The experience design leader’s playbook

Established or emerging experience design leaders aspire towards reaching their full potential to improve the world through the power of design, while experiencing a rewarding career.

This talk is about the why, how and what of becoming a design leader. I’ll share personal experience and insights from effective experience design leaders, distilling key principles, practices and methods you can apply to:

  • Clarify your purpose as a design leader
  • Increase self-confidence
  • Find and pursue growth opportunities
  • Be effective despite challenging operating contexts and working environments
  • Enable an experience-lead culture
  • Continue to learn and grow

During my 20 years in design, I’ve had to find my own answers. I’ve also realised that we are all ‘in the process of becoming’. In this presentation, I’ll share stories; mine as well as experiences and insights collected from other design leaders who have faced challenges like:

  • Understanding what design leadership actually ‘is’ and why you would want to be a design leader
  • Knowing when you’re ready to take on the challenge of being a design leader
  • Fear of failure, of getting ‘found out’ for not knowing the answers
  • Personal style and leadership style
  • Working in and around dysfunctional situations and processes
  • Developing an experience vision and getting people to buy into it
  • How to influence change from siloed, operational, short-term reactive thinking towards a more wholistic, experience-driven organisational culture
  • Maintaining commitment, drive and energy – personally and professionally

Some of these insights may come from people whom you may not automatically think of as experience design leaders.

I’ll deconstruct and present their approaches, principles, models, tools and techniques so you can try them out yourself. I’ll be open about which ones I’ve personally trialled and the results; good, bad or indifferent.

Presentation audio

Presentation

Sketchnotes

The experience design leader’s playbook- Anthony Quinn
The Experience Design Leader's Playbook

From Justin Cheong:

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