Design Leadership
Advancing the practice of design leadership.



Advancing
our craft
Our mission is to advance the practice of design leadership by fostering a community where the world’s best can learn from one another. We strive to make the Forum inclusive and relevant to those confronting the challenges of leading design teams.
Design Leadership
Forum members
This community is built for enterprise design leaders. There are 3000 members. Here’s a representation of who’s here:

Leslie Witt
Headspace

Irene Au
Khosla Ventures

Frank Yoo
Coinbase

Lori Kaplan
Ecosystem, Atlassian

Bob Calvano
A+E Networks

Shawn Johnson
Discovery Channel

Eliel Johnson
Charles Schwab

Amanda Linden
Facebook

Amy Lokey
ServiceNow

John Couch
Hulu

Sandro Cosaro
Fandango

John Moon
Apple

Jon Dean
Fox

Christy Schaefer
Blizzard

Byron Phillipson
Twitch

Todd Zaki Warfel
Author

Bob Baxley
Thoughtspot

Eli Woolery
InVision

Aarron Walter
Resolve To Save Lives

Michelle Chin
Oracle

Shani Sandy
IBM

Laura Hahn
CBRE

Renda Morton
Dropbox

Daniela Shuffler
WeddingWire

Pradeep Nayar
Allstate

Stephen Gates
InVision

Meriah Garrett
USAA

Erica Weiss Tjader
SurveyMonkey

Shu Lai
Coursera

Darren Tome
Mashable

Levon Sharrow
Patagonia

Laurie Schiada
Boeing

Dane Howard
Samsung

Jimmy Ball
PwC

Amy Keeling
Athenahealth

Lara Hanlon
IBM

Corwin Stone
Capital One

Todd Wilkins
ShipStation

Kim Hicks
Disney Channel

Krystianne Avedian
Capgemini

Mindy Duong
East West Bank

Priyanka Kakar
The Walt Disney Company

Abigail Hart
Google

Heidi Shelton
HDS Global

Cliff Spence
Sugar 23

Daniela Shuffler
The Knot Worldwide

Darren Tome
CNN

Laurie Schiada
Humana

Jimmy Ball
7-Eleven

Amy Keeling
Babylon Health

What members
are saying

“Face-to-face conversations are the best resources for growing as a design leader. The connections I’ve made here are real, the advice and anecdotes are fresh and relevant, and it’s been equally rewarding to offer some help in return.”

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. Who better to learn from than design leaders who have been (and are still) in the trenches? The connections that will be made and relationships that will develop within this community will be priceless.”

Benefits of
membership
Learn from the best
An inside view of the practices at high-functioning design teams and their solutions to common problems.
Speak in confidence
A chance to have candid, confidential conversations about issues that keep you up at night.
Broad perspectives
A chance to connect with a broad network of experts committed to helping fellow design leaders advance.
Best practices from the front lines
The opportunity to learn from veteran design leaders and industry influencers.




Design
leadership
in action
Mike Davidson facilitating a member dinner in Palo Alto with design executives from Google, Atlassian, SurveyMonkey, Hortonworks, and 20 other companies.
Design leaders from ENGIE, The Orange Group, EY, BPCE, Thales Design Center, Dailymotion, Saint Gobain, and others meet on a Paris rooftop.
In Toronto, dinner attendees received a copy of Kim Scott’s Radical Candor and InVision’s Design Systems handbook
CEOs, product, and design leaders from Intuit, Caseport, AT&T, discuss partnership strategies in Dallas.
Chef hanging out with Design Leadership Forum members before the discussions.
Kimberly Hicks (Disney), Mindy Duong (East West Bank), Puneet Thakar (Appetize) trade hiring strategies at the Los Angeles dinner.
Henry Hongmin Kim (Coca-Cola), Gene Lee (MailChimp), and Asa Sherrill (Macquarium) talk about operationalizing design at scale at the Atlanta dinner.
Brent Brooks (AIG), Bob Calvano (A+E Networks), Aaron Gardner (Blackrock), and Maria Nicholas (Moody's Analytics) listen in for insights on leading growing design teams
Dane Howard (Samsung NEXT) shares his leadership stories with Jose Benavides (Realor.com), Liana Lawrance (Rocket Lawyer), and fellow members at the San Francisco dinner
Stanford d.school tour with Bill Burnett, Executive Director, Design Program at Stanford University.
Leslie Witt (Intuit) discussing how to create design forward organizations.
Dinner discussion with leaders from Amy Lokey (Google), Amanda Linden (Facebook), Eliel Johnson (Charles Schwab), and more.
Amy Lokey (Google), Irene Au (Khosla Ventures), and Lori Kaplan (Atlassian) discuss scaling design at enterprises.
Bill Burnett (Stanford) shares the origin story of the Stanford d.school.
Amanda Linden (Facebook), Frank Yoo (Lyft), and Amy Lokey (Google) at the Palo Alto dinner.
Shani Sandy (S+P Capital), James Findlater (Vimeo), Laura Hahn (Priceline) at the New York City dinner.
Laura Hahn (Priceline), Renda Morton (New York Times), and Gregg Meyer (WeWork) discuss how to amplify design culture.
Winter
design leadership
events
The Design Leadership Forum usually convenes at dinners, online events, a private slack community, community meetups, and at retreats that help members recharge while learning. Spending time together empowers us to connect and exchange ideas faster—and as a true community.
During the C-19 pandemic, the DLF will convene online in curated groups. Learn about the latest community insights in our public LinkedIn group.
Here’s a list of the upcoming member events.
Event date and location
- Jan 7, OnlineMember Town Hall
- Jan 14, OnlineDLF Districts: CX
- Jan 20, OnlineDiscourse: 2021 Design Trends (EMEA)
- Jan 21, OnlineDLF Districts: Womxn in leadership
- Feb 2, OnlineDiscourse: 2021 Design Trends (Americas)
- Feb 6, OnlineDLF Districts: Executives
- Feb 7, OnlineMember Town Hall
Apply to be in the Design Leadership Forum
The Design Leadership Forum brings together industry veterans and rising stars who direct design at leading companies.
If you’re an experienced design leader and you’d like to join, please apply by filling out the form below.
Want to nominate someone? Send them this email to direct them to this page to apply.
All members of the Design Leadership community agree to follow a clear code of conduct.