UXPA 2023 International Conference Keynote

I gave the opening keynote talk at the UXPA 2023 International Conference in Austin, TX on June 20, 2023.

Decision Making in a Time of Uncertainty

Session Description: We continue to be faced with compounding uncertain times.  As Design Leaders, we are looked to by our teams for the answers, inducing anxiety for us.  In these uncertain times, normal business frameworks don’t always lead to an obvious solution. We encourage our teams to access their subconscious for brainstorming to solve creative problems, but we also deserve techniques to access our subconscious to help unlock all of our decision making. This talk will detail practical methods to help make decisions by looking at problems differently and alleviating anxiety and stress around decision making. There might be some surprise twists along the way.

Curious to put some of what you learned at the talk into practice? Try a sample Shamanic Journey:

Christina leads you through a guided visualization and sample shamanic journey.


The Conference App

My talk was featured in the conference app as the main anchor opening keynote

Amazon's What is Design Excellence?

In the fall of 2022, Design Executives from multiple industries gathered in Seattle for the inaugural Elevating Design Summit to discuss the theme of Design Excellence. During a conversation among design leaders, the summit was conceived to share more knowledge back into the design community to help young designers and emerging leaders grow as creatives.

Designed by Ayse (Eye-Shay) Birsel, renowned designer and author of 'Design the Life you Love' and 'Design the Long Life You Love', the summit encouraged creative ways of thinking about Design Excellence and how to cultivate it within organizations.

To stimulate further conversation about elevating the overall design community, the Conditions for Achieving Design Excellence guide was developed from the themes and collective ideas shared during the summit.

I was one of several design leaders in attendance and who contributed our perspective to the development of the guide: Erica Weiss Tjader, Chris Novak, Elizabeth Laraki, Mark Laughlin, Darrell Whitelaw, Grace Hwang, Cindy Chastain, Lisa Jackson, Abbey Smalley, Joshua To, Sebastian Petry, Maurice Conti, Jen Panasik.

Keep the conversation flowing by visiting the link below to download the guide and learn more.

The Entrepreneurial Humanities: The Crucial Role of the Humanities in Enterprise and the Economy Book

In June 2023 I have a chapter being published in the book called “The Entrepreneurial Humanities: The Crucial Role of the Humanities in Enterprise and the Economy Book“ by Routledge. It was edited by Alain-Philippe Durand and Christine Henseler. My chapter is called Healing Trauma at the Intersection of Entrepreneurship and Design.

My chapter details how design thinking is actually great practice for the best therapeutic modalities that are used to heal PTSD and trauma.

 

Design & Innovation Executive Exchange

Design Innovation Global convened a select group of design and innovation leaders in Tampa on April 10-12, 2023 to engage in a deep dialogue on the future state of the design industry and connect on a personal level to tackle challenges together.

Session Description: Innovative Methods in Design Thinking: Borrowing Techniques from the Realm of the Mystical

With the magical promise of Design Thinking starting to lose its shine, as Design Leaders how are we to help our teams – and ourselves – solve problems, build products and get to real solutions? There are untapped methods for accessing your subconscious for brainstorming to solve creative problems and business problems that can help you unlock your decision making. Using data to prove that this is a trend sweeping society, this talk will detail practical methods for accessing the subconscious to help make decisions by looking at problems differently and alleviating anxiety and stress around decision making. The surprise twist is that these practices are traditionally considered mystical and not usually used in business: the tarot, breathwork and shamanic journeying. 

Apartment Therapy House Tour

Apartment Therapy featured me for one of their House Tours:

Etsy’s Head of Product Design’s NYC Condo Has Custom Storage Solutions Everywhere, Including Sturdy Shelves for an Impressive Whisky Collection

They detailed my condo renovation for my apartment in Battery Park City. And prominently showcased all of my wonderful custom purchases on Etsy.

Etsy Show and Tell Design Meetup

On March 16th, we welcomed folks who are in Mexico City for an exclusive Etsy event where they had the chance to chat and connect with Etsy’s Product Design team and community members. Attendees were able to share and get feedback on their design portfolios as well as learn how to land their dream jobs.

In addition we hosted an inspiring panel discussion with our directors. And I briefly spoke to give and introduction and set context for the evening.

