Podcast: Decentralizing Power through Design with Sahibzada Mayed and Lauren Lin
Lauren and Mayed’s partnership began with conversations and exploration about what they could do to shift power dynamics and create more cohesive and engaging designs for all. The biggest hindrance, say Lauren and Mayed, is power hierarchies. Design leaders need to critically think about social identities, institutional positions, and other complexities and dimensions. How power shows up in our practices is always shifting and changing, and decentralizing power has to be an ongoing and emergent process.
And it all starts with ideas and conversations. Mayed and Lauren have found that speculative design is a powerful way to reflect on the “now” and dream about what the future could look like. All real-world shifts begin with ideas, relationships, and conversations. These elements are at the heart of design.
What you’ll learn from this episode of The Rosenfeld Review podcast:
- About Lauren and Mayed’s backgrounds
- How their partnership came about
- About their talk titled “Cultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and Collaboration” that they will deliver at October’s DesignOps Summit
- About power hierarchies in design and what design leaders can do to help decentralize power
- About the role and potential of speculative design
See these speakers at the DesignOps Summit 2023
Sahibzada Mayed and Lauren Lin will be speakers at the upcoming DesignOps Summit on October 2-4, 2023. Their talk, “Cultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and Collaboration,” will showcase the intersection of care-centeredness and design operations.
About Lauren Lin
Lauren has wanted to be a designer since she was in third grade. What kind of designer? An “everything” designer! From a young age, she embraced the idea that “you can design anything” from fashion to environments to moods and feelings. Today she employs ethical research practices and co-design to shift power and amplify youth voices, design toys, and bring play into her work at Ideo Play Lab.
About Sahibzada Mayed
Mayed has a social service and social impact background. Through a community-oriented storytelling approach, they co-lead strategy and research at Cause and Affect, a relational design consultancy in Canada.
Last Minute Pricing for the DesignOps Summit 2023 begins September 13
Have you registered for the DesignOps Summit yet?
With 18 star-studded sessions, 6 expert-led workshops, and a unique virtual networking opportunity for all…this is an event you won’t want to miss.
Perhaps you want to learn about AI and its impact on DesignOps, or maybe how to have a more Inclusive design practice, and stronger DEI initiatives. Or maybe you’re looking to learn about the latest trends and changes in tech or listen to stories on career advancement in UX.
Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll find it here.
If you register before September 13, you could save up to $200 on tickets.
Meet Billy Carlson, Design Educator, at Balsamiq
We are lucky to have so many wonderful sponsors of this year’s DesignOps Summit–and we thought you might like to get to know them better! We’ve asked Billy some questions that get to the heart of why they’re passionate about DesignOps, what it’s like to work at Balsamiq, and what makes their products and services special to DesignOps professionals.
Rosenfeld Media: Why are you sponsoring this year’s DesignOps Summit?
Billy Carlson: We know DesignOps can improve how teams work together so that they can create consistent, quality, design.
We’re committed to helping companies of all sizes do their best, most efficient design work by providing a wireframing tool that is fast, easy to use, and accessible to everyone. DesignOps teams often tell us how helpful Balsamiq is in improving their processes and collaboration.
As scholarship sponsors, we’re excited to make this conference accessible to more people who may not otherwise have access.
Rosenfeld Media: What excites you about design operations?
Billy Carlson: When scaling a product, the increased number of stakeholders and moving parts means clarification and collaboration are essential steps in the design process.
Our unwavering focus on low-fidelity wireframing makes it impossible to waste time fiddling with details and lets all stakeholders quickly align and build a cohesive product.
Rosenfeld Media: What types of value and benefits do you/your product bring to the practice and our community?
Billy Carlson: Balsamiq lets anyone create wireframes quickly and easily without complex tools or design knowledge. The drag-and-drop intuitive interface and pre-built UI components make it easy to share and iterate on your ideas—whether it’s a website or an app.
Balsamiq lets teams collaborate, share feedback, make changes, and ensure everyone is on the same page. Plus, with clear visuals, you’ll know you’re working towards a common goal.
Tens of thousands of customers in dozens of countries use Balsamiq to transform the way they create exceptional products. Learn more at www.balsamiq.com.
Rosenfeld Media: What else should our community know about you?
Billy Carlson: You know how to use Balsamiq before you even start. And for those looking to learn more, Balsamiq offers educational resources (Balsamiq Wireframing Academy), tutorials, documentation, and a supportive community.
We also wrote a book! It’s called Wireframing for Everyone, and is a quick read that will help anyone on a UX team streamline their workflow, improve stakeholder communication, and design more creatively. Order your copy today!
View Balsamiq’s sponsor page for their scheduled sponsor activity sessions and more.
Podcast: A Proactive Approach to Inclusive Design featuring Zariah Cameron
Tune into this week’s episode on The Rosenfeld Review podcast featuring Zariah Cameron, who will be speaking at the DesignOps Summit in October. Zariah Cameron is Co-Director of Community + Research and the founder of AEI – Advocate, Educate, Innovate Black Design.
Many companies and corporations have good intentions when it comes to inclusive design. But too often that’s where things both start and stop. Zariah helps companies operationalize their inclusive design principles and ideals by looking at design from all angles and instilling effective processes.
