Podcast appearances and mentions of peter merholz

In this episode, Peter Merholz—co-founder of Adaptive Path and co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs—joins us to talk about what it really takes to build and scale effective design teams. We explore the systems, structures, and leadership mindsets that shape successful organizations, the relationships between product and design teams, and how design leaders can foster clarity, consistency, and impact as their teams grow. Whether you're managing a team or aspiring to, this conversation is packed with insights on navigating the evolving role of design in today's organizations.Learn More About Peter:Website: https://petermerholz.com/Newsletter: https://petermerholz.com/newsletter/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/petermerholzPodcast: https://findingourway.design/Book: https://orgdesignfordesignorgs.com/Full-Day Courses (also available in half-day formats):DesignOps: Scaling UX Design: https://www.nngroup.com/courses/scaling-ux-design-and-user-research/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50Product and UX: Building Partnerships for Better Outcomes: https://www.nngroup.com/courses/product-and-ux/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50Leading Highly Effective UX Teams: https://www.nngroup.com/courses/leading-ux-teams/?lm=pm-ux-different-views-of-responsibilities&pt=article&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50UX Leader: Essential Skills for Any UX Practitioner: https://www.nngroup.com/courses/ux-leadership-skills-for-all/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50New UX Managers: https://www.nngroup.com/courses/new-manager/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50Related Free NN/g Articles:DesignOps: Study Guide: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-ops-study-guide/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50Product & UX: Study Guide: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/product-and-ux-study-guide/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50PM and UX Have Markedly Different Views of Their Job Responsibilities: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/pm-ux-different-views-of-responsibilities/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ep50

It's the holidays! And you know what that means...our annual "Year in Flights" episode, where we look back on the year that was, and discuss some of our favorite episodes from this past season, each one paired with a specific beer selection. This year, we're looking back at 6 episodes (yes, with 6 different beers!) whose guests captured our attention, brought about great discussion, and caught the ear of our listeners: Tracy Wong, Ginny Saraswati, Donald Chesnut, Peter Merholz, Daz McColl, and Kate Moran. Thank you to them and to all our guests this season, as well as to all of our listeners, for another great season of What Bubbles Up! We will be back stronger than ever with more content in 2025. Until then, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all. Cheers! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whatbubblesup/support

The last two years have been extremely stressful for anyone working in tech. There's been a consistent sense that we all need to do more with less. That our jobs are on the line. And now AI is being touted as the cheat code that will unlock productivity and profit gains.In our latest podcast, Peter Merholz (add him on LinkedIn) doesn't see AI helping much in the short-term because teams are too over-tasked to believe they have the time to try new models of working. He also believes that most organizations don't have cultures and leadership that promote experimentation and reward learning. Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple | Watch on YoutubeWhat makes matters worse is that simply “using AI” won't get you the results you need. Simply using ChatGPT or Claude will not give you and your business a significant boost because data is at the heart of AI. The more of your first-party data that you train models on and the more that you craft agents around specific workflows, the closer you'll get to what AI acolytes are selling. Accenture calls this AI maturity: Advancing from practice to performance. And this is where Peter Merholz believes that most orgs will be blocked. His experience working in mega-corps has found that most aren't learning cultures. Introducing new tools, mental models, and ways of working aren't well-received. AI use & impact assessment surveyPlease share your experiences and point of view in our year-end AI research study. Your lessons and opinions will shape a critically important assessment of how & if AI is positively impacting individuals and teams. Less than 5-minutes of your time will help us a lot.Valuable lessons

With the seemingly endless creative possibilities made possible by the rise of GenAI, why does it seem more challenging than ever to be a Design Leader? In this episode, Adaptive Path co-founder, author, and Design Leadership coach Peter Merholz joins us for a beer and a chat to discuss this and many other topics. We discuss his journey from Studio Archetype in the mid-90's to the present day, where he leads his own consultancy, Humanism at Scale. In this role, Peter coaches Design leaders going through the 'liminal phase' of their careers as they adjust to new realities in the marketplace. We further discuss how the shift in focus from 'craft' to 'impact', and understanding how that may require a shift in identity, is one of several keys to ongoing success in this new reality. A very timely and far-reaching discussion...enjoy! Drinks: Mayflower Brewing Company Quahog Republic Golden Ale, Tree House Brewing Company Very Green New England IPA, North Coast Brewing Co. Scrimshaw German Pilsner Links: http://www.petermerholz.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whatbubblesup/support

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In this episode of The Optimal Path, host Ash Oliver welcomes Sander Viegers, VP of Design at Rabobank, to discuss the pivotal role of research and design in the digital transformation journey at Rabobank. Sander shares the principles that guide Rabobank's cooperative approach to a customer-centric design process, as well as practical examples of how research powers more innovative solutions for the customer and the business.About Sander:As the VP of Design at Rabobank, Sander leads the design organization in creating comprehensive customer and employee experiences on a global scale. With prior experience leading design teams at Microsoft, Amazon, and Catawiki, Sander has a proven track record of successful design leadership. He holds a Master's degree in Industrial Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology and has been named inventor on multiple patents.Connect with Sander:You can connect with Sander on LinkedinResources:Flawless Consulting by Peter BlockThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzOrg Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams by Peter Merholz and Kristin SkinnerThe Future of Finance: Driving Digital Innovation Through Customer Insights by Maze Follow Maze on Social Media: X: @mazedesignHQ Instagram: @mazedesignHQ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazedesignTo get notified when new episodes come out, subscribe at maze.co/podcast.See you next time!

The death of the desirable hatchback has been exaggerated. In the space of two weeks, we've been gifted the new Renault R5 and the Rivian R3 and R3X. We discuss their design, and what they mean for their respective manufacturers.Meanwhile, the death of the Apple Car is now (almost definitely) certain and we explore why Apple finally caved. And we also discuss what's happening to design in the C-Suite, and whether maybe our time at the big table is up, and whether that's actually a bad thing.

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine. My guest in this episode is Peter Merholz. We talked about the state of the design nation, the burst bubble of the Cambrian explosion of design from the last 10-15 years, product, business and the issue of mediocrity. Peter has worked at the intersection of design, technology, and humans for over 25 years. Currently, he's an independent consultant focused on improving the effectiveness of design organisations. He was a co-founder of Adaptive Path, acquired by Capital One in 2014 and he co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs, still the premier book on building in-house design teams. He co-hosts the Finding Our Way podcast exploring design leadership along with another Adaptive Path co-founder, Jesse James Garrett. He also coined the word “blog.” Show Links Peter Peter's website: https://www.petermerholz.com Org Design for Design Orgs: https://www.petermerholz.com/writing/#orgdesign Finding Our Way podcast: https://findingourway.design/ Peter on Mastodon: https://sfba.social/@peterme Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/ Andy Website: https://www.polaine.com Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws Podcast: https://pln.me/p10 Courses: https://courses.polaine.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/ Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

This is a special archived episode of Brave UX. Jesse James Garrett reminds us that once we were pirates, encourages us to understand how soft-power works, and to know and be true to our red-lines. Highlights include: How are UX designers like classical composers? What is the role of personal preference in design? Should design leaders leave strategy to product leaders? Is design leadership about actively resisting the status quo? What have you learned as a result of the “no's” in your career? ====== Who is Jesse James Garrett? Jesse is the Principal Leadership Coach of Intentional Associates, the executive design leadership coaching practice that he founded in 2020. And it's through his coaching work that he is helping design leaders to develop the skills to lead with greater purpose, intention and creativity. Many of you may know Jesse for his influential model from the year 2000, “The Elements of User Experience”, and his book of the same name. It's this foundational thinking, at frontier of UX, that has helped to inform, inspire and enlighten multiple generations of UX designers. Jesse was also a Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Adaptive Path, one of the original and most renowned User Experience consultancies. At Adaptive Path, Jesse worked tirelessly for 13 years to put UX design on the enterprise map. Throughout the years, his writing, teaching and public speaking has been unfailingly generous, taking him all over the world, including to events such as UX Lisbon, UX Salon, and USI.  Jesse's contributions continue through the “Finding Our Way” podcast, a show about design leadership that he co-hosts alongside Peter Merholz, his good friend, fellow Adaptive Path Co-Founder, and Brave UX alumnus. ====== Find Jesse here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-james-garrett-1341/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjg Website: https://jessejamesgarrett.com/ ====== Liked what you heard and want to hear more? Subscribe and support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen). Follow us on our other social channels for more great Brave UX content! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/  ====== Hosted by Brendan Jarvis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/ Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/

Let's face it... In many organizations, human-centered design, unfortunately isn't yet woven into the cultural fabric. This means that design often still needs to earn its stripes before it gets fully accepted inside an environment that's dominated by a different mindset. And the stakes are high. Either design's influence grows, and investments shift toward it, or it risks fading into insignificance. Right now, there's a strong debate going on in our field: How can we earn this respect without losing our design essence, the very source of our effectiveness? ​Scott Zimmer, our guest this week, brings a wealth of insights on what it takes to persuade organizations to make substantial (financial) investments in design. Through his experiences in executive leadership roles, he successfully championed design, building environments where it was regarded as an equal partner rather than a replaceable resource. In this conversation, we delve into the strategies for building bridges between business and design, ensuring mutual understanding and appreciation. As you'll hear, Scott offers practical, actionable steps to drive change within your organization, from the influence of job titles to crafting stories that resonate with your business partners. So, if you're interested in learning what really moves the needle in favor of design from someone who's been at the very top, make sure you don't miss this one! One key takeaway from my discussion with Scott is that we should hold firmly to our principles and not doubt the value we bring to the table. We can be both brave and humble. ~ Marc --- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 187 05:45 Who is Scott 09:00 Lightning Round 10:30 Designers seeking respect 16:30 Respect revered 18:30 How to earn the respect 26:00 Valuing what designers put into the table 30:15 What it means to be an equal partner 36:30 Making  a positive impression 39:45 The status quo 44:30 Bragging rights in your favor 47:00 Lessons learned 56:00 It's a bet 59:15 What's next for Scott 1:04:30 Final takeaway --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sczimmer/ Org Design for Design Orgs by Peter Merholz (book) - https://orgdesignfordesignorgs.com/ Join the waitlist - https://www.tmpt.me --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Peter Merholz works with organizations of all sizes across different sectors. He sees first hand how they are unique and where they are similar when it comes to design, content and UX. Peter joins Kristina to discuss the intersection of these disciplines, their maturity and how they are perceived by leadership.

