Peter Merholz

" Design roles are blurring or dead; super senior individual contributor roles are emerging as a new career path. "

" If we are truly going to create customer-centric organizations, every single person needs firsthand exposure to customers. "

" Research teams are spread way too thin and forced into evaluative research, missing out on impactful idea-sparking research. "

" Down the road, giving designers room to cross-train across disciplines creates happier, more versatile teams. "

" Design impact doesn’t exist separate from the work with others – it’s part of the initiative's success. "

" We can’t just rely on managers to do everything for career growth because managers change too often. "

" Team leads manage down by coaching their teams, manage across by diplomacy, and manage up by protecting their teams from executive distractions. "

" Designers embedded in teams often feel lonely and their work leads to fractured user experiences. "