 

Tent Talks: Key Business Concepts Design Leaders Need to Know

On Wednesday, March 8th 3:00pm CST, I joined the team from Chicago Camps for a live Q&A session: “Key Business Concepts Design Leaders Need to Know.” There were questions from Chicago Camps plus questions from attendees were welcome, as well.

Session Transcript:

[00:00:36] Chicago Camps: Christina, tell us about yourself and your design background.

[00:00:40] Christina: I’m the VP and head of product designer at Etsy, so there I lead a decently large team at scale that consists of product designers and managers and directors all working on the marketplace at Etsy. So we work on the buyer experience and the seller experience across all of our platforms.

[00:01:01] Be it mobile, web, desktop, Android, iOS, et cetera, et cetera, across all of our markets. I’ve basically been in digital for over 25 years, which is a hard number to admit, though I’ve been a designer to my core and practicing design for the majority of that, I’ve also had the fortune to jump around throughout my career.

[00:01:24] I got my start as a front end developer in the mid nineties. That sort of is what pulled me in. And then I’ve also done things like been a product manager. I took a stint at that after the downturn of the late, and I’ve been a practicing researcher, a strategist, and so I’ve really had a chance to try on all the hats that make up what it takes to be in the field of digital.

[00:01:47] It’s been really quite an interesting ride from that perspective. And I’ve been in-house, I’ve been at agencies, I’ve been in a variety of different industries, right? So I’m in e-commerce now. I was in in that before. And I’ve also done things like financial services, insurance, InsureTech. I’ve been a management consultant.

[00:02:06] I’ve been in ad tech, I’ve been in media. I’ve worked at a television network. I’ve done hospitality, I’ve even done a little bit of healthcare, and I’ve even been in legal services. It’s really been an education really a lot. And then I think one other thing that I’d love to share is that I’m also really an advocate for mental health and destigmatizing mental health in the workplace.

[00:02:27] And really proud that I’m the executive sponsor of our mental health ERG, and was a co-founder of it at Etsy, I’m sure that’s a topic that we could talk about another day.

[00:02:37] Chicago Camps: Should designers get an MBA, and not to let you off the hook here, why or why not?

[00:02:44] Christina: Alright, so in full disclosure, I have my MBA, I got it in ’08 and I am a graduate of NYU Stern, and I really benefited from it.

[00:02:58] But my advice is that I do not think that most designers need it. And I think that could be controversial for some. I think especially when people will ask me that and they’re like, “Hey, you just said that you really benefited from it. Why are you saying that I don’t need one?” And the reason I would say that is because I think when most people are trying to make this decision, it’s because they’re oftentimes coming to it when they’re a little bit more advanced in their careers.

[00:03:27] It’s really quite the investment, right? It takes a lot of time, and let’s be clear, it is not cheap to get an MBA. So it’s that time and money investment. And also , in all reality, an MBA is pretty much of a generalist kind of degree that isn’t focused on the real things that designers need to advance in their careers and to do everything that they need to do in their jobs.

[00:03:57] And so it’s a huge investment to make That may not necessarily be the thing that somebody needs. Plus, I think there are things that one can do instead that provide that same education. Instead, you could get coaching from a really solid business leader in mentorship and really work with someone that you admire and trust.

[00:04:18] You could do one of the things that I did after my MBA, which is take a rotation as a product manager, and that might be who you start getting that coaching from and then do some of that work yourself. You learn a lot when you’re thrown into the deep end. It’s quite the education that way. Or there are actually tons of classes that you can take.

[00:04:37] Ryan Rumsey has this great program at secondwavedive.com. He even has a, a sub-program there that he calls the Chief Design Officer school. It’s really great. I’ve actually sent several members of my team, not to the Chief Design Officer school, but to some of his other programming online, and they’ve really benefitted from it.

[00:04:56] And then there are other sort of easier, simpler things that you can do. So there’s something called the d.MBA. It’s like d dot MBA is the URL and they offer tons of free resources. They do offer like a paid school option as well, but they offer great podcasts that just demystifies a lot of business concepts and, then they’re also sort of paid MBA sort of type classes that you can take from ed techs online. So things like Section 4 or a company called Alt MBA, and I’m sure there are plenty of others out there, but you can get the same kind of information faster, quicker, cheaper, and you can then pick and choose.

