Digital Insights

As we step into 2025, it's time for some honest reflection about our roles as design leaders. Despite our best intentions, too many of us still get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of individual projects, leaving little time to demonstrate our strategic value to the organization.With UX teams under increasing pressure from economic uncertainty and budget cuts to prove their worth, 2025 needs to be the year we take action. While delivering great user experiences remains crucial, we must also excel at promoting our work and demonstrating its concrete business impact. That's why I've created this checklist of essential activities.Here's your essential to-do list for the year ahead:Schedule Stakeholder Deep-DivesStart the year by booking one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders. These aren't just status updates – they're opportunities to understand their goals, demonstrate how UX can help achieve them, and conduct what I like to call "stakeholder user research." The insights you gain will be invaluable for a