Amex's Strategy for Building Better Design Leaders

UX Leadership By Design

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In this episode of UX Leadership by Design, Mark Baldino, co-founder of Fuzzy Math, speaks with Evan English, Vice President of Design and User Research at American Express. Evan shares her journey from product management to UX leadership at Amex, where she has spent 15 years. She highlights the company's significant investment in leadership training and development, which has allowed her to build a strong design leadership team from within the organization. They discuss the importance of aligning design work with business value, the challenges and rewards of building a mature design system, and the strategic role of information architecture in delivering business results.
Key Takeaways:

• Leadership behaviors, such as communication, collaboration, and empathy, are crucial for UX leaders.
• Designers possess unique qualities that make them great leaders, including empathy, active listening, storytelling, and systems thinking (dot connectors).
• Shared goals with product partners and design maturity goals are important for driving business value.
• Information architecture and design systems play a critical role in supporting the evolving business needs.
• Measuring metrics and setting goals are essential for tracking the impact of design efforts and improving customer satisfaction.

• Connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbaldino/
• Fuzzy Math - B2B & Enterprise UX Design Consultancy: https://fuzzymath.com/