Getting2Alpha

In the short history of web design, Jeff Veen is a true pioneer. In his work for Wired, Adaptive Path, Google, Adobe, and now True Ventures, Jeff has been pushing the boundaries of online publishing and Web interactivity for decades. He’s worked with some of the best and brightest teams in tech - and has a deep and abiding passion for group collaboration Find our what's on Jeff's mind an...

As the former VP Community at Kickstarter, Cindy Au managed the fast-growing crowdfunding community through a major growth phase, and balanced the competing needs of campaigners and funders. Cindy cut her teeth in New York’s tech scene - and she's got great insights about what it takes to say NO to short-term gains in order to fulfill a long-term vision. If you’re interested in community dyna...

Richard Garriott is a pioneering game designer, gifted world-builder second-generation astronaut, arctic explorer - and ever-inspiring creative force. I first met Richard when I was teaching online community design at Stanford; half my class was in the Beta for Ultima Online, and I jumped in enthusiastically to learn the ropes. I ended up working with Richard, Raph Koster and their amazing crew of...

Cindy Alvarez is an expert in customer research and iterative development. She’s the author of Lean Customer Development, a hands-on guide for validating product and feature ideas. She's worked for small and medium-sized startups - and now runs user experience for Yammer (a Microsoft company).Cindy’s got a flair for explaining user-centered design in a compelling and understandable way. From...

Dan Olsen is a seasoned product manager - and the author of the Lean Product Playbook, a soup-to-nuts handbook for doing smart product management with Lean principles. Dan runs the Lean Product & Lean UX meetup in Silicon Valley, where he brings cross-functional teams together to lean how to create great products. Dan is an articulate proponent of a lean & disciplined approach to product d...

Teresa Torres is a rising star in product management, and the author of the popular “Product Talk” blog. She's got an eclectic background in cognitive science, UX design, startup management and organizational change - which gives her a unique perspective on product discovery. Teresa shares her deep & hard-won product wisdom - and her inspiring perspective on the long game of product manag...

Mike Sellers is a pioneering social game designer turned academic. Long before World of Warcraft was a world-wide hit, Mike & his merry crew of innovators - including John Hanke, the driving force behind Pokemon Go - created Meridian 59, the first graphical MMO - or massively multiplayer online game. Since then Mike has worked on many games for companies like Electronic Arts and Kabam - and is...

Irene Au is a design leader and UX expert with deep experience in team-building. She’s currently an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, where she works with startup CEOs to make their designs great. Irene started her career at Netscape - then moved on to lead design efforts at Yahoo, Google and Udacity. This progression gives her a unique perspective on growing UX teams - and smart strategies fo...

Matt Leacock is a board game designer and UX expert. His first big hit, Pandemic, is a cooperative board game where you team up with others to save the world from virulent diseases. In his latest game, Pandemic Legacy, Matt extends the core Pandemic gameplay with an overarching narrative structure that delivers an episodic experience where every choice you can has irrevocable impact. Matt’s backgr...

Kevin Kelly is is a multi-talented creator and deeply insightful futurist. His latest book, The Inevitable, lays out the twelve technological forces that will drive change over next thirty years and weaves together a convincing story about how these forces will shape our world. Listen in as Kevin explains how the world is changing - and how we can harness these insights to chart a a successful pat...

If you’ve ever struggled to get your team or organization to adopt Lean principles that really work - this interview is for you. Jeff Gothelf is a Lean UX expert who specializes in enterprise software & change management. In his new book, Sense & Respond, Jeff and his co-author Josh Seiden provide tools & techniques that help large organizations listen to customers & create new pro...

Dennis Crowley is the founder and executive chair of Foursquare - a company whose location-based technology is used by Uber, Apple, and others. Dennis a pioneer in location-based social experiences - and an endlessly creative serial entrepreneur who knows how to navigate the ups and downs that go along with bringing new ideas to life. Tune in and hear Dennis’s thoughts on Pokemon Go, entrepreneur...

