Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

An Education on Design Education for Orgs

Gold
Thursday, June 10, 2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Share the love for this talk
An Education on Design Education for Orgs
Speakers: Wendy Johansson
Link:

Summary

We're always looking to create a high level of design literacy across our organizations, but how do this in a way that creates its own momentum? Wendy Johansson, global product experience leader at Amazon, will share her tried and true methods in scaling design education within orgs of all sizes as a means of scaling design.

Key Insights

  • Scaling design requires educating not only designers but also cross-functional teams with different mental models such as engineering, marketing, and HR.

  • Executive sponsorship is crucial for funding and legitimizing design education initiatives, but grassroots efforts are needed to reach the broader organization.

  • A large organizational gap often exists in the middle layers, where design has impact but lacks influence, which can be addressed using service design blueprints.

  • Design education maturity progresses through survival (proving relevance), defending value (demonstrating ROI), and operationalization (democratizing and embedding design).

  • Cohort-based design communities enable sustained, peer-supported learning and advocacy across different departments and design maturity levels.

  • Turning design generalists into specialists requires understanding individual skills and motivations rather than assigning fixed roles prematurely.

  • Integrating design education into existing organizational learning programs, such as onboarding or management training, helps scale design fluency efficiently.

  • Design teams touching all parts of an organization, including unexpected areas like catering, reveal opportunities to embed design thinking widely.

  • Building confidence in non-designers comes from giving them hands-on practice opportunities paired with leadership recognition and encouragement.

  • Design education is a form of inclusion that ungatekeeps creativity and aligns everyone towards shared customer-centric goals.

Notable Quotes

"If you’re human, you’re creative."

"Everyone in proximity of design has a creative opinion."

"Design education is ungatekeeping design – it’s inclusion, bringing everyone along the journey."

"We have the same goal in mind – to give the customer the best experience – but we use different tools and languages."

"One by one education efforts don’t scale; you need to think bigger organizationally."

"Service design blueprints help visualize gaps where design has impact but not influence."

"Turning generalists into specialists starts by understanding what they’re good at and what motivates them."

"Design is finally where it can shine — solving human problems beyond just product design."

"Treat each cross-functional group as a cohort to help them learn and experience design together."

"Everyone’s a designer, and embracing that is key to design education at scale."

Ask the Rosenbot
Prayag Narula
Empowering Designers to do Good Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Angy Peterson
More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Erin Malone
Understanding the past to prepare for the future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Shazia Ali
Communication: Innovative techniques for making your voice heard [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Jonathan Fairman
Integrating generative AI into enterprise products: A case study from dscout
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Vicky Teinaki
Short Take #3: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Nova Wehman-Brown
We've Never Done This Before
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
John Donmoyer
Shipping your code generation experiments to production
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Merging Improv with Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Tim Frick
The journey of building a sustainable design practice
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Catt Small
Moving from Execution to Strategy as a Designer
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Steve Portigal
War Stories LIVE! Steve Portigal
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Patrizia Bertini
Designing Within the Lines: How the EU AI Act Can Spark Better AI Innovation
2025 • DesignOps Community
Nicole Aleong
What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Kelly Goto
Emotion Economy: Ethnography as Corporate Strategy
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold

More Videos

Joanna Vodopivec

"Bringing stakeholders into the kitchen early helped us learn even before sessions started and adjust designs accordingly."

Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas Pokharel

One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority

March 9, 2022

Louis Rosenfeld

"My husband told me to Pace and Brace—I was pushing too hard and burnt out within a year and a half."

Louis Rosenfeld Lashanda Hodge Senongo Akpem Chris Hodowanec

Becoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector

November 17, 2022

Bria Alexander

"No need to take notes — session notes, sketch notes, resources, videos and decks will be shared after presentations."

Bria Alexander

Day 3 Welcome

September 25, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"Please take advantage of this opportunity to share, ask questions, and learn together even if you are the most introverted person."

Uday Gajendar Louis Rosenfeld

Day 2 Welcome

June 5, 2024

Sam Proulx

"We often say don’t make me think. When that’s not possible, reuse and recycle those learnings."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

June 7, 2023

Russ Unger

"Unpaid design exercises are unfair because they don’t take into account people's real-life constraints."

Russ Unger

Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought

November 7, 2017

Catherine Dubut

"The constraints in enterprise pushed us to focus more on an employee-centered approach for product decisions."

Catherine Dubut

Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design

March 18, 2021

Josh Clark

"Characters live at the extreme of radically adaptive AI—they react in the moment and follow the user’s lead."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)

January 29, 2025

Dantley Davis

"You need to ask, who are you excluding in the conversation? That’s the disservice to empathy."

Dantley Davis

Leadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis

September 17, 2020