[00:05:37] Chicago Camps: So what do you think the allure is of an MBA?

[00:05:39] Christina: I think people think it’s really going to be this silver bullet. It’s going to give someone instant cred. It’s going to be how you get that immediate seat at the table. Everyone’s going to see you as this accredited business leader, and that magically you’ll be able to easily get buy-in for all of your ideas.

[00:06:02] That’s probably what people think the b a is. It’s that entry card into all those things happening for you. The reality is it just won’t give you those things. I think that you learn foundational items, basics of business concepts, and it’s a thing that can propel your career, but it’s foundational.

[00:06:24] It sets you up for success. It is definitely not instant, and really for me, why it was beneficial was it did things like give me confidence. , it actually reinforced things that I learned on the job that I was afraid to show up with and I was working at the time for a really amazing chief marketing officer, and I worked for her for six and a half years, and I learned so much from her.

[00:06:52] But being a designer, I didn’t have the confidence to say, oh, I know these things. I learned these from this one person, and I can walk into a place and just start sharing that and building off. because you’re like, oh, was she right? Am I applying it right? And so going back and getting my MBA after having that great on the job experience, actually let me say, oh, I now know the exact frameworks that I learned on the job, and now I can recall them like that and I can apply them.

[00:07:26] And then I can learn a bunch of other foundational skills to maybe round out a couple of things that I didn’t know. And now that gives me that sort of confidence to take on much more deeply analytical roles that other designers would shy away from. Or maybe it was, oh, I was predisposed to take those kind of roles in the first place, but now I’d have the confidence to sell myself into them. Whereas before I would’ve been afraid to that kind of type thing.

[00:07:54] Chicago Camps: What are some of the biggest things designers tend to not know enough about as they climb the career ladder?

[00:08:00] Christina: I think that there are some things that people end up missing, and a couple of those are things like they’re afraid of some of the basic math, Excel, budgets, what a profit and loss statement is, or a P&L, and they’re afraid to dive into those things.

[00:08:20] And when you become a design leader, your number one tool actually becomes Excel. You don’t touch Figma, you use Excel, and you have to do things like set the compensation for your entire team and make sure that it’s balanced, even, fair, and that you’re understanding what the implications of it are for multiple years to come.

[00:08:44] So you have to project it into the future. And then also I do things like I manage a rather large OpEx and T & E budget, and so I have to be able to make a case for what that budget needs to be year over year, and also know that I am going to actually hit that budget, not go over it. Also be responsible with it.

[00:09:06] Sure I have a finance partner, but the reality is that it’s on me. It’s my responsibility and I have to help my team manage it. So all of that basic math stuff is really important when you become a leader because your team is also looking to you for those things.

[00:09:22] Another area I would say is the vocabulary. So it’s really your job as a design leader to translate all of the business terms, and let’s be honest, the acronyms that come up in business terms to your team. At Etsy, we’re a publicly traded company, and we have earnings calls. I think it’s really important for my team to understand what goes on at those earnings calls because they do affect us in our business and how we show up for our customers.

[00:09:55] I had to help them understand what’s going on there because it affects a larger business strategy that they then contribute to. Helping them translate that, helping them understand what’s going on in our industry, helping them understand what’s happening with competitors. Helping them understand at a moment of uncertainty, like why are people laying off?

[00:10:15] What do I need to know about that? Helping them understand those terms, what’s happening. That’s really when the vocabulary comes into play.

[00:10:23] Another area that’s really important is contracts. With all those budgets, I actually have to manage and negotiate the contracts. Sure, I have a legal team and a procurement team that helps me with all of that, but we have software, we have talent, we actually have professional development. All of those things that we are doing to grow, support, develop our team comes with a contract. And some of them are very nuanced to our industry that you need to know about so that you can help work with your teams that are supporting you through those contracts to make sure that it works.

[00:11:03] And it’s really important to know that when you’re doing a “true up” for your license, that you have to be able to say, I want you to be able to notify me so that I can kick people off as opposed to preemptively charging me so I can save all of that budget money. Like things like that become very nuanced issues in that contract. That may not be how other software contracts work for other departments.

