Diane Loviglio

GV (Google Ventures) have a long history of hiring former designers and design leaders to support their portfolio companies. Folks like Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Kate Aronowitz, Daniel Burka, Braden Kowitz, Vanessa Cho, and Tom Hulme. In my latests podcast interview, Kate Aronowitz explains why this is, and what designers bring to the table. Interestingly it's not about craft, but rather the way they see the world with a beginners mind.

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This is what investing in AI in design looks like. As with many other job families, the design industry focuses on what might the impact of AI be: will it lower the quality with slop? Will it replace humans? Etc But I don't see much focus on to understand and really capitalise on the potential AI brings to design. We are largely treating it as any other tool: a way to get incrementally better. At best it's a short course for the designers, at worst it's expecting designers to already know how to use it. But AI has the potential for making radical shifts and leaps. I'd love to hear, and learn, from anyone who is making significant strides to drive AI transformation in design.

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Flaw in the design hiring process: Speculative design challenges can easily become performative traps. A great article by Paul Strike for Fast Company, with contributions from Ryan Leffel, Brian A. Rice, Thomas W., and behind-the-scenes feedback from Ash Brown & Katja Forbes. #Design #Hiring https://lnkd.in/ghTqf9xF

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Last month, I had a conversation with the World Design Organization on navigating the deep entanglements of systems—and how this perspective shapes the way we design solutions, startups, and impact. We unpacked the constant dance between the macro & micro, drawing from real stories at Studio Carbon, Daily Dump, IDEO and Quicksand—where we put systems thinking into grounded real-world innovations. If you're reimagining how we innovate for the world’s real needs—without treating unintended consequences as an afterthought—this one's for you. #SystemsThinking #DesignForImpact #SocialInnovation #ComplexityInDesign #IntentionalInnovation #WIP

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If your personas describe users in isolation, you’re limiting impact. Real work is collaborative, constrained, and increasingly shaped by automated systems. Our design artifacts need to reflect that reality. This piece explores what it means to expand personas beyond the single user, and why relationships between actors matter just as much as the actors themselves. https://lnkd.in/g4dxrrHx #designexcellence #designleadership #userpersona #AIintegration

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A lot of conversations I have with design teams start the same way: “We’re moving fast… but we keep circling back.” It’s rarely a skill issue. It’s a timing issue. Most misalignment doesn’t come from bad design. It comes from discovering truth too late—after engineering starts, after a sprint closes, or after launch. And the cost of that delay is enormous. A late fix can be 100× more expensive than catching the issue early. But the teams that validate upfront—concepts, prototypes, even simple assumptions—consistently move faster, not slower. I’ve seen: • 25% fewer iteration cycles • Clearer rationale behind decisions • Less friction between design, product, and engineering Early insight isn’t a tax on velocity. It’s the engine of velocity. When we test earlier, we spend less time reworking and more time progressing. And our teams feel it—not just in timelines, but in confidence and morale. These themes are showing up across the teams featured in our newest Leadership Signal. It’s a great pulse check on how leaders are tightening alignment earlier in the process. https://bit.ly/4ixuGp2

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Designing the right tool stack is critical to the success of a modern research team. In the past few years, I've run research team transformations at three deeply different organizations with wildly disparate cultures, operating models, and goals - which means that each time, we've settled on three different toolkits. Given how quickly the UXR tools landscape is evolving, an always-on approach to scanning the market is critical. But knowing how to look for what's best suited to you is even more so. Can't wait to hear these folks share their wisdom and help me get better at it! You know if Rosenfeld is convening a panel on UXR tools, it'll be the best panel on UXR tools around.

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Most designers say they want impact. What they really want is proof. At scale, I had to formalize proof. I once built a quarterly UX strategy using Jared Spool's Persuasive Metrics to connect design decisions to revenue. A 2% reduction in onboarding friction translated into six figures in retained revenue. That was the language the room spoke. Dashboards. Quarterly reviews. Attribution models. Impact had to be quantified before it was believed. Now I’m at a tiny startup. Last week, a customer Slacked: “Magemetrics saves me days on campaign reports.” Following the rebrand, a prospect opened the site and said: “Okay. This feels serious.” These calls felt different: less explaining, fewer objections, more trust. No attribution model. No presentation. Just behavior changing in real time. Here’s what’s different: In enterprise, proof arrives as numbers. In startups, proof shows up as decisions. Enterprise feedback arrives filtered and quarterly; startup impact is immediate. Doubt slows deals. Confidence speeds them up. Immediacy forces clarity. You take fewer performative bets. You stop optimizing for presentations. You design to remove doubt. Because you’re not defending slides — you’re shaping what happens next.

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Daniel Wert chatted with Andrew Hogan on the FigBrew podcast. I've added Moneyball ⚾ to my Letterboxd queue, but the practice of building teams for depth over star power doesn't require a love of sports. https://lnkd.in/erSGWjdz

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I've anticipated today's episode for a long time... b/c we get to do a deep dive into the new era of design at Stripe with their Head of Design Katie Dill 👇 We talk about prototyping, collaboration, hiring, and everything they're doing to push past the status quo (including a tour of Katie's favorite design details on the new site). it's a good one :) 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gmXtjtcm

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How companies build design teams is changing. Roles are merging, AI is forcing companies to re-think about who they need to hire, how they hire and if indeed they need to make so many hires. I put together some updated thoughts on recent observations in hiring designers. TL;DR of the article: - Different requirements of designers - The bar to get a design role is higher - Interviews are more practical - The rise of super senior IC - The need for hands-on Design Directors - Roles are merging - Be prepared to sell an opportunity to designers

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This is super interesting and especially relevant right now. AI is reshaping product design, development, and engineering at an unprecedented pace. Many of the assumptions and practices we relied on are being disrupted, and we need to adapt quickly.

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