Summary
How do you keep human needs balanced with those of a business, especially when the business is the largest power and gas company in the country? Gretchen Anderson is the Head of Design at PG&E, and she talks about how she's scaling what she's learned across an enterprise-level organization.
Key Insights
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In utilities like PG&E, delivery failure is catastrophic, so design must prioritize reliability over speed.
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Enterprise organizations have varied ideas of what constitutes 'good enough,' complicating design consensus.
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Pair design, involving peers from different roles, accelerates idea iteration and reduces designer blind spots.
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Designers often feel paranoid and undervalued in large organizations, stemming from isolation and lack of invitation to decision making.
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Leading through making—creating tangible artifacts like storyboards and prototypes—helps designers invite themselves to the table.
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Design operations teams act like lawyers for the design system, helping teams adapt and flex guardrails effectively.
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Fostering authentic, facilitated relationships within the organization combats designer paranoia and increases influence.
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Designers must balance fighting for the best user experience with pragmatic business considerations and appropriate UX debt.
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Workshopping and informal team activities like running build community and humanize designers within corporate culture.
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Human-centered design applies not only to end users but also to the experiences people have working with the design team.
Notable Quotes
"Silicon Valley feels fast, but when the grid goes down, it can be catastrophic."
"That kind of feature would never have made it to the top of anyone's backlog without design."
"The enterprise really likes this A to B to C situation, but breaking that open can be a real challenge."
"Designers can be really paranoid and very precious."
"Pair design is about two people as peers, different perspectives getting to a great place."
"Leading through making is how I invite myself to the table by supplying things, storyboards, prototypes."
"No wiki in the world is as good as somebody who can tell you how to bend the rules a little bit."
"You are not the union boss for the user; your responsibility is balancing what debt is appropriate at any time."
"Workshops are not just about sticky notes, they are about people interacting and relating to designers."
"Human-centered design is not just about your end users; it’s about the humans in your team too."
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