Design Life

In this episode we talk about how design is more than just pushing pixels. As a designer you may find yourself completing any number of tasks - planning researching, exploring, scoping, interviewing, wire framing - we could go on and on. Sometimes this can be frustrating. This week we discuss a query from a listener about what to do when you feel that design is the last thing on your to do list. S...

Have you ever thought about starting your own YouTube channel? In this week’s episode of Design Life we speak about our channel’s journeys, what has worked consistently and what we have done differently over time. We speak honestly about growing our channels, dealing with controversy, balancing content, monetisation and sponsorship. This episode is a must-listen for any designer who wants to start...

This is a very exciting time of year, a great time to evaluate 2019 and look ahead to what you want to achieve in 2020. In this episode, the first episode of the new decade, we talk about our goals and intentions for the year ahead. This has become a tradition for us on the podcast, at the start of every year we reflect on our goals and look forward to what we want to achieve next.  Plan your year...

Is the weight of your potential weighing you down? Potential can be both a blessing and a curse. When you feel fulfilled, you are able to focus on the task at hand and complete your best work. If you possess a greater potential than the task at hand requires, over time, completing this task will leave you feeling unfulfilled. In this week’s episode, inspired by Charli’s blog post, we go deep and t...

In this episode of Design Life we have a special guest joining us, Zach Grosser . Zach joins Charli on the podcast this week as they both attended Adobe MAX 2019, Charli was an Adobe Insider this year and Zach was invited to attend by Adobe as a UX leader. Charli and Zach discuss their key takeaways from this year’s flagship creativity conference. Bézier podcast with Zach Grosser Talk to Me by Dea...

Are you hoping to make the jump from a junior to senior role in 2020?  On this episode of Design Life we discuss a query about senior and junior roles from a listener hoping to change levels. How do you know when you’re ready, how can you figure out and prove that you have the skills you need to do the job at hand?  We discuss how the jump is managed at our respective companies and the idea that t...

In a change to our usual format, this week on Design Life we discuss Femke’s experience of the Within leadership retreat. The three day, design leadership retreat provided plenty for us to discuss, including leading authentically, listening to your inner critic and coaching colleagues to come up with their own solutions. Leadership Circles Within Retreat

How do you deal with the frustration of people not accepting your ideas? When you share an idea and people brush it off or they don’t agree that it is a good idea, how do you deal with that in such a way that your team understand your disappointment but don’t mark you as a sore loser. In this episode we talk about how we communicate our disappointment and frustrations with our teams, and how somet...

This week on Design Life we’re talking about a topic that has been on our minds lately - career progression. We have been thinking about the next stage in our careers, and thought you might be interested to hear what steps we have taken to secure the next phase and how we know it is time to have that all important conversation.

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly Kim Scott, Radical Candour Liz + Mollie, No Hard Feelings

After a short hiatus the Design Life podcast is back! Staying creative and motivated during big life changes can be a real challenge, one we have recently faced. We have jumped at the chance for our next adventure and moved to new countries. Femke has joined the Uber design team in Toronto, working with a new team on Uber Eats. Charli continues to work remotely for Convertkit but has swapped the h...

In this episode of Design Life, we talk about how to get your first design job. It can be a conundrum, in order to get a job you need to have experience, but in order to get experience you need a job. How can you get experience if no one is willing to give you a job? We share our tips, along with an exciting new product we have launched in the Design Life store. Get the new Work in Progress Pin! J...

Passive income is a great way for designers to earn a little extra every month alongside your full time or freelance gig. In this episode of Design Life we discuss the different passive income streams we have used successfully, what we have learned and what we hope to try in the future. Charli’s passive income, a breakdown Amazon Associates

This week we are delighted to share a very special edition of Design Life with you. For this episode we invited Helen Tran who is a Product Designer, hobbyist writer, and the CEO & Founder of Jupiter to tell us all about her journey to becoming her own boss, the importance of teaching and her thoughts on going deep versus going wide. Helen Tran's Blog Jupiter Helen on Twitter

A few weeks ago on the podcast we discussed project retrospectives. A listener sent in a follow-up request for an episode about project kickoffs, which it turns out we have never discussed! Starting a project with a kickoff checklist can be useful for everyone involved. In this episode we discuss the checklists we use, and how to jump in successfully if you haven’t been involved in the kickoff. De...

This episode comes by way of a talk Charli heard at the How Design Live conference in Chicago. Stephen Gates delivered a thought provoking presentation, about living life as a creative. One question in particular stood out - is our manufactured reality killing the design industry and our creativity? In this episode of Design Life we tease out this topic, and how we see it play out in our lives and...

Is your portfolio truthful, is it a fair representation of your skills? Today’s episode comes by way of an email we had from a client, who asks this very question, and favours freelance market places as a result. We discuss how to make sure your portfolio is an accurate representation of your work, honestly. Dribbble Presents: Hang Time Quinn Keast’s portfolio Alejandra Quintero’s portfolio Daniel...

Job titles and promotions came up as a topic of conversation for us on Twitter recently and we thought it a topic worth diving deeper into, in this episode of Design Life. Sharing your job title with people gives them an insight into the work you do every day, but what if your title doesn’t reflect your responsibility or autonomy? We discuss the tips we use to explain our work in the best way poss...

In today’s episode we discuss running project retrospectives. Retros give the whole team the chance to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go well and any areas of opportunity to improve upon next time. Find out why we think that not running a project retrospective is a missed opportunity to give your next project the best chance to succeed.

Design documentation might not be the most exciting part of the design process but its importance cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately the people we work with cannot read our minds, which is why documenting our designs is crucial. Communicating the ‘how and why’ of our design’s functionality allows questions to be answered quickly and efficiently. Today we talk about how we document our designs...

In this week’s episode we get a little bit philosophical as we discuss the concept of done being better than perfect. This week’s episode comes by way of a listener comment, despite knowing that their design will only really come together in the end stage, they have a nagging doubt in their head that the project should look perfect at every step of the way. We discuss how we have overcome this dou...

What is an OKR? How can you best set and achieve goals at work? Join us for today’s episode, as we dive into the topic of goal setting and explore the process we use to help us achieve our goals.

What are design principles and how do they differ from design systems? In this episode we answer your questions about design principles and offer some direction as to how you can begin to define them for yourself.

Dealing with office politics? This episode of Design Life has you covered. We’re taking a break this week from our recent design focused episodes to answer a listener query - how best to deal with office politics. It can be tricky to keep a clear head when your work is impacted by factors outside of your control but doing so can make all the difference to your productivity.

In this episode of Design Life, we discuss running design sprints. In the Product/UX community for the last couple of years, design sprints have been growing in popularity. As a UX designer herself, Femke has run a couple of mini design sprints at Uber and found them useful. We talk about the what, why and how of design sprints and give you the steps you need to introduce them at your workplace. A...