Design Meets Business

Steve "Buzz" Pearce is a design leader with 25 years of experience spanning companies like Skype, Microsoft, SkyScanner, TravelPerk, and Monday.com. Since his early days, Steve has chosen to focus on doing great work, learning from amazing people, and being challenged, rather than always seeking promotions. On the last episode of this season we chat about the progression from tools to craft to inv...

Cap Watkins was most recently VP of Product Design at Lattice, and previously he's held design leadership roles at Amazon, Etsy, BuzzFeed, and Primary.com. Cap started his management career as an experiment after experiencing bad management himself, deciding to do the opposite of everything he'd hated from previous managers. On today's show we chat about the basics of great management, why design...

Matt Davey is Chief Experience Officer at 1Password, where he's been for over 13 years, starting as a part-time contractor and growing alongside the company through multiple chapters of change. On today's show we chat about staying at one company for such a long time and what that means, the importance of self-awareness in recognising when your role has changed, why a healthy tension in a product...

Jennifer Darmour is VP of Design at Oracle Health, where she's reimagining the healthcare experience. Jennifer has developed a distinct point of view on design through three pillars: beauty, meaning, and wellness. On today's show we chat about building culture that sustains craft, why good debates lead to better design, how AI is reshaping creativity, and what designers should double down on. Time...

Rachel Been is Expedia's SVP of Design. Previously, she was one of the designers who laid the foundations for Google's Material Design, and has worked across products at Airbnb, Google Home, and Nest. Starting her career as a photojournalist, Rachel brings a unique perspective to product design, grounded in curiosity and craft. On today's show we chat about designing for infinite expressiveness, t...

Jehad Affoneh is Chief Design Officer at Toast, where he leads design across product, platform, and culture. Previously, he held design leadership roles at VMware and other complex B2B companies. Starting his career as an engineer, Jehad brings a unique perspective to design, viewing it fundamentally as problem solving. On today's show we chat about the transition from engineering to design, the v...

Vuokko Aro is Chief Design Officer at Monzo, where she has led the design function for nearly a decade through hypergrowth from startup to one of the UK's most loved fintech brands. She oversees a team of over 100 people across product design, brand design, and user research. On today's show we chat about scaling design teams, building trust through transparency, the value of constraints, and how...

Andrea Mangini is a design and creative leader whose career spans some of the most design-driven companies in the world — from Adobe and Autodesk to Netflix and Shopify. She’s led teams that built the tools and experiences shaping how people create, design, and build. Andrea’s work focuses on design craft, leadership, and helping teams find courage in the uncomfortable parts of growth. She believe...

Josh is a super designer who believes the best ideas come from collaboration and play. Over his career, he’s worked across agencies and tech companies such as Google, ZOE, and Booking.com, helping teams find energy and originality in their process rather than following rigid methods. His approach to design blends experimentation, curiosity, and a love for building things together. Today, he sets t...

Avi Ashkenazi is a design leader who’s spent his career moving between hardware, software, and strategy—always focused on how teams turn ideas into real products. He’s led design at global companies and helped build teams that work across both physical and digital experiences. Today, Avi leads design at Deel, where he’s shaping how millions of people get hired, paid, and supported around the world...

J.B. Chaykowsky is a design and product leader with over two decades of experience spanning architecture, technology, and fintech. He spent more than 10 years at Intuit, where he led global design teams across the UK and France, shaping products for accountants and small businesses. Today, as Director of Creative & Design at Redpin, he’s focused on building a global real-estate payment platfor...

Ryan is the founder of Accelerate Design Company. He's a Product and Design leader who brought food photography, live-order tracking, and remote driver training to DoorDash, launched step-function improvements to Airbnb’s checkout, messaging, search, and host calendar products, and launched products at TechCrunch Disrupt, Dreamforce, and WWDC. Ryan has led teams of all sizes, from two to 200, and...

Doug has been in the Design world for 30 years and is well known for his role as VP of Design at IBM, where he oversaw IBM's design practice, design career and leadership programs, and the scaling of cross-functional design thinking practices. Doug is a role model for many design leaders and someone I've been looking up to for many years. Having him on the show is such an honour. Timestamps: 00:00...

Dan is a seasoned designer with over 20 years of experience in leading teams at companies such as Farfetch, Just Eat, Wonderbly, and Fresha. Until very recently Dan ran a small design studio – Rubber Studio. In today's chat we get a behind the scenes view into the life of a studio owner, what's important when trying to find work, and how your life as a designer can change if you decide to start a...

Dan is a seasoned design executive who's led teams at Microsoft, Google, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, and Lloyd's, among others. From working on the Surface Tablet, starting Project ARA at Google, leading the efforts to redesign Walmart.com, and more recently writing his own book, Uplifting Design, Dan believes in the importance of Design at the core of any business, and that's what we're talking...

Lea is a Product & Growth Consultant with a massive proven track record of helping companies get traction. Today we talk about experimentation frameworks, how to build better relationships with Product, and about what kinds of designers are best to collaborate with. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 02:36 – Lea's journey into Product 03:37 – On working for one company vs. consulting  07:06 – Lea's def...

Maria is a Product Design Leader at Turo and Founder of Careercoach.design. In this episode get to talk about the rise of the Player-Coach Designer, about building better relationships at work, about coaching, and we also talk about practical advice on how to approach your job search.  Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 02:18 – Maria's journey into Design 04:28 – On Player-Coach Designers 12:43 – Maria's t...

Alastair Simpson is a design leader and mentor, serving as VP of Design at Dropbox. Prior to Dropbox, Alastair was Head of Design at Atlassian, where he helped scale the design team from 20 to over 250. On today's show we chat about craft and how important it is for designers at any level, persuasion, how to present work, and how to deal with puzzling feedback. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 02:28 – Al...

Sean has spent the past 25 years at the intersection of commerce, consumer behaviour, and data-driven feedback loops. This included working for Tesco, GfK, and two long stints with Amazon, among others. In this chat we talk about how design can better work with product, how to speak the language of our senior stakeholders, and what he's learned about hiring from interviewing over a thousand people...

We're switching gears a little from Design and catch up with Tom Scott, who's sharing his thoughts on building and using your network for your job search, the rise of the player-coach designer, and his thoughts on design education. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 03:52 – Community approach in recruitment 09:30 – The current state of design recruitment 13:56 – Portfolios – Do you need them? 23:04 – How t...

We're launching season 3 together with Nate Langley (Monzo), talking about how constraints breed creativity, the five pillars you want to touch on in interviews, and the importance of an integrated brand experience. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 03:38 – How Nate started out 05:50 – On confidence and how to build it 14:17 – Best ways to start out in Design 21:09 – Individual Contributor vs. Manager tra...

Jamie shares with us his thoughts on the evolution of the design role, the need to be a good storyteller, and about staying an individual contributor vs. moving into management. Connect with Jamie LinkedIn , ADPlist

Get your notebooks out for this conversation, because Alex is sharing all about his experience leading design organisations, and about his management style, and about how to frame design at the C-level. Connect with Alex LinkedIn , Website , Medium Selected links from the episode The value of design at the C-level

Dean shares with us his thoughts on how you can put your best foot forward during your job search and how you can make design more transparent through relationship building and collaboration. Connect with Dean LinkedIn , Instagram

On this episode I talk to Ioana about the importance of speaking your stakeholders' language, how you can learn from her career trajectory, and about design education. Connect with Ioana LinkedIn , Instagram , Twitter , Mento Design Academy , Honest UX Talks Podcast , TikTok Selected links from the episode UX Rescue Democracy Lab