Jesse James Garrett reminds us that once we were pirates, encourages us to understand how soft-power works, and to know and be true to our red-lines. Highlights include: ⭐ How are UX designers like classical composers? ⭐ What is the role of personal preference in design? ⭐ Should design leaders leave strategy to product leaders? ⭐ Is design leadership about actively resisting the status quo? ⭐ What have you learned as a result of the “no's” in your career? ====== Who is Jesse James Garrett? Jesse is the Principal Leadership Coach of Intentional Associates, the executive design leadership coaching practice that he founded in 2020. And it's through his coaching work that he is helping design leaders to develop the skills to lead with greater purpose, intention and creativity. Many of you may know Jesse for his influential model from the year 2000, “The Elements of User Experience”, and his book of the same name. It's this foundational thinking, at frontier of UX, that has helped to inform, inspire and enlighten multiple generations of UX designers. Jesse was also a Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Adaptive Path, one of the original and most renowned User Experience consultancies. At Adaptive Path, Jesse worked tirelessly for 13 years to put UX design on the enterprise map. Throughout the years, his writing, teaching and public speaking has been unfailingly generous, taking him all over the world, including to events such as UX Lisbon, UX Salon, and USI.  Jesse's contributions continue through the “Finding Our Way” podcast, a show about design leadership that he co-hosts alongside Peter Merholz, his good friend, fellow Adaptive Path Co-Founder, and Brave UX alumnus. ====== Find Jesse here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-james-garrett-1341/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjg Website: https://jessejamesgarrett.com/ ====== Liked what you heard and want to hear more? Subscribe and support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen). Follow us on our other social channels for more great Brave UX content! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/  ====== Hosted by Brendan Jarvis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/ Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/

Author, Design Executive, and Consultant Peter Merholz has over 20 years of experience working in digital media and experience design. Peter and Nadia discuss how the industry has and has not changed in recent years, why organizations and design leaders should place more emphasis on growing talent from within their own organizations, and how designers can find the right opportunity at both junior and senior levels.  Here's a look at our discussion: 1:00 : Peter's background and how he got into the design industry 5:59 : The love/hate relationship with the word, “Design” 12:10 : How the design industry has and has not changed since 2016 16:14 : The shift of design from consultancies to in-house teams 19:53 : Overcoming career growth gaps for senior designers seeking leadership positions 26:08 : Why organizations should place more emphasis on growing design talent 29:13 : How Peter finds and assesses senior design talent 35:40 : Advice for new to role designers searching for the right opportunity 42:34 : How does Peter Merholz serve design organizations?  53:34 : How to get in touch with Peter & wrap up Links mentioned in this episode: Book - Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Teams  UX STRAT Conference Book - UX Strategy: Product Strategy Techniques for Devising Innovative Digital Solutions Book - Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity Peter Merholz's Website Peter Merholz's LinkedIn Profile Peter Merholz's Twitter Profile Transparent Recruiting: A Better Way to Hire People

Peter Merholz demystifies design leadership, openly shares the ups and downs of a trail-blazing design career, and how we can keep design “weird” without getting fired. Highlights include: ⭐ What is the fundamental job of the designer leader? ⭐ Why do design leaders find it difficult to figure out what their job is? ⭐ What advice did Obi Wan give Luke that design leaders need to hear? ⭐ Why are you a design pragmatist and not an idealist? ⭐ What do design leaders need to know about politics and relationships? #DesignLeadership #UX #UXDesign #AdaptivePath #BraveUX ====== Who is Peter Merholz? Peter is the Founder and Principal at Humanism at Scale, the consulting practice he started in 2019 to amplify the practices and potential of design teams by shaping design organisations and bolstering design leadership. Before founding Humanism at Scale, Peter was the VP of Design at Snagajob, where he oversaw design for both product and marketing. Peter has also held positions such as Senior Director of Design at Jawbone, VP of Global Design at Groupon and VP of User Experience at Inflection. But it is his role and the almost 11 years he invested as a Co-Founder and the Head of Design Practice of Adaptive Path - then the world's leading UX strategy and UX design firm - that he is perhaps best known for. In 2016, Peter co-authored “Org Design for Design Orgs” with Kristin Skinner, which was the first book to address building and managing effective in-house design teams.  And, last millennia, Peter coined the term blog! ====== Find Peter here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterme Website: https://www.petermerholz.com/ Peter's book: Org Design for Design Orgs - Building and Managing In-House Design Teams: https://orgdesignfordesignorgs.com/ ====== Liked what you heard and want to hear more? Subscribe and support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen). Follow us on our other social channels for more great Brave UX content! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/  ====== Hosted by Brendan Jarvis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/ Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/

O Bom Dia UX (BDUX) está de volta! Depois de completarmos 1 ano de programa e tirarmos 1 mês de férias resolvemos voltar com a segunda temporada da live mais amada do mercado de design, a única que sobreviveu! E como todos sabem, gostamos de polêmica, sendo assim, decidimos construir essa temporada toda focada em um tema bem a nossa cara. Não vamos falar agora, mas sei que vocês vão perceber. Um relatório da Abstract indica que o tamanho das equipes só aumenta, sugerindo que 3 em cada 4 designers planejam contratar até 5 novas pessoas para sua equipe neste ano. O mercado de trabalho da indústria de design está aquecido e muitas organizações estão tendo dificuldade para preencher cargos abertos. Mas, antes de falar do COMO, queremos falar do PORQUE! Faz sentido montar um time de design em sua empresa? Quais motivos podem existir para tal ação? “Uma provocação às empresas: menos propaganda e mais conversação; menos marketing e mais relacionamento.” Victor Falasca Megido em A Revolução do Design Artigo referência: https://endeavor.org.br/tecnologia/time-design-uau/ Livros indicados:Inspirado: Como Criar Produtos De Tecnologia Que Os Clientes Amam por Marty Cagan https://amzn.to/3fWrlkV Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams (English Edition) por Peter Merholz e Kristin Skinner https://amzn.to/34Sv2Sh Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation por Tim Brown https://amzn.to/3vWTG0b Qual a sua opinião sobre isso? Esse é o Bom dia UX, um programa feito ao vivo no canal do youtube do Design Team, toda quarta-feira de manhã às 7 horas. * Acesse nosso site * http://www.designteam.com.br * Junte-se ao Telegram * https://bit.ly/3dOea2Y * Assine nosso podcast * https://anchor.fm/designteambr Rodrigo Lemes Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigolemes Twitter: https://twitter.com/rodrigolemes Rafael Burity Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafaelburity Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rafaelburity/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rafaelburity

OVERVIEW:In this episode, I am joined by Peter Merholz, Design Executive and Organisational Consultant, Author and Founder of Adaptive Path.His book, co-authored with Kristin Skinner, Organisational Design for Design Orgs is a go-to book for so many Designers, Design and non-design Leaders.   In our conversation, we cover specifically the difference between Tech-First and Legacy Organisations in how they see Design within their organisational structure, what difference this makes to the way they invest in and support Design, what this means for newly minted design executives.  We touch on themes that I covered with both Jose Dos Santos and Clive Grinyer in earlier episodes about the blockers that Design-Leaders face on the way to the c-suite.This is a conversation about the mindset, skills, attention and orientation of executive leadership and what Design needs to ‘get over' (sometimes itself and sometimes others) in order to achieve that. SHOW LINKS & RESOURCES:I referenced an article that Peter published recently on the focus and role of a Design Executive which is really useful to remind Senior Design Executives what is expected of the executive role.Other ways to connect and follow Peter's thinking:Peter Merholz on LinkedInPeters Personal Website contains his writing and musings on humanising DesignOrg Design for Design Orgs the website contains updated reflections on the topic of Design Orgs and Design Leadership and is worth followingPeter has his own podcast - co-hosted with Jesse James Garrett - call Finding Our Way that is absolutely worth adding to your regular downloads - I'm a subscriber and find it invaluable.subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter hereand connect with your show host Martin Dowson on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

This episode is about this scenario in which we are living as designers when we became so important and have been rising a lot of positions of leadership for designers. We have reached the dream place that we are an important piece for the improvement and growth of companies, especially in the tech ones. For this, we invited the great Peter Merholz to talk to us about our capability to create and design organizations. Are designers prepared to assume (to take on) these rising leadership positions in our industry? Have designers been dealing with these opportunities with wisdom? What kind of knowledge is important for designers to do the best work as leaders? ---- Well, It seems a little strange for you to follow our content for a long time, but we decided to start this new project for the Bom Dia UX, or Good Morning UX, with such special-international guests. For this beginning, we decided to start with 6 professionals who are references for us and that have so much history in our industry. You will need to discover between us each guest and the subject that we prepared for you. Let's go together into this new challenge and project. But, You don't need to be afraid, The Bom Dia UX doesn't end. The Brazilian version will come back next year in the same way, always live every Wednesday at 7 am. For this first day, we decided to launch 2 episodes at once. Today, you can watch the first and the second episodes. ----- This is the Good Morning UX, a live show produced and launched at the Design Team channel every Wednesday at 7 am, in the Brazilian time zone. ----- Follow Peter on this links: https://www.petermerholz.com/ Peter's book: Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams https://amzn.to/3DiqiEp ----- Sign up yourself our channel https://www.youtube.com/c/designteamb…. Listen to our PODCAST (in Portuguese) https://open.spotify.com/show/0yE3kkK… Came to membership and have exclusive content https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTkZ…

Conversations about Information Architecture Dan Brown talks with Peter Merholz about the Lens of Corporate Mythology

Episode 41 Show Notes: It's essential to be intentional about your career growth. I know that we are looking for a job to get by a lot of the time, but I think we can use every job experience to our advantage. In this episode, Catt and I discuss creating a design growth plan and the benefits of having one. Knowing how you want to use each job opportunity towards your life goals is crucial to your mental health.   Mentions:   Designer Levels, Marissa Louie https://malouie.com/individual-contributor-ic-designer-and-design-management-tracks-levels-framework   Design Team Levels, Peter Merholz https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m-Cso3848CgEz0eng5spL0lDppnwOgt726jJ01pVwO8/edit#gid=288553197   Catt’s Social Website Cattsmall.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cattsmall/ Twitter https://twitter.com/cattsmall Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecattsuite/   Game Design --- Games Devs of Color Expo Website https://www.gamedevsofcolorexpo.com Twitter https://twitter.com/gdocexpo --- Phaser http://phaser.io Construct 3 https://www.construct.net/en Asana’s Social Twitter https://twitter.com/AsanaDesignTeam Asana’s Hiring! https://asana.design ------ Today’s sponsor, Google Design, produces original content like articles and videos to show how Google’s products come to life—and to inspire designers everywhere. Head over to goo.gle/UINarrative to get inspired.   Podcast Info:   Transcripts available on episode web page.   Listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Spotify.   RSS feed: https://uinarrative.libsyn.com/rss   Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you like what you hear. Announcements: Join the UI Narrative Email Club to be the first to hear about weekly blog posts and exclusive podcast recaps. You can sign up at uinarrative.com/emailclub.   Want to become a Product Designer? Or need a portfolio review? Learn more at uinarrative.com/workwithme.   Let’s Connect: Have a question for me? Email me at hello@uinarrative.com.   Let’s connect! #uinarrative Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn @uinarrative Twitter @uinarrativeco