[00:11:30] And there are other things like important stakeholder management. This was one of those silver bullet topics that we were talking about before. You have to smooth things over. You have to sell in ideas. It’s really important to help make sure that designers help translate how they work to everyone around them, because we have special techniques and tools that really help us be effective, and it’s not about making sure that everyone bends to how we work and that we’re helping everyone know how we work and how we add value.

[00:12:07] It’s my job to make sure that all of my peers up and down understand that value so that I can smooth that over. And then that’s how you get the appropriate headcount and that you can support your team so that they’re not overworked and that you can also sell in ideas and make sure that when your team wants to drive something innovative, or fight for the customer, that it’s always in the right vein that’s going to the right thing for the business. I think that also goes to that balance aspect, right? You really become this business leader, not just a design leader. That balance is really important that you have to understand how you make money, how to balance those decisions, and that you never die on your sword or on that hill when you’re just going to fight only for the user, only for the usability, but how to make those balanced decisions and then explain to your team in a way that they understand it too. So in a sense, the stakeholder management goes both ways.

[00:13:08] I think that’s really important. And then I would say the last thing, which I touched on with the vocabulary is really just different business models and different business concepts. You’re gonna be asked how might we improve our business right now? Or what do you think about pursuing this different strategy?

[00:13:29] And that could be when you’re looking to be innovative, or when you’re looking to face a difficult time, or when someone brings just a new idea to you. How do you evaluate that? How do you think about that in the larger world or in the larger context of your business? And if you don’t understand the basics of business and different business models, you’re gonna get lost.

[00:13:54] You’re really not gonna be able to contextualize it and explain it, and then also help break it down for your team as to why something is or is not a good idea.

[00:14:04] Chicago Camps: As you get to executive leadership levels, how much of what you learned as a designer do you think will be applied to the job?

[00:14:12] Christina: I really love this question, Russ, because the surprise thing is the majority of what really helps and supports me as an executive leader is design skills and things that made me successful as a designer.

[00:14:30] And that is actually the secret.

[00:14:32] Once you master that list of skills that we just talked about with the last question, you can add those in to these amazing skills that we have as designers, and that’s what’s gonna make someone a super powerful executive leader. That’s really the special sauce. I’m gonna give you another long sort of bullet list because I think people are gonna actually feel really good about themselves because it’s going to be very comforting and sort of things that people know.

[00:15:07] One is you have to be naturally curious and willing to ask questions. That is one of your number one jobs as an executive leader is to really just help a team keep thinking, to keep exploring, to look at other angles, and to look from a different lens to see if there’s something else that we should be evaluating and to make sure that it’s actually the right thing and the right approach.

[00:15:39] Another thing is, being able to learn complex things quickly. As designers, we oftentimes are designing things that are not for us. That classic phrase of you are not your user is constant. We have these greats skills of having to learn deep, complex things that have nothing to do with us. So that we can design amazing experiences for people that are not us.

[00:16:12] That skill is really important as an executive leader because you’re gonna have to learn all kinds of different aspects of the business, and that might mean that you have to learn about aspects of the engineering team, or you’re gonna have to learn about aspects of operations, or again, deep aspects of the business model. Being able to have that great skill to learn is really wonderful.

[00:16:42] Another one is actually being detailed oriented. I think people have this idea that when you become an executive leader, that you have a bunch of people running around who take care of all the details for you. The things that we just talked about are actually details that matter.

[00:16:58] If you think about that, when you can keep some details in your head and you can ask questions about some details, you are actually going to help your business and help move your business forward. Now, you are clearly not going to be someone who is going to get into every single detail about every single thing, because that would be impossible, but being able to choose which details matter, and knowing that you have this ability to actually get into details and not be afraid of it when it’s needed is actually really important.

[00:17:40] Another one is being a systems thinker. This is what a designer is. We think in systems, right? I’m constantly thinking in systems, and that is what a business is. A business is a system.

[00:17:52] It’s a whole bunch of interconnected parts. As a systems thinker, you can be a really creative problem solver. You can do things like think three steps ahead because you see how the system works or you can help create the career ladder because it’s a system. You can see how someone will progress in their career.

