Books

Play Up Your Impact

A handy step-by-step guide to effectively describe and hype the impact of your work when everyone thinks it’s optional.

"Play Up Your Impact" is a guidebook written for designers, researchers, strategists, writers, and anyone who wants to improve their skills in using data to understand their impact at work. And it’s very useful to anyone who works alongside them. This book offers a practical approach to analyzing and advocating how your work contributes to the bottom line by utilizing data, statistics, and storytelling.

In Play Up Your Impact, CDO School founder Ryan Rumsey draws from his personal journey of leading design at Apple, EA, Nestlé, and USAA to offer encouragement, motivation, and strategies tailored for leaders at in-house teams.

    Business Thinking for Designers

    Bring a business mind to design and transform your career and company.

    Published by InVision, this is a guidebook to help designers gain more trust and build better relationships with business partners, empowering great work.

    Written by Second Wave Dive founder Ryan Rumsey, this book is chock full of details on how designers can speak the dialects of colleagues, communicate design value in new ways, and incorporate business impact into their approach.

      About the Author

      RYAN RUMSEY is a writer, speaker, coach, and recovering design executive turned entrepreneur.

      Based in Vermont, Ryan founded Second Wave Dive–a niche educational powerhouse offering specialized programs like Chief Design Officer School and Jump Ship! Perhaps best known for his first book, Business Thinking for Designers, his authentic, relatable, and novel approach has helped thousands of people defy conventional and exceed their expectations of good work.

      ​He is a father, a husband, and an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club. His life experiences include working on a farm and acting in a Staind music video.