WORKSHOP SERIES
Design Leadership for Individual Contributors
Follow your own path to great design leadership
More and more makers seek to influence business outcomes without managing people. While company career ladders are beginning to support this path, the tools for non-manager leadership are rarely taught. Usually, individual contributors learn to wield influence through personal trial and error.
This design leadership series offers guidance to help you become a truly great design leader while following your own path as a senior creative. Assess your leadership skills and develop the tools you need for collaborating effectively with cross-functional partners, influencing senior managers, and supporting other creatives in the delivery of great craft.
Session details
Design Leadership Skill Wheel
Design leadership can take many forms. This creative leadership course explores the key areas of design management and leadership that are required for success. By understanding your potential, you can map out your current skills and make a practical, actionable plan for growth.
Designing Alliances
Being an excellent creative isn’t enough to guarantee impact. To be successful, you must shift your mindset from reactive problem-solving to proactive relationship-building. It begins with knowing yourself and clarifying your needs in a relationship. This design leadership course will teach you how to build effective alliances up, down, and across the organization.
Communication by Design
Giving feedback isn’t always easy or comfortable, especially when you’re not sure how to do it. This creative leadership workshop helps you first understand different types of feedback and then develop (and practice) the tools needed for delivering effective feedback to your team members, peers, and managers.
Leading by Influence
Great design leaders don’t wield influence like a hammer—they motivate people by eliciting desire and conviction to reach their shared goals. In this session, you’ll explore common currencies in organizations and learn how to communicate the value of design through the lens of business.
What you’ll learn
How do I define leadership if I’m not a manager?
Do I have to be a manager for impact?
How do I influence my manager?
How can I partner with cross-functional teams?
How can I influence the business roadmap and other key decisions?
How should I handle design critiques?
How can I help younger creatives level up their work?
Who’s it for
This workshop is for individual contributors. Creative functions include (but are not limited to):
Product design
Brand design
Content design/strategy
Research
Creative ops
Take a workshop
We offer this content and more in our live, remote workshops created by designers, for designers.
Team learning
Combine this content with other topics to create a learning series customized for your team.