Peter Merholz, co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs, consultant, conference speaker, podcaster and all-round great human being, talks to us about how his and Kristin's book was born, what's changed in the last five years, some red flags that your org isn't working and how the concept of org design fits within DesignOps. petermerholz.comOrg Design for Design OrgsPeter on TwitterDesign at Scale conferenceTalking Heads - Remain in LightMoby Dick by Herman MelvilleDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

Design at scale is perhaps the most interesting challenge facing the design industry right now. How do you maintain quality and not get bogged down as your team grows? Much of the discussion focuses on systems and processes, but that starting with systems runs exactly contrary to the true value that design brings to companies, which is a humanistic and creative problem-framing and problem-solving approach. In other words, this focus on systems could ironically undercut design’s potential within organizations— in other words, “Design at Scale” is humanism at scale, and share what’s needed to keep people at the center of this work. Peter Merholz will be both a speaker and a workshop instructor during this year’s Design at Scale conference! Here, Lou and Peter muse over stories from the early days of information architecture before meandering their way to contrasting UX in the public versus private sectors. They also discuss a preview of Peter’s talk at the conference, Design at Scale is People! More about Peter’s workshop, Design Your Design Organization: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/cohorts/design-your-design-organization/ Peter recommends: HmntyCntrd https://hmntycntrd.com/ More about Peter Peter Merholz has been active in digital design and product for 25 years, most notably in building premier user experience consultancy Adaptive Path, and now advising teams on design organizations and leadership. Recent clients include The New York Times, Wells Fargo Bank, Cloudflare, and Zendesk. He co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs (O’Reilly), the first book focused on the organizational, managerial, and operational challenges of building in-house design teams. https://www.petermerholz.com/about-peter/

