Culture & community
Teaching others to track their impact
I turned a personal habit for annual reviews into a strategic framework, which I shared to empower content designers to surface their impact.
Overview
From a personal spreadsheet to a conference talk
Annual reviews used to stress me out. I'd spend way too long trying to remember which projects to highlight and which ones best demonstrated my cross-functional partnerships across departments. So I built an impact tracker to capture my work as it happened, focusing on tracking my most impactful projects. This helped me stop scrambling to remember my wins and start confidently telling the story of my impact.
When I realized other designers faced the same challenge, I pitched a talk to Button, a premier content design conference. I was selected to speak at their 2025 conference, where I shared a practical framework for tracking and communicating impact that resonated with hundreds of attendees.
Impact
- Received positive feedback on the conference Slack channel from attendees who found the framework immediately actionable.
- Multiple designers reached out on LinkedIn to thank me and share they'd already started tracking their impact.
- My talk was mentioned on multiple LinkedIn posts (1, 2), and an article, regarding it as one of the most impactful talks at Button 2025.
- Learning that my talk was so helpful for others really warmed my heart. <3
The talk
Learn how the humble spreadsheet can do it all
[Button 2025] How to track your impact by Rosie Olaivar
Grab a copy of the tracker