Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
Against increasing automation and instrumentation, community curator Uday Gajendar argues we will see the rise of what he calls meta-design, whose aspects are strategic, humanistic, and — dare we say — philosophic. It’s about designing the conditions for good design to thrive, for the long term, with a sense for continuity of value. So, how does someone operationalize behaviors and spiritualize values into an organization’s ethos? This talk offers complementary models to shape and own dialogues around meta-design with cross-functional peers, based upon Uday's own leadership experiences. The first model is grounded on what Uday calls “vectors of influence” while the second model is focused on "scopes of craft." This talk’s goal is to inspire and equip designers to lead what’s next for our profession, or at least the beginnings of it!
Key Insights
-
•
Meta design focuses on creating conditions that allow good design to thrive, rather than just producing design artifacts.
-
•
There are three kinds of craft essential to meta design: tradecraft (making), stagecraft (facilitating alignment), and statecraft (organizational diplomacy).
-
•
Designers must develop influence across four vectors: vision, strategy, process, and culture to be effective.
-
•
Agile methodologies often fragment design work, making it harder to maintain a holistic user experience.
-
•
The mechanization and routinization of UX design risks suppressing its poetic, humanistic, and aspirational qualities.
-
•
Meta design involves strategic foresight—thinking beyond short-term metrics and sprint cycles to long-term impact.
-
•
Creative provocation is a tool to challenge assumptions and open dialogue for fresh ideas in teams.
-
•
Reflection-in-action encourages awareness of side effects and inclusivity, especially regarding underrepresented user groups.
-
•
Intellectual humanism in design emphasizes focusing on human values like trust, dignity, and hope in products and services.
-
•
There is a blurry and evolving boundary between UX design and product management roles, especially at senior strategic levels.
Notable Quotes
"Enterprises are places where one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing and sometimes despises it."
"Are we feeling trapped in this thing called UX design, limited by mechanized processes like agile?"
"Meta design is about designing the conditions for design itself to happen well."
"Tradecraft is the making stuff, stagecraft is a kind of cross-functional therapy, and statecraft is organizational diplomacy."
"Influence is the real goal as a designer—over people, processes, and culture."
"Agile as trauma is a useful essay to understand how agile can harm design practices."
"The poetic and humanistic aspects of design are getting squeezed out by prescriptive delivery models."
"Creative provocation isn’t about building those crazy ideas but opening space for questioning assumptions."
"Design has to incorporate intellectual humanism—remembering we’re designing for people, with people."
"To do this work, you can’t do it with a JIRA ticket."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We operationalize, orchestrate, and optimize as design ops practitioners."
John Calhoun Rachel PosmanBring your DesignOps Story to Life! The Definitive DesignOps Book Jam
October 3, 2023
"The nobility complex is when we in the West unintentionally create solutions without accounting for our own biases."
Nancy DouyonWe'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
June 15, 2018
"If you think of research methods as design patterns, the interview is a basic design pattern at the heart of most qualitative research methods."
Veevi RosensteinBuilding for Scale: Creating the Zendesk UX Research Practice
January 8, 2024
"Everyone may have different energy levels depending on the time of day, medication can also affect this."
Jessica NorrisADHD: A DesignOps Superpower
September 9, 2022
"The interface becomes a radically adaptive surface—an intelligent canvas that reacts to your behavior and context."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"Protective Parent leaders hold the umbrella for the team but limit their growth by taking on too much themselves."
Jason Mesut Martina Hodges-Schell Jose CoronadoUnmasking Design Leadership: Navigating leadership without neglecting ourselves
October 30, 2025
"You have to deliberately quiet that noise in your head and focus on humans in a world of humans."
Steve Portigal Susan Simon-Daniels Tamara Hale Randolph Duke IIWar Stories LIVE! Q&A-Discussion
March 30, 2020
"Tactical empathy is critical—it takes time and effort, but it’s always worth it."
Meredith Black Elyse HornbacherBuilding Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
December 17, 2020
"Facilitation is probably the most undervalued skill on modern product teams."
Matt LeMayYou Don’t “Get” Anyone to Do Anything
December 6, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What principles from multiplayer game communities can be used to foster positive social interactions in products?
How have rising interest rates affected hiring trends in the UX research and tech fields recently?
What strategies help mitigate imposter syndrome when pivoting from tech to law or other industries?