Summary
Kevin will share the ambitions behind his first book, Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation (The MIT Press). The writing journey unpacked a series of unique multidisciplinary leaps across his lived personal and professional experience. For anyone curious about a wide range of things, Kevin offers a story of how he made his curiosities work for him and create value for others. Kevin will share visual anecdotes that illustrate how design changed his life, and how he observed design transforming organizations as well. Kevin's arguments crack through the glass ceiling of ambiguity that multidisciplinary teams may face when it comes to understanding design against newly emerging realities. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) serves as an important underpinning in Kevin's story as a Black man who's experienced exclusion. He'll introduce us to the leadership tact necessary to set a new tone to ensure our future design & innovation teams actually mirror the composition, needs and values that exist within an increasingly connected world.
Key Insights
-
•
Kevin’s multidisciplinary career blending engineering, business, and creative design drives his unique approach to strategic innovation.
-
•
Personal lived experiences, including family history with racial violence, deeply influence Kevin’s perspective on diversity and inclusion in design.
-
•
Leadership styles range from gatekeeping, which enforces compliance, to servant leadership that empowers teams and fosters innovation.
-
•
Servant leadership encourages risk-taking by balancing a portfolio of bets and embracing failure as a learning tool.
-
•
Diversity and inclusion should move beyond cultural fit to actively seek people who challenge and push methodologies.
-
•
Creating space and bandwidth for designers and teams to collaborate and do deep creative work is critical for innovation.
-
•
Multidisciplinary innovation studios, including client embeds, can successfully incubate and spin off new business ventures.
-
•
The popular Venn diagram of design, business, and technology is insufficient without unpacking broader societal, regulatory, and ecological trends.
-
•
Executives increasingly demand integrated innovation partners, not just consultants whispering advice.
-
•
Measuring success with specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals improves clarity and drives progress.
Notable Quotes
"Everything is the way it is by design."
"No matter the spaces that we navigate, who’s at the table absolutely matters."
"The dominant frame became the personal narrative to contain the perspectives I wanted to serve up."
"I had to go back to school to solidify my creative foundation while not abandoning business and tech."
"We invited BCG’s clients to live with us in multidisciplinary innovation studios for 12 to 18 months."
"The four superpowers of design include giving experts breathing room to do the deep work necessary to bring substance."
"Servant leadership means divvying up the work and giving team members runway to lead parts of the vision."
"Gatekeepers expect compliance, whereas servant leaders want to make the vision smarter with the team."
"I can’t tell you how many times recruiters ask, can I have a beer with this person, instead of focusing on true inclusion."
"We’re serving a hyper-connected, multifaceted, intersectional world, and even the planet is a stakeholder."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"I wish I had had a better understanding of how many non-UX people know so little about UX practices."
Brad Peters Anne MamaghaniShort Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"I like to think of myself as a DJ at a party, amplifying the power of design so more people can dance to the future."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"LLMs talk the talk but don’t understand the meaning. They’re master impersonators without true knowledge."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"Two researchers can’t come close to digging into the customer problems for 17 product teams."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"When I gave the model my list of interview questions, it actually made for a really bizarre participant experience because the model just went down the line of the different questions."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"We absolutely need feedback loops so engineers and designers can influence the design system and keep it relevant."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"Every student has unique strengths that should be recognized and nurtured."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"If you see a problem or opportunity, you should do something about it."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Service delivery is led by frontline staff who tend to have the least amount of power in the system."
Shanti Mathew Natalie Sims Natalia RadywylCivic Design at Scale: Introducing the Public Policy Layer Cake
December 9, 2021
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
Where can UX researchers find reliable, up-to-date information and recommendations on research tool options?
How might quantitative ethnography enable real-time qualitative insights during ongoing data collection?
How important is human involvement in strategic insight generation despite AI advancements?