Upgrade Your Design Org

Through consulting and workshop offerings, Peter Merholz helps companies get the most out of their design organizations.

A little About Peter

Peter Merholz has worked at the intersection of design, technology, and humans for over 25 years. He co-founded Adaptive Path, the premier user experience consultancy, acquired by Capital One in 2014. 

Since leaving Adaptive Path, he’s worked as a design leader and executive, leading teams at Groupon, OpenTable, Jawbone, Capital One, Snagajob (now Snag), and Kaiser Permanente. 

Peter has long been a contributor to the professional design community, through his writing, conference speaking, and events hosting. 

In 2016 he co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs, still the premier book on building in-house design teams.

Read more about Peter.

Blog

Metrics and UX/Design Maturity

Feb 01, 2023

A common challenge for the design leaders I support is identifying metrics. They know their team is having a positive impact, but struggle articulating it in any concrete way. They seek canonical, industry-standard metrics that prove UX/Design’s value, but the reality is, no such metrics exist. The nature of UX/Design’s impact is specific to the company, the audience, and the problem space under question.  I have found

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Design leadership is change management

Jan 09, 2023

Over the holiday break, I reviewed the 5 conversations that Jesse and I have conducted with truly senior design executives for our podcast Finding Our Way, looking for lessons that could be distilled and imparted for those who aspire to such roles. As I pored over the transcripts, an overarching theme emerged: Design leadership is change management.  This was actually stated in the first interview, by Katrina

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Consulting

Whether for 2 hours or 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years, Peter adopts a consulting program that specifically meets your needs to help design organizations amplify their effectiveness. 

Read about how Peter can work with you.

Masterclasses

Peter has conducted training, both internally and at public events, for over 15 years. He has developed a set of workshops and structured conversations to help improve the operations of design organizations, and to improve practices of design leadership. 

Read about Peter’s masterclass offerings

Org Design for Design Orgs

The first book to help people understanding how to best establishing successful in-house design teams. Co-written by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner, and drawing on their experience from building Adaptive Path, and working in-house at such companies as Capital One, Groupon, Microsoft, and OpenTable. 

Covers subjects such as:

  • Organizational models for design teams
  • Recruiting and hiring designers
  • Professional development and career ladders
  • Design culture and collaboration with other
  • People management of designers 

Visit the website for Org Design for Design Orgs, including a blog with plenty of new thinking.