Summary
The final day of the conference highlighted the importance of centering human-centered design beyond customers to include team members and ourselves. Peter Marrahold emphasized that scaling design is ultimately about scaling humanism. Milestone presented a case study demonstrating how empathy across disciplines can transform organizations while navigating resistance and politics. My Bill shared practical methods for building and scaling design communities within traditional companies. To the Target delivered a poignant reminder about self-care, urging attendees to prioritize their well-being like putting on oxygen masks first. Word Caps discussed professional self-care to sustain growth. And Is Me reflected on non-linear career paths, encouraging designers to stay true to their passions rather than hierarchical advancement. Finally, Will wrapped up the day focusing on opportunities for designers to build equitable, resilient government services, underscoring the responsibility designers bear when impacting millions. The talks intertwined themes of empathy, community, self-care, career authenticity, and social impact.
Key Insights
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Design at scale is essentially humanism at scale, emphasizing people over processes.
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Empathy can bridge gaps across disciplines and reporting lines, enabling smoother organizational transformations.
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Building a design community in century-old companies requires practical, inclusive approaches to bring in diverse disciplines.
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Self-care is crucial for designers and teams, akin to putting on one’s own oxygen mask before helping others.
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Professional growth can follow non-linear, lateral paths rather than just vertical promotion.
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Navigating politics and resistance effectively is key during transformation initiatives.
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Sustainable design careers depend on staying true to personal passions and values.
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Designers have a significant responsibility when creating government services that affect millions.
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Equity and resilience are critical priorities for designing public sector systems post-pandemic.
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Human-centered design must extend inward to team dynamics, not solely customer outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"We all will be here today if we haven’t practiced human centered design for as long as we remember."
"Design at scale is humanism scale."
"Empathy across multiple disciplines and reporting lines can overcome reservations and mitigate politics during transformation."
"Building design communities in century-old companies requires bringing other disciplines into the fold."
"We need to put our oxygen masks on ourselves first before we put it on someone else."
"Sometimes growth is vertical, but we might take different paths and grow sideways and literally move."
"Staying true to yourself and what you really like doing is essential as your career grows."
"Designers can build government services that prioritize equity and resilience."
"The challenges we faced last year require us to take responsibility when designing systems for millions of people."
"Human-centered design and techniques can be used to look at ourselves and our own teams, not just customers."
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