Earning Influence: Why Strong Design work doesn't move the room

Why we picked it

Welcome Back CCX Sydney to our events for 2026 from myself, Lydia, Sylvia and James and we are planning a bumper selection of speakers for this year. Our next event on August 18th will feature two unique presentations from Designers Dan Whelan and Ariel Blackman both from Commonwealth Bank. We will be hosting by the Team at Hipages special thanks to Carlos Guedes and Natalia Furtado. Our first Talk from CBA Product Design leader **Earning Influence: Why Strong Design Work Doesn't Move the Room** **About Dan's Talk** You're doing great work. Decisions move on without you anyway. Here's why — and what has to be true before that changes. It's easy to assume that if the work is good enough, it earns its own influence. It doesn't. Design gets described, by default, in process terms — what was explored, tested, shipped — while the room is listening for risk, revenue and consequence, meaning how we describe the work to each other isn't the value our stakeholders want to see. Good work can