Jesse James Garret is a renowned leader in the user experience design field. He's a co-founder of the influential UX consultancy Adaptive Path and author of The Elements of User Experience. These days, Jesse coaches UX design leaders. In this conversation, we discuss the relationship between leadership and information architecture. Listen to the show Download episode 58 Show notes Jesse James Garrett's website @jjg on Twitter Jesse James Garrett on LinkedIn The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond, 2nd Edition by Jesse James Garrett Peter Merholz Finding Our Way podcast MacGuffin Concept map Mind maps Some show notes may include Amazon affiliate links. I get a small commission for purchases made through these links. Read the transcript Jorge: Jesse, welcome to the show. Jesse: It's good to be here. Thank you. Jorge: Well, it's my pleasure and honor to have you on the show as a guest. I don't imagine that there are too many folks in the audience who don't know you, but for those who don't, would you please tell us about yourself? About Jesse Jesse: Sure! I'm Jesse James Garrett. I have been working as a professional in the user experience field for, 20 years or so now. If I am known to you at all, I am probably known to you, dear listener, from my book, The Elements of User Experience, which was published in 2002, or the work of my company Adaptive Path, which I co-founded in 2001 and was a part of through its acquisition by Capital One in 2014. I now work as an independent leadership coach working with leaders of UX design teams. Jorge: And as we're recording this, I believe that the founding of Adaptive Path happened 20 years ago. Jesse: Yeah! Yeah, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the launch, a fun milestone to reflect on. Jorge: Well, the influence that the work has had both in Adaptive Path and The Elements of User Experience is palpable in the field. I occasionally still run into people who bring that diagram — "The Elements of UX" — bring it up so many years later, and it's an artifact that has proven long-lived. And I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on why that might be. On the longevity of The Elements of UX Jesse: It's a little bit of a mystery because Elements seems to have an enduring appeal to people that other similar models don't seem to have that kind of traction. I think that part of it is that I tried with the model to capture — as much as possible — to capture the things that I thought were less likely to change. Although I put the date really prominently at the top of the document when I first published it, in part because I was expecting to update it. I was thoroughly expecting there to be multiple versions and each one would have a date stamp and there would be iterations and evolutions of the model. But then when people started using it and getting really attached to it, I changed my mind about it and felt like I should really leave well enough alone and not tinker with it too much. I've made some little adjustments to the language that I use in the model over time, but the model itself has stayed the same. And I think the fact that people keep picking it up and putting it into practice is surprising to me as it is to anybody, I think. Jorge: Apart from minor tweaks to the language, do you feel like the model stands up overall? Even today? Jesse: Well, I do really think that if it didn't people wouldn't be using it if it didn't produce some sort of positive result... It may not be the positive result I intended. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot more to be said than what is encapsulated in that model. It is intended to provide a basic level framework and obviously there's a lot more complexity to what it takes to actually get those things done. And there is a lot of nuance to how these issues play out. So yeah, in some ways it's not my call as to whether or not the model is still relevant. It's like, it's up to other people as far as I can see. Jorge: Well, that's as good enough as any test for relevance, right? Whether people are using it or not. And for any listeners who might not know what we're talking about, this is a model that describes the work of user experience as happening in... would it be fair to call it five distinct layers? Jesse: Yeah. I call them 'planes' in the book, but it's a visualization. It's this sort of layer cake, sort of visualization of all of the considerations that go into UX work. Jorge: And they range from strategy at the lowest plane, scope, structure, skeleton and surface, which is the stuff that we see when we interact with a product that has been designed. Information architecture and leadership Now, I asked you to come on the show, not to talk about The Elements of User Experience, but because you and your fellow Adaptive Path co-founder and our mutual friend, Peter Merholz recently wrapped up what I'm describing as the first season of your podcast, Finding Our Way, and you and Peter had a conversation in that final episode where you synthesized the things you'd learned in the course of that first season. And you made a statement, you said, and I'm going to quote you back to you now, which is always nerve wracking! You said, "I think leaders are of necessity, orchestrators of systems. And systems instantiate knowledge as information architecture within them. So, the IA that gets embedded and coded, baked into your systems, becomes the way that the organization understands the world. And so, it is on the leader to imbue, infuse, enrich that IA with as complex and nuanced and understanding as they possibly can." There's a lot there... Jesse: I believe that statement. So, so that's a good test. Jorge: That's great. But I feel like there's a lot there to unpack and I wanted to talk about it with you. The context of the podcast, Finding Our Way, is about design leadership, but this strikes me as a statement that might apply to leaders in any field. Jesse: I believe that's true. I believe that any leader, anyone who gives direction to people in an organization, is on some level a steward of the organization's understanding of the problems that the team is trying to solve. And that understanding — when that gets systematized -information architecture is systematized understanding; it takes the associations between ideas that give meaning to human endeavor, human behavior, the world, and makes that concrete in ways that systems can then use. So that knowledge, that insight, can be scaled. And a lot of organizations run into trouble when their information architectures internally don't match the nuances and the complexities of the problems that they're trying to solve. Either problems that they're trying to solve for users or problems that they're trying to solve as a business. Businesses are often getting caught flat footed by market trends that they didn't see coming because they weren't paying attention to the right signals. Because those signals weren't part of the fabric of their understanding of the problem that they were facing. So yes, absolutely. We were talking about the context of design leadership specifically because that's what the mission of that show is. But yeah, I completely agree with you. It is something that I think is a part of what leaders do for organizations is give shape to the ways that organizations, hold onto the ephemeral meaning that otherwise just lives in the heads of the people in the organization. Jorge: Now, this is something that has been happening for way longer than we've had the phrase 'information architecture' and I'm wondering if there are any practices, tools perhaps, that have been around for a while that might point to this function of leadership, as a going concern for leaders. Jesse: It's an interesting question because honestly, a lot of the sensitivity to this stuff, when you're talking about what data does an organization collect, what systems does an organization put in place to make sense of the data that it has collected — this kind of stuff often ends up being the domain of like IT and business analytics and people who do some serious number crunching, which is fine and great. And, in the case of a lot of organizations... I've done a lot of work with financial services organizations. Insurance companies are fascinating in this respect because the actuarial tables rule all, in that business. And the keepers of the actuarial tables really are, expressing a point of view about what constitutes risk in the world. Jorge: And that is a formal structure of information that is stewarded by someone in the org, right? Jesse: Yeah. It's the foundation of the business. If your actuarial tables, as an insurance company, don't reflect the reality of things, then you're a bad insurance company, because you're likely to take on risks that you shouldn't. Jorge: What this implies for folks who are either in positions of leadership or aspiring to be in such positions, is that A) they need to embrace systems thinking, right? A systemic perspective of the work. And the other is that it would behoove them to look for the structures that best articulate the core of the business somehow. And there are formal information structures in a lot of organizations. You've pointed out that in the case of insurance, they're very manifest, but what you're saying there resonates for me in other fields as well. Jesse: Yeah. It's definitely something that I saw in my consulting career across, a lot of different kinds of organizations. I feel like every organization has its own sort of arbiter of truth, internally. I think one thing that we've been doing for a long time as UX practitioners, or at least, one thing that we often did as UX consultants was encourage the leaders that we were working with to step into storytelling as a tool to be able to make their case for what they wanted to do from a design perspective. Storytelling is a sense-making activity. It's a way of giving people an understanding of the world. It's very similar to information architecture in that way. So, for leaders of any stripe, whether you're leading a design team or whether you're leading any other kind of team, to take a step back and ask myself, "Where am I the sense-maker for the organization? Where am I the one who is interpreting and giving meaning to information?" And sometimes that is happening largely in Slack or emails to the team or other kinds of communications, and sometimes that's happening in the context of more formal data structures like you and I have been talking about. So, if the leader is noticing and attending to sense-making as a core part of the value that they bring to the organization as a leader, then they can look across their communications and the various pools of data that they may be responsible for tending and to interpret what they're doing in terms of creating more robust and more nuanced and more accurate information structures. Jorge: I'm hearing two things there. One is that leaders need to have the wherewithal to understand the organization, its context, its goals, its way of being in the world — understand it in some kind of systematic way. And the other thing I'm hearing is that they also need to be able to reflect that understanding back to the organization — through things like stories — in ways that affect how the team understands what they're doing, basically. Jesse: Yes. It gives meaning to the team's activities by placing those activities in a larger frame — a larger context. IA as MacGuffin Jorge: In my experience in interacting with teams and organizations and their leadership, I get the sense that these two functions — the "let's first structure the environment for ourselves, and then, let's think about how we share that structure with others" — they're happening, to greater or lesser degrees, in different organizations. But they're happening somewhat informally. Like, I haven't seen too many processes to say, "let's now draw up the information architecture for what we're doing here." Usually, when people talk about information architecture, it happens in the context of redesigning the website or making changes to the navigation structure of our apps or what have you. And in some ways, those projects end up being kind of MacGuffin for these deeper conversations that need to happen. And I'm wondering if there's a way to overcome that gap where we do information architecture more explicitly in service of having the organization understand itself better, or the team understand itself better and its role. Jesse: Yes. I have done work like that in the guise of process work, that engaging with a team, trying to understand what the different elements of the team are, what each element of the team is intended to accomplish, how those pieces are supposed to work together. In order to engineer any kind of a process like that, that has to be rooted in an understanding at a conceptual level of what are the factors that go into play in producing whatever the team is there to produce. Or achieving whatever the team is attempting to achieve. And how are you making sure that all those factors are accounted for? And how are you setting priorities among those things? These are all decisions that inform the process work, but that's not the process work. That's the IA work that underlies the process work. Jorge: Is this more of a top-down or a bottom-up effort? Jesse: I think of it as being more of a top-down effort, just because I am... I've been thinking a lot about stewardship as one of the elements of leadership that we don't really talk about. Which is that you have a group of people and a set of resources in your care as a leader. And that creates certain obligations from my perspective, on you as a leader, to ensure that you pass those things along to the next leader in the healthiest possible state that you can. And that means looking out for your team. It also means looking out for your processes. It also means looking out for your systems. And it also means looking out for that deep, underlying understanding that drives all of those things. I mean, where are leaders doing that information architecture work right now? I'd say they're doing it every time they structure a document that presents to their executive leadership what they want to try to accomplish with their work. Jorge: What that hints at — to me at least — is the fact that this storytelling function that you were talking about earlier — the part that has to do with sharing with the rest of the organization, the understanding that we have of our own understanding — that act of telling the story influences the understanding. It's like the two are related, right? Jesse: Yeah. Jorge: There's a feedback cycle happening, where you put it out there, you say, "well, this is how we see things." And maybe your peers and other groups might say, "no, it's not like that at all. From our perspective, it looks like this!" And that tweaks your own architecture, no? Jesse: Yeah, I mean when we talk about cross-functional collaboration, what we're often talking about is the process of aligning the differing information architectures. The differing models understanding of the problem that these cross-functional teams have. That the design team has one understanding of a problem, technology team has a different understanding of the problem, business folks have a third different understanding of the problem. These things need to be reconciled in order for those teams to move toward a common goal together. So, we don't end up with the design team is designing a car, but the engineering team is building a submarine while the business folks have sold to the senior leadership that we're building an airplane! Jorge: This is such important work, and it strikes me — just in hearing you describe it — that it's something that happens often as a side effect of other initiatives. It's not like you set out to explicitly build that understanding and compare the delta with the understanding of that other org. It's more that both of you are tasked with collaborating on something and the process of collaboration is what surfaces these distinctions. Jesse: It forces it! Yeah. You're not really doing it as a separate explicit step because it's part of everything you have to do as a leader, in a lot of ways. Leadership as a design problem Jorge: It feels to me like we're talking kind of in the abstract when we talk about these understandings. And when we say that somebody is presenting to their colleagues, what might come to mind is something like a slide deck, right? And folks tend to gravitate towards things that they can see and understand. And the slide deck might be the manifestation of this understanding, but it's not... it might not be its purest expression. And I'm thinking of things like concept maps, where we map out our understanding of a domain, just not even for sharing with others, but to understand it ourselves. And I'm wondering if in the process of stewarding this understanding of who we are, what we do, what our role is, how we're structured, what our processes are... I'm wondering if there are artifacts that could embody that kind of abstract understanding? Jesse: I think so much of it depends on the leader. And I feel like what you're reaching for, or suggesting, is a mode of leadership that is really kind of an IA-centered or an IA-driven leader. And that's a very interesting idea to me. I haven't met one. You know, I would say I have met some leaders who, because of their experience with collaborative ideation processes, are used to getting their ideas out in a way that is still abstract. You talked about concept maps. That's a great example. Mind mapping is a tool that I've seen business leaders use. That is definitely an information architecture tool. You're doing an IA process when you're engaging with mind mapping. But they wouldn't necessarily think of that as IA work. And they don't necessarily make it central to how they analyze problems or make decisions. The people that I've worked with who have been those kinds of leadership roles tend to be a little bit more constrained and not have formal tools for getting their ideas out. They just communicate. And they do it in the context of structuring and organizing their communications. And a lot of times, that is what is foisted upon them by the communications culture of the organization. I have worked with organizations where there were such strong cultural... Taboos around what you could and could not do in the context of a slide deck. Where, you know, like I had worked with an organization, for example, where if you had anything that was going to the board of directors, the Deck had to follow a very specific structure and format. And if your idea needed more than three to five basic sections to express that idea, your idea was not ready for the board of directors. Because they were consuming so much content from across a very large organization, they needed everything encapsulated and summarized and standardized so that they could make the decisions that they had to make. But what that forced on the entire organization was a communication style that drove out nuance. Drove out conversation. Drove out a lot of what you're talking about, which is that moment to moment flexibility in the decision-making process that you know, for a lot of decisions is utterly necessary. Jorge: Yeah, it comes back to this notion of top-down versus bottom-up, right? Because the implication there is that there is a level of nuance that is inappropriate for folks at this level. And that's a questionable stance, I think. Jesse: Yeah. Jorge: So, you advise leaders, you advise folks who are stepping into leadership. How would someone who is either in a leadership position or looking to get into leadership, how could they develop these particular muscles? Jesse: The way that I talk to folks about design leadership, who have come from a design background -that is to say they've been doing design work — is that leadership is just another design problem. And you're working with different materials and you're working toward different outcomes and you're having to follow different principles, but the task is the same task. It is a creative problem-solving task. It is a systems-thinking task, as a leader. So, looking at the ways that you're already doing that systems-thinking, the ways in which you already doing that architecture for yourself in the work that you're already doing, and those will be your strengths. And those will be the pillars that you can lean on that are going to support your work as a leader going forward. They will evolve and they will not look like what they looked like when you were doing content inventories or task flows or whatever other artifacts you might've been working on as a designer. But the skill set that you're building is the same skill set. Jorge: So, it's in you, you just have to recognize it as such, and build into it. Which is kind of what we've been talking about, right? Getting the sensitivity to read the environment and articulate it in a structured way. Jesse: And also, to remain true to your own perspective. You know, I see a lot of people who step into leadership for the first time, and they start trying to emulate what they've seen of other leaders. Which is a totally natural thing to do. It makes total sense. However, every effective leader leads from their own strengths and recognizes that those strengths are going to be different from the strengths of the people around them, and leverages that difference. And leaders who try to emulate modes of leadership that don't suit their natural abilities, they struggle. And they create a lot of hardship for themselves that they don't need to have if they could just believe that they already had the power. Because I believe they do. Closing Jorge: Well, that strikes me as a fabulous place for us to wrap this conversation. It's an empowering exhortation to folks to be themselves and develop their own powers. Thank you so much for that, Jesse. Where can folks follow up with you? Jesse: You can find me on Twitter. I'm @jjg. I'm also on LinkedIn from time to time these days. You can find our podcast, Finding Our Way, at findingourway.design, and you can find out more about my coaching practice at jessejamesgarrett.com. Jorge: Well, thank you so much, Jesse. It's been a real treat having you on the show. Jesse: Thanks, Jorge! It's been fun.

Talking Points Radio Toni – Every Day Business with Melody Belliveau Welcome and intro – Listening live on FB, LI we have my EVA Pao ready and waiting to respond to your comments and questions with website links etc, like subscribe and email, radiotoni.com bbsradio.com/radiotoni, big shout out and thankyou. Today's guest is the beautiful Melody Beliveau who is a Blogger. Before I introduce her live on the show here is a bit about Melody Melody is a Content Creator/Web Publisher at The Social-Commentary.Com who's passion and purpose is writing thought provoking articles that can create discussion and changes in our society. Melody created a blog to share with others, food for the soul. I had an opportunity for a column in a magazine that wasn't a good fit, and the mentor I had told me I needed to create my own website. The passion and drive were strong enough to get past my limited technology challenges and TheSocial-Commentary.Com was born. Melody wants to have an impact on the world by helping people see that they matter and that they have a purpose. Her favourite quote is “We are all in this together” Welcome to the show Melody it's a pleasure to have you on the show today in person as you are often listening in and commenting on the live shows, which we appreciate so much. Today we are going to talk about Blogging Before we get into the subject of blogging, can you tell the audience a little more about you? Notes - Where you live, your life and what are your hobbies are outside of blogging What is one fun fact about you that might interest the audience the most? What is blogging? Notes - a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style, blogs can help you develop an online presence, prove yourself an expert in an industry, and attract more quality leads to all pages of your site. The history of Blogging according to Hubspot - 1994, Swarthmore College student Justin Hall is credited with the creation of the first blog, Links.net. At the time, however, it wasn't considered a blog … just a personal homepage. In 1997, Jorn Barger, blogger for Robot Wisdom, coined the term "weblog", which was meant to describe his process for "logging the web" as he surfed the internet. The term "weblog" was shortened to "blog" in 1999, by programmer Peter Merholz. In the early stages, a blog was a personal web log or journal in which someone could share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. The information was posted reverse chronologically, so the most recent post would appear first. Melody Why were you drawn to starting a blog? – notes – recount your story about your mentor and website. How challenging was it to start a blog and what were those challenges? What steps did you follow to start your blog? Notes pick a name, get your blog online, make it unique, promote it What are you most passionate about and what gets you up in the morning? Lets talk about some of those blogs. One in particular is called the struggles of Loves Expressions. What prompted this blog and what's it about? One of your most poignant blogs is called The shatter of Suicide – can you tell us about that blog? The wellness corner – What can find in there? Herbs and spices and hand reflexology Can you make money from a blog? Yes How do you do this? Notes – 1. money from ads, (adsense, adthrive) pay per impression and paid per click and its paid per 1000 impressions. 2. Affiliate marketing – here the blogger makes a connection with a company and then promotes the company's products or services and get paid a commission 3. From Sponsored posts – where a company pays a blogger to create content about their brand. 4. Bloggers make money by creating and selling products – often digital or educational products. 5. Bloggers can make money from selling services, coaching and consulting.

