Design Leadership Coaching & Executive Development

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Leadership requires different skills than the craft that got you promoted. Driving vision, building influence across the organization, developing people, setting strategic direction—these aren't intuitive extensions of being a strong designer. Most design leaders learn them through trial and error, which is expensive for them and their teams. We help you develop the leadership capability that makes the difference between managing work and multiplying impact.

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Programs
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Approach
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Why Empirika
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Leadership coaching that compounds

Whether you just stepped into your first management role or you're operating at the executive level, the fundamentals don't change—clarity on direction, influence that drives decisions, and communication that inspires action. We meet you where you are and help you lead at the level your role demands.

Programs

Onramp

Start strong

First 90 Days / Manager Fundamentals / Meetings and Messaging

You just became a manager and everything feels different—you're responsible for people, not just pixels. We help you set clear expectations, run stronger meetings, and communicate with confidence so your team and partners trust your leadership from day one.

Let's talk!

Impact

Lead with purpose

Vision and Priorities / Team Direction / Storytelling and Alignment

You're leading a team but struggling to set clear direction or get everyone aligned behind shared vision. We help you define where the team is going, communicate it in a way that sticks, and build the storytelling skills to align stakeholders so the work matters.

Let's talk!

Presence

Influence at scale

Executive Communication / Strategic Influence / Presenting and Pitching

You operate at a senior level but need stronger influence with product and executive partners—your ideas are solid but they're not landing the way they should. We sharpen your presenting, tighten your storytelling, and help you build the leadership presence that matches the level you're operating at.

Let's talk!

Every leadership engagement is built around where you are in your development and what you need to strengthen. The structure remains consistent—assess, develop, practice, integrate—but how we move through it depends on your current role, the challenges you're facing, and where you want to grow.

Approach

Assess

Understanding where you are today as a leader. What's working, what's not, and what capabilities would make the biggest difference in your effectiveness.

Develop

Building the skills that matter most for your stage. Communication, influence, vision-setting, people development—focused on what moves you forward.

Practice

Real situations, real feedback. We work through actual challenges you're facing, not theoretical scenarios. You get better by doing, with guidance as you go.

Integrate

By the end, the skills become natural. The leadership capabilities we developed together become how you operate, not something you have to think about consciously.

Our Experience. Your Advantage

Why Empirika

Leadership development requires understanding what actually works at each level—the difference between managing a team of five versus fifty, between influencing peers versus executives, between executing well versus setting strategic direction. That understanding comes from doing the job at every level and learning what separates competent managers from exceptional leaders.

Leadership Is Learned, Not Inherited

I've led design teams as an IC, manager, director, and founder across different companies and cultures. The transition from maker to manager to executive leader requires fundamentally different skills at each level—and almost no one teaches you how to make those shifts well. The best leaders aren't born that way. They learned what works through mentorship, feedback, and deliberate practice.

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Repeated at Scale

Managed teams from two to fifty across different companies and cultures. Pattern recognition from seeing what leadership behaviors drive results and which ones just create activity.

Adapted Across Contexts

From Adobe to bootstrapped startups. We know what leadership looks like at different scales and how to adapt your approach to your specific context and constraints.

Lived at Every Level

IC, team lead, manager, director, and founder. The leadership approaches we teach come from navigating those transitions successfully and learning from the ones that didn't go smoothly.

Tested Globally

Led teams across Asia, the Americas, and Europe. We understand how to build influence across cultures, manage distributed teams, and adapt leadership style to different contexts—not just one playbook.