Summary
We’re on wave three of the great resignation. Job opportunities abound for designers of all stripes, and loyalty is at an all time low as we reassess our changing professional needs and ambitions in this new world. Liam Thurston leads a team of 55 designers and researchers at Loblaw Digital, building commerce, loyalty, and healthcare products for all Canadians. Thurston’s team weathered the great resignation with resilience and thrived in the face of change; it left them even stronger. In this talk, Thurston will teach you practical tools and processes for creating a Design Practice North Star, skills matrix, and an inclusive set of cultural rituals to build trust and create safety for your team, especially within a large organization. If you're looking to level up your leadership practice in order to acquire and retain incredible talent who generate outstanding outcomes, this talk is for you!
Key Insights
-
•
Retention in UX teams hinges on creating clear paths for mastery and career growth.
-
•
Soft skills like communication, courage, and influence are as critical as hard skills in career development.
-
•
Involving the entire team in co-creating purpose statements and skills matrices increases buy-in and relevance.
-
•
Operating a ‘North Star’ framework combining purpose, structure, and cultural rituals drives team alignment.
-
•
Aligning UX career frameworks with broader company mission and HR processes ensures consistency and scalability.
-
•
Testing and iterating skills frameworks with real team feedback prevents top-down imposition and increases adoption.
-
•
Tools like progression.fyi provide valuable industry frameworks that can be adapted locally.
-
•
Regular cultural rituals such as public recognition and rotating team showcases boost psychological safety and engagement.
-
•
Cross-functional relationships with product, engineering, and marketing are vital in measuring output and success.
-
•
Transparency around career progression and skill expectations reduces team uncertainty and turnover risk.
Notable Quotes
"Being incredibly intentional about how we spend our time is the purest manifestation of our values and our value."
"If your team sees a clear path of mastery in your organization, they’re much more likely to stay."
"Mastery is pretty achievable, whether you have 10,000 hours or not."
"The skills matrix became the center of gravity for our practice."
"Soft skills often act as a multiplier on your hard skills."
"We ran ambient workshops so people could participate on their own time without the friction of a long meeting."
"Cross-functional feedback is so important to align definitions of skills like critical thinking."
"Building cultural rituals and recognition routines is so much more than just handing out a skills matrix."
"When your team feels safe, secure, and sees their future on your team, they’ll stick around for a long time."
"Opening meetings with 15 minutes of props is my favorite time every two weeks."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"UX research needed to be a team sport involving all disciplines rather than the few learning on behalf of the many."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research (Videoconference)
December 3, 2020
"There are never truly conflicting futures between donors and communities—your job is to find the bridge that unites them."
Liz EbengoThe Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward
December 4, 2024
"I tell people to find inspiration from existing designs and bring those into your wireframes to look like real products."
Billy CarlsonTips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story
June 6, 2023
"Traditional UX tools like sticky notes are not accessible to everyone, including blind users or those with invisible disabilities."
Saara Kamppari-MillerInclusive Design is DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"Leadership does not mean standing in front of a room. It means mentoring, influencing, and helping others grow."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"Working across multiple teams all the time is normal for content designers, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best or the only way."
Jonathon ColmanHow to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
January 8, 2024
"Our users like their old house—they don’t necessarily want to learn something new, they want trust and familiarity."
Maria SkaadenContinuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave
November 8, 2018
"We are trying to do it ethically with this body of data that we have with the Austin cemeteries."
Bryce Benton[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
June 4, 2024
"Men in this report consistently report higher income than women, but don’t draw early conclusions — seniority levels and positions matter."
Marc FonteijnFirst Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report
December 4, 2024
