Leadership By Design 2018

Any seasoned designer or PM knows the importance of context: users, goals, environments, and business needs all shape the “best” solution to a given problem. And yet, designers and leaders frequently assume that a process, skill set, or attitude that worked in one place is the one right answer. Kim will discuss:

What characteristics of organizations demand different things from leaders
How to assess your leadership effectiveness within a given context
How to find your own context/leader fit

There’s no one like you on this planet, so why have a career like anyone else? Traditional career paths, like fitting into a one-size-fits-all job description and letting higher-ups determine our success, don’t work for everyone. What if there was a new path that was paved just for you? Let’s ditch the separation of work/life and embrace a new life where you get paid to be yourself! Champion your unique personality, strengths, and values to grow your life and career!

During this fun and interactive talk, we’ll cut deep into your squishy core and find what makes you, you! Grab your metaphorical lantern and head into the depths of your true self as we create an actionable plan for your future life and career as a leader.

This talk will help you identify the qualities that make you unique and translate them to a career only you can have. Meg will coach you through defining a life’s purpose that will drive your career and life decisions. At the end, she’ll guide you through creating team and relationship guidelines that help fulfill your purpose and advance your career. You’ll leave feeling confident and excited knowing your team needs your unique abilities.

Leading design in a large organization is more than just “doing design with more people.” Anyone who tells you otherwise has yet to spend their time untangling a myriad of non-design-related issues so that design work can get done. Huge teams, competing priorities, personal agendas, and outdated methodologies can make innovation seem impossible, and can discourage even the most optimistic practitioners.

Some planning, some data, and a whole lot of patience will help you develop strong relationships with your product, marketing, and technology partners, create advocates across the organization, and communicate the value your team brings to the organization. If only that were all there is to the job!

Yes, design leader, it’s entirely possible to inspire teams, drive change, and create meaningful digital experiences in an enterprise environment. It’s not always easy, and there’s no single path to success–let’s start with what I’ve learned to point you in the right direction.

Music is magical–it can make us move, it can move us, it can make us forget everything for a moment, and it can make us remember things we thought we’d forgotten forever. There’s even more magic that happens when a DJ gets in the zone and makes you experience all of that for a long period of time.

How does it happen That thing where you were singing and dancing along to something familiar one moment and the next you’re experiencing something completely different—yet similar—and you’re not sure when it happened.

I do that, and I can promise you, it’s all by design. It takes a deep knowledge of and appreciation for music, a passion for helping others experience something great for them and created by you, and it takes precision timing and skill to keep everything going. We’ll hear and see some live DJ action, and then I’ll slow it all down and we’ll deconstruct it so you can learn all that happens when the music beat goes on and the DJs appear to be switching to glide.

Have you ever wondered how an artist makes a living–not just the ones with galleries, the other ones that you see when you go to conventions, or peruse Etsy for unique items to add to your collection of whatever-it-is-you-collect? Have you ever thought about taking a passion project and making it less about passion and more real?

This is what I do! I create art, using chalk (yes, that chalk), and you’ll see me creating it live at any number of fan conventions, and then I turn it into something you’d be proud to frame and hang on your wall! It’s a lot of fun–and a lot of work–to make this type of thing work. For some it’s a hobby, for some it’s a full time job. For me, it’s taking an idea and turning it into art, and finding ways to make art make money.

Have you ever wondered if you could be the boss? Not just the manager, or the design leader, but someone who is ultimately responsible for decisions that shape the success or failure of your company? I’m going to tell you about my journey to become the boss, and share the lessons I’ve learned about accepting risk, finding value, creating worth, and seeing benefit in the design field.

Something tells me that this is the type of thing that gets easier the second time, but, to me, there were no do-overs in this adventure. It involved going all-in and gambling without a safety net. Along the way, I’ve found myself pondering a second mortgage to keep the lights on, losing employees and clients at the worst times, riding project highs followed by periods of drought, and somehow constantly running out of bourbon.

And this was exactly what I had been looking for. Maybe it’s what you’re looking for too, so I’ve got some stories for you.

Despite widespread praise for experimentation and play, “mess” still remains an insult in business books and home design blogs alike. Inheriting an organizational mess means taking on someone else’s disorder, clutter, and ongoing difficulties. Who would thank a predecessor for bequeathing them that?

You, that’s who. In this talk, I’ll argue for embracing mess as a powerful tool in organizational (re)design. As well, I’ll walk through some some principles and practices for putting mess to work without letting it take over.