I'm deeply fascinated with the topic of organisational design. Why? I've often said that the organisation is the design material of service designers. Our job really is about shaping the environment from which great services can be delivered. The guest in this weeks episode (Peter Merholz) even wrote an entire book about it titled: Org Design for Design Orgs. Now I know what you're thinking... "The people around me haven't even grasped the concept of service design. And now you want me to start telling them about organisational design? Give me a break!" I totally get it. But there's a very simple reason why it's designers who need to and are driving this. I'll give you a clue. The answer lies in the shift that happens when you move from value creation through products to value creation through services. I promise that after watching the episode it will make complete sense why you need to be thinking about organisational design as well. And how that makes your work easier, not harder! At the end of the episode we're doing a contest where you can win a signed copy of Peter's book. So make sure you don't miss that! --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 110 02:30 Who is Peter 03:30 60 second rapid fire 06:20 When did the journey start 11:50 How Adaptive Path started 16:00 Going in-house to Groupon 21:00 Making the design happen 27:30 The role of design leadership 33:30 Why designer needs to drive this change 36:00 Every business is a service business 40:40 Revisiting org design for design orgs 46:00 The wave of Customer Experience 48:15 Don't be a service design purist 50:15 Book give away contest 51:00 Get in touch with Peter 52:00 Final thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * https://www.peterme.com/ * https://www.petermerholz.com/ * https://twitter.com/peterme * https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/ --- [ BOOKS ] --- Org Design for Design Orgs * https://amzn.to/3igFB67 Information Anxiety * https://amzn.to/3kT5kD8 The Design of Everyday Thing * https://amzn.to/2Gr5Zg3 --- [ MORE ] --- Enjoyed the show? Take a look at some of the other episodes. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/spotify YOUTUBE Every episode of the Service Design Show is also available as via the official YouTube channel. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/youtube INSTAGRAM Get an exclusive behind the scenes look of the Show. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/instagram --- [ FREE COURSE ] --- HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are! https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course

Nick Dawson is the co-organizer of the Emergency Design Collective. In today’s episode, we talk about healthcare innovation labs, how to think about opportunities in healthcare, healthcare versus sick care, and launching the EDC to support the COVID-19 response. Show Host: Dawan Stanford Show Summary Nick Dawson grew up with a father who worked in healthcare and hospitals. As he entered college, he was convinced that he absolutely didn’t want to work in the same field. But the technology used in the local hospital intrigued and interested him enough to accept an internship in the IT department there. While immersed in how hospitals work, Nick discovered his interest in complex systems and their challenges. His internship turned into a lifelong career that led him into design and innovation for healthcare. While working as a healthcare performance improvement consultant for a large healthcare conglomerate, Nick needed to travel frequently by air. During his business travel, he witnessed a failing airline’s poor treatment of its employees; this was the nascence of his interest in the idea of re-designing healthcare’s patient and staff experiences. He realized that experience is something people and organizations must always create with intention and thought, and something that must be centered on those who are living and working in the experience. Experience design, healthcare and the ability to wrestle with complexity drives his work. Examples include designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub, and his recent co-founding of the Emergency Design Collective, which focuses on re-thinking how we approach healthcare, helping businesses and organizations design their work spaces to support the health and wellbeing of their employees, and on creating a “public health design” core curriculum. Listen in to learn more about: The challenges of designing for innovation in hospital environments Designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub The unique collaborative aspects of clinical hospital teams Creating a flexible work environment and power dynamic in teams The “product” of healthcare How everything in our life is connected to, and has an influence on, our health The social determinants of health The Emergency Design Collective and its work Ways to rethink how we work and function in order to design for good health Our Guest’s Bio Nick Dawson has been at the forefront of bringing design innovation to healthcare. He started and led the design innovation program at Johns Hopkins before joining Kaiser Permanente to lead innovation nationally. Nick chaired the Medicine X program in the Stanford school of Medicine until 2019 and worked with the Obama White House to bring patient-centered design to policy making and healthcare priorities. In April 2020, Nick left KP to co-found the Emergency Design Collective — a group of doctors, designers and public health experts using design to respond to urgent public health crises. Show Highlights [03:00] Nick’s start in healthcare and design. [04:19] Nick discovers his interest in complex systems problems. [04:28] How a hospital is like a miniature city. [05:23] Nick’s witnessing of an airline’s financial failure leads to a revelation about experience. [09:00] Learning from and listening to patients about what they need and want from their healthcare. [10:57] Why it can be challenging to innovate in healthcare. [11:29] Why healthcare is a risk-averse industry. [12:05] Nick’s focus on re-centering the work from the hospital to the communities, patients, and staff it serves. [12:51] Advice for overcoming people’s resistance to change. [13:31] The dilemma of how to help people embrace change and innovation instead of resisting it. [15:00] How hospital staff reacted to the launching of the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub. [17:15] Nick talks about building the Sibley Innovation Hub team and working to create a welcoming space. [18:27] The unique characteristics of teams and teamwork in the clinical hospital environment versus the management side of healthcare. [19:39] How Nick disseminated power among his team members. [21:59] Nick’s thoughts on the “product” of healthcare. [22:50] The concept of a social needs emergency room existing upstream of clinical emergency rooms. [23:05] The interconnectedness of every part of our life with our health. [23:20] The social determinants of health. [24:18] What it means to design “upstream” of healthcare. [27:23] Some opportunities for people who want to act and serve not just in response to the current COVID-19 crisis, but also in the future as systems begin to change. [28:07] The Emergency Design Collective and the “new normal.” [28:27] Nick’s thought on education and how it might change. [29:15] What might happen if every corporation started to think of itself as an H corp and prioritizing health? [29:30] How the current global pandemic is potentially re-shaping the way we think about health. [31:15] Ways the EDC supports purposeful business and space design with a focus on good health and wellbeing. [33:40] Resources Nick recommends on design, innovation, and healthcare. Links Nick on LinkedIn Nick on Twitter Emergency Design Collective Personal Website Innovation as a requirement for success in healthcare An Everyone Included Design Story TEDMED Interview with Nick from 2014 Ward Infinity Book Recommendation: The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore Book Recommendation: The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and Jake McKee Book Recommendation: Org Design for Design Orgs, by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner Book Recommendation: 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization, by Vijay Kumar Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43 Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44 A Designer’s Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!

Nick Dawson is the co-organizer of the Emergency Design Collective. In today's episode, we talk about healthcare innovation labs, how to think about opportunities in healthcare, healthcare versus sick care, and launching the EDC to support the COVID-19 response. Show Host: Dawan Stanford Show Summary Nick Dawson grew up with a father who worked in healthcare and hospitals. As he entered college, he was convinced that he absolutely didn't want to work in the same field. But the technology used in the local hospital intrigued and interested him enough to accept an internship in the IT department there. While immersed in how hospitals work, Nick discovered his interest in complex systems and their challenges. His internship turned into a lifelong career that led him into design and innovation for healthcare. While working as a healthcare performance improvement consultant for a large healthcare conglomerate, Nick needed to travel frequently by air. During his business travel, he witnessed a failing airline's poor treatment of its employees; this was the nascence of his interest in the idea of re-designing healthcare's patient and staff experiences. He realized that experience is something people and organizations must always create with intention and thought, and something that must be centered on those who are living and working in the experience. Experience design, healthcare and the ability to wrestle with complexity drives his work. Examples include designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub, and his recent co-founding of the Emergency Design Collective, which focuses on re-thinking how we approach healthcare, helping businesses and organizations design their work spaces to support the health and wellbeing of their employees, and on creating a “public health design” core curriculum. Listen in to learn more about: The challenges of designing for innovation in hospital environments Designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub The unique collaborative aspects of clinical hospital teams Creating a flexible work environment and power dynamic in teams The “product” of healthcare How everything in our life is connected to, and has an influence on, our health The social determinants of health The Emergency Design Collective and its work Ways to rethink how we work and function in order to design for good health Our Guest's Bio Nick Dawson has been at the forefront of bringing design innovation to healthcare. He started and led the design innovation program at Johns Hopkins before joining Kaiser Permanente to lead innovation nationally. Nick chaired the Medicine X program in the Stanford school of Medicine until 2019 and worked with the Obama White House to bring patient-centered design to policy making and healthcare priorities. In April 2020, Nick left KP to co-found the Emergency Design Collective — a group of doctors, designers and public health experts using design to respond to urgent public health crises. Show Highlights [03:00] Nick's start in healthcare and design. [04:19] Nick discovers his interest in complex systems problems. [04:28] How a hospital is like a miniature city. [05:23] Nick's witnessing of an airline's financial failure leads to a revelation about experience. [09:00] Learning from and listening to patients about what they need and want from their healthcare. [10:57] Why it can be challenging to innovate in healthcare. [11:29] Why healthcare is a risk-averse industry. [12:05] Nick's focus on re-centering the work from the hospital to the communities, patients, and staff it serves. [12:51] Advice for overcoming people's resistance to change. [13:31] The dilemma of how to help people embrace change and innovation instead of resisting it. [15:00] How hospital staff reacted to the launching of the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub. [17:15] Nick talks about building the Sibley Innovation Hub team and working to create a welcoming space. [18:27] The unique characteristics of teams and teamwork in the clinical hospital environment versus the management side of healthcare. [19:39] How Nick disseminated power among his team members. [21:59] Nick's thoughts on the “product” of healthcare. [22:50] The concept of a social needs emergency room existing upstream of clinical emergency rooms. [23:05] The interconnectedness of every part of our life with our health. [23:20] The social determinants of health. [24:18] What it means to design “upstream” of healthcare. [27:23] Some opportunities for people who want to act and serve not just in response to the current COVID-19 crisis, but also in the future as systems begin to change. [28:07] The Emergency Design Collective and the “new normal.” [28:27] Nick's thought on education and how it might change. [29:15] What might happen if every corporation started to think of itself as an H corp and prioritizing health? [29:30] How the current global pandemic is potentially re-shaping the way we think about health. [31:15] Ways the EDC supports purposeful business and space design with a focus on good health and wellbeing. [33:40] Resources Nick recommends on design, innovation, and healthcare. Links Nick on LinkedIn Nick on Twitter Emergency Design Collective Personal Website Innovation as a requirement for success in healthcare An Everyone Included Design Story TEDMED Interview with Nick from 2014 Ward Infinity Book Recommendation: The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore Book Recommendation: The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and Jake McKee Book Recommendation: Org Design for Design Orgs, by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner Book Recommendation: 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization, by Vijay Kumar Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43 Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44 A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!

