Summary
We’re on wave three of the great resignation. Job opportunities abound for designers of all stripes, and loyalty is at an all time low as we reassess our changing professional needs and ambitions in this new world. Liam Thurston leads a team of 55 designers and researchers at Loblaw Digital, building commerce, loyalty, and healthcare products for all Canadians. Thurston’s team weathered the great resignation with resilience and thrived in the face of change; it left them even stronger. In this talk, Thurston will teach you practical tools and processes for creating a Design Practice North Star, skills matrix, and an inclusive set of cultural rituals to build trust and create safety for your team, especially within a large organization. If you're looking to level up your leadership practice in order to acquire and retain incredible talent who generate outstanding outcomes, this talk is for you!
Key Insights
-
•
The pandemic accelerated rethinking team retention and work culture, especially in UX teams.
-
•
About a third of Liam's UX team left early in the pandemic, highlighting retention challenges.
-
•
Creating a clear career path with a transparent skills matrix significantly improves retention.
-
•
Soft skills such as communication, leadership, and influence are as critical as hard skills in career growth.
-
•
Involving the entire team in co-creating purpose statements and competencies leads to higher buy-in and clarity.
-
•
Low-pressure ambient workshops spread over several days facilitate better engagement and richer input.
-
•
Aligning UX team purpose and career frameworks with the company's mission is essential to coherence and retention.
-
•
Cultural rituals like bi-weekly shoutouts and rotating work-in-progress show-and-tells build stronger team bonds.
-
•
Collaboration with HR during role redesign and career framework creation is critical for organizational alignment.
-
•
Iterative testing, feedback loops, and allowing teams to customize tracking tools drive adoption and meaningful improvements.
Notable Quotes
"Being intentional about how we spend our time is the purest manifestation of our values and our value."
"If your team sees a clear path of mastery in your organization, they’re much more likely to stay."
"Mastery is achievable, whether you have 10,000 hours or not—it’s about building that portfolio and case studies."
"All your team wants to do is win at career Bingo or career Snakes and Ladders, hopefully more ladders."
"Soft skills often are a multiplier on your hard skills—they’re just as valuable, if not more so."
"We ran ambient workshops so folks could contribute on their own time and remove the friction of synchronous meetings."
"Our skills matrix became the center of gravity for our practice—it started writing job descriptions and guiding recruitment."
"Building a great culture means caring for individuals and creating rituals like recognition and shared learning."
"Cross-functional relationships often matter more to output than relationships within the immediate team."
"When your team sees themselves in your North Star and structure, they feel safe, secure, and inspired to stay."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"You need to prototype with real or believable data so the data doesn’t change the context of use."
Brian T. O’Neill Maria Cipollone Luis Colin Manuel Dahm Mike OrenDoes Designing and Researching Data Products Powered by ML/AI and Analytics Call for New UX Methods?
February 18, 2022
"If organizations don’t keep content organized, it becomes less usable and less useful over time."
Jorge ArangoScale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies
September 24, 2024
"Sponsor sessions are not sales pitches; they are super similar to the quality of the main conference session."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 1, 2021
"What is your mission for this design Ops summit? When this conference ends, what do you want to feel?"
Louis Rosenfeld Bria AlexanderDay 1 Welcome
September 23, 2024
"Women are living nonlinear lives—career breaks, health cycles—that standard designs do not account for."
Mansi GuptaWomen-Centric Research: What, Why, How
March 29, 2023
"David Nicholson is the reason why you don’t have to write very fast."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 3, 2023
"If you are comfortable with it, put your cameras on. It makes me not feel like we’re talking to an answering machine."
Andy Polaine Lavrans LøvlieWhat is the role of service design in product-led organizations?
December 3, 2024
"One click, I am basically skinning this entire application to apply new brand attributes automatically to every component."
George Abraham Stefan IvanovDesign Systems To-Go: Indigo.Design Overview and Exploring the Developer Workflow (Part 3)
October 1, 2021
"Great research doesn’t automatically have the intended impact because people may not want their minds changed."
Robin BeersBeyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
March 25, 2024
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does the second edition of the service design book address the relationship between service design and digital products?
What cultural insights about Italian garages impacted Autodoc Pro’s market entry strategy?
What are small steps teams can take to start making meaningful inclusive research without large-scale studies?