Susan Ripley
Product Leader & Artist

When AI does exactly what you ask—but not quite what you meant. A funny lesson about clarity, product design, and leadership.

How photography and art help me recharge, express myself, and make space outside of work. I love what I do. I’ve spent most of my career in product design and UX, and a big part of my job today is helping people solve complicated problems. I’m thinking about customers, teams, strategy, business problems and priorities. What’s working? What’s not? What should we do next? I’m creating clarity, helping teams move forward, making decisions and supporting other people as they navi

Senior leadership is often invisible work: connecting teams, improving decisions, coaching judgment, removing barriers, creating leverage, and making the team's outcomes—not the leader—the visible artifact.

When I think about what makes a creative leader truly effective, I think of blending creativity, strategy, and human-centered thinking in ways that inspire me and many others. In this post, I want to share some of the most valuable insights and creative leadership techniques that I’ve learned from my journey. These ideas are practical, actionable, and designed to help organizations build better products and experiences while fostering creativity in everyday work. Embracing Hu

Good leaders don't avoid difficult conversations. They combine kindness with clarity, focus feedback on behavior and impact, prepare for reactions, and create a path forward even when people disagree.

Great UX extends beyond a single screen. End-to-end experience design connects touchpoints, transitions, context, teams, and technology around the customer's journey.

Experienced leaders don't start from zero—but they do enter a new system. A reflection on balancing confidence, curiosity, listening, and learning when stepping into a new leadership role.

UX and CX operate at different altitudes, but customers experience one journey. Connecting product interactions, customer evidence, and cross-functional touchpoints creates a more coherent end-to-end experience.

AI products need continuous learning after launch. Effective feedback loops combine contextual input, behavioral signals, human review, and outcome measurement to improve the experience over time.

Leaders shape culture through what they reinforce, model, challenge, and tolerate. Trust and psychological safety depend on clear behavioral standards and consistent accountability.

Strong product cultures build leadership at every level through context, ownership, coaching, psychological safety, candid feedback, and meaningful opportunities to grow.

Implicit bias can shape hiring, product decisions, research, team dynamics, and opportunity. Strong leaders pair self-awareness with evidence, clear criteria, dissent, and decision checks.

Generative AI is making UX production faster, but designers remain responsible for judgment, craft, problem framing, customer evidence, and the quality of the experiences they direct AI to create.

In my experience, respect is not just a fundamental human need; it is the cornerstone of how we can make the world a better place

the significance of trust and collaboration in fostering a thriving workplace culture.

Responding rather than reacting, highlights how mindful communication enhances emotional intelligence & improves interactions.

Leaders grow by embracing new challenges, facing fears, overcoming difficult tasks, and trying new things.

Balancing kindness and respect with assertiveness and integrity in the workplace to create a positive and productive environment.

I chose the hummingbird during graduate school to represent resilience, energy, adaptability, and aesthetics. Years later, those same qualities still fit—but leadership has changed what they mean to me.

Strong product design collaboration creates shared understanding, clear accountability, healthy disagreement, and better customer outcomes across Product, Design, Research, and Engineering.