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.
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.
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.
Employees say these 4 things can ease the transition back to the office
As the world starts to reopen, not all companies are taking an employee-first approach to how they are going back to the offie. Fast Company was looking for companies who were doing a good job of helping employees ease back into going back to the office. They interviewed me for how Etsy is advocating for employee’s mental health and all that we are doing with our new Mental Health Employee Resource Group.
SUPPORTING EMPLOYEE FINANCES AND MENTAL HEALTH
Online marketplace Etsy made working at home a little easier with a $100-per-month stipend to help employees offset the costs of working from home. The company also subsidized ergonomically correct home office furniture to help ensure that working from home was more comfortable. “I can open up a help desk ticket, and have someone consult with me about the ergonomics of my home office setup,” says Christina Goldschmidt, head of product design.
Now that employees are heading back to the office, the company is focusing on employees’ mental health. Goldschmidt helped co-found the employee resource group for mental health needs. “Etsy has always had all these amazing employee resource groups, bringing about a whole bunch of different affinities,” she says. When employees were surveyed, it was clear that they needed mental health support, she says.
Goldshmidt says she was “vocal” about the need and the company supported creating a support structure, “and a place where we can actually create content and programming and a safe space for people to have dialogue and support and actually have executive team sponsorship for mental health,” she says. She feels it’s going to be an important resource as employees head back to the office this fall. The resource group is also tackling burnout and advocated for an additional day off on the July 4 holiday to give employees more of a break.
How to use this report – Perspective from the field
InVisions’s Design Leadership Forum, it’s networking and community group for design leaders, published it’s first report on leadership salaries. I was one of the contributors to the over all report. And though it was not possible to lend my actual name to the piece, I was able to consult on the postscript on how to think about using the salary survey and putting it into action. I really appreciate that InVision still moved forward with including my content even though I was not able to lend my name to the piece.
Download the full 2021 Design Leader Salary Report on InVision’s website
What design leadership means to Accenture’s Christina Goldschmidt
The InVision Inside Design Blog is a staple read for the product design community. One of the reasons why is that they constantly profile interesting and unique design leaders and bring fresh prospectives to the field and share their expert advice. I was honored to be profiled and share my thoughts on leadership and my unique design career in management consulting.
Read the full profile here:
https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/profile-christina-goldschmidt/
Boom - Leadership Advice
I’m honored to be quotes on the SheSays Boom site with my best career advice:
“You don’t need somebody else’s permission to have the career you actually want. Everything that you do has transferrable skills to the job that you probably want to do later on. You don’t need to be the person who says, “Oh, I only have 20% of those skills so I’m not going to apply.” It’s really about saying how can I make sure that I am I casting myself in the right light in order to go after that next job - be it within your current organization with the sponsorship of someone or be it outside because you actually have those skills. Some of them you will learn on the job, and that’s ok. You can do it.”
Visit the SheSays Boom site for more great advice from amazing women:
How Insurtech Helps Build Customer Trust in an Age of Uncertainty
I was recently quoted in the Bolt blog on how insurtechs help build trust with customers through technology.
Image courtesy of Bolt
“To improve customer trust relationships, insurers could learn from the application of ecommerce tools in the retail sector. By using tech tools like a SaaS platform to establish consistent workflows, enable customization, build a more interactive marketing approach and protect customer information within a de-siloed company, insurers can make it easier to provide trustworthy service and to gather trustworthy data.”
Read the full article here:
http://blog.boltinc.com/insurance-distribution-solution-blog/insurtech-customer-trust
Luminary Conversations with Respondent Inc
I am honored to be the first in the series of Respondent’s Luminary Conversations. They are furthering their mission by bringing the greatest research minds together to talk about how we work today, research methodologies and where we think the future of research is headed.
Image courtesy of Respondent Inc.
““It’s not just about mining data in order to make your experience truly personalized and customer-centric. User research still has a core part to play.” ”
Read the full interview here:
I Met Anthony Bourdain for 15 Minutes, but He Made a Lasting Impact
The passing of Anthony Bourdain is a deep tragedy. As someone who helped shape my world view, and even how I think about interacting with other cultures and even my own heritage, it is will a heavy heart that I tried to convey his impact on my life for U.S. New & World Report.
