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.
The Rise of Meta-Design: A Starter Playbook
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
"If research is going to slow down the product process, most companies will end up releasing those products without doing the research."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"We emphasized a simple one-button workflow with manual editing and regeneration to handle inevitable AI errors."
Jennifer KongJourneying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
June 5, 2024
"When product leaders ask for research just to validate ideas, the best response is to say, ‘fuck this group,’ then do real user interviews."
Kevin M. HoffmanTheme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
June 3, 2019
"I never want to walk into a review with my stakeholders at the SVP level and see something for the first time."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"Silicon Valley feels fast, but when the grid goes down, it can be catastrophic."
Gretchen AndersonScaling the Human Center
June 8, 2017
"It's not enough to imagine the future; we have to make plans that influence and build those preferable futures."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"My superpower is to connect the dots between people, places, ideas, and opportunities."
Dante GuintuHow to Crush the Talent Crunch
September 8, 2022
"Use the latest version starring feature so your team only gets updates when they’re ready, avoiding constant notifications."
Jaime CreixemsBest Practices when Creating and Maintaining a Design System
June 7, 2023
"Wireframes should not really be considered prototypes or high polished scale models of the thing."
Billy CarlsonPrinciples of Team Wireframing
October 2, 2023