On 16 December at 5 pm GMT, we will be hosting Amy Thibodeau, Chief Design Officer at Gusto, for a 90-minute conversation about the Chief Design Officer role, the business value of creativity, and what she's learned leading design at Shopify and Gusto.

Apply to get invited

This is an invite-only session. Apply to attend the event live and ask your questions directly.

Amy was one of the first members of Facebook's content strategy team. Later, as a senior director of UX at Shopify, she led a cross-functional team of more than 130 people, launched the Polaris design system, built the Platform UX team and founded the Design Ops practice. In 2021, she joined Gusto, the payroll, benefits and HR platform for small businesses, where she is now Chief Design Officer and also leads teams including AI Platform, Design Systems and Mobile.

In this 90-minute conversation, Ekaterina Solomeina will discuss with Amy what her role as a Chief Design Officer really involves, how she tells the story of design's value inside a tech company, and why she believes designers should never assume they're designing for themselves.

Apply to get invited

What we'll talk about

• How do you grow from content strategist to Chief Design Officer?
• How do you build a customer-focused company culture as Chief Design Officer?
• How can you measure the impact of design on a business?
• How does a Chief Design Officer lead teams beyond design, from AI to mobile?
• How can more design and product leaders find their way into the boardroom?

What happens in the Live Circle?

The Live Circle is a small, invite-only group of senior design leaders who will join the interview live on Zoom on 16 December, 5:00–6:30 pm GMT.

We keep the live group small and bring together leaders at a similar stage, so the conversation goes deeper. Better questions for Amy and a chat full of peers who understand your challenges.

• Ask your questions to Amy directly
• Chat in real time with Heads of Design, Creative Directors and Founders with 15+ years of experience from all over the world
• Hear how peers in other countries and industries tackle the same problems

Want to be part of the conversation?

Apply now, and we'll let you know within 72 hours whether you've been invited.

Apply to get invited