Conversations

Design Talk Done Right

Design Better Conversations—Short, insightful columns featuring designers, technologists, and creatives.

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Rachel Gogel

Rachel Gogel: Exploring East vs. West Coast design at Godfrey Dadich Partners

Creative Director, Godfrey Dadich Partners

We chat with Rachel Gogel about her perspectives on East Coast vs. West Coast design, getting better at critical feedback, and the commoditization of visual design.

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Dave Nguyen

Dave Nguyen: Visual storytelling for product, brand, and customer experience at Indeed

Creative Director, Indeed.com

We chat with Dave Nguyen about his work with projects like Hyperloop One, and creative direction at Pinterest and Indeed.com.

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John Allsopp

John Allsopp: the consequences of the web

Author & conference organizer

We speak with John Allsopp, who was involved with the early web and now runs the Web Directions conference, and chat about the early history of the web, where it’s headed, and how we might avoid a more dystopian version of its future.

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Dane Howard

Dane Howard: Designing like a startup at Samsung NEXT

Global Head of Design and Product Experience, Samsung NEXT

We speak with Dane about his experiences designing for startups and larger companies, the challenges and opportunities that machine learning bring to product design, and some of the unique projects he’s collaborated on with his daughter.

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Bethany Jarroussié

Bethany Jarroussié: Technology with a purpose at Sopra Steria

Practice Director for Experience Design, Sopra Steria

We speak with Bethany about how design helps make sure new technology is meaningful, and how she approaches demonstrating the value of design to new clients.

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Dan Donovan (VP of Design and UX), with Kenny Hopper (Director of Product Design, Design Systems), and Roman Vasiutin (UI/UX Designer)

Socializing Design Systems as a Product at Upwork

Upwork

InVision’s Rebecca Kerr spoke with Upwork design leaders Dan Donovan, Kenny Hopper, and Roman Vasiutin, to understand their approach to socializing design systems and teams as products in a distributed organization.

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Mark Rogers

Mark Rogers: Radical collaboration and innovation at Capital One

Sr. Product Manager, Capital One

We chat with Mark about how he uses design thinking methodologies in a cross-training approach with other non-competitive companies, how he thinks about the intersection of design and business, and what he believes a designer’s superpowers are.

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Kristin Youngling

Kristin Youngling: Designing with data at Ogilvy

Senior Director of Data Strategy, Ogilvy

We chat with Kristin Youngling about the data strategy team at Ogilvy and how it influences the way they approach design.

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Lucy List

Lucy List: Building accessible design systems at TELUS Digital

User Researcher and Design Strategist, TELUS Digital

Lucy List shares her strategies in making their design system more available for the telecommunication company’s diverse range of users.

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Jason Goodwin

Jason Goodwin: Design Thinking and Agile at Manulife/John Hancock

Director of Global Innovation, Lab of Forward Thinking at Manulife/John Hancock

In this Conversation, Jason shares his philosophy on design thinking, its symbiotic relationship with Agile, and why he has the patience for embroidery.

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Kim Fellman

Kim Fellman: Managing the Design Experience team at Pinterest

Design Experience Lead, Pinterest

We chat with Kim about the Design Experience team, and how they go about educating the broader company about design.

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Kate Hanisian

Kate Hanisian: Designing for social good at Design Impact

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Design Impact

We speak with Kate Hanisian about how she uses design to have an impact on underserved communities.

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Andrew Ofstad

Andrew Ofstad: valuing collaboration over authorship

Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Airtable

In this Conversation, co-founder and chief product officer at Airtable, talks about the challenge of overcoming ego and valuing collaboration over authorship in cross-functional teams.

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Alissa Briggs

Alissa Briggs: constructing better designer-developer collaboration

Head of Design, PlanGrid

The construction industry might not be the first place you might think to look for good software design, but at PlanGrid, design leader Alissa Briggs is focused on bringing the best practices for a good designer/developer relationship to her team to build great products. We chat with Alissa about some of the biggest points of tension for designers working with developers, and vise versa, as well as practical ways to bring engineers into the design process sooner.

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Joe Toscano

Joe Toscano: the ethics of big data

Design Good Founder

In this interview with Joe Toscano, author, speaker, and founder of Design Good, we talk about ambient computing, the ethics of design and the social responsibilities of being a designer.

