Design leadership is a 2-wheeled bike


Dear Reader,

It's time to put on your facilitation hats and strategy caps because we're diving into how these two skills are linked (and essential for a career in design leadership).

Facilitation and strategy are two different skills, but they are more connected than you might think.

Just like how a bicycle needs both wheels to move forward smoothly and efficiently, a designer needs both facilitation and strategic design skills to progress and lead effectively.

Without facilitation skills, a designer may struggle to collaborate with team members and lead productive meetings.

Without strategy skills, a designer may struggle to make informed design decisions and align their work with business goals.

Just as a bicycle rider needs both wheels to reach their destination, a designer needs both facilitation and strategic design skills to reach their full potential as a leader.

So, if you want to climb the design career ladder, learn to not only hone your design skills but also develop your facilitation and strategic thinking abilities.

First, you need to understand what "facilitation" and "strategic design" mean.

Check out these two detailed articles that explain these concepts and provide resources to help you improve your skills in each area.

from Dan Hill, designer, urbanist, and educator
Share it on Instagram

From Strategy to Policy Design

Access the slides from last nights talk from Guglielmo Apolloni on how to initiate systemic change within an organization.
Download the slides

How to Lead with Strategy
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Learn a whole new way to guide teams, not just pixels.
Reserve a seat

Defining UX Strategy
April 17-May 8, 2023
Learn how to build a winning UX or product strategy that aligns design with business.
Reserve a seat

Facilitating Workshops
May 15-Jun. 5, 2023
Learn how to design creative working sessions and lead collaborative work.
Reserve a seat

🏆 A Designer’s Code of Ethics
Mike Monteiro presents a designer's code of ethics, emphasizing the responsibility of designers to consider the impact of their work on society.
shared by Hana Burianová
Learn more

🚀 How To Access GPT-4 (and what it can do)
A video that breaks down the announcement as well as what it can do right now and what it will be able to do in the future
shared by Jerome Bertrand
Learn more

🧠 What is a Cognitive Bias?
Every single cognitive bias in one infographic
shared by Teddy Prosser
Learn more

Apply to join the Guild of Working Designers here.

shared by Asia Jackowska in the Guild

Until next week!

Hannah Baker
Educator & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.

Read more from The Fountain Institute

Does the Double Diamond make sense for AI-enabled teams? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, For twenty years, the Double Diamond has been our north star. Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. It's elegant. It's teachable. It's in every junior's UX case study. And it made sense…when it was created. All that upfront research made economic sense when coding was the most expensive part of the process. Better to get it right before handoff because it's expensive for engineering to make changes later. But...

People surrounded by bright question and exclamation marks, representing uncertainty and judgment.

When Frameworks Fail and Gut Feelings Take Over By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, You know that moment when the data looks clear, the framework is airtight, and yet something in your stomach says, don’t do it? That’s judgment, the quiet, inconvenient voice that shows up when the evidence has already spoken. It’s also the thing most of us struggle to explain, even though our careers depend on it. Businesses love reasoning. We build frameworks to make decisions look rational, dashboards to make them...

Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for Designers 🎃 by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, It's time to expose your designer trauma to the whole world. It’s that time of year again, when we’re forced to stop nudging rectangles long enough to remember Halloween exists, and suddenly we need a costume tonight. But fear not! While normal humans panic-buy cat ears from a drugstore, we designers do what we do best: turn our professional pain into content. Here are 9 last-minute costumes for brave designers. 1. UX...