How I became Cisco's first Chief Design Officer

Travis Isaacs, Chief Design Officer at Webex Collaboration at Cisco, a worldwide technology leader. He shared his point of view on the unique superpowers designers can bring to the boardroom and the essential skills needed for success in executive roles.

Join us for the second episode of our Chief Design Officer Series, where we talk to Chief Design Officers from the most forward-thinking companies.

Read our favourite insights from our interview with Travis and watch the conversation to learn:

👉 What it takes to become the company’s first Chief Design Officer
👉 What unique superpowers designers can bring into the boardroom
👉 How to have productive conversations with CEOs, CFOs and CPOs

How to know if becoming a Chief Design Officer is right for you

'I spent most of my career avoiding design leadership roles. I just wanted to focus on design, where all of my problems began and ended in Figma, Sketch or Envision. But at some point, I felt like I hit the ceiling professionally and the fulfilment that I got as a practitioner.

The kinds of problems that I wanted to solve now weren't so much about my practice or the execution of the design. I wanted to influence what we are building and who we are building it for. That moment occurred to me when I joined Cisco. I saw an opportunity to not just influence the way our products are designed but to help achieve our goals as a business.'

How to convince your C-level leadership to create a Chief Design Officer role

'In my case, I was coming at this from both ends.

I would not have this role had I not delivered positive business outcomes with my immediate team. I had to show that under my leadership the outcomes and the design got better. Your fundamentals as a leader become really important. That's from the bottom up.

From the top down, part of what I did I went to my senior leadership, persisted to get a meeting and started having conversations about what I think the business need and what role design can play in that.

I couldn't do one or the other. If you just focus on your immediate cross-functional team, I don't think you would have anyone at the C-level thinking about how all these things fit together. But if you start at the top by going to an executive or a CEO without building credibility first, I don't think you would have success there, either.'

What do you need to learn when you become a Chief Design Officer

'I had to learn a new vocabulary and a new set of tools. I focused on taking off my practitioner hat and understanding what are the needs of the business, who my first team is and who that person is who will listen and take a chance on me to go and do it. I found myself out of my element in so many ways, and a lot of the growth and learning was really around that. It wasn't about my craft or the practice of design. It was learning how to be a business executive.

I also had to learn to be professionally accountable. If I'm advocating for rethinking how design works, creating pathways for design to happen, I professionally will be responsible for the success or failure of that.'

To learn more about the role of a Chief Design Officer, join us for the last episode of the series with Mark Kawano, Chief Design Officer at Zoom.

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