Peter Merholz
Peter Merholz
Upgrade your design org.
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The Merholz Agenda

[TMA] Leadership Masterclass Feb 25-26/ Podcast with Roger Martin

From the desk of Peter Merholz—

Happy Superbowl Sunday (to all Americans at least)! I don’t really follow the NFL, so I have no real opinion about the game, but, judging by people I know and follow—go Eagles!

In this issue, I’ll cover:

  • New Design Leadership Masterclass
  • Latest Finding Our Way Episode (with Roger Martin)
  • LinkedIn Links

New Design Leadership Masterclass

On February 25-26, I’ll be teaching my design leadership masterclass. Retitled UX/Design Leadership Demystified, it has been totally restructured to better reflect steps that are required to become a successful design leader.

Graphic showing the newly structured masterclass, with these sections: Understand Context, Develop an Agenda, Mediate the Membrane, Explicitly Define Quality, Cultivate Trusting Relationships, Evolve in your career, and Maintain resilience
The overview of the newly structured course

I will announce this on LinkedIn on Tuesday—subscribers here are getting a head start on registration. I’m also introducing a new pricing structure:

  • Employer pays (directly or through reimbursement): $399
  • You pay (you have a job, but it won’t reimburse): $299
  • You pay (you don't have a job): $209

Selection is by the honor system. We’ll see how it goes!

For more information, and to register, head here.

Roger Martin on Finding Our Way

Jesse and I were thrilled Roger Martin (former dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, prolific author, and advisor to CEOs) joined us for a deep dive on the intersection of design and business.

Photo, headshot of Roger Martin, middle-aged white man, wearing glasses, white colloared shirt, dark blazer

In the late 2000s, Roger was among the few “B-school” voices advocating for design to be elevated and taken more seriously, inspired by such experiences as helping Proctor and Gamble as it embraced design as a competitive differentiator.

Our was a surprisingly wide-ranging discussion, starting with Aristotle (as one days), challenging MBA orthodoxy (not everything meaningful can be measured), the distinct value that design practices bring, why Design Thinking has (mostly) failed, and the steps anyone can take to succeed (think: start small, but have a big vision).

You can find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify, any podcatcher) or read the transcript.

Unlike many, I actually dig LinkedIn. I’ve tailored my feed to largely remove nonsense, and I find the discourse in the comments has the highest signal:noise ratio of any platform (that said, there’s still plenty of noise).

screengrab showing the options attached to every LinkedIn post, including Save, Copy Link, Embed, Not Interested, Unfollow, and Report
“Not interested” is an option on every post. Use it to tailor your feed!

Anyway, some LinkedIn posts I liked:
Scott Berkun: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottberkun_design-ux-designishard-activity-7292647937732448260-DXt9, where he provides a simple illustration of how influence beats skills (and some folks just refuse to believe it).

Jason Brush: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jasonbrush_uxdesign-aws-amazon-activity-7293524524942139392-llq7, shares his experience as a super-senior IC at Amazon AWS.

Alright! Have a fantastic week,
—peter

Member discussion

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