DX Perspective: Making Something Wonderful, Prototyping The Path, and Machines of Loving Grace
Hi all!
Here’s your weekly dose of DX Perspective, a list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward this along to friends.
kw picks
Transformation as a Project – Silicon Valley Product Group
As most know, moving to the product model means moving from a project orientation (building features and projects by specific dates) to a product orientation (solving problems and achieving business outcomes). This change is of course referring to how we build our products. Yet in many companies, they choose to manage their transformation effort as yet another big project.
What I'm watching + listening to
Adobe’s Belsky Building a Top Gen-AI Interface: Tech Disruptors - Bloomberg
“Where I think this will all end up though is that there will be many different models that will be used for many different things. The real opportunity is to build the orchestration layer and the actual applications that leverage these models in the ways you want to use them.”
What I'm reading
The 4 Growth Frameworks You Need to Build a $100M Product
One of my main observations is that there are certain companies where growth seems to come easily, like guiding a boulder downhill. These companies grow despite having organizational chaos, not executing the “best” growth practices, and missing low-hanging fruit. I refer to these companies as Smooth Sailers - a little effort for lots of speed.
Emerging Tech
Dario Amodei — Machines of Loving Grace
How AI Could Transform the World for the Better. I think and talk a lot about the risks of powerful AI. The company I’m the CEO of, Anthropic, does a lot of research on how to reduce these risks. Because of this, people sometimes draw the conclusion that I’m a pessimist or “doomer” who thinks AI will be mostly bad or dangerous. I don’t think that at all. In fact, one of my main reasons for focusing on risks is that they’re the only thing standing between us and what I see as a fundamentally positive future.
Stanford CS229 I Machine Learning I Building Large Language Models (LLMs)
This lecture provides a concise overview of building a ChatGPT-like model, covering both pretraining (language modeling) and post-training (SFT/RLHF).
Tools and Resources
Prototyping the path to Design Engineering • Slack Design
My recent articles
Decoding The Future: The Evolution Of Intelligent Interfaces
Scaling Quality: 4 Steps To Foster A Culture Of Empowerment And Accountability For Design Excellence
Mastering Orchestration: 8 Ways to Drive Business Outcomes as a Design Leader
🔈 Design Leadership at Scale
Whether you're a design leader refining your path or preparing for an executive role, Design Leadership at Scale courses are designed to equip you (and your team) with the skills, strategies, and insights needed to thrive in today's evolving landscape.
Design Leadership at Scale: Director+
Built for experienced design leaders ready to step up to executive roles, Director+ focuses on leading in complex, matrixed organizations, scaling your influence, and making high-impact decisions. This course will empower you to lead with clarity and confidence, bridging design with broader business goals to drive value across the organization.
🗓️ Nov 11–21
Design Leadership at Scale: Executive
This advanced course is tailored for senior design leaders—Senior Directors, VPs, SVPs, and CDOs — who are ready to lead at the intersection of design, business strategy, and emerging technology. Dive deep into aligning design with business objectives, fostering product culture transformation, and building scalable operations that support innovation and growth.
🗓️ Dec 9–19
Design Leadership at Scale: Operations
Scaling a design organization without compromising quality or culture is a challenge every design leader faces. This course equips senior and emerging design operations leaders with the tools to build robust infrastructure, optimize processes, and drive operational excellence. From talent development to systems that support rapid growth, this program is crafted for leaders ready to take their teams to the next level.
🗓️ Jan 28–Feb 6, 2025
🗓️ Feb 4–13, 2025
Design Leadership at Scale: Career Strategy
Your career journey deserves intention and strategy. This weekend immersive is designed for design leaders who are ready to map out their path, elevate their impact, and align their leadership trajectory with long-term goals. Whether refining your current role or preparing for new opportunities, you’ll gain actionable frameworks to craft a career that stands out in a competitive market.
🗓️ Jan 11–12, 2025
And please give me feedback. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Have a great weekend.
— Rachel