The most successful design leaders recognize the importance of continuous self-improvement.
When you can speak business fluently and position design as competitive advantage, everything changes. You don't just get respect, you earn influence.
Every day you're not positioning yourself as the leader your company needs, someone else is.
I know exactly how frustrated you are.
You're doing incredible work, but something's not right. Sound familiar?
Your design work delivers millions in revenue, but when the CFO asks "What's the ROI?" you freeze.
Stakeholders still see you as the person who "makes things pretty" while others get credit for results your work actually created.
You have valuable strategic insights, but you can't translate them into language that gets you invited to strategy meetings.
Less experienced people are getting promoted because they speak "business" while you're stuck explaining design principles again.
You know design should be driving competitive advantage, but you're getting to-do lists instead of shaping strategy.
You know you need top-notch designers on your team, but struggle to develop and grow the team to become the best out there.
As the market continues moving towards AI and intelligent systems, the design leaders who can position themselves as something new will thrive.
When you work with Ryan…
We'll work together to transform how you present your work from "improved user experience," to "drove a $2.3M increase in revenue."
Together, we'll build your confidence to walk into any room as an equal.
You'll learn to influence major business decisions and position yourself as the strategic partner you've always known you could be.
We'll enhance your resiliency by looking beyond design. Together, we will build you up to do the hard parts of leadership with more clarity.
A 6-month, personalized program tailored to you and your situation
Bi-weekly, one-hour sessions, to check-in, monitor your progress, discuss new insights and address new opportunities and challenges ahead
Recommended practices and techniques with detailed guidance on how to plan, conduct, and make sense of their results
An opportunity to develop new skills with someone who will hold you accountable for your progress
A shared Notion folder with notes, prompts, and resources
Access to all my proprietary frameworks, courses, and resources inside CDO School
Meet your coach–Ryan Rumsey
At USAA, a $35 billion financial services company, I served as the senior executive leading Experience Strategy initiatives for multiple billion-dollar business units. This meant working directly with C-suite executives on the decisions that shaped the company's future. The exact the kind of influence you're working toward.
Before that, I built and led a cross-functional team at Electronic Arts, learning how to manage not just designers, but product managers, researchers, and front-end developers. I discovered that leading design at scale requires completely different skills than being a brilliant individual contributor.
I've been working with machine learning since 2008—back when most people thought AI was science fiction. Now I'm building LLM-integrated products, which gives me insight into how design leadership is evolving in the age of intelligent systems.
Over the years, I've guided more than 2,500 design leaders across 29 countries through this exact transformation. I've delivered leadership development programs at companies like Google, LinkedIn, Zillow, Chase, and DocuSign. They trusted me to invest in developing their people.
Design Leadership Coaching
6-month program- 100% confidentiality.
- Results guaranteed
- All sessions conducted via phone or video chat
- Additional fees apply for in-person sessions
- Complete contact form for more information and availability
- A 6-month, personalized program tailored to you and your situation
- Bi-weekly, one-hour sessions
- Options for video recordings and transcripts
- Shared Notion folder
- All CDO School resources