FREE FIELD GUIDE · TDA × BRAZEN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
How to lead design through AI when there’s no map
Plenty of guides cover the AI tools. This one covers the leadership behaviors that decide whether your team adopts them and makes them work.
AI is changing the work, the roles, and the org all at once. The behaviors that get teams through it aren’t new, but the pressure on them is. This guide covers five, with a practical step for each you can start this week and the interview questions that reveal them in candidates.
For Heads of Design, UX, and Research, and their leadership teams
19 pages · About 8 minutes
WHY NOW
Your team is looking to you for answers
you don’t have yet.
Design leaders are being asked to roll out AI, rethink roles, and hit new targets, often with fewer people and a team already tired of change. Most of the advice out there is about tools. The harder questions are about people: who to back, who to hire, and how to keep your best designers from quietly checking out.
of US workers are worried about AI’s future impact at work
Pew Research Center, 2025of HR leaders say employees are fatigued from change.
Gartner, 2023of designers report rising expectations.
AI in Design Report, 2026What you’ll get
What you’ll be able to do after reading it
See where to focus first
A 10-minute check shows which behaviors your team needs most right now.
Make one change this week
Each section ends with a concrete step sized for a busy week. None of it needs a big program.
Hire for judgment, not polish
Interview questions that show how a candidate really thinks, even when every resume says AI.
Get your leadership team aligned
It’s built to work through together in a single meeting.
Who it’s for
Written for design leaders and their leadership teams
This guide is for Heads of Design, UX and Research, and
their leadership teams: the directors and managers who
lead design with them.
It’s most useful if you’re:
- hiring for roles that are still being redefined
- leading a team that was tired of change before AI showed up
- handing leadership work to senior ICs who weren’t trained for it
- expected to deliver more with the same headcount, or less
WHO WE ARE
Written by the people who hire design leaders, and the people who coach them
Most firms either hire leaders or develop them. Together, we do both, so every section gives you two views: how to lead the team you have, and what to look for in the people you hire next.
From left: Dave Draper, TDA, and Teresa Brazen, Brazen Leadership Development
Brazen Leadership Development was founded by Teresa Brazen after 15+ years at UX pioneers Adaptive Path, Cooper, and Designit. We coach design, product, and engineering leaders at every level, often on the same teams, using the five leadership behaviors in this guide.
Twenty years placing design, UX, and product leaders, mostly in fintech, financial services, and high-growth tech, where a wrong hire costs the most.
See where your team stands
An 8-minute read that ends with five questions to score with your leadership team in your next meeting.
You’ll see where to focus first and what to change this week.
© 2026 TDA × Brazen Leadership Development