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Who are your key stakeholders?
And when did you last have a coffee with them? At this year’s Design Leadership Retreat, we did a very simple exercise: a classic stakeholder matrix. I thought this method was widely known, but many participants had never done it, and it led to an interesting reflection. Place your stakeholders on the matrix: How much…
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When do you need a DesignOps hire?
When does a design team actually need DesignOps (or a similar supporting role)? I hear this question a lot from design leaders and it was also a topic at this year’s Design Leadership Retreat. Large design organizations usually treat DesignOps as a given. Small and medium sized teams wait too long in my experience. Some…
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Top 10 Design Leadership Challenges
As part of my masterclasses of the 2025 Leadership Ateliers in Lisbon and Berlin, we ran a live, interactive session with 73 design leaders to surface the most pressing leadership challenges they face.
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Benchmark your Design Team
As part of my research, I’ve been diving into the topic of how you can benchmark your design team. After all having a solid understanding of your status-quo is necessary to know where you should improve.
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Lead UX Podcast
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the German podcast “Lead UX” with Dr. Thomas Vöhringer-Kuhnt. We discussed the Design Leadership Framework and how to effectively apply it within companies and teams. Listen to the episode here. Hi, I’m Katharina Koberdamm, Design Consultant and Coach. I created the Design Leadership Framework to empower…
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Book Review: Design Leadership Chronicles
When I first picked up Marzia Aricò’s recent book Design Leadership Chronicles, I was intrigued by its unique format—a graphic novel exploring design leadership through case studies. I was curious to see how she’d translate complex leadership topics into a visual narrative. Spoiler: it works surprisingly well.
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A Strategy for Your Design Team
Leading a design team is a complex, multifacetted task. The Design Leadership Framework describes five key areas that design leaders have to address to build a company’s design capability: Strategy, Experience, Operations, Enterprise and Team. In this article we will take a closer look at the area of Strategy.
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Discover with me the ways I can support your growth as a design leader. Your journey matters – let’s make it meaningful together.