FOR NEXT WAVE DESIGN LEADERS

Hi Reader,

Happy New Year y'all. I hope you got the rest you deserve and are safe/well. We've got 3 seats left for our January 25 cohort of Strategic Business Thinking. Here's why you should join and learn with me.

You’re a leader in your org–maybe you’ve got Lead or Director or VP in your title, but you deal with decisions, personalities, policies, and culture every day. You aren’t getting the mentorship and practice you need to find your voice as a leader. You need to develop too.

You feel alone with many of the problems you have and the situations you’re in. I’ve been in your seat at those tables. I worked in orgs that applied rigor and orgs that didn’t. I had to walk backwards to sort it all out.

You know what you're trying to get done, but folks aren't getting it. Whether it's peers, leadership, or teams, your words are falling short. You need clear, concise messaging to persuade people what to do or get you, but you are stuck and frustrated. I help you do this.

You're surrounded by people trying to pressure you to do stuff that MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. You need to learn how to turn that conversation around so they figure that out too before it goes sideways. I help you feel more comfortable having that chat.

For all the talk of metrics, measures, ROI, OKRs, etc., it's all a house of cards. You don't know who's using math, how to get start measuring from scratch, and show you're not making it up. I teach you how to do this in a proven way.

You want to model an entirely new approach to leadership. You want to do it better, have no guide to work from, and being a spectator in this industry of ours can leave you feeling inferior or that you're letting others down. You need support from others going through it too.

Every part of your day is a negotiation, yet it always feels like a surprise. You're tired. You want the skills, tools and judgement needed to deal with devil's advocates and gut decisions. You need practice without consequences.

You want to know YOUR value beyond revenue for the company. You want to prove there's more to success than revenue alone, but you're speaking to a lot of people who are thinking about their own incentives, love money, and are risk averse. I share harsh truths gently.

So, how do you know I'm not just selling you some shit?

I led design at Apple. Not for Steve, but in Tim's org when he was the CFO. I designed the first LMS to get capitally funded after 4 prev. attempts to get it. How? We tracked & measured the benefits before asking for $$$.

I came in as the 1st designer at EA (twice) and Nestlé to build/scale orgs from scratch. I sucked at it at first, but got much better with practice. Each time, I was hired to "bring Apple-like rigor" to the biz, but had teach what I was implementing while I was implementing it.

I was hired as the executive in charge of Experience Strategy at USAA and served on Forrester's CX Leadership Board. I led the team that created an entirely new approach to Product Visions, which enabled dozens of teams handling billions of $ to develop 100s of new capabilities.

Ok, whatever. Who really gives a shit about that stuff. I've taught over 350 of your peers for the last 2 1/2 yrs and my referral rate is over 60%. Why? Because I'm not going to bullshit you. I'm not going to sell you silver bullets. I'm going to push you hard with care.

​We start on January 25th. We run it as a collaborative cohort. We give you the practice and community you deserve. My top priority is your safety through it all. You join this course when you're ready to leap forward.

Have questions? Need someone to listen? Reply to this email.

Thanks friends!
Ryan