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Mayra Vega

Mayra Vega: the intentional designer-developer pair

Design Manager, Pivotal Labs

A successful product is created through the collaboration of design and development. We hear it often, but how do we create a culture for that collaboration? Mayra Vega, design manager at Pivotal Labs, talks about the responsibility we all share in being intentional when it comes to fostering cross-functional teams.

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Cameron Moll

Cameron Moll: why perfect isn’t good enough

Head of Product Design, Facebook Events, Facebook

Cameron Moll built and sold Authentic Jobs and is now product design manager for Facebook Events. And he doesn’t aim for perfect. We chat with Cameron about why launching with imperfections ultimately creates a better product, what makes a great mentor, and why reading industry books isn’t a necessity to be a leader.

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Vicki Tan

Vicki Tan: designing for mindfulness

Lead Product Designer, Headspace

The challenges of designing for a meditation app on the device known for sidetracking you throughout the day can be tricky. Read on to discover how Headspace Senior Product Designer Vicki Tan relies on her behavioral psychology toolkit and the inspiration of others to toe the line between encouraging and distracting.

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Benjamin Evans

Benjamin Evans: design thinking for inclusivity

Design Lead, Anti-Discrimination Team, Airbnb

As Inclusive Design Lead for Anti-Discrimination and Belonging at Airbnb, Benjamin Evans is working to help Airbnb achieve its mission of creating a world where you can belong anywhere. It’s no easy task, and we talk about how Benjamin uses design thinking to address the many challenges involved, as well as how his background in entrepreneurship influences his current role.

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Jehad Affoneh

Jehad Affoneh: going open source and building community

Director of Design, VMWare

As a designer with an engineering background, Jehad Affoneh understands both sides of the screen, which came in handy when he and his team created Clarity, a pairing design system they took open source a year ago. Jehad shares key takeaways he learned from going open source, including the value of the design community and how investing in it publicly is an internal investment as well.

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Jeremy Faludi

Jeremy Faludi: exploring sustainable design beyond 3D printers

Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College

Could smashed pecan shells be as useful and strong as ABS plastic? That’s just one of the things Jeremy Faludi is trying to figure out as a sustainable design strategist who focuses on turning waste into working material. We chat with Jeremy about his work, green design methods, and how designers can think of digital design in a more sustainable way too.

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Gabrielle Guthrie

Gabrielle Guthrie: simplifying systems to design better products

Co-founder & Product Designer, Moxxly

During her thesis project, Moxxly Co-founder and Product Designer Gabrielle Guthrie learned there’s a big gap in product development when it comes to women’s products. We chat with Gabrielle about being a hardware co-founder, making breast pumps more fit for the modern world, and simplifying systems as a way to create delightful products.

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Zack Onisko

Zack Onisko: blending design and business to create community

CEO, Dribbble

After a year of business school, Zack Onisko dropped out—he was learning more, and faster, at the startup where he worked as a designer. Now as the CEO of Dribbble, he’s helping pave the way for other designers by building a rich community with education and growth at its center.

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Marissa Louie

Marissa Louie: inside the creative process that led to a winning product

CEO & Chief Designer, Animoodles

When it came to toys, Marissa Louie thought she had seen it all—until she started sketching and experimenting with her own ideas. We chat with Marissa about the creative road that led to Animoodles, along with skills she thinks designers need to become entrepreneurs and ways to develop critical thinking skills.

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Jason Mayden

Jason Mayden: building stronger kids through Super Heroic

Co-founder & CEO, Super Heroic

Jason Mayden is the CEO and co-founder of Super Heroic Inc., a business focused on creating quality play performance products, technology, and services for elementary school-aged children and their families. We chat about designers as entrepreneurs, what inspired him to start Super Heroic, and design in service to humanity.

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Joanna Peña-Bickley

Joanna Peña-Bickley: Useful, usable, and magical

Head of Design, Internet of Things, Amazon

We chat with Joanna about how to design more magical IoT experiences, getting more young women into design and technology, and learning to speak design in the language of business.

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Timnit Gebru

Timnit Gebru: Machine learning, bias, and product design

Postdoctoral Researcher, Microsoft

Timnit Gebru works in the Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft’s New York Lab. We chat about opportunities for designers in AI, algorithmic bias, and some of Timnit’s recent research using computer vision and machine learning to make demographic estimates.

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Bill Burnett

Bill Burnett: Becoming a leader

Executive Director, Design Program, Stanford

As the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford, and author of the bestseller Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett has a lot of experience in helping students become leaders and take charge of their careers. We chat about leadership, bringing people into the design process, and more.


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