[00:18:18] Or move from being an IC to a manager or potentially back again because it’s a system. And then you can see how that same document will be used for annual review or a promotion, things like that. You see the whole system.

[00:18:35] Let’s not forget being empathetic. As an executive leader, you are first and foremost a leader, a manager, and so being apathetic is a superpower because you’re really leading and managing an entire team who looks to you for what they need every day. You have to inspire them. You set the tone for how all of the other leaders and managers show up on your team and you advocate for your entire team. Your ability to show up empathetically means that you’re going to be able to help and support them, advocate for them, and put yourself in their shoes so that you can think about all the things that everybody needs. It will allow you to show up vulnerably, which is really hard, but then we’ll let them actually trust you more.

[00:19:30] Another thing is listening. A lot of people forget that as a leader, you have to listen. I tackle every single problem that comes in my door as a design problem. I need to do research. I need to listen. I need to test and prototype it, right? And I need to rinse and repeat. And so listening is really key, not making solutions for my team, for me. I make solutions that work for them because I talk to them, I understand what their jobs are like and what challenges they’re facing. That’s the only way we can operationalize anything to make it better.

[00:20:07] Another one is storytelling. We talked about being able to really sell in ideas and having to do that at all levels. The way that we do that is with storytelling. If you can tell a good story, you can really get someone on board, and that’s what stakeholder management is at its core. Is being able to understand where someone’s coming from. I then tell them stories that help them understand problem solving. I am given constraints, and as a designer, the constraints make my work better, and so I problem solve and I leverage the constraints of maybe there’s a time issue, there’s a budget issue, there’s a headcount issue. Who knows what that issue is. But I can problem solve around it because as a designer, I know how to work with constraints.

[00:20:58] The last one, really: prioritization. We’re always prioritizing when we design as to what’s the most important thing. What’s the most important thing for this persona or to solve this pain point first, or that we can actually get out the door to make a difference faster, or that’s the most feasible, or how I can manage my time and prioritization because you have a million things coming at you and a ton of people to support and a ton of peers.

[00:21:32] You have to be able to prioritize your time to choose what’s the most important thing to do that day, that week, that month, and to know what to go deep on what not to. So prioritization really is the thing that helps you navigate it all.

[00:21:47] Chicago Camps: As an executive design leader, do you have a design portfolio, and if so, what’s in it?

[00:21:54] Christina: Yes. I actually get this question a lot from people who are trying to up-level their careers, and the answer is yes, I do have a portfolio.

[00:22:06] I actually have a website that I keep online and it has gated projects from the past, and they are case studies. They are case studies of teams that I have led.

[00:22:21] It really goes to show how I think about leading work, leading teams, and solving problems, and how I am actually someone who thinks about the three problems of solving for viability, desirability, and feasibility. So I’m thinking about user’s needs, what we can actually make and what’s gonna drive business value.

[00:22:47] I think when I have case studies like that, people see that I can think about how we approach problems as a integrated technology team. The other thing that I also show is my thought leadership because I think it’s really important as an executive leader to gain the followership of your team and one of the most competitive advantages is actually still recruiting.

[00:23:20] Even though it is a volatile market out there, right this moment, people still have choices where they can work. If you can help people see that working at your organization and working for a leader like you is something that they would like to do, and that you are someone who actually promotes someone’s career and promotes that you think that something like thought leadership is going to help them grow their career, too, that’s actually a really nice reciprocal relationship to demonstrate.

[00:23:56] I think it’s really important for people to just share their stories. People wanna know what other people are doing and how other people are working because there’s something to learn from everyone. It really will , especially in our sort of new hybrid world, you’re gonna create community and people are gonna really appreciate it for what you share.

Design X - Design Leadership Summit

I opened the Design Leadership Summit in Toronto with my talk on “Decision Making in a Time of Uncertainty” and also lead a workshop on the second day on “How to Coach Yourself and Your Team with the Tarot”.

My talk explored how we deserve better. Accessing your subconscious isn't just for creative brainstorming, but you can use it for helping you get unstuck for anything, for anything that you are facing as a Design Leader. And there are new approaches to expanding the brainstorming phase of design thinking worth trying!

