Design Kaffé

We explore the challenges and difficult feelings of taking time off from work due to mental health. We discuss why it is tricky to be honest and upfront about it, and fears we may have about the perception others have of us and our reliability at work. Follow us on Twitter  ⁠@designkaffe⁠  and check out our website  ⁠designkaffe.com⁠ . New episode every two weeks on Friday

This week Tiia Meuronen and Tom Kerwin guest our podcast to share their experiences with redundancies and having their hours and pay cut. We talk about how you can look after yourself while going through such challenging experiences, how companies handle redundancies and pay cuts well and not so well, and what the wider design community can do to look after each other. Find Tom on LinkedIn , his I...

Today we’re discussing feedback and how it can sometimes be delivered poorly. We explore in what contexts or situations poor feedback tends to occur and how we can best react to it.  Follow us on Twitter  @designkaffe  and check out our website  designkaffe.com . New episode every two weeks on Friday

We talk about mediocrity and low standards where design over time doesn’t deliver impact or meet the standards set by ourselves and others. We discuss what might cause mediocre design, how experience as leaders and designers can affect our standards, and what we can do to improve our design standards. Follow us on Twitter  @designkaffe  and check out our website  designkaffe.com .

This week we talk about toxic goal-setting and productivity. We reflect on the best way to evaluate growth at work and best practices to set goals for ourselves. We also discuss productivity and how to set healthy boundaries when we're caught into the hustle mentality. Follow us on Twitter  @designkaffe  and check out our website  designkaffe.com .

We talk about being human at work, whether that's our emotional states or more enduring traits of our identities and personalities which all influence how we interact with our work and our coworkers. We discuss the challenges of the notion of “bringing your whole self” to work and how managers and leaders can better support humans at work. Follow us on Twitter  @designkaffe  and check ou...

We're back for another design conversation, this time about bad job search experiences. We share our own past experiences searching for a design role and what we've found frustrating and uncomfortable when interviewing with companies. We also open the Pandora's Box on design tasks and share a few tips on what to do with unpleasant recruitment experiences.   Follow us on Twitter  @de...

In our first episode of season 4, we share our experiences of being introverted designers in extraverted workplaces. What challenges have we found, how have we overcome them, and what value can we bring by having more diversity of thinking and communication styles in our industry? Follow us on Twitter  @designkaffe  and check out our website  designkaffe.com . New episode every othe...

In this last episode of season 3, we look back and reflect over the season’s episodes and format. We talk about what felt challenging to us and what lessons we took away from this season.  Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com .

We complete our last theme for season 3 by exploring the when and how of gathering insights. When during design do we know we should gather insights? How do we get started gathering insights, and what are some of the common mistakes we make in doing so? Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com .

This week we continue our theme on Insights and deep-dive into identifying and using insights. We talk about the best ways to analyse data and extract meaningful insights, what methodologies we like to use and how visualising insights can be key to retain them throughout the design process.  Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com ....

We have the wonderful Léa Samrani on as a guest this week to discuss how product managers and designers can collaborate well with each other. We explore the differences and overlap in PM and designer roles and responsibilities, and the importance of nurturing the PM-designer duo relationship to drive better outcomes. Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxm...

We’re starting a new theme on Insights and discuss the differences of being Data-Driven vs Data-Informed. We dive into how team dynamics or design process can differ with each approach. We also cover lessons from our experience and share why we believe in a Data-informed approach ourselves. Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com . New ep...

We round off our Management theme by talking about managing ourselves. How do we manage our goals—whether they’re project goals or career goals—and ensure we set the right goals to begin with? How do we self-manage both our deliverables as well as our ultimate impact and outcomes? And how do we keep ourselves accountable?  Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our websit...

We’re continuing our Management theme this week and talk about managing upwards. We share our experience and lessons on how to challenge or give feedback to senior colleagues and managers.  Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com . New episode every Friday!

This week we are kicking off a new theme on Management, starting with some reflections on what it’s like ‘to be managed’. We explore what qualities we value in a great design manager and what management practices have marked us in our experience. Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com . New episode every Friday!

We round off our Productivity theme by discussing how we can be better at making decisions and be biased towards action. How do we create an environment where people are empowered and trusted to make decisions in the face of risk and incomplete information? How do we mitigate sign-off culture and decision paralysis, so that we can effectively move forward towards better outcomes?  Follow us o...

In our second episode on Productivity, we deep-dive into the value of slack: why is it important — and not counterproductive — for productivity to have downtime, take breaks, and not do work for a while? What does good slack and bad slack look like? How can we be better at incorporating slack into our practice as individual designers as well as teams? Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  ...

In this week’s episode, Yuri Martins joined us to talk about accessibility and his approach at Typeform! We dive into accessibility by design, what a good process looks like and also chat about some of the big misconceptions about accessibility. Yuri recommends the following resources for accessibility: Microsoft figma library , Twitter Figma library , Microsoft/Inclusive , Building for Everyone ,...

We kick off a new theme, Productivity, by discussing the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. How are they different, and how do they go hand in hand? When should we focus on being efficient and when should we focus on being effective? What are our hacks and tips for have we can be more productive by working more efficiently and effectively? Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity &nbs...

This week, we cover our last topic in our theme of The Designer Role where we talk about those valuable skills that sit outside the core product design skills. We explore how service, research and content design skills can either often be included in your responsibilities or be stand alone functions that you collaborate with. Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website&...

We continue exploring the theme of The Designer Role by discussing whether or not a UX/UI Designer is the same as a Product Designer. Where are they similar? What makes them different? Do titles even matter? Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com . New episodes every Friday!

We start a new theme about The Designer Role. Our episode this week tackles the controversial topic about UX vs UI 🙈. We talk about the differences in the two roles and explore the value of both being a specialist or a hybrid designer. Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com . New episode every Friday morning!

In our last episode about Discovery, we discuss how we deal with ambiguity in discovery: when and how do we run into ambiguity in our discovery work? Should we always seek certainty or embrace ambiguity? How do we help our stakeholders deal with ambiguity as well? Follow us on Twitter  @UX_Maturity  and check out our website  uxmaturitypodcast.com .

This week is about Continuous Discovery! We explore how it differs from project-based discovery as well as some of the best practices about when and how to implement it in your team. We are  @UX_Maturity  on Twitter and  UX Maturity  on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday morning.