Peter Merholz

A challenge many designers face as they embrace leadership is learning how to let go of the work. All through their career, their success has been measured by their ability to deliver. Now they have to figure out how to shift their efforts to support the delivery of their teams. This may lead to an existential crisis – “If I’m not doing the work, how am I contributing value?”

In this talk, Peter will outline the complete role of the Leveraged Design Leader. The Leveraged Design Leader grows their design team, provides clear expectations, and does everything they can to ensure the team’s effectiveness. These leaders must broaden their purview beyond creative matters, into the managerial and operational activities that will enable their team to succeed

Andy Budd will lead a Q&A with Peter as part of the end of this session.

As the move to establish in-house design teams accelerates, it turns out there's very little common wisdom on what makes for a successful design organization. Books and presentations tend to focus on process, methods, tools, and outcomes, leaving a gap of knowledge when it comes to organizational and operational matters. This workshop seeks to address this lacuna by shining a light on the unsung activities of actually running a design team, and what works and what doesn't.

You’ll take part in discussions on how a service design mindset shifts standard organizational approaches; the 11 qualities of effective design teams; organizational models for design teams; effective recruiting and hiring approaches; establishing a design culture; and professional development for designers.

Learn a new hybrid org model that combines the best of centralized and decentralized approaches.

Discover a new and complete taxonomy of design roles for digital design teams to get past the word salad of design job titles.

Explore the first framework for thinking of the evolution of a design organization, and learn the changes and roles it passes through at each stage.