When exploring ideals of equity and inclusivity, many confuse inclusivity with accessibility. Accessibility is a fine place to start, but it’s just the beginning. Accessibility tends to be passive while inclusivity is active. Inclusive design proactively seeks out the marginalized, the underserved, and minority groups. It doesn’t make assumptions but seeks input, feedback, and follow-through.
For many companies, the most effective way to pursue inclusive design is to work with grassroots organizations. Partnering with such organizations provides corporations access to a diverse pool of participants. It’s a process of co-creation and involves a long-haul-relationship mentality.
Zariah mentions a variety of organizations that design teams could partner with to access diverse talent:
- Creative Reaction Lab
- Pause and Effect
- Aroko Cooperative – seeking equity, liberation, community healing, and ecocentricy
Be sure to join us in October for Zariah’s session: Streamlining an Inclusive Design Practice
Podcast: Bringing Voices to the Table for DesignOps featuring Jay Bustamante
This episode on The Rosenfeld Review podcast, we were lucky to feature one of our very own speakers from the DesignOps Summit: Jay Bustamante.
Jay has always been about conserving time and resources by building tight processes to create efficiencies in his life and work. In all the jobs and positions he’s held, he would notice gaps, consult with stakeholders, find solutions, and fill those gaps. Eventually he learned there is a name for this type of work: DesignOps. Today Jay is a DesignOps leader and an experienced strategist at VMware.
When it comes to streamlining and building efficiencies, AI seems like a no-brainer, right? Not so fast. AI brings big expectations and can result in a lot of frustration if proper groundwork isn’t laid. DesignOps teams that proactively facilitate collaboration between engineers, business teams, end users, and other stakeholders can save time, money, and greatly increase the likelihood of a successful product that will reflect the company’s values.
In this episode, Jay and Lou explore the following concerning AI:
- Good data makes all the difference
- Why AI can easily reinforce existing biases
- Why case studies and knowing the most impactful need are crucial
- Setting proper expectations
- Why Design’s role is to slow things down and to make sure that the right people are invited to the conversation, that the right questions are asked, and that all voices are heard early in the process.
And don’t forget to check out Jay’s session at the DesignOps Summit: Navigating the Ethical Frontier: DesignOps Strategies for Responsible AI Innovation
Apply for a Scholarship
The DesignOps Summit 2023 is offering full scholarships to attend the virtual conference: 100% off the current ticket price, less a US$20 “hold my place” fee (paid when registering). This scholarship provides full viewing access to the conference livestream as well as participation in all online activities including social activities and sponsored presentations.
We encourage you to apply if you are:
- a member of an under-represented community
- a full-time student
- unemployed or under-employed (unable to find full-time work)
If you feel you qualify for another reason, you are still welcome to apply, and share your story.
The deadline to apply is September 21, 2023.
The DesignOps Summit Conference Program is Now Live!
The DesignOps Summit’s three-day main program (October 2-4) is now available. Don’t miss out on the premier annual event for people who lead design operations and teams. We’ve selected a lineup of diverse, talented speakers, and a variety of talks centered on our three themes.
- DesignOps is Changing: The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, layoffs, and now the explosion of AI… These global trends are directly impacting design organizations; we’ll cover what they mean and how they change the way you’ll practice DesignOps in the months and years to come.
- DesignOps is Practical: From design systems and documentation to AI tools and DE&I practices, we’ll address the approaches and techniques that you can and should adopt to impact your organization right away.
- DesignOps+: DesignOps is more than scaling and maximizing efficiency. We’ll dig into the human side of DesignOps, from nurturing your career and lifting up your team, to improving collaboration and growing a more inclusive DesignOps profession.
If you’re thinking of attending, keep in mind that our early bird registration deadline is August 15. Groups of three or more get 25% discount when registering concurrently (enter code GROUP).
Meet the Curators: Jon Fukuda
Jon is co-founder of Limina.co with 20+ years as a User Experience Specialist with a focus on UX Strategy, Design Thinking, and UI Design with experience leading human-centered requirements, strategy, interaction design, testing, and evaluation. Most recently, Jon has dedicated his efforts to Research & Design Operations facilitation for scalable/sustainable human-centered systems.
Meet the Curators: Bria Alexander
Bria Alexander is a Design Program Manager, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) consultant, and an International Speaker, Facilitator, and Interviewer. She currently supports the Brand Experience teams with Adobe’s Design organization. With over 10 years of facilitation and hosting experience, Bria has served as emcee for Adobe’s Design Summit and for Rosenfeld Media’s Design at Scale, Advancing Research and Design Operations conferences throughout 2020 and 2021. Outside of her professional commitments Bria enjoys travel, live music, and a great bottle of wine. You can find Bria on LinkedIn or on Instagram @briaismynameoh.
Hear Bria interviewed on The Rosenfeld Review Podcast:
Meet the Curators: Saara Kamppari-Miller
Saara Kamppari-Miller is championing the adoption of Inclusive Design and Research practices at Intel Corporation. As the Inclusive Design Ops lead within her team, Saara is leaning into the discomfort involved with moving from awareness to changing how we work. The goal is to make every Intel platform more accessible than the one before, by including people who we may have previously excluded in our processes.