My guest today is Peter Merholz. Peter is one of the co-founders of the pioneering UX design consultancy Adaptive Path, now part of Capital One. After leaving Adaptive Path, he has structured and led design teams in various organizations. Peter and his co-author, Kristin Skinner, wrote Org Design for Design Orgs, the book on how to organize design teams. In this episode, we discuss how the structure of organizations influences their customer's experiences. Listen to the full conversation https://theinformeddotlife.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/the-informed-life-episode-28-peter-merholz-2.mp3   Show notes PeterMerholz.com @peterme on Twitter Adaptive Path Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner Liftoff: Practical Design Leadership to Elevate Your Team, Your Organization, and You by Chris Avore and Russ Unger The Informed Life Episode 22: Andrea Mignolo on Designerly Ways of Being IDEO Tim Brown The Double Diamond Conway's Law Organization in the Way: How Decentralization Hobbles the User Experience by Peter Merholz MacGuffin Shopify Forrester Research Kristin Skinner Read the full transcript Jorge: Welcome to the show, Peter. Peter: Thank you Jorge. Jorge: So, for folks who don't know about you and your trajectory, would you please introduce yourself. Peter: Sure. I'm Peter Merholz, I work in — ostensibly — digital design, have for over 25 years. Started in CD-ROMs, so even pre-web. But cut my teeth on the web and through web design. Probably most notably, helped start a user experience consulting firm called Adaptive Path, which I helped lead from 2001 to 2011. For the last eight years, I've been some flavor of design executive, primarily working in-house. A few years ago, co-wrote a book called Org Design for Design Orgs, which is still the only book about what it… Kind of a playbook on building in-house design teams. Though I'm happy that Russ Unger and Chris Avore's book is coming out soon, so we will no longer be the only one on that subject. And a few months ago, decided to commit myself to independence and started a company. The URL is petermerholz.com, but the company name is Humanism At Scale, and it's my one-person consultancy dedicated to helping design organizations realize their potential and helping bolster and improve design leadership practices within organizations. Jorge: What is the link between the potential of organizations, humanism, and design? Peter: I see design as the Trojan horse for humanistic thinking within companies. Design is an obvious contributor of value, particularly in digital contexts and software contexts, and so companies are building design organizations in order to create these digital experiences. What they don't know they're getting with it is that design, when practiced fully, is situated within a humanistic frame that also includes social science and subjects like user research, it includes writing, rhetoric, composition, with things like content strategy… And so I see design as this lead… It's the tip of the spear, but what's behind it is a full kind of humanistic understanding that design can help bring into these companies. And the importance of that is companies have been so mechanistic, so analytical with their either kind of business orientations, MBA orientations, spreadsheet focuses, or engineering orientations. They've been so mechanistic that design has this opportunity to bring a humanistic balance into that conversation. Jorge: I had Andrea Mignolo as a guest in the podcast last year, and she talked about this subject as well, design as a way for organizations to map out possible futures, in distinction to using things like spreadsheets. Is that kind of what you're talking about here? Peter: That's definitely part of what I'm talking about. I mean, there's the obvious benefits or contributions of design in this business context, which is making a strategy concrete. We talked about that at Adaptive Path over 10 years ago, probably closer to 15 years ago, and, and IDEO has been talking about that. Tim Brown's been talking about that, right? It's very easy for executives to have different interpretations of bullet points on a PowerPoint slide and projections and spreadsheets, but it's really difficult to have different interpretations of sketches and prototypes of futures that those PowerPoint, bullet points and spreadsheets are actually inferring, right? Design can very quickly make concrete these abstract notions. And, so I think lead to better conversations about where an organization is headed. So, I think that's part of it. But I think, again, importantly, there's a whole body of thinking, of problem solving, of looking at the world that is rooted in the humanities, that is rooted in not just design and visual expression, but in language in social science, that can inform how businesses operate in and basically encourage them to operate better at least when I think would be better. Jorge: In your book and in your presentations on the subject, you often talk about this three-legged stool, where the three legs are, business, technology, and design. Is that the context in which you're talking about design here, as in supplementing the other two? Peter: I wouldn't say supplementing, but yes, balancing the other two. And that still makes it sound like design is one against two in that equation. But essentially, business and technical approaches tend to be analytical and reductive. And that's not bad in and of itself, but it's insufficient, particularly given the complexity of the things that we're building and how those things that we're building are situated within a society. And so the opportunity that design and humanism brings is providing a more generative, qualitative, creative, big picture frame and approach to problem-solving to balance that reductive, analytical, quantitative metrics-driven approach that has been so dominant for so long. Something I hadn't actually connected it with until just now as we're talking about, when you have that metrics-driven approach, that leads to businesses so focused on the numbers, they lose sight of the, frankly, societal impact of those numbers, right? So, you know, the big issue with social media is that everything's driving towards engagement. Because that's what they're measuring. And having lost sight of the societal impact of what happens when you have two and a half billion people that you're trying to engage, and not recognizing that the product of that engagement outside of the system is massive societal unrest. Jorge: Which has become evident after the fact, right? Peter: Right. Exactly. But if you had talked to or had any social scientists actively involved in that process, and you had a more humanistic approach involved in that process, you would have likely realized those potential outcomes in the process instead of simply after the fact. Jorge: I've worked mostly as a consultant in my career. I did spend some time internally in an organization, but most of my career I've spent as an external designer who is brought into an organization to help them through some of these challenges. And in that capacity, I've had the opportunity to interact with internal design teams. And one of the things I keep seeing in many of those organizations is that designers are working making either products or services better, but often at a very kind of granular level. And I'm bringing this up because I love what I'm hearing you say about design being kind of the organ of the organization that helps them think more systemically. But sometimes that can be at odds with the way that designers are actually working in organizations. And I'm wondering if you can speak a bit to that. Peter: I agree. By and large, most design in most organizations is seen as part of production, part of delivery. This is the challenge, but the opportunity, with the Trojan horse, right? Design is being brought into these organizations because you need designers to design the interfaces, essentially, of these digital experiences. And that is seen primarily in an output mode, right? The stuff that your users are interacting with, someone needs to design that, let's hire designers. And so it gets very much… I often use the double diamond when talking about this type of work and it's very much second diamond, very much on the execution side, the implementation side. Because that is the obvious value that design brings into business. And I think in many businesses, you're right, that's pretty much the limit of the value that design is bringing. What I would argue though, is there's this potential and more and more companies are expecting that potential of design to have some contribution “upstream.” I talk to companies all the time where they want design to have that seat at the table, to be a peer to product and engineering, to contribute strategically, to the conversation. And so the challenge there though, is often — this is part of the reason why design leadership is so important to me — is that I think we have a general kind of industry-wide shortcoming among our design leaders in terms of understanding the breadth of the influence they can wield and how to wield it. My concern is that many of those design leaders have come up in organizations where design was seen primarily as a production function. And so that's how they're approaching design leadership is just to make production better. And so, there's an opportunity, I believe where design leaders, one, can learn how their practices can have a broader influence. And then two, — and this is actually, I think, an even harder challenge — help those design leaders develop the confidence to assert their perspective at that more kind of executive or strategic level. Right? Because they're often a lone voice in a wilderness, right? That wilderness is heavily analytical, heavily mechanistic. And there are some designers saying, “We've got to listen to users,” or you know, “What about ethics?”, or whatever the thing is that the designer is talking about. And they're often that lone voice. And it can be hard to be that one to stand up and be the one that is — not necessarily getting along with whatever the dominant kind of cultural paradigm is — but I believe… Frankly, I believe it's kind of our duty. I think it's, in an unconscious way, these businesses have realized there's a power to this other way of thinking. That the current models aren't working, that the mechanistic model is running its course. And so, they're seeking other ways of working. So, then they bring in design, and when design starts doing its other way, the initial reaction is going to be one of pushing back because it's weird and uncertain and different. And it's up to the design leader then to manage that transition to help the business not react, not lash out, not reject out of hand, this new way of thinking and then also for that leader to help their team recognize its power and its potential in terms of influencing the organization. And it's really hard. Like, I think design leadership is probably, at least within a product development context, the hardest kind of leadership there is right now. It's easier to be an engineering leader or a product leader, or a data science leader, than it is to be a design leader because of this kind of contradiction or conflict of we want design, but design is different so we're pushing back on design, but then when we push back on it, we're unhappy because design isn't being interesting. Resolving that is this interesting challenge design leaders have. Jorge: You're validating how I see the arc of your career. We've known each other for a long time, and we met through the information architecture community, where — to summarize it really kind of unfairly and at a very high level — it's all about the design of the underlying structures of — at least when we met, at the stage that the discipline was in — was mostly focused on digital experiences. Peter: Web experiences. Jorge: Web experiences, yeah. Peter: Not even software or mobile. Jorge: It was pre-mobile. But that's what we were focused on, right? Like the structures that underlied these experiences. And my sense of your career is that there came a point in your own development where you had this insight that the structures… That you can work on the structure of the thing, or you can work on the structure of the thing that's going to produce the thing. Right? And that's where Org Design for Design Orgs I see basically as a book about the architecture of the organizations that define these architectures. Is that fair? Peter: Sure. Yeah. It's so… Conway's law. Conway's law is an interesting concept in this context, right? Conway's law is that any organization is going to deliver… Whatever it delivers will be a reflection of how it is organized. And oftentimes Conway's law is thought of not as a law, but as a thing to be aware of that you can work around. Right? So, if your company has organized in some way, you have business units, but when you present your org, when you present the company to the world, you don't want your customers to get caught up in the business units. Right? That's often… That has been a role for design to play in the past — web design in particular — is to create this kind of skin, this presentation layer, over the mess that is the company in its presentation to the customers. I actually first was writing about this like literally in 2002 or three there was an essay on the Adaptive Path website called Organization in the Way, where I was talking about how the reason websites don't make sense is because they basically reflect a company's organizational structure. And at that time, I thought the solution was, well, you can keep that organizational structure and the role of the design team is to understand the user and how they are approaching that company and again, create this presentation layer, this interface, this interpretation, so that the user can actually engage with the company meaningfully and not worry about how that company is structured. What I have since come to realize is that Conway's law is a law. That organizations will deliver their value, deliver their services, deliver their experiences, shaped directly by how they are organized. And yes, you might be able to paper over that for some brief period of time, launch a website design that, you know, in the past we would launch these kinds of task-based website designs because customers weren't looking at an enterprise software firm and thinking about the product modules, they had tasks they wanted to solve, so let's do a task-based architecture. And that would last maybe even a year or two, but eventually it would break down because that organizational structure has such power that it would reassert itself in how the company is presented to customers, regardless of whether or not it made sense to the customers. And so, what the true implication of Conway's law is, if you want to deliver a meaningful experience — a sensible experience — to your customers, you have to reorganize your company in a way that makes sense to your customers. That is the only way you're going to solve that problem. Jorge: Yeah. As you're talking about this, I'm thinking that I've experienced that very issue as well in projects where I've been brought in to help an organization, for example, rethink the way that their products are presented on their website. And it seems on the surface to be kind of an information architecture challenge; I've been hired to fix their navigation system or whatever. And then when you start digging into the problem, it turns out that the website and its nav structures are actually a MacGuffin for these conversations that are much more strategic and more challenging that people at a very high level in the organization — for whatever reason — have not been able to articulate except in the context of having something actionable like the website to serve as their meeting ground. Peter: Yeah. What was interesting about the web from an organizational perspective 20 years ago was it was the first time an entire company was being presented in a single unitary canvas, right? Before you would just deal with whatever channel that you were a part of and you know, whether there was a sales channel, a marketing channel, et cetera, and whichever part of the business that made sense to you, and you didn't have to worry about anything else. But with the web, all of that got placed on a single point of entry. And you know, we all dealt with trying to figure out how to design websites for these big companies that now their complexity was being exposed to the users, and the company had never had to deal with that before. I do think you're starting to see some companies grapple with this in a more meaningful sense. They're starting to change how they're organized. Shopify. I'm not a customer of theirs, I don't know if this has been good or bad, right? But Shopify for the longest time was basically organized functionally. You know, product team or an engineering team and a design team and marketing teams, and they would then deliver the products. And then at some point two or three years ago, they decided to — it's not radical — organize by products. But they also identified meaningful product distinctions. Products for merchants in one fashion, products for point of sale products, or whatever it is, right? The product line changed. And so that's now how they organize. They had to reorganize in order to make their company makes sense to their customers, possibly make their company makes sense internally as well. And so, I think you're seeing, you know… I'm doing some work with a bank and they have a set of… So, banks are funny, right? Because they're highly regulated, so that actually limits how they are able to organize. One of the things I've learned in working in financial services is that when a bank offers both checking and savings services as well as credit card services, those have to be treated by the bank as two independent organizations that really shouldn't be interacting with each other for legitimately good regulatory reasons. But as a customer, if you have a checking account with a bank and a credit card with the bank, it can be odd how it's not seamless in engagement. And you're like, “It's the same bank. Why can't I just do it?” And it turns out there's regulatory reasons for that. But what I'm starting to see with in this one bank I'm working with, they have this thing called “missions” and “value streams,” and they're organizing by, basically, tasks. You have a payments team and you have within that payments team; you have a value stream for moving money or a value stream for paying bills, and they're pulling people together in these teams. I'm doing work for a journalism company, news company, I guess you would call it. They talk about journalism; they don't just talk about news. I'm working with a news company, and they also have adopted missions. They have an engagement mission, a growth mission. And these missions are the means by which these companies are pulling together cross-functional teams, but providing an organization that now can make some sense to the customer, right? A customer isn't going to want to navigate the marketing team, the sales team, the product development team, et cetera, et cetera. But a customer, you know, if you are new to this company, you are working… You are basically… Your experience is managed by the growth team as they try to bring you into the fold. If you are an active user, you are now being handed off to the engagement team that keeps you engaged, it introduces you to new experiences, et cetera, et cetera. And so, these companies are looking at ways of creating, internally, at least, some new structures that are orthogonal to the kind of functional structures that better speak to customer experiences because they recognize kind of that Conway's law thing. If what matters is the customer's experience, you have to change your organization to meaningfully deliver on that customer experience. Jorge: I'm guessing that a considerable part of the people listening to us right now are not external consultants but are actually… I don't know if to use the word “affected,” or at least their work is influenced heavily by the type of structures that you're talking about. Peter: Hmm? Yes. Jorge: And I'm wondering if there's any advice or any insights that folks working in organizations can glean from this way of thinking about the work that could help them be more effective. Peter: “Yes” is the short answer. I think particularly designers have — which I'm assuming is the large part of your audience, designers and the design-adjacent — I think are particularly well-suited to have an impact on these internal structures because, as I was suggesting these internal structures should be influenced by an understanding of customers and the journeys they are on. And it's oftentimes and design team working with researchers that are tasked with understanding those customer journeys. And the opportunity, I think, for people internally, is to understand and map these customer journeys. So, do that work. And that, that's not hard to sell. Right? That's a pretty accepted practice now. Forrester's been talking about journey mapping for well over a decade. But I don't think every company has recognized the implications that I was referring to earlier, which is that that customer journey becomes a blueprint for how you reorganize your teams. Now, it might not be their reporting organization, right? That might maintain functional organization. So, you know, your designers will still report up to a Head of Design, and you might have 50 designers reporting into it as part of a single design team. But their day to day work, those designers are spending the bulk of their time and effort in these cross-functional teams that are organized by these journeys. And I think the opportunity is to help drive that organization, drive that conversation around, “Hey, we shouldn't be organized by either function…” Sometimes you get companies organized by platform, right? You have the mobile team versus the web team, you have an iOS team versus an Android tea m. Because that's not how people are experiencing it, right? You want to organize by the nature of how people are experiencing it so that you can deliver value across the customer journey. And you're seeing that more and more. I think we're still at very early days for it. But the opportunity for people listening who are in-house is, one, to know that this shift has occurred. It's not even occurring. The shift has occurred within many companies. And if in your organization, you're not operating in this kind of model that is… In this framework that is modeled after the customer journey, that is something to propose, that is something to continue to agitate for. And the customer journeys that you and your team are creating are that architecture for thinking through this and for organizing in this way. Jorge: Well, that's a great summary, I think. And, I think that those folks should reach out to you. Why don't you tell us where they can do that? Peter: Sure. I'm easy to find. My URL is petermerholz.com. That's my professional URL. I'm on Twitter at @peterme. Those are probably the two best places to find me. You can contact me through either means, through petermerholz.com or through @peterme, my DMs are open. So yeah, that's the easiest way to find me. Jorge: Great. And I believe the book has a website as well, right? Peter: Yes. The book has a website, orgdesignfordesignorgs.com, which also has with it a blog that we update in fits and starts. So, the book came out about three and a half years ago, and we've been blogging about ideas from the book, but as we've had new insights, new thinking, we've been blogging about those ideas. Improved, levels, frameworks, improved portfolio assessment tools, definitions of team leadership. As Kristen and I both do our work, and then teach a workshop based on this, we come up with things to write about. And so, the blog has all the most recent thinking when it comes to organizing your design organization. Jorge: Well, fantastic. I hope that folks visit the site and I'm sure they'll find valuable stuff there. Thank you, Peter, for being on the show. Peter: My pleasure. Thank you, Jorge, for having me.

