Hi Reader,

It’s been a summer filled with lots of kid stuff, being a dad, and giving up on the idea that I’d have a regular schedule to get anything done. It's been super good for me to spend time away from work stuff, but school is almost back in session and I'm really looking forward to putting some time back into trying to do this whole "tiny business owner" thing. :)

Also, times are weird right now. You might feel weird, and I definitely feel weird, but it’s no good for me if I’m just sitting around making things on my computer. It’s good for me to talk to people.

As design has become more critical to business, design leaders are actively driving more business decisions. Successful design leaders balance culture, process, practice, and people to drive impactful outcomes–all without losing their soul.

But why can some design leaders do this well, and others struggle?

It’s simple. Successful design leaders have strategic clarity.

Knowing the distinct value you bring as a design leader, what good design is (and isn’t) at your company, being able to express it, turning it into tangible results, and having the conviction to do it in a way that inspires your team and earns the trust of your stakeholders. That’s strategic clarity.

Strategic clarity is what we do at Chief Design Officer School.

We help design leaders get clear on their strategy so they can execute it effortlessly across their whole business.

No more confusion. No more anxiety. No more competing with Product Management or Engineering. Just a clear path to creating extraordinary teams and outcomes while having fun doing it.

Do you want to learn more about CDO School's programming and discover what it's like to be a CDO School student?

I’m doing a live Open House about Chief Design Officer School on Thursday, August 31 at 12p ET.

Whether you’re familiar with CDO School or it’s totally new, we’ll be chatting about what it is, what we do, what alumni are getting out of it, how the courses have changed over 4 years, etc. I’ll be there, some alumni will be there, and it will be an informative yet laid-back session. I’d love to see you there and answer any questions you might have.

In this Live Open House event, we will cover:

• How to assess your priorities as a leader
• How to remix design and business skills to gain strategic clarity
• How to frame leadership work as a design work
• Get concrete ideas for how to be more proactive in your work

Register now and join us on Thursday, August 31st at 12p ET / 9a PT for an insightful and fun conversation.

Please join me and invite your pals too! We can be weird together!

5 steps to turn your OKRs into logical, measurable categories of design and business health with POKRs and North Star Maps

In my experience, many theoretical models get introduced and fail to deliver on their promise. OKRs is one of those models. There are four issues I see coming up time and time again that OKRs aren't effectively addressing:

1. Teams have more than one objective to meet
2. Shared objectives across product teams
3. Quality and desirability conversations remain subjective
4. Designers aren't fulfilling their potential

How do we fix this situation? In my experience, the tools we use to conduct our analysis and develop insights are too complex to share with business partners. They don’t really remove the subjectiveness of design and they're not helping us address the issues with OKRs. When these issues are present, I see product teams, stakeholders, and executive leaders struggle to connect the dots between design and business.

I think Strategy Maps are the bridge we need to improve OKRs and make them more actionable/relatable. In this article, I share a 5-step process to turn your OKRs into logical, measurable categories of design and business health with POKRs and North Star Maps.

Let me know what you think about it.

Have a great weekend!
Ryan
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