UX/Design Leadership Demystified with Peter Merholz — Seattle
May 21, 2025 / 10am-3pm PT
Totally rewritten for 2025, Peter Merholz offers his UX/Design Leadership Demystified masterclass.
While to be a great UX/design practitioner is to be a remarkable craftsperson and problem-solver, to be a great leader shifts the focus on relationships, communication, and business-savvy.
In this masterclass, Peter will reveal key leadership strategies, activities, and mindsets that will enable you to better advocate for UX/Design in your organization. In addition, you'll connect with other design leaders, both in the class, and afterwards at the UX Leadership Exchange which follows.
All attendees receive:
• Handout of slides for notetaking
• PDF of full-page slides
• PDF of all Leadership tools discussed in the class
• Additional resources for further study
• 🥪 Lunch! 🥗
• Invitation to Blink UX's "UX Leadership Exchange" taking place 4pm-6pm (details at the bottom of the page)
While to be a great UX/design practitioner is to be a remarkable craftsperson and problem-solver, to be a great leader shifts the focus on relationships, communication, and business-savvy.
In this masterclass, Peter will reveal key leadership strategies, activities, and mindsets that will enable you to better advocate for UX/Design in your organization. In addition, you'll connect with other design leaders, both in the class, and afterwards at the UX Leadership Exchange which follows.
All attendees receive:
• Handout of slides for notetaking
• PDF of full-page slides
• PDF of all Leadership tools discussed in the class
• Additional resources for further study
• 🥪 Lunch! 🥗
• Invitation to Blink UX's "UX Leadership Exchange" taking place 4pm-6pm (details at the bottom of the page)
Limit of 25, so don't wait!
PRICE
$349
Location
Blink UX Headquarters
1011 Western Ave Suite 600
Seattle, WA
1011 Western Ave Suite 600
Seattle, WA
Date & Time
10am-3pm
May 21, 2025
May 21, 2025
Questions? Contact Peter.
Masterclass Overview
Understand Context
Before taking action, it's imperative that you take stock of the environment in which you find yourself.
In this section, we'll discuss understanding business mechanics, stakeholder motivations, and organizational design maturity.
In this section, we'll discuss understanding business mechanics, stakeholder motivations, and organizational design maturity.
Develop an Agenda
Too often, design leaders skip this step, and simply react to what comes at them. By taking the time to craft an explicit agenda, you provide yourself a foundation for subsequent action and decision-making.
Mediate The Membrane
Design leaders work at an uncomfortable boundary between creative and corporate value systems. How you handle operating at this interface is key.
Explicitly Define Quality
For a design organization, nothing is more important than the quality of the work it produces. However, most design orgs assessment of quality is "I know it when I see it." By clearly establishing quality standards, not only do design leaders help their teams better understand what's expected of them, they also have more productive conversations with cross-functional peers when making decisions about whether something is ready to ship.
Cultivate Trusting Relationships
Leadership requires building trust with all those whom you engage. We'll use these relationship archetypes to unpack the various interactions you'll have, in order to get the most out of each.
- Coach (managing down, getting the most out of the team you are leading)
- Diplomat (managing cross-functional peers; ensuring design’s voice in the process)
- Champion (managing up; handling executives and stakeholders)
- Coach (managing down, getting the most out of the team you are leading)
- Diplomat (managing cross-functional peers; ensuring design’s voice in the process)
- Champion (managing up; handling executives and stakeholders)
Evolve in Your Career
As you advance in your UX/design leadership career, the responsibilities change drastically. Peter will provide a map to orient you on where you should apply focus, and how to delegate the activities that you need to leave behind.
Maintain Resilience
Every design leader faces resistance as they try to introduce new ways of working that will improve outcomes for users. This resistance builds up, and can prove demotivating for even the strongest people. We end our time together by identified how you can maintain resilience.
Bonus! Leadership Panel to Follow
UX Leadership Exchange hosted by Blink UX
A separate event UX leadership event is happening from 4pm to 6pm in the same place.
Blink UX is hosting their UX Leadership Exchange, an exclusive event for UX design, research, and product leaders.
This event will feature a panel discussion on the critical topics shaping the future of user experience including:
UX trends that will shape 2025
Blink UX is hosting their UX Leadership Exchange, an exclusive event for UX design, research, and product leaders.
This event will feature a panel discussion on the critical topics shaping the future of user experience including:
UX trends that will shape 2025
- How AI and emerging technologies will transform product experiences
- UX leadership in times of uncertainty and innovation
- Cross-functional leadership and influence
- And more!
Speakers:
- Kat Dellinger - Director of Design Strategy, Systems & Operations, Devices & Services Design Group, Amazon
- Kayla Hill - Research Manager, LinkedIn
- Gaelle Thurau - Senior Director of AI at Work Product Marketing, Microsoft
.... and me, Peter Merholz
Join Peter on
May 21
May 21