Session Description: We continue to be faced with compounding uncertain times.  As Design Leaders, we are looked to by our teams for the answers, inducing anxiety for us.  In these uncertain times, normal business frameworks don’t always lead to an obvious solution. We encourage our teams to access their subconscious for brainstorming to solve creative problems, but we also deserve techniques to access our subconscious to help unlock all of our decision making. Using data to prove that this is a trend sweeping society, this talk will detail practical methods for accessing the subconscious to help make decisions by looking at problems differently and alleviating anxiety and stress around decision making.

NYU Stern Tech MBA - Technology Solutions Guest Lecture

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NYU Stern’s New Tech MBA helps students understand the ins and outs of the tech industry by having guest lectures from industry. I was invited to share a case studies and demystify what it is like to work at a large company in tech. My presentation walked the students though a case study on masks during COVID, our company’s culture and how decisions get made and prioritized. No session would be complete without ample Q&A and we had lots of time for that as well.

Next Frontier Conference & Expo

Interested in a career in tech? Check out this conversation between T. Jason Ortiz, Enterprise Customer Success at EdTech startup Section, and me as we recount our winding journeys to tech success as Asian Americans. We share how anyone can be successful in transitioning a career across finance, education, DEI, and tech through our stories. Watch our talk below, “Couches and Connection: An Asian American Handbook to (not) Planning Your Career Path in Tech” from the Next Frontier Conference & Expo out on by Base 11.

Etsy's Mental Health ERG Fireside Chat

I participated in the Mental Health ERG fireside chat between Etsy’s CEO, Josh Silverman and joined as my role as the Mental Health's ERG Executive Sponsor and VP & Head of Product Design.

Some takeaways:
💡 Lead by example: by sharing when we take mental health days or even making our therapy sessions 'public' on our calendars, we encourage others to prioritize their mental health too
💡 Mental health looks different for different people: some people navigate mental health struggles every single day and others experience it intermittently – both are valid and deserving of support and space
💡 Apply awareness to equitable internal mobility: analyze and adjust components of employee assessments to ensure that qualities like 'eye-contact' or 'speaking up' aren't indicators of success or failure

Always so I am humbled by how this ERG is able to create a safe space to ask questions, share vulnerabilities, and make suggestions for positive change.

Neurodiversity & Disability Symposium

I was on a panel called "Innovative Employers Creating Inclusive Workplaces and Embracing Neuro-Talent" at the Neurodiversity & Disability Symposium, September 23rd. It was moderated by Betina Wildhaber on behalf of the Chico State Career Center.

PANEL MEMBERS:

Design Thinking Austin Conference 2022

From September 19-21, 2022, Customer Management Practice put on an in-person conference focused on design Thinking in Austin, TX with one pre-conference workshop day featuring IDEOU, main stage session, multiple tracks for different maturity levels and interactive breakout sessions and discussion groups. My role was to give a main stage talk and then lead two rounds for one of the interactive breakout discussion groups.

Mainstage Talk:

How to Translate and Leverage Design Thinking for Stakeholder Management

Ensuring alignment and understanding of goals and objectives amongst teams and stakeholders is a critical leadership skill. In this session, Christina will walk through an empowering framework for stakeholder management that harnesses core Design Thinking skills – observational research, empathy, storytelling and role play – that can be applied in both in-house and consulting environments.  Featuring a real-life example from Etsy, this talk will demonstrate how this powerful approach can be applied for project success and dispel the myth that stakeholder management is all art only mastered by a few. 

 

Breakout Discussion Groups:

Design Thinking Meets Mental Health

Design Thinking can help solve even the most complex of problems, not just for business but those facing society.  The pandemic has exposed a mental health epidemic facing our country with major increases in depression, anxiety and burnout and putting mental health front and center in the workplace. Join this discussion as we explore how to craft your organization to foster better mental health to practice great design. 

Stanford Women in Design Board Member

Very honored to be joining the Stanford Women in Design (SWID) advisory board. Excited to be able to mentor so many women as they start and build their careers in design.

Stanford Women in Design is the largest organization at Stanford focused on empowering future design leaders.

