The role of (design) leadership is constantly evolving as our practice continues to mature. This evolution has accelerated since 2020 as the organizations and clients we work with try to adapt to social, political, organizational, and economic challenges. As (design) leaders, we can be a crucial ...

Decoding change is hard, but we can learn a lot from those who have embraced evolution and those who brought revolution in times of adversity. Design has undergone a monumental shift — impacted by environmental, social, economic, and technological factors.

Aditi’s own journey in design leadershi...

As Dropbox enters its 2nd year of working Virtual First, VP of Design, Alastair Simpson, invites you for an exclusive look into lessons learned as he speaks to the challenges involved in redesigning the way we work.

In this talk Alastair shares how, by treating the future of work as a design pro...

By nature designers thrive in the realm of collaboration and connectedness, generating feelings of mutual identification and empathy with others. As individual contributors this is a wonderful strength, but when designers step into leadership positions with new levels of accountability, collabora...

Advancing design and leading through change requires strong and inspirational leadership. Leaders need to be fearless in navigating the business and elevating the conversation in relation to design. This requires a leader who can speak the language of the business and can leverage design to solve...

As a design leader, you will experience many highs and lows. Audrey joined us for a timely conversation about the human-centered approach she has learned to take with one of the lowest moments for any leader—having to lead an organization through a layoff.

Audrey is the Head of Design at Lyft wh...

We are operating with a backdrop of anxiety, stress and uncertainty. In order to navigate the future with confidence, we need to first face this reality. Chris will offer a set of guiding principles to address the leadership challenges we increasingly encounter.

Before he took over the reins at ...

Design teams are rife with burnout, low morale and inefficiencies. These unhealthy and unsustainable practices lead to negative cultures and high turnover. From hiring and setting up your team to how you handle conflict, running a design team is a marathon, not a sprint. In this talk, Eric discus...

Using words, scribbles, and pixels Farai has spent the last 14 years helping design and build products and teams in the UK, South Africa and Canada.

Today, he makes a living designing interactions and leading a team as a UX Manager at Shopify in Ottawa.

In South Africa, Farai designed banking a...

A lot of attention has, rightly, been given to supporting parents to be able to juggle parental responsibilities with having fulfilling careers. But there is another, growing group of caregivers we need to consider: those caring for ageing family members. This type of caregiving comes with its ow...

In his 2016 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama declared a new White House initiative called the Cancer Moonshot. Embracing a human-centered focus, the story of the Cancer Moonshot shows how even the most ambitious projects can proceed in a way that engages stakeholders and users t...

Leadership is rarely easy. It is often the role of the leader to steady the ship, to help provide clarity in times of uncertainty. But how do we adapt to these changes? How do you stay resilient along the way?

Katie joins us for a conversation about adapting to changing landscapes based on exper...

Designers have a tick, we have an innate need to critique. It comes easy to us, it’s always obvious what should have happened, when, and to what end. This tick exists even when we are humbled by a role, dealing with endless constraints and nothing but wicked complex problems. Our spectator eye is...

New and established design leaders face continuously evolving challenges as they lead design through challenges such as complexity, competition, conflict, and, at times, even chaos. The focus on leading yourself while you drive transformation for your customer communities has never been more impo...