Kristin Skinner and Peter Merholz, co-writers of Org Design for Design Orgs, are teaching a full day workshop at the DesignOps Summit this year. On this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, they discuss the career milestones that brought them to the realization that there was a book to be written about the challenges they faced when coordinating and managing across teams. What Peter’s reading: Uday Gajendar’s “Rise of the Meta Designer” in Interactions Magazine https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3338285 What’s inspiring Kristin lately: Scott Berkun’s work http://scottberkun.com More about the workshop: 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. In their full day workshop at the DesignOps Summit on October 25 in New York City, Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner will draw from their groundbreaking book Org Design for Design Orgs, and address this lacuna by shining a light on the unsung activities of actually running a design team, the organizational and operational challenges and considerations, and what works and what doesn’t.

In this twelfth episode of the Progression Podcast I'm chatting to Peter Merholz, co-founder of Adaptive Path, long time speaker and blogger on design scaling and co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs (2016). We get into the weeds on his back story, including learning how to write and speak confidently. We then got onto managing up, down and across, his book and the ethics of design (and a designers' role within it). Finally we got to some listener questions from various Slack channels that I hang out on. Peter's links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterme Peter's blog: https://www.peterme.com/ Org Design for Design Orgs (Amazon) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Org-Design-Orgs-Peter-Merholz/dp/1491938404 Coach, Diplomat, Advocate, Architect. Peter's talk at Leading Design: https://vimeo.com/243666544 Sponsor: Onfido

How do you help a team of creative professionals achieve their best results? Our guest today is Andy Vitale, the director of user experience at Polaris Industries. You'll learn how to manage and grow an in-house design team, bring new members up to speed, and optimize the UX process. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Polaris Industries — Andy's company Polaris UX Design Principles Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams — a book by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner Design Is a Job, You’re My Favorite Client — books by Mike Monteiro published by A Book Apart Andy's website Follow Andy on Twitter: @andyvitale Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io — a new tool for sending event-based email to your SaaS users. Overwhelmed with existing automation tools? Try this simple solution for converting free trials, user onboarding, and promoting specific features in your web application. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

“Many designers don’t realize the challenges their leader faces.” Peter Merholz is the VP of Design at Snagajob and co-author of “Org Design for Design Orgs”. He previously co-founded Adaptive Path, which is now part of the Capital One Design. In between all of this, Peter was also Funsize’s first client during his time at Groupon. It’s been a couple of years since Peter’s been on the Hustle Podcast and we’re really excited to have him back. On this episode, Anthony and Peter chat about designing design teams, Peter’s new talk “The Four Archetypes of The Complete Design Leader”, design job titles, why Product Management is the new User Experience, and more. More on Peter’s Four Archetypes of Design Leadership: As designers become design leaders, they need to leave behind what made them successful and embrace new approaches to their work. And when they realize just how much there is to do, it can feel overwhelming. In this talk, Peter draws upon 20 years of leading design teams to provide a memorable framework for understanding all aspects of the role. As a Coach, you manage down to get the most out of your team. The Diplomat manages across, developing relationships with functional peers. The Advocate manages up, championing their team's work to executives and other stakeholders. And the Architect figures out the tools and frameworks necessary to support the design organization as it scales. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest

In this Ferris Wheel episode, I speak with Peter Merholz, the co-founder of Adaptive Path. He talks about design leadership and the evolution of design. Design Leadership is growing in organizations that were once never aware of the role of design. This growth also triggers a lot of questions with respect to what it means […]The post How Design Leadership Is Creating Organizations of the Future? appeared first on .

