Summary
Karen, a leader at MasterCard, shares her experience driving digital transformation by positioning design as a vital business competency. She explains how MasterCard is evolving from traditional plastic card payments to a device-based commerce ecosystem involving smartphones, wearables, and IoT devices, with a strong focus on security and seamless user experience. Karen highlights innovations such as biometric identity checks and payment-enabled fashion accessories and home devices. She stresses the importance of leadership alignment, cross-functional partnerships, and maintaining strong relationships across organizational silos to successfully launch complex enterprise projects. On the talent front, Karen advises authentic engagement with the design community, value alignment in hiring, and the need to build teams that exhibit intellectual curiosity and collaboration. She advocates for performance management as an integral part of the employee experience with continuous feedback, coaching, and development plans while addressing performance gaps respectfully and decisively. Throughout, Karen underscores that driving digital innovation in enterprises requires negotiation, influence, and clear communication of mission and progress to gain and sustain support.
Key Insights
-
•
MasterCard is shifting from plastic cards to a secure, device-based commerce platform embedding payments in wearables, IoT, and mobile devices.
-
•
Digital commerce requires rock-solid security including biometric authentication like 'selfie pay' to ensure consumer trust.
-
•
Success in enterprise innovation depends heavily on aligning leadership and cross-functional sponsors to a shared mission and agenda.
-
•
Building relationships beyond one's immediate team and boss is critical in dynamic, frequently reorganizing enterprises.
-
•
Understanding how your company makes money is essential for design leaders to influence business decisions effectively.
-
•
Authentic engagement with local design communities and sponsoring events are more effective hiring strategies than cold outreach.
-
•
Retention depends on cultural fit, intellectual curiosity, meaningful work, and clear demonstration of business impact from design efforts.
-
•
Performance management should be viewed as an ongoing employee experience, emphasizing continuous feedback, objective setting, and coaching.
-
•
Addressing performance gaps early with respect, clarity, and HR partnership prevents negative impacts on teams and individuals.
-
•
Earning a seat at the decision-making table requires demonstrating the value of customer experience insights toward driving business outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"The journey at MasterCard has been about articulating digital transformation and design as a business imperative."
"Consumers are clamoring to have payment capability embedded in all their devices, from phones to rings."
"You don’t just get a seat at the table, you earn it by championing good customer experiences and rallying teams."
"Hiring isn’t easy, but don’t spam LinkedIn; build authentic conversations and engagement with your design community."
"How many people here actually know how their company makes money? 100% of us should understand that."
"Performance management is really the employee experience, not just a yearly review process."
"If you wait too long to address performance problems, it really hurts the rest of the team and the employee."
"In large enterprises, you have to get your minimum viable product out early and then build it up over time."
"Inviting lawyers and compliance teams to usability testing quickly changes the conversation around what’s possible."
"Leadership alignment is the first layer of the cake; without it, you have to negotiate and influence heavily."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"We scaled panels down to about 60 countries in 11 languages focusing on markets important to Airbnb teams."
Wyatt HaymanGlobal Research Panels (Videoconference)
August 8, 2020
"We have a Spectrum Guild that includes product designers and managers from every business unit to surface major changes and requests."
PJ Buddhari Nate BaldwinMeet Spectrum, Adobe’s Design System
June 9, 2021
"We used a Wizard of Oz smoke-and-mirrors prototype to get quick buy-in from Detroit stakeholders around early childhood education access."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"Sometimes the director is the most senior design person in the org and ends up playing the executive role without the title or support."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"More inclusive teams are more productive and effective, especially women-led teams that inspire community."
Dr. Jamika D. Burge Mansi GuptaAdvancing the Inclusion of Womxn in Research Practices (Videoconference)
September 15, 2022
"Product principles are minimal but help us say, oh, this is meeting that or not meeting that."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"The Pokémon anime was essentially a game manual, walking players through the journey with emotional stakes."
Dane DeSutter Natalie Gedeon Deborah Hendersen Cheryl PlatzBeyond the Console: The rise of the Gamer Experience and how gaming will impact UX Research across industries (Videoconference)
May 17, 2024
"A kickback is a free flowing and life giving gathering that transforms and electrifies throughout the night."
Zariah CameronReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace
September 23, 2024
"Having ADHD is like having a race car engine for a brain but with the brakes of a bicycle."
Jessica NorrisADHD: A DesignOps Superpower
September 9, 2022
