This document provides an overview of a talk on design leadership given by Anderson Gomes. The talk focused on helping design leaders become more conscientious, confident, and prepared. It discusses the current state of UX design, strategies for growing as a design leader, and skills needed to successfully manage teams as a design leader. The talk emphasizes developing a design purpose and strategy, managing both design craft and business operations, learning from other domains, and maintaining an empathetic and user-centric approach as a leader.

1. Uncharted
waters
of Design Leadership
UXDX 2023 - Dublin - by Anderson Gomes

2. Randomly born in Brazil - Rio de Janeiro in 1986
Raised by fantastic parents in scarcity environment
Married with Talita, best wedding party of 2023
Free earthling that likes to sail boats near tropical islands
Living below sea level for 2 years, Amsterdam
Hates bureaucracy and having bad experiences as a customer
Anderson Gomes

3. Head of design at Bol (2023)
Director of product operations at Hotmart (2022)
Head of design at Youse (2017)
Head of design at ContaAzul (2015)
Head of design at Hotmart (2020)
Anderson Gomes
Started talking
about design leadership

4. MY PURPOSE
Help design leaders to be more Conscient,
Confident,
& Prepared.

5. Conscient
About the current situation of design.

6. Ux is easy,
right?

7. Yes!
We do interfaces!

8. Interface is anything between faces.
Yes!
We do interfaces!

9. Designers are
Treasure
Hunters.
Discover clues to find the treasure.
(product market fit)

10. The Designer's Purpose
Is it Desirable?
Is it Useful?
Is it Easy to use?
Is it Worthwhile?
Is it Honest?
Is it Trustworthy?
MORE HUMAN
Emotions & perceptions

11. The Designer's Pitch
Is it Desirable?
Is it Useful?
Is it Easy to use?
Is it Worthwhile?
Is it Honest?
Is it Trustworthy?
IF MORE HUMAN
Emotions & perceptions
More Trust from customers (Better Conversion)
More Loyalty from customers (Better Lifetime Value)
More Recommendations from customers (Better NPS)
More Average Ticket by customers (Better Cross-sell)
Less Risky on launch
THAN IT'S BETTER TO BUSINESS
Profitable & solid

12. Confident
About how to grow as a design leader.

13. You finally
became an
Unicorn

14. You got an opportunity,
and will finally be a Lead / Manager/ Head / Principal / Staff.
Accidental leader - by Andy Budd
Some people will "work for you" 😂
You will finally do what you want 😂
Business will understand 😂
You will work much less 😂

15. You got promoted,
and will finally represent the design purpose.

16. If you don't have a strategy,
you are part of someone else's strategy.
- Alvin Toffler
“

17. Define
or be defined.

18. Leadership is
visceral.
The higher you go, the thinner the air.
Less mentorship about next steps.
More tough & lonely decisions.
Hard things about hard things.

19. Prepared
To be a good leader in the business

20. Manage people
is a Career change
Not a promotion

21. Design
Skills
Facilitate
R
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
Prototype
Design
Tools
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
A
r
c
h
i
t
e
c
t
u
r
e
Customer
Journeys
Design strategy
Lean Ux
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
d
i
s
c
o
v
e
r
y
V
i
s
u
a
l
D
e
s
i
g
n
UX
writing
Design
Metrics
Management
Skills
Business
metrics
A
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Company
goals
Budget
H
i
r
i
n
g
Career
Evaluation
& feedbacks
Training
& mentoring
T
e
a
m
r
o
u
t
i
n
e
s
T
o
u
g
h
t
r
a
d
e
o
f
f
s
Negotiations
&
Priorities
Financial
reports

22. What great leaders have in common?
Cause & Purpose
Followers
Antagonists
Braveness & fear
Flaws & imperfections

23. MANAGING
Inspire and influence a movement to change things
LEADING
Keep things stable, predictable and under control.

24. Management Leadership
Business
metrics
A
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Company
goals
Budget
H
i
r
i
n
g
Career
Evaluation
& feedbacks
Training
& mentoring
T
e
a
m
r
o
u
t
i
n
e
s
C
h
a
n
g
e
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
Negotiations
&
Priorities
Financial
reports
Mentoring
F
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
o
n
Inspiring
Negotiation
B
r
a
v
e
n
e
s
s
Posture
Solving
conflicts
Emotional
intelligence
M
a
k
e
t
o
g
e
t
h
e
r
D
i
p
l
o
m
a
c
y
Tough
decisions
Open
space

25. nagement
Design Craft
Operations
Business
metrics
A
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Company
goals
Budget
H
i
r
i
n
g
Career
Evaluation
& feedbacks
Automation
of design
D
e
s
i
g
n
v
i
s
i
o
n
Design
outputs
Design
Processes
T
e
a
m
E
ffi
c
i
e
n
c
y
Design
debit
Design
methods
Docs
& Handoffs
T
e
a
m
s
c
o
l
l
a
b
o
r
a
t
i
o
n
C
u
s
t
o
m
e
r
i
n
s
i
g
h
t
s
Design
onboarding
Design
outcomes
Leaders
Inspiring
Solving
conflicts
Emotional
intelligence
M
a
k
e
t
o
g
e
t
h
e
r
D
i
p
l
o
m
a
c
y
Tough
decisions
Open
space

26. Yourself Around Across Beyond
Start
by yourself.
How you lead your own life?
How you re-energize yourself?
How dependent you are of you job?
Your personal life conditions defines how bold you will be as a leader.

27. Be Sapiens.
"Don't let university get in the way of your studies." - Sawada
Don't be limited by what you graduated with.
Humanity evolved through adaptation and imagination.
Design is just one skill of your belt.

28. Learn
Make a mental break from your old role.
Read other books
Go to other events
Get other mentors
Have other alliances
Learn, earn, return.

29. Earn
Earn the respect by attitudes.
High ownership of something specific
Trust your team to be trusted by them
Team building & camaraderie
Early wins (lead indicators)
Move needles (lag indicators)
Learn, earn, return.

30. Return
Remember your origin
Stick to your purpose (UCD)
Share your learnings
Show fragilities
Mind your gaps
Be supportive
Learn, earn, return.

31. Empathy Experiment Facilitate Scalable Clear
Immersive user
centricity (get out
of the building)
Learn fast with
iterative process
Facilitation to
collaboration
Scalable product
solutions
Easy message
with storytelling
Design principles
as differentiation factors.

32. Avoid
Emotional data
Human bias and causality.
We use data to validate our emotional conclusions.

33. Do NOT defend design for the sake of design,
defend users.

34. From design books to leadership books
Design books Leadership books

36. Google Sheet Templates
Need a kickoff ?
en.Leadership.tools
10% discount code: "UXDX"

37. Fantastic illustrator ❤
Many thanks to
Debora dias

38. Look below your chair
Surprises for Treasure Hunters :)

39. THANKS!
Hope you enjoyed :)
- Anderson Gomes da Silva