Why I want to be your design leader at Jane and elevate design at scale.

”Design offers organizations an opportunity to enhance brand experience, advance innovation, and drive transformation and progress towards more desirable futures.”

Experience & expertise

  • Lead internal creative teams; currently one with 7 direct reports ranging from design to operations in order to execute campaigns and bring marketing initiatives to life.

  • I have been part of the RGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Canada) for many years. I have been on their board committee and also been lead on various initiatives. Right now I sit on the Certification Committee and help with processes that allow people to get RGD certified.

  • I’ve mentored and taught design for many years both part-time and full-time. I am well versed in providing designers guidance, career development direction, and life-long learning skills.

  • I’m a designer! 👀 I have both a Undergraduate Degree in design and also a Masters because I love to nerd out on design. I am passionate about exploring the impact of design on many areas of the business and diverse industries.

I am a people first leader

  • I believe a successful design team or creative team starts with a people-first mindset. A team and innovative thinkers is only fostered by a organization and leadership team that values their people over all other requirements.

    PEOPLE: Invest in the team and people who are the thinkers and doers.

    PROCESSES: Refine and craft good processes, work flows, and strategic work streams.

    TOOLS: Integrate the proper tools, tech, and software to get the job done.

My style is… Coach/Visionary

  • I am someone who can quickly recognize their team members' strengths, weaknesses and motivate them to help each other as well as guide them to success.

  • I believe in assisting team members in setting smart goals and providing regular feedback with challenging projects to promote growth.

  • I aim to be someone who inspires employees, especially during a time of change. These types of leaders thrive in large companies going through a transformation or in fast-growing organizations. I strive to establish a strong organizational bond and foster confidence among direct reports and colleagues alike to share opportunity, innovation, and excitement.

What makes a good brand & creative leader today

  • I understand that learning happens on all levels. I accept ambiguity, learn on the job and realize that in every task there lies a personal growth opportunity.

    I believe that true leaders and movers in the industry value that careers are for the making, not for the taking and I take ownership of being inventive, original, and unique.

  • I am a strong believer in ‘we cannot manage what we do not know’ and there I apply analytical rigour to decomposing trends and understanding results of campaigns.

    I am a builder of hypotheses and spend time interpreting the data, not only describing it. Rarely does data tell the whole story.

    I always make sure we define what success looks like, so we can track the right KPIs & metrics.

  • I believe that it’s not about how many things we do but the overall impact we generate. Fewer priorities with optimal speed & agility often imply better execution & alignment of business objectives.

    I am resilient and comfortable challenging prioritization and often shifting and pivoting based on immediate need. Flexibility is key to success.

  • I am not one to play politics and truly believe the most success is based on impact. I promote sharing information, tools, and best practices proactively across functions (and sometimes geographies).

    I value diversity through team culture and also through thought and unique contributions.

    I lead with respect and kindness. We are all human and we all deserve to be treated as such.

    I also never take myself too seriously. Life is fun!

Validating and grounding design at an organization

Leaders need to solidify practices, frameworks, and tools they can use to effectively lead and transform the design function within a organization.

PHASE 1

Establishing the design foundation

Means setting the directions that design will pursue and its rules of engagement with the rest of the organization to form a strong foundation for successful scaling of the design function.

PHASE 2

Empowering the design team

Describes how to define the design function in terms of competencies, roles, and outcomes, including how to lead a design team and attract the best talent for it. It specifically looks at how to help designers thrive.

PHASE 3

Elevating to design excellence

Relates to approaches and tactics to scale a design function successfully to its preferred state. This phase can involve giving design the right voice with an organizations framework and also global matrix.

The 12 qualities of effective design lead organizations 

FOUNDATION

  1. Share sense of purpose

  2. Focused empowered leadership

  3. Authentic customer understanding

  4. Understand, articulate, and create value

OUTPUT

  1. Support the entire journey

  2. Deliver at all levels of scale

  3. Establish and uphold standards of quality

  4. Value delivery and also efficiency

MANAGEMENT

  1. Treat team members as people, not resources

  2. Diversity of perspective and background 

  3. Foster a collaborative environment 

  4. Manage operations effectively 

I aim to facilitate the team to achieve outcomes and shared success.

Help focus everyone on successful outcomes and the path to get there. Provide vision, shape discussions, and align on clear expectations. But I don’t hold the rein tight, I let experts and diverse perspectives shine to come up with the best solutions. Help by unblocking teams, providing resources, negotiating priorities, and driving execution. 

I am your next leader

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I am your next leader ✴︎