Aaron Irizarry
Sr. Director of Design at Capital OneAaron "Ron" Irizarry is a Sr. Director of Design at Capital One, he is also the co-author of Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration Through Critique.
When not leading teams and mentoring designers, Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, sharing experiences with others through food, cheering for the LA Dodgers, and working in his garden.
Laying a Foundation for Effective Design Teams
As our field grows, technology advances, and users develop new expectations for the products they use, we are challenged to build teams that produce best-in-class products and services.
When we look at what it takes to build successful, high-performing teams, we see that our opportunity for success doesn’t solely lie in the skills we hire for, but in setting a foundation for successful team (and org) outcomes by building a foundation for our teams to do their best work and be their best selves.
In this workshop, Aaron will share thoughts, tools, and techniques (gathered from personal success and failures) for building teams that perform at a high level while minimizing high anxiety.
Through presentation and activities attendees will walk away with:
- Insights into creating a foundation for your teams to do their best work.
- Building a team vision that supports team autonomy.
- Tips for increasing team communication and collaboration.
- Dealing with conflict within teams and with partners (navigating workplace politics).
- Workshop activities will help participants: Gauge and improve their EQ as a leader.
- Create a shared vision that supports team member autonomy in decision-making and execution.
- Create a canvas for building strong partnerships with cross-functional teams.
Activity 1: Gauge and Improve Your Emotional Intelligence as a Leader
In this activity, we will seek to build a foundation for developing emotional intelligence through an activity that helps participants understand the various working styles they may encounter with teams and cross-functional partnerswhile also building self-awareness through understanding their working style.
Activity 2: Creating a Vision That Sets Your Team Up For Success
The focus of this activity will be to help attendees understand what a strong team vision looks like, then practice creating one of their own that they can take back to their teams or use as a way to prepare for creating a vision for theirteams.
Activity 3: Creating a Partnership Canvas With Cross-Functional Teams
I will share the value of creating a partnership canvas with cross-functional teams in this activity and walk the attendees through best practices. Attendees will then have the opportunity to work through concepts for their partnership canvas based on their context.
Leading Successfully, Through Leading Ourselves
The way organizations are approaching product development and emerging technologies are constantly changing. At the same time our practice as designers is evolving with new tools, techniques, and approaches, surfacing at a pace that can be hard to keep up with.
What does this mean for us as leaders of teams (big or small)? How can we lead teams in progressive orgs going through digital transformation or orgs that are slower to adapt?
By focusing on developing certain skills, disciplines, and characteristics, within ourselves as leaders, we prepare ourselves for the challenges we face when leading our teams and working with our partners. We also set ourselves up to be leaders that can coach, nurture, and elevate our teams to be best equipped for the challenges they face as they execute on their work.
In this presentation, Aaron will share insights, tools, and techniques (from personal success and failures) for growing his own leadership skills, overcoming leadership challenges, and successfully developing teams.
Takeaways:
- Gauging and improving our EQ as leaders.
- The role of vulnerability and transparency in successful leadership.
- Adaptive communication and leadership styles for different types of team members and partners.
- Leading through enabling autonomy.
- Creating personal norms for successful leadership.