Their mission: build the creative confidence of kick-ass female designers

They are a Stanford University organization dedicated to equipping women in the community with the tangible skills needed to navigate design industries and beyond.

All members of the Stanford community are welcome to participate in and become members of Stanford Women in Design.

Why they were founded?

SWID was formed due to a gap in current mentorship opportunities at Stanford, and to address the challenges facing women in design. They aim to empower women through inspiring and catalyzing skill-development, career-mapping, and learning through the self-pursuit of innovative new projects, beyond the classroom experience.

MENTORSHIP

They build community between women in industry + students.

Through our internal and external mentorship programs, SWID provides students with resources and insight into professional opportunities within the design industry. Their mentors span across various fields of design, fintech, VC, beauty, social impact, and more.

Forrester's US 2022 CX Index Rankings

For Forrester's US 2022 CX Index Rankings, Etsy scored in the top 5%, landing in position #4 on the list. This was quite the achievement given that most brands actually struggled at this time.

Summary:

The past 12 months have been a roller coaster ride for consumers and brands. COVID-19 cases and deaths have declined, allowing consumers to return to a degree of normalcy in their social lives and brand interactions. Meanwhile, supply issues, staffing shortages, and rising costs hamper firms’ efforts to return to that same pre-pandemic “normal.” How well did brands manage their customers’ experiences? This year, we reveal the scores and rankings of all 221 brands across 13 industries. Results show that many brands struggled to sustain the level of quality they achieved earlier in the pandemic.

Fortune Article

Following the Fortune Brainstorm Design Conference, Fortune featured me in an article on Fortune.com:

Etsy’s design leader shares how openly talking about your core values can help improve your mental health

They gave a summary of our workshop and then detailed my quotes on how openly identifying and sharing your personal values around care can help improve mental health in the workplace. Read the full article on Fortune.com.

Fortune Brainstorm Design Conference

I co-led a breakfast workshop at the Fortune Brainstorm Design Conference with Rachael Dietkus, Founder of Social Workers Who Design call Care by Design. The #FortuneDesign conference brought together leaders across design to trade ideas and discuss the state of the industry and its future. I co-led a workshop on trauma-informed design and living your values, speaking to how we prioritize mental health and vulnerability in leadership at Etsy – not just on my Product Design team but across the entire company.

Session Description:

Many unexpected shifts have disrupted our ways of doing design. We must design differently by integrating care-centered and trauma-informed practices now and for the future. How can we ensure that design renders care in our practices, experiences, and organizations? In this workshop, participants will learn the foundations of care-centered and trauma-informed frameworks that are emerging in design. We'll practice the values, principles, and mindsets needed to ensure we are transitioning with our employees in a way that centers our collective well-being and care.


Session Goals:

  • Share what it means to have and build a culture of care while focusing on recognizing and acknowledging our values

  • Encourage participants to feel welcome and comfortable enough to practice values of care individually and share reflections with others

  • Walk participants through 3 activities that build help them cultivate care in design

Follow up article:

Fortune then featured me in a follow up article titled:

Etsy’s design leader shares how openly talking about your core values can help improve your mental health


Tackling Problems with Design Thinking for Section4

On December 16, 2021 I taught an introductory class on Design Thinking for Section4 the online ed-tech startup that is trying to offer MBA educations at economies of scale.

Workshop Description: It can be hard to generate impactful new ideas without a stroke of inspiration, but as leaders, we're often called to do this on the fly. This lecture is designed to help you harness design thinking practices to do just this. Design thinking isn't just for designers—it's a problem solving approach that everyone can use for anything from generating a new business idea to solving a social problem to helping you design your life or career goals.

In this final lecture of 2021, come ready to get your hands dirty with hands-on application of fundamental design thinking principles. This time together will teach you a better way to innovate using empathy, ideation, and validation to help you break out of linear thinking and generate great new ideas.

Join us for this interactive lecture at 5 p.m. ET led by Christina Goldschmidt, VP of Product Design at Etsy. With 20+ years of experience working with a wide array of Fortune 500 clients, including Marriott, American Express, The Discovery Channel, Morgan Stanley, and numerous others, she'll walk members through a step-by-step brainstorming process you can use in your own work.