Design Better

Latest Episodes:

Jina Anne: Getting clarity on the components and maintenance of design systems Sep 27, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/jina-anne

If you’re engaged in any sort of community surrounding Design Systems, whether it’s the Design Systems Slack, or the Clarity Conference, then you have likely benefited from Jina Anne’s work. A self-styled Design Systems Advocate, Jina has been passionate about creating events, content and resources that bring together communities of people who care about design systems and how they impact product design. In this bonus episode of the Design Better Podcast, we chat with Jina about how she got into Design Systems, what she has learned from building these communities, and how being a hybrid designer-developer influences her understanding of Design Systems.

Takeaways:

How having a Design System affects company culture.
What to consider when deciding to go public with your Design System, or keeping it private.
How Design Systems can be effectively maintained.

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Diego Rodriguez: How Intuit built design culture into the business Sep 09, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/diego-rodriguez

Diego Rodriguez has had a remarkable career at the intersection of design, business, and education. He has served as Global Managing Director of design firm IDEO, founding faculty member of Stanford’s d.school, and is currently Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Design Officer at Intuit. In this episode, we discuss how design can influence broader business goals. Diego shares Intuit’s unique approach to product design, and the need to build a certain level of trust and empathy with customers when designing financial products.

Takeaways:

How to build design into the culture of an organization
How Intuit acts on its mission to Design for Delight
How design thinking brings a diversity of perspectives to the design process

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Journey into the connected workflow Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

As we prepare for the last episode of Season 3, take a look back at some of the stories that have inspired us. In this short update episode, hear from hosts Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery about what they've enjoyed about this season of the Design Better Podcast so far and preview our upcoming episode with Diego Rodriguez, Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Design Officer at Intuit. There's lots more to come, so be sure to subscribe for updates at www.designbetterpodc ast.com.

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Che Douglas: Transforming design at The Wall Street Journal and Booking.com Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/che-douglas

Che Douglas led the transformation of the design team at The Wall Street Journal, from a service-based organization to a strategic component of an embedded Engineering, Product and Design (EPD) structure. We chat with Che, who is now VP of Design at Booking.com, about how he got the right people involved to transform their design organization and spread design throughout the company. Che discusses the use of design sprints and how he showed the value of design to the organization through some of the team's key initiatives.

Takeaways:

How the design team can best collaborate with key partners
Showing the value of design with a direct impact on the bottom line
Going beyond defensiveness and being open to critique

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Lori Kaplan: Atlassian's playbook for team collaboration Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/lori-kaplan

Lori Kaplan is a veteran design leader, whose pioneering work includes authorship of the original Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines in the 1980s. In this episode we speak with Lori about how the Atlassian playbook helps both internal and external teams address design challenges, the deep roots of cross-functional collaboration at the company, as well as Lori’s perspective on how attitudes towards design have shifted in recent years across industries.

Takeaways:

How Atlassian “designs across the seams” with a broad view of the customer
The habits and rituals of teams within Atlassian that help create better cross-functional collaboration
How quantitative and qualitative metrics work together to measure the impact of design.

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Quinton Larson: How Indeed kicks off projects the right way Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/quinton-larson

Quinton Larson is a design leader who has consistently brought thoughtful leadership into the companies where he works. In this episode we speak with Quinton about his prior work at IDEO and eBay, his involvement with Indeed’s Job Seeker Journey team, how he makes sure the right people are involved in project kickoffs, and how design systems help create a more connected workflow between designers and developers.

Takeaways:

Getting the right people involved in project kickoffs
Being adaptable as a design leader
Working efficiently and thoughtfully with key partners

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Bob Baxley: How Apple ran design like the Saturday Night Live writer's room Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/bob-baxley

What do Yahoo, Apple, and Pinterest have in common? Silicon Valley design vet Bob Baxley. With extensive design leadership experience under his belt, Bob knows a thing or two about bridging the gaps between teams to help champion a connected workflow. In this episode, Aarron and Eli tap Bob’s insights on productive design reviews, getting in sync with engineers, and what it takes to build key relationships with executives—all in the name of making products people can’t imagine living without.

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Josh Ulm: Wells Fargo’s VP of Design on how design should be influencing business Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/josh-ulm

Josh Ulm has quite the CV—Adobe Design Lead, Vodafone Head of UX, Oracle VP of Design, and now Wells Fargo SVP of Strategic Design and Insights. One thing he’s learned along the way is that “the most valuable role for design to play is influencing the business—not just the product." In this episode of the Design Better Podcast, Aarron and Eli covered subjects ranging from where the connected workflow is most broken, to the one critical question to ask executive sponsors when starting a project.

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Brad Frost and Dan Mall: Rethinking Agile and how designers collaborate with developers Jun 07, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/brad-frost-dan-mall

Enter design system pros Brad Frost and Dan Mall, long-time collaborators known for their expertise in bridging the gap between designers and developers. In this episode of the Design Better Podcast, Aarron and Eli talk with Dan and Brad about reducing friction between these two very different disciplines. They explore a few misconceptions around agile methodology, the risks of the creative technologist role, and breaking the design process to fix it. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

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Benjamin Evans: How Airbnb uses inclusive design to create a successful business May 28, 2019

Show notes

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/benjamin-evans

Benjamin Evans, Inclusive Design Lead for Airbnb, is part of a new kind of problem solvers tackling issues like racism, sexism, and bias in digital product design. In this episode of the Design Better Podcast, Eli and Aarron chat with Benjamin about using techniques like design thinking, research, and storytelling to ensure a more inclusive experience for all your users.

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