1. Late Night
Design Leadership Basics
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

2. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

3. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
How are you?
🥳 😁 😬 😕 😫 😷

4. Nicolò Volpato
Founder & CEO at Tangible
@nicolovolpato

5. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
A little about me…
• Published my first website 20 years ago
• Human sciences + UI/visual design + code
• Founded Tangible in 2004 while in college

6. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
A little about me…
• Deep dive into Design Leadership since 2014
• Steer company vision
• Build teams, hire people, manage growth
• Influence business decisions

7. I ❤ organizing events

8. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
I made these happen…
• Kerning Conference in 2013 and 2014
• Jeff Gothelf (Lean UX) in 2015 and 2016
• Jake Knapp (Design Sprint) in 2017 and 2018
• Make Meaningful Work in 2018
• Josh Clark (AI, ML, IoT, VUI) in 2019

9. Tangible is an experience
and service design company.
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

10. We design products and
services that engage
people in memorable
and meaningful
experiences, while
delivering business value
to our clients.

13. We manage complex projects for large organizations
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

14. We also lead some of Italy’s most promising startups to launch
their products and raise important investment rounds.
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

15. We are a team of thinkers and makers, designers,
researchers and front-end developers

17. Late Night
Design Leadership Basics
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

18. Design Leadership…
…what? why?
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

19. Seat at the table…
Now What?

20. Design Leadership…
or just plain leadership?
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

21. “Leadership is a process of social influence,
which maximizes the efforts of others, towards
achievement of a common goal.”
Kevin Kruse
“WHAT IS LEADERSHIP” — FORBES, 2013
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

22. “Business doesn’t
understand design”
1
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

23. Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/are-you-asking-enough-from-your-design-leaders
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

24. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
But… does design
understand business?
What can you do to
change it?

25. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
“Empathy is not just for users.”
Kendra Shimmell
DESIGN LEADERSHIP COACH – COOPER U

26. Do your f*ckin’ research!
• Interview stakeholders (one-to-one’s, groups,
units, etc.)
• Observe and listen
• Take notes during meetings
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

27. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
WHAT PAINS CAN WE HELP THEM SOLVE?
WHAT’S VALUABLE TO THEM?
THEIR WORK IS ABOUT…
Marketing Director B2C
Jane Doe
Stakeholder card

28. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Org chart

29. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Units

30. v
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Org chart + insights
• How is the company structured?
• How are units organized?
• Who reports to whom?
• What’s the quality of relationships?
• What are the needs, pains and goals of
people?

31. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Buy-in chart

32. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Low power
High power
Low interest High interest

33. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Low power
High power
Low interest High interest
Keep satisfied
Monitor and observe
(low effort)
Keep actively involved, on
board and up to date
(high effort)
Keep informed

34. Buy-in chart + insights
• Who’s the decider?
• Who influences the outcomes?
• Who do we need to keep involved? Informed?
• What’s the nature of their interest in the
project?
• What value can design deliver to any of them?
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

35. Bonus tip 🌟
• Company culture?
• Habits and beliefs?
• Fears and concerns?
• Hidden agendas?
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

36. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Ecosystem chart

37. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
World
Internal
stakeholders
External
stakeholders
COMPANY

38. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
COMPANY

39. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
COMPANY
Clusters

40. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
COMPANY
Relationships
BUY
SUPPLY

41. “The revenue model is the biggest design
decisions anyone makes”.
Kim Goodwin
LEADING DESIGN CONFERENCE – NYC 2019
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

42. Get to know the business
• How does the company work?
• How do they make money?
• What are the costs?
• How does the project impact revenues and costs?
• What do people in the company focus on?
What do they value?
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

43. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, 13 marzo 2020
• Take notes during meetings
• Read documents, reports, Profit & Loss
• Learn the jargon
• Make a Business Model Canvas to consolidate
observations
Get to know the business

44. Bonus tip 🌟
• Show that you care about their stuff
before expecting that they care about yours
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

45. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Sleep check

46. “Design is not at the table
when decisions are made”
2
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

47. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
But… does design enable
those decisions?
What can you do to
change it?

48. “Because the business doesn’t care about
design, the business doesn’t care about any
concept, a business only cares about market
outcomes. And in order to accelerate these
outcomes we use these practices”.
Phil Gilbert
GENERAL MANAGER OF DESIGN – IBM
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

49. v
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Build a case for design
• What’s the ROI of design?
It can be soft and hard, but it needs to be
hard too (numbers!) not just soft (happier
users are not enough)

50. v
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Build a case for design
• Be pragmatic and timely:
design can help anticipate and avoid a lot of
poor business decisions (research, prototypes,
sprints, etc.)

51. Value what the business
values
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, 13 marzo 2020
• Outcomes over outputs
• Results over deliverables
• Set goals and KPIs
• Measure!

52. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Translate metrics
Experience metrics
• Users can find support and
FAQs easily
• Users can complete
checkout in fewer steps
Business metrics
• Reduction of Customer
Service calls by X%
• X% increase in conversion
rate

53. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
Bonus tip 🌟
• Build correlation from design choices to
business outcomes
• Use the 5 Whys!

54. • Make process visible and accessible
• Find common ground and common language
• Create alignment of intent
• Share soon and often
Hold design accountable
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

55. Bonus tip 🌟
• Under-promise and over-deliver,
never the opposite
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

56. Bonus tip 🌟
• If you show up as a subordinate, they will
treat you as subordinate.
If you show up as a peer, maybe…
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020

57. Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020
“Management is a role.
Leadership is how you show up.”
Mia Blume
DESIGN LEADERSHIP COACH, CEO – DESIGN DEPT.

58. Thank you )
Nicolò Volpato
Founder & CEO
@nicolovolpato
nick@tangible.is
Talent Garden - Master UI
Late Night, March 13th, 2020