Raph Koster is a leading expert in social gaming worlds. He’s best known for his work seminal MMOs like Ultima Online and Star Wars: Galaxies - and his influential book “A Theory of Fun” - a must-read if you want to understand the deep connection between games & learning. Raph is a multi-talented renaissance man - designer, artist, musician, and poet - someone who knows a LOT about bringing id...

Paul Adams is a Dublin-based designer, researcher and product manager with a storied career. He's played influential roles at both Google and Facebook — and now runs product at a fast-growing customer communications startup called Intercom. Paul and his colleagues use a product design technique called Job Stories that's inspired by the Jobs-To-Be-Done approach first developed by Clayton...

Tony Stubblebine is a product creator and entrepreneur who got his start working at Odeo and Twitter - and now runs an innovative training and education company called Coach.me. Tony has a unique perspective on finding product/market fit - and a long history of following his nose into whatever is new, hot and exciting in tech. Listen in and learn about what’s on Tony’s radar these days - and why h...

Christina Wodtke is a designer, educator and author who’s worked for a string of iconic Internet companies - Yahoo, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Zynga. Now she teaches design thinking, story structure and how to use OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) - with her own unique twist. Christina has a gift for bringing ideas from different disciplines into design & management. Listen in and learn about Ch...

Today we’re talking with Mimi Ito - an educator and anthropologist turned startup founder. Mimi & her co-founders run an innovative education startup that offers summer camps, after school programs and coding classes on custom Minecraft servers. My daughter attended a Connected Camp last summer - and it was a transformational experience for her, and frankly for me as well. Mimi has a gift for...

Samuel Hulick is a user onboarding expert who runs a popular website called useronboard.com where he deconstructs the initial experience of popular apps and services. I first met Samuel in Amsterdam, where were were both speaking at TNW Europe. We clicked immediately - and bonded over our shared love of great design - and smart design process. If you want to know what goes into creating a great fi...

Steve Portigal a world-class expert in customer research, and the author of Interviewing Users, a practical handbook oh how to get the most value from customer interviews. In this podcast, Steve pulls back the curtain on his professional journey and shares powerful insights about who to talk with - and what to listen for - when you’re interviewing users.

Erika Hall is the co-founder of Mule Design, and the author of “Just Enough Research” - a handbook for improving design with smart, effective user research. Erika uses business goals to focus a project - and targeted customer insights to inform the design. She's got a big bag of research techniques - and knows which ones to pull out to get the job done. If you're into customer-centered d...

Join us for a look back at the highlights and key themes of the first season of Getting2Alpha - the podcast about how creative people bring their idea to life.

Jon Radoff is the CEO of Disruptor Beam, an independent studio building social games for beloved brands like Game of Thrones and Star Trek. Jon combines a deep love for strategy games with a knack for innovation. He's got great stories to tell about bringing iconic properties to life with rapid prototyping and early fan involvement. Tune in to find out what really goes on behind the scenes at...

Hiten Shah is a serial entrepreneur and startup advisor who loves to create and grow businesses. He's is the co-founder of two software-as-a-service companies: Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics - and co-host of The Startup Chat - a podcast that offers actionable advice straight from the trenches of startup life. Hiten has great insights about business and marketing - and a knack for simplifying compl...

Peek inside the creative mind of Eric Zimmerman - a multi-talented game designer, educator and artist who never stops innovating. A self-described Play-Test Fundamentalist, Eric teaches at the NYU Game School and co-creates innovative experiences on the sides. Eric is a true industry visionary - always ahead of his time. What does Eric thinks about teaching, playing and creating compelling and mea...

Katherine Isbister is well-known for her work exploring how emotions are evoked through interactive entertainment. She's an accomplished game designer and educator who works with students and collaborators to bring innovative ideas to life. Her new book, Games and Emotions, will be out in February from MIT press. Join me for a glimpse into Katherine’s approach to teaching, researching, and cr...