By Kristine Souksamrane, DesignOps Associate
31 January 2024
— 5 minute read
Jennifer and Lucy joined Macquarie in June 2022 as UX/UI Designers in Technology as a part of the Tech Select program. They were both keen to kickstart their careers in design at Macquarie by learning as much as they could on the job.
Lucy Zhao (left) and Jennifer Murphy (right), who formed the Macquarie Design Guild.
“I quickly realised that the most effective way to enhance my skills and knowledge was to talk to and learn from other experienced designers in the field,” Lucy says.
Recognising the benefits of establishing a formal community to connect with and learn from other designers, they seized the opportunity to form the Design Guild just two months after joining Macquarie.
While both Lucy and Jennifer were highly motivated to create a space where the design community could come together and collectively uplift capabilities, starting a guild from scratch was not without its challenges.
“Our biggest challenge in the early stages was recruiting design enthusiasts to join our sessions and getting them to put more priority on attending,” Jennifer says.
“We knew that we wanted to recruit a wide range of designers, but we didn’t know where to start in finding out who they were or what teams they were in. This, in turn, is one of the main reasons we needed the Design Guild.”
Faced with the task of continuing to build up the Guild now that it was formed, the duo took multiple approaches to promote it and boost attendance.
“We started small by networking with our first participants and asking them to invite others who are interested in design. The low attendance worked in our favour as we were able to create strong connections with a community who believed in uplifting design.” Lucy explains.
As designers, Lucy and Jennifer didn’t hesitate to bring in Human-Centred Design practices to build and further iterate on the process, purpose and value of the Guild.
“We sent out surveys and synthesised the results to build an ideation workshop which helped to form the core pillars behind our purpose – sharing, learning, and connecting,” Jennifer elaborates. “The workshop not only helped with forming our purpose to guide our topics but allowed us to put forward a clear value proposition for our participants.”
“After some time, we hosted a retro and sent out surveys to our presenters and participants to learn how we could improve,” she adds.
We’ve continued to keep up the practice of using surveys and other platforms to hear feedback – we’re always looking to learn.”
Jennifer Murphy
DesignOps Senior Associate
Corporate Operations Group
Just one year after Jennifer and Lucy held their first guild session with eight people, the Guild had grown a 100-person strong membership, which they largely attribute to experimentation and iteration.
“We had a process which was giving us some consistent growth. However, we wanted to attempt something bigger and outside of our tried and true method,” Lucy explains.
“We had the idea to hold a half-yearly showcase to celebrate the hard work of all our designers. With this concept, we realised that it would be a great event to also introduce the concept of design and the impact it can have to those who hadn’t previously been aware of or exposed to it.”
Oshi Paranavitane and Kevin Leung (left to right) presenting at the Design Guild half-yearly showcase.
The two built upon this idea and decided to take this opportunity to collaborate on the showcase with the Future Technologist team to promote design as a pathway to junior talent.
“As a Future Technologist in the Tech Select program, I wanted to help uplift the next generation of Future Technologists,” Lucy adds. “The event was a huge success, with many Future Technologists choosing to remain as active members after the showcase.”
Jennifer and Lucy credit Macquarie and all those who have participated in and contributed to the Guild for its success.
“The Design Guild was one of the first things I worked on when I joined Macquarie. I never imagined that this passion project would take off like it has,” Lucy says. “I’m grateful for all our speakers, participants, and organisers who have shared their diversity of skills to make it happen over the past 18 months.”
“At Macquarie, I’ve been encouraged to think outside of the box,” Jennifer adds. “Creating a guild from scratch is something I never thought I would be offered as an opportunity, but I took it and was able to run with it.”
For Jennifer, this is now more than a passion project, she is now the lead for the Design Guild as part of her recent move to the newly formed DesignOps team. “The goal is to amplify the impact of design and designers at scale and the Design Guild is a critical enabler to help create a thriving design community,” Jennifer explains.
Networking at the first Design Guild 2.0
In November 2023, the DesignOps team officially launched Design Guild 2.0, an evolution on its previous iteration, featuring two complementary topics, external speakers, interactive discussions and networking opportunities to connect across the organisation. The revamp was hugely successful, with membership growing to over 250.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have helped shape the Design Guild from its humble beginnings to where it is today. Organising the Design Guild has been an extremely rewarding experience, and I’m excited to see how it evolves as we continue to iterate.”
Jennifer and Lucy encourage those looking to form a guild to take a leap of faith and believe in their vision.
Jennifer explains that the most powerful tool in creating the Design Guild was in being curious. “We saw a huge difference in the value we were offering after continuously seeking feedback to shape our focus areas and goals. Our feedback loops in turn allowed us to connect with like-minded individuals who wanted to spread awareness of the Guild. I’m also really proud of seeing our learnings come full circle as we share our knowledge with the new Northern Hemisphere Design Guild.”
“My advice on starting a guild is that you’ll find surprising results just from reaching out and asking people for help – whether you know them or not,” Lucy says. “The worst response you can get is ‘no,’ and for every ‘no’ there are many ‘yes, how can I help?’ responses. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to guilds, but any seemingly impossible task.”
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