In a fast-moving business world, User Experience (UX) leadership and influence are necessary skills for UX professionals to be successful. UX leaders advocate for user-centered design practices, infuse this into the culture of an organization, and drive business by user needs and design mandates. In addition to cultural leadership, the UX leader needs to work closely with other stakeholders – including users, product owners, managers, engineers, and experts/specialists in other disciplines – to set up best UX delivery practices, design operations, and agile methodologies to ensure effective design and delivery of excellent end-to-end user experiences.

This course introduces students to essential UX leadership skills, provides opportunities to develop and hone those skills, and builds awareness of the expectations for exemplary UX leadership. Studio-based learning and discussions of strategies for understanding the tenets of UX leadership will be employed. Each student will examine and demonstrate the applications of UX leadership via lectures, individual assignments, and a major group design project. Students will then learn how to communicate the value of UX to executives, as well as how to recognize business challenges that can be turned into UX opportunities and successes. An emphasis will be placed on the application of both UX best practices – including design thinking, user research, and agile development – and personal skills relating to influence, like empathy, awareness, storytelling, and persuasion.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Managerial" Professional Requirement.