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Are you a creative tech leader who knows that great design is the key to success but feels uncertain about how to break into the C-suite? Leading by Design is your essential guide to not only reaching the executive level but thriving there. Inside you will discover:

How to Secure the Top Role: Learn to build a powerful professional foundation and navigate the complexities of the tech hiring process with a clear advantage.
How to Keep the Top Job: Master the art of demonstrating your value, measuring your team's impact, and building a compelling personal brand that resonates with executives and stakeholders.
Lead with Authority: Learn to form powerful alliances, overcome common challenges, and motivate your team to achieve extraordinary results.

Stop wondering and start leading. This book gives you the tools to elevate your design team and establish powerful partnerships that will secure your place as a vital leader in the tech world.

A Practical Roadmap to Executive Success

My Book: Leading by Design

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Leading by Design is a practical guide that gets straight to the point, offering a rare look behind the curtain of C-suite leadership. Forget the traditional career climb; this is your blueprint to executive success.

Part 1: Your Rise to the Top
The first part of the book is your essential guide to not just landing the executive role, but doing it with a solid foundation. You'll master the complexities of the tech hiring process and learn how to position yourself as the undeniable candidate for the job.

Part 2: Thriving in the C-Suite
Getting the job is only half the battle. This section provides the key strategies you need to stay on top. You'll learn how to demonstrate your unique value, measure your team's impact, and build a powerful personal brand that makes you stand out. We'll show you how to build crucial relationships, form strategic alliances, and lead with confidence.

Part 3: Leading Your Team and the Business
The final chapters focus on the bigger picture. You'll discover how to effectively position your design team for success and build vital partnerships with key stakeholders across the business. This isn't just about managing designers; it's about leading a function that drives the company's success.

Exclusive Insights from Executive Leaders
This book offers more than just theory; it's packed with firsthand wisdom from six visionary tech leaders who have walked the path to the top. They share their personal journeys and the lessons they learned along the way. Get exclusive insights from:

Robert Girling, Co-Founder of Artefact
Colin Grigson, Design Director at Remitly
Julie Baher, VP of Digital Health at Myriad Genetics
Phil Clevenger, VP of Product Experience at DocuSign
Ajay Thakur, Head of Cognitive Computing at Uber
Anshuman Kumar, SVP and Head of Design at Asana

This is your shortcut to the executive table, providing the wisdom you need to elevate your influence, accelerate your growth, and build a lasting legacy that defines your leadership.

What's Inside the book?

A practical roadmap for design leaders in tech
An honest, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be a design leader in tech from a highly-credible source who I’ve had the great pleasure and fortune of working with. The interviews with other top design execs gave this a variety and personal flavour I wasn’t expecting, and helped to flesh out the tactical frameworks.

Having said that, I personally got most value from the more practical elements, for example, the SOAR and STAR techniques for talking about achievements in an objective, concise way, an area in which I’d like to improve. This is a worthwhile investment for anyone looking to understand what it takes to ascend to, and succeed in, the C suite in a design capacity.
Nelson Jordan - Startup founder UK

Reader Reviews

A practical roadmap for design leaders in tech

Perfect for aspiring leaders and those looking to level up! The book felt well researched, especially in how it connected leadership principles with design thinking. It was easy and entertaining to read with helpful real-world examples. For someone stepping into a leadership role, the coverage was both relevant and motivating.

What stood out most to me were the actionable insights. Overall this book is insightful, inspiring, and well worth the read—especially for aspiring leaders who want to bring design principles into their management style.
Thomas Anthony - America's Dating & Relationship Coach

Perfect for aspiring leaders and those looking to level up!

Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of building and leading user experience teams at some of the world's most influential tech companies, including Yahoo, Apple, and Meta.

This experience taught me that while many designers aspire to lead, the roadmap to an executive role is often missing. For the past several years, I've coached creative leaders and noticed a consistent need for guidance on a key transition: moving from "designer" to "leader."

I wrote Leading by Design after reaching the executive level myself. I realized that the journey doesn't end there—it's only the beginning. Sustaining that role and leading with authority requires a different, often unwritten, set of skills. This book is a direct response to the lack of dedicated resources for design executives in the tech industry, designed to provide the guidance I wished I'd had.

This book is a comprehensive guide, distilling my decades of experience into a clear roadmap for your success. My goal is to equip you with the confidence, influence, and practical strategies you need to not only land the top job but to truly excel in it.

Why I Wrote this Book

Chapter 1 How to Get the Top Job
Chapter 2 How to Keep the Top Job
Chapter 3 How to Impact Tech EmpireS
Chapter 4 Your Role in Corporate Strategy
Chapter 5 Your Role in Business Strategy
Chapter 6 Quantifying Product Design
Chapter 7 Positioning Your Team
Chapter 8 Relating to Stakeholders
Chapter 9 Lighting the Way for Future Leaders
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