In this Ferris Wheel episode, I speak with Peter Merholz, the co-founder of Adaptive Path. I deconstruct his thinking on user centered vs service design, get him to share his biggest learnings and more. The field of design has changed a lot in the last two decades. User centered design is no longer unorthodox. That […]The post Why Service Design Is The New Unorthodox? appeared first on .

Episode 6 with Peter Merholz by Aurelius

Planning isn't just a leadership skill. It's a superpower. And information architecture isn't just for websites. It's for org design.

Ben talks with John Norman about his process and modified approach to the delivery, payment, and tech of modern managed health care. They also touch on age bias in the programming world, living a purpose-driven life, and dealing with startup growth. Iora Health "The Hot Spotters"- Atul Gawande The Healing of America- T.R. Reid WellnessFX Agile Manifesto HIPAA Being Mortal- Atul Gawande "How to Scale a Development Team"- Adam Wiggins "The Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design"- Peter Merholz John on Twitter

Intercom co-founder Des Traynor talks to Peter Merholz, Senior Director of Design with Jawbone, previously VP of Global Design at Groupon and co-founder of design agency Adaptive Path.

Show Notes: 0:55 Rick is back from paternity leave. His new son is awesome. 1:11 Joining us on this episode is the Senior Director of Design at Jawbone, friend of Funsize, and a hugely inspirational designer, Mr. Peter Merholz. 1:30 Anthony chronicles Peter's background with the international consulting firm, Adaptive Path, which is perhaps best known for championing "User Experience." 1:50 Fun Peter Merholz facts: Peter hired Funsize while at Groupon and was Funsize's first client. Thanks, Peter! He also coined the term 'blog'. 3:44 Fun fact about the new Up4 from Jawbone is that it can do NFC payments! 4:00 The theme for this episode was conceived following Peter's blog post "There's no such thing as UX design." 5:20 Don Norman, credited with the coining the term User Experience in the early 90s, created the User Experience Architect's office at Apple. 6:25 Initially, Adaptive Path considered themselves a user experience consultancy because no one else was talking about user experience at the time. The term "design" was an avoided term because designers were not involved in product strategy, often reduced to pixel pushers and production workers. 8:40 "User experience is an outcome, not a practice." - Peter Merholz. There are many contributing factors to good or bad user experience, but design is only one part of the whole. 9:32 User experience designers were actually interaction designers, information architects, or other designers cloaking themselves with the phrase because it sounded good. 11:11 Picking apart the concept of the "User Experience Designer." A litmus test for the viability of the "User Experience Designer" career path: How would one grow as a UX designer? What's that path or evolution look like? 14:20 The thing that we call "User Experience design" may fit in two buckets: 1) Product Management & 2) Design Execution. 15:00 A historic lapse in balanced Product Management may have generated "User Experience Design." 17:00 Product designers began to create a set of user research & persona development practices in order to ensure product strategy would not forget to acknowledge the user. 18:20 Strategically-minded designers can lead products as well as strategically-minded engineers or business persons. 21:55 If we do call "User Experience Designer" a profession, it would be best compared to a film director. 25:00 Anyone who tells you they've figured out how the formula for the perfect product team is lying to you. 25:50 Peter eventually left consulting because he found the relationship they had with clients wasn't leveraging his agency enough impact on final products. Peter effortlessly flips the interview around on Funsize to discuss how we ensure impact with clients and products. 28:00 Funsize discusses our team structures and project pacing. 29:25 We share about a tactical program we run called Special Ops, in which designers may do work that can help steer the product in the direction we believe it should go. Special Ops often strengthens our impact within the client organization. 32:00 We discuss pairing design teams with clients and the importance spreading out designer's velocity across more than one project at a time. No designer works alone! 33:45 We talk about the problems with in-house designers at product companies and how to avoid driving designers insane. 35:00 Peter discusses tactical hiring decisions and team formation at Groupon, to which he gives credit for stronger impact of designers and decisions. 38:30 We recall our discussion with our friends at Adobe, where we learned that there's two designers to 60+ engineers at Photoshop. 39:00 Peter recalls hiring outside design support while at Groupon. 42:15 We note how, for consultancies, it's becoming just as important to help the people and companies you work with hiring internal teams as it is to help them with needed design work. 43:00 Design teams in an organization are very different from other types of teams, and they shouldn't be structured or managed as though they were just another flavor of engineer, lest you want frustrated designers. 45:45 We're excited to meet up at Front Conference in Utah, coming up this summer. ###Links: There's no such thing as UX design" by Peter Merholz Peter on Twitter Peter's Blog Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

In professional services firms, the experiences we create for our clients plays a huge role in our ability to satisfy them, generate the return on investment they are looking for, and ensure they stay loyal clients. Listen to this episode as Peter Merholz, author of "Subject to Change" and president of Adaptive Path, explains what service firms can do to deliver valuable experiences to clients. (Time 13:49)

UX Week 2008 kicked off with an on-stage conversation between the President and founder of Adaptive Path, Peter Merholz, and industry legend Don Norman. Don wrote the founding text on user-centered design, entitied, “The Design of Everyday Things”, and also coined the term “user-experience” while at Apple in the early 1990s. They talk about the importance of the semantic differences around common issues in business like ROI from a design perspective, the necessity to look beyond the “all mighty dollar,” the importance of being passionate about your ideas, and knowing ultimately all team members want to create great products and services for other people. Don shares his insights about the UX Week presentation given by Microsoft’s Jensen Harris around the usability of the Ribbon in the latest version of MS Office as well as the exciting future that lies ahead for all in the UX field.

UX Week 2008 kicked off with an on-stage conversation between the President and founder of Adaptive Path, Peter Merholz, and industry legend Don Norman. Don wrote the founding text on user-centered design, entitied, “The Design of Everyday Things”, and also coined the term “user-experience” while at Apple in the early 1990s. They talk about the importance of the semantic differences around common issues in business like ROI from a design perspective, the necessity to look beyond the “all mighty dollar,” the importance of being passionate about your ideas, and knowing ultimately all team members want to create great products and services for other people. Don shares his insights about the UX Week presentation given by Microsoft’s Jensen Harris around the usability of the Ribbon in the latest version of MS Office as well as the exciting future that lies ahead for all in the UX field.

Brandon Schauer, David Verba and Peter Merholz provide insights about how prosperous businesses can — and should — use customer experiences to inform and shape the product development process, from start to finish.

Peter and Jared Spool discuss how the best products never offer their users an incomplete feeling experience.

Peter Merholz chats with Don Norman, author and co-author of fourteen books, including the seminal The Design of Everyday Things, and his recently released The Design of Future Things, about what he thinks about user experience design today and what companies need to do to innovate.

Peter Merholz talks with Scott Griffith about the balance of user experience and business concerns in the design of Zipcar's unique customer experience.

This week, our good friend Peter Merholz joins us for the show. Peter is president of the noted experience strategy and design consultancy Adaptive Path. In our discussion, I asked Peter about mapping out a product's evolution. Launching a product is no simple task. Every new product falls on the spectrum somewhere between feature-complete, perfect execution and actually shipping with a pile of features on the cutting room floor. Realistically, most sway towards the latter. But that doesn't mean your products needs to feel unfinished.

Peter Merholz and Chip Conley talk about recession planning, service design, systematizing experience design (Joie de Vivre Hotels uses a tool called "experience report cards"), team dynamics, succession planning, and all manner of things.

Peter Merholz and Julie Peters talk about launching new Virgin brands in North America.

Changing working environments, complex business requirements, projects, and technologies are placing new demands on user experience designers. The site architectures, content inventories, wireframes, personas, and creative briefs that once formed the keystone of our user experience toolkit, only represent a portion of our responsibilities now. This panel will continue the skills discussion introduced by Liz Sanders in her participatory design workshop. We will examine the skills, methods, ideas, and approaches required for future user experience practitioners. Panelists will share their experience and discuss current and future challenges in building user experience groups and preparing future practitioners for success. Panel Members * Liz Sanders * Peter Merholz * Andrew Hinton * Kevin Brooks About Sarah B. Nelson Sarah B. Nelson is a design strategist for Adaptive Path. She has ten years of experience in interactive media, designing kiosks, mobile and online experiences for clients in a variety of industries. Sarah has a particular passion for practice development, conducting research into methods for improving collaboration, supporting creativity, and encouraging innovation. Sarah brings a unique blend of creative vision and technical expertise to her work. Her research-focused approach to interaction design has produced successful results for clients such as the Federal Home Loan Bank, Home Street Bank, AOL Mobile, The Metropolitan Opera, and The Royal Victorian and Albert Museum. Before joining Adaptive Path, Sarah managed the creative team and developed the user experience practice at POP, an interactive design firm in Seattle, Washington. A classically trained violinist, Sarah graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and received a B.A from Oberlin College in visual arts and electronic music. While completing her Masters at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Sarah focused her studies on the definition and design of complex multi-modal systems supporting collaboration and communication.

When his company, Adaptive Path, was engaged by a financial services firm to redesign their website that let customers perform retail banking transactions, Peter Merholz, Director of Practice Development, went into the homes of users asking them questions about their usage of the existing website, the kinds of reports they recieved, how they used their computer etc. Designers, according to Merholz, must broaden their peripheral vision to other domains outside their own. A website designer, by habit thinks like a website designer. The task of designing a print document would be quite new and challenging for such a person. However, if designers thought beyond their domains, they would get a better grip on the nuances of design in general and deliver a richer experience to users.

In this audio recording from January's UIE Web App Summit, Adaptive Path's Peter Merholz and UIE's Jared Spool lead an entertaining discussion about the magic behind the scenes at Web 2.0 star Flickr.

At the end of a fantastic day, our presenters, Peter Merholz, Maggie Fox, Mike Atyeo, and Derek Featherstone answer questions from workshop participants about their presentations. A big thanks to all of our presenters for a very engaging and educational day.