Design Leaders Conference
Design Leaders is a conference with the highest concentration of design leaders I have ever experienced in one place and is part of Product Design Week London 2024.
Andy Polaine shifted the focus in user experience from ‘pain points’ to ‘fear and anxiety.’ It’s not just about identifying pain points but understanding what causes fear and anxiety for our users.
An ‘enabler’ is a better mental model than a leader. Turn every meeting into productive work or a workshop. Preach design less.
Fonz Morris presented business design as the future of product design. Business design is a way of operating that combines the tools of business thinkers, analysts, and strategists with the methods and mindsets of design. It is not a business development like sales sales, it is design thinking for happier customers. So business strategy + design thinking + innovation = business design.
Ana Menendez and Paola Miani Macedo presented responsible design. You can deliver brand health in three steps: improve accessibility, develop inclusive experiences, and design physical products and environments for everyone. Businesses need responsible design.
Mario Van der Meulen is one of the greatest design leaders I have ever encountered. Two years ago, I experienced a similarly profound impact in London from Kota Kobayashi. Mario has authored a book, Counterintuitivity, available on Amazon, which I’m confident is worth exploring.
Leading design involves navigating conflict. You design through the conversations you can and cannot have. The art of shifting conversations lies in moving from declaring, declaiming, and debating to dialoguing. Foster more conversations that lead to dialogues. Creating healthy conflict is an essential part of dialogue. Leading design is about what you enable, not what you exhibit. Become a human who designs with and for other humans.
Adam Jennings has developed a human-to-human leadership framework. The three pillars of leadership are (1) authenticity, being genuinely yourself when it’s safe to do so, (2) empathy, practicing empathy daily like drinking cranberry juice, and (3) communication, building effective dialogue.
Interestingly, communication is one of the key topics in design leadership.
Desislava Genova introduced a total experience framework: CX + UX + EX (Employee Experience) = Total Experience. Service design involves planning and organizing a business’s resources (people, props, and processes) to (1) directly improve the employee experience and (2) indirectly enhance the customer experience. The emphasis here is on directly improving the employee experience. Tools for designing employee experience include journey maps, service blueprints, and experience maps.
A recommended book is Change by Design by Tim Brown.
James Lang presented on designing community experiences, emphasizing that community is important for our health. Yet, we’re spending less social time together than ever before.
Another recommended book is Design for Belonging.
Jane Austin's main idea that resonated with me was that business is built on vibes. So, create the vibes.
Venessa Bennett shared the importance of standing out. What are you doing to stand out? Personal branding is an intentional and strategic practice in which you define your value proposition.