DesignMeets

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Design teams within organizations are facing a range of challenges these days: from the rise of AI, to the decline of the in-house design department. As opportunities for design leadership are shifting, new questions emerge about what design can do and emerging designers face anxieties as they try to find their path. Along with a group of design leaders we will explore critical questions: Why do some in-house design teams thrive, while others struggle to survive? What are the unique opportunities for design leaders to create impact in organizations?, And what can we learn from those who've seem to have cracked the code?

Join us for a focused discussion about how design teams are structured and embedded within organizations. We'll examine barriers that challenge the implementation of design-led innovation, and how failure to overcome such obstacles can contribute to team decline. We'll also examine the rise of cross-disciplinary work and the role design leadership can play in helping organizations reckon with complexity.

This DesignMeets is for design professionals at all stages, from emerging talent to seasoned leaders, seeking to understand and shape the future of in-house design.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Event Panelists

Azadeh Houshmand

Director, Client Experience Design Strategy & Insights at Scotiabank

Azadeh is the Director of Client Experience Design Strategy & Insights at ScotiaBank and has over a decade of experience working with the financial, healthcare and education sector. Azadeh is a human centered design leader with extensive expertise in experience design, CX/EX, innovation strategy, business design and design research. She is guiding teams through their transformational journeys, from insights to actions — using quantitative and qualitative insights and data to strategic decisioning and execution. She helps organizations understand their customers better, deepen their relationships, design products, services and experiences that meet customers' expectations and create differentiation and loyalty with the brand.

Azadeh holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management — specialized in Design Strategy and Innovation — with a background in marketing, branding, Psychology and Visual Arts. As a photographer, Azadeh has had numerous group and solo photography exhibitions.

Farwa Kazmi

Director of Product Design, GreenShield

Farwa is an award-winning Product Design Leader & Entrepreneur in Toronto. With 14+ years in digital, she has conceived digital experiences for B2C brands like Shoppers Drug Mart, Kraft, TSN, Sunnybrook Hospital, U.S Army, & more to impact millions of customers through technology and human-centered design. Farwa previously led teams at startups like Nudge AI (acquired by Affinity in San Francisco), Crypto Exchange BCM (acquired by BitBuy), and legal tech AI/ML scale-up Kira (acquired by Litera) that used machine learning for contract analysis.

Farwa also led the creation of a new product line as Kira's Entrepreneur in Residence, which spun out into Zuva AI ($20 M Series A Raise) and founded Explorux, a product consultancy to advise early-stage startups. Farwa has coached 200+ young entrepreneurs as an Advisor for Junior Achievement Canada with Deloitte, was a UX educator at BrainStation, and an avid guest speaker at University of Toronto, York University, and Western University. Currently, Farwa is the Director of Product Design at social enterprise GreenShield — transforming health care for millions of Canadians with UX oversight across a portfolio of 12+ products & services spanning mental health, iCBT, chronic diseases, wellbeing, pharmacy, telemedicine, insurance and benefits administration.

Jennifer Rosart

Director, Patient and Family Experience at The Hospital for Sick Children

Jennifer is the Director of Patient and Family Experience at SickKids. She is a seasoned design leader with over 10 years of experience in consulting and the public sector, leading teams that operate at the intersection of health and design. Her mission and passion lie in bringing the human experience to the core of how change comes about in healthcare.

Milica Stefancic

Lab Leader/Manager, Experience Design Lab for the Government of Ontario

Milica brings 20+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams at the intersection of design, storytelling, technology, and public service. As a leader in Ontario’s Experience Design Lab, she helps shape the conditions for design to thrive in government — connecting research and strategy to delivery and building inclusive environments where teams can do their best and most thoughtful work.

Event Moderators

Emma Aiken-Klar

Academic Director of the Business Design Initiative, Rotman School of Management

Emma is an anthropologist, educator, consultant and coach with nearly 20 years of industry experience applying human-centered methodologies to complex innovation and organizational challenges. Formally trained in anthropological theory and ethnographic methodologies, Emma’s expertise is in translating her insights into practical strategic guidance for her clients.

Using a range of social science, design and strategic foresight methods, Emma uncovers insights about human beliefs and behaviour and then works with business leaders to apply these learnings to make meaningful transformative change. She enjoys working on a broad range of challenges, including talent engagement, organizational change, strategic innovation, experience and service design.

In addition to her work for clients, Emma is an Assistant Professor at the Rotman School of Management where she also leads the Business Design Initiative, an educational centre that sits at the nexus between industry and academia.

Emma has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto, and an MA in Communication and Culture from York University.

Michael Dila

Oslo for AI Project, Leader

Michael Anton Dila is a designer of conversation, the originator of System 3 and the leader of the Oslo for AI project.

Michael has spent his career working at the crux of change: building and equipping teams to do their most ambitious work; working to democratize the knowledge and practice of design; leading innovation work in companies, organizations and institutions; nurturing community and instigating challenging conversations. Michael has always had a passion for starting things. Whether it's companies or communities, he has spent much of the last 25 years breaking new ground. As a design and innovation leader he was devoted to making both more rigorous and more accessible. He is a founding member of Overlap, a peer network of innovators who share knowledge and practice to advance the state of the art of design. Since spending five years helping to build an elite innovation unit in the U.S. Department of Defence, he has been focused on working with leaders and teams in domains characterized by both high technical and ethical complexity, such as AI, defence innovation and inclusive entrepreneurship.

The Future of Design Teams

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