Peter Merholz - Demystifying Design Leadership

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Aug 15, 2022

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ANECDOTE

Origin of the Term "Blog"

Peter Merholz coined the term "blog" in 1999 by shortening "weblog" to "blog" playfully. - This term caught on quickly, becoming widely used with the rise of Blogger and blogging culture.

ANECDOTE

Life at Coin Court Co-op

Living in Coin Court co-op was chaotic but formative for Peter Merholz due to autonomy and diverse peers. - The co-op was a key venue in the East Bay punk scene, hosting early performances by Green Day and The Offspring.

ANECDOTE

Leaving Adaptive Path

Peter left Adaptive Path after 10 years due to financial challenges and desire to focus on family. - He wanted to impact design by shaping in-house organizations rather than consulting with clients who often failed to deliver final visions.

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Peter Merholz demystifies design leadership, openly shares the ups and downs of a trail-blazing design career, and how we can keep design “weird” without getting fired.

Highlights include:

⭐ What is the fundamental job of the designer leader?
⭐ Why do design leaders find it difficult to figure out what their job is?
⭐ What advice did Obi Wan give Luke that design leaders need to hear?
⭐ Why are you a design pragmatist and not an idealist?
⭐ What do design leaders need to know about politics and relationships?

#DesignLeadership #UX #UXDesign #AdaptivePath #BraveUX

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Who is Peter Merholz?

Peter is the Founder and Principal at Humanism at Scale, the consulting practice he started in 2019 to amplify the practices and potential of design teams by shaping design organisations and bolstering design leadership.

Before founding Humanism at Scale, Peter was the VP of Design at Snagajob, where he oversaw design for both product and marketing. Peter has also held positions such as Senior Director of Design at Jawbone, VP of Global Design at Groupon and VP of User Experience at Inflection.

But it is his role and the almost 11 years he invested as a Co-Founder and the Head of Design Practice of Adaptive Path - then the world’s leading UX strategy and UX design firm - that he is perhaps best known for.

In 2016, Peter co-authored “Org Design for Design Orgs” with Kristin Skinner, which was the first book to address building and managing effective in-house design teams.

And, last millennia, Peter coined the term blog. How cool is that!?

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Find Peter here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterme
Website: https://www.petermerholz.com/

Peter’s book:

Org Design for Design Orgs - Building and Managing In-House Design Teams:
https://orgdesignfordesignorgs.com/

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Hosted by Brendan Jarvis:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/
Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/