharge Microsoft Learn
February 13, 2025
