Design Better

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/megan-quinn Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be part of fast-growing, design-led companies like Slack or Medium? Every team has challenges with scaling—and it turns out those challenges share many common traits when you peek behind the curtain. In this episode, Spark Capital’s Megan Quinn talks about the common hurdles she sees across companies as...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/meriah-garrett When companies start scaling design, the emphasis is sometimes on getting more shipped—but what if the first deliverable was a balanced team instead of a new feature?   USAA’s Chief Design Officer Meriah Garrett has a unique approach to creating balanced design teams. In this new episode, she also discusses her role in the C-suite and ho...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/ts-balaji Design leaders spend a lot of energy trying to get a seat at the table. It’s an ongoing process—and it’s tough to keep design involved over time. What questions should be asked along the way, and what business language can design leaders use? In this episode, LogMeIn’s Vice President Product Design & Customer Experience TS Balaji talks about...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/diana-mounter Design systems give product designers and developers reusable, interchangeable components to make the design process efficient and repeatable. They’re a critical part of scaling—so why build everything from scratch when you can plug in pre-built elements? In this episode, GitHub’s Design Systems Manager Diana Mounter talks about navigatin...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/meredith-black A lot of companies are investing more in design. As they do, the organization scales. As it scales, it has to operationalize, become more efficient, and plug into the rest of the company—but what makes all that possible? In this episode, Pinterest’s Head of Design Operations Meredith Black talks about the emerging practice of DesignOps,...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/lynsey-thornton Over the last 10 years, Shopify has grown from a scrappy 5-person startup to a team of more than 3,000 across five locations. Scaling a company that fast takes a lot of talented people—and Lynsey Thornton is one of them. As Shopify’s VP of UX and Core Product, Lynsey takes on an array of challenging tasks. In the first episode of the se...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/mia-blume “Will I lose my creativity? Will I be stuck in meetings all day?” Those are common concerns for any individual contributor transitioning to a managerial role—even experienced product leaders like Mia Blume. Luckily, Mia’s impressive career spans positions at places like IDEO, Pinterest, and Square, so she’s had plenty of opportunities to see...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/christian-madsbjerg In today’s tech-driven economy, it seems like it can be hard to justify the value of a traditional liberal arts education. But given the speed at which AI-driven advancements are taking over traditional jobs—even technical ones—perhaps a better understanding of humans and their cultures is exactly what we need. Because being product...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/jake-knapp-design-sprint If we asked you to name a recent book that’s really changed how product teams address sticky challenges, there’s a good chance Jake Knapp’s Sprint would be at the top of your list. Since publishing and popularizing the process, design sprints have become a tool for teams at organizations as wide ranging as Prudential, the Unite...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/007-laura-martini-getting-to-the-right-finish-line If there’s anyone we’ve interviewed on the Design Better Podcast so far that really embodies the product-driven concept, it’s Laura Martini. Not only does she have a background in both design and engineering, but she also has a keen product sense with a real understanding the business factors behind go...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/michael-leon How do you go from being a self-professed skate punk, to a design director at Nike, creative director at Patagonia, and land as the global creative director for Sonos? As a creative force, Michael Leon has worked with some of the most product driven companies out there. In this episode, Aaron and Eli talk with Michael about the tension bet...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/alex-schleifer Airbnb’s mission is both simple and powerful: to help create a world where you can belong anywhere. Alex Schleifer, Airbnb’s head of design, fully embraces this mission. To create the products that make the Airbnb experience so welcoming and immersive, he also believes in being product driven, and organizes his teams in an Engineering, P...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/albert-lee Albert Lee has had an amazing arc to his career. From his beginnings as a wine-steward at Chez Panisse, to working at Frank Gehry’s architecture studio, and on to the role of Associate Partner at IDEO and now Design Partner at NEA, the nation’s largest VC firm, Albert always strives to work with the best of the best. Given the breadth of his...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/dan-winger If you’re anything like us, playing with LEGOs was a foundational part of your childhood, and a big part of the reason you got interested in design. And given the arc of their history, it is clear that LEGO is a product-driven company: their products are addictively engaging, highly-engineered design masterpieces, they clearly understand the...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/david-kelley-creative-confidence David Kelley doesn’t like to claim to have come up with the term design thinking, even though a most people would say he did. But regardless of who coined it, as founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school he has been one of the most influential proponents of design thinking, and human-centered design in general. When it...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/irene-au-scaling-design-at-google Google could now be considered a product driven company, but it wasn’t always that way. For many years Google’s engineering-led culture cherished efficiency over user experience. Irene Au arrived at a pivotal moment in the company’s history, and helped shape the way that Google’s product’s clearly value design today. N...