My dear friend, Frances Largeman-Roth's article on Bourdain is a great tribute to him and a symbol of his reach and impact. She details how he personally helped to shape her philosophy on food and travel. And I was honored that she reached out to be for a quote as well:
“His passion for Vietnamese food helped me connect with my roots through food in a way that I wasn’t able to with my own family.
He gave me access to foods and tastes and cultures that were closed off for me through family drama and the pains of emigration.”
How Platforms Can Protect Workers in the Gig Economy from Sexual Harassment
Research says that gig workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment. What can platforms do to protect them?
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
One of the risks gig workers are most susceptible to is harassment and discrimination. As they are typically not considered regular employees, gig workers have fewer protections under federal anti-discrimination laws, a fact which, like many of the other risks they face, many gig workers are unaware of.
But platforms can be the solution here to help fight sexual harassment. Learn how in my article:
What if a Chatbot Could Help You Buy Insurance?
As digital assistants and on-demand advisors, chatbots will fundamentally change the way people buy insurance. Read my thoughts on how to design the best chatbot experience and see an example of what it could look like!
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Read more about chatbots here:
https://cakeandarrow.com/newsfeed/2018/04/if-a-chatbot-could-help-you-buy-insurance/
And check out the video of the experience:
Study: Insurance industry is "very behind" in satisfying the needs of the gig economy
The results of Cake & Arrow’s latest case study have been published – and it has found that the insurance industry needs to do more to meet the needs of gig economy workers.
Image courtesy of Insurance Business America
This Insurance Business American article quotes the white paper and case study that I wrote:
With nearly 40% of the US labor market now comprised of gig workers, the insurance industry is already very behind in satisfying the needs of this market
Our hope is that our case study and the prototype we designed will accelerate some of the thinking and innovation that is long overdue in the industry.
Read the whole article here:
How to Insure the Gig Economy
My work on the gig economy was published in Insurance Thought Leadership. The piece is about:
What if there was insurance specifically for gig workers that provided them some of the security and stability of full-time workers?
Image courtesy of Insurance Thought Leadership
Read the article:
http://insurancethoughtleadership.com/how-to-insure-the-gig-economy/
The Gig Economy is Changing the Way We Work
At Cake & Arrow we wanted to explore what it would be like to design insurance for gig economy workers that offers flexibility and stability.
OUR HYPOTHESIS
As of now, about 15% of gig workers rely on platforms like Uber, Upwork, or TaskRabbit to conduct their work. This number is expected to grow. Motivated by the absence of insurance designed for these workers and their general lack of understanding around risk, we thought: what if there was insurance specifically for gig workers, designed around the apps they are already using, which helped them better understand their risk and provided them with some of the security and stability of full time workers?
So we did some research, built a prototype, and tested it. We learned alot about the mindsets of gig workers and what they are looking for in an insurance product.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Read the case study:
How Customer Experience Can Address the Gender Pay Gap in the Gig Economy
Female Uber drivers make 7% less than male drivers. Can customer experience design help close the gender pay gap?
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Gig Economy Workers in Workers Compensation Gray Area
I was recently quoted in BusinessInsurance.com on the gray area that is misclassification of employees in the gig economy. In the Lawson vs. GrubHub case, the judge declared Lawson to be a contractor, thus dismissing his claims to back wages and expenses. The gig economy seems to continue to be a gray area and gig workers are left vulnerable and exposed without the proper education to understand their risk exposures.
My quotes:
"What I'm seeing, looking at the industry as a whole, is that everyone is knows that this is an issue and they are having dialogues internally within the industry and at their companies, but they are waiting to see."
"Its a gray area, and it's going to be either an opportunity or a larger risk that emerges, but right now they have yet to figure that out. People are trying to propose ideas that would be a win-win."
Read the article, note it requires free registration:
The Archery Club: How I Made Women’s Equality My Business in 2017
In a #MeToo Moment, I reflect on how, one year in, starting the Archery Club has moved the needle on women’s equality at Cake & Arrow.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com
My article on what the insurance industry can learn from the commerce industry was recently republished in Insurance Thought Leadership dot com.
Trust remains one of the insurance industry’s greatest barriers to transformation. What lessons can they learn from retail ecommerce?
Image courtesy of InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com