The Way of Product with Caden Damiano

In this episode, I talk with Senior Director of Product Erica Gann Kitaev about how emotion and sentiment can be big indicators of product success. This episode is a great deep dive on delight. Connect with Erika: https://www.linkedin.com/in/egann/ Careers at Thomson Reuters: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en.html If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please su...

In this episode, I chat with Ian Peterman, Founder of the Peterman Design Firm, about the value of time and consistency when working out innovations. This interview will get you hyped to stick to something long-term because that's what it takes to be an impact player in the industry.  Connect with Ian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianpeterman/ Work with the Peterman Firm If you get any value out of...

In this episode, I talk with serial entrepreneur Richard White, founder of Fathom, about how he balances vision and execution, and how to translate research insights into actual product roadmap moves. Connect with Richard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rrwhite/ Download Fathom  If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Des...

In this episode, I talk to Pek Pongpaet, CEO of the almost decade-old agency Impekable, about the lessons he has had to learn to grow his agency by not designing. This is a great episode for designers who want to grow into business operators. Connect with Pek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pekpongpaet/ Careers at Impekable: https://www.impekable.com/ Listen to Pek's Podcast   If you get any value ou...

A discussion on what good and bad strategy is and how innovation actually works.  If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

Essay on how to carry yourself as a professional designer.  If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

How to identify ideas and requirements that are not backed by real discovery work. If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

An essay on what it takes to create a meaningful career and life. If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

Season 5 Finale!  In this episode I learn about excelling in your career by talking to Taylor Palmer. Taylor has found that he grows most quickly on teams and in environment where there is a culture of experimentation. He tries to set aside 20% of his time to always be working on something that's not on the roadmap. Taylor has had a steep growth curve since starting at Lucid fresh out of college....

The design thinking philosophy outlines a way to think and approach product development. It isn't a process. In this episode, I talk with co-creator of UX tools, Jordan Bowman, about the real day to day of a product designer.  We discuss: -The job is not a linear process, so your methods change based on the problem. -The best way to learn about UX, by breaking down methods and using scenarios to p...

William needed a job, and even with a strong portfolio and track record, it took him three months to land on his feet.  William talks about how he learned to take control of his career from that day forward, so it no longer took "3 months" to find a new job. William is the author of "101 Random UX Facts" and a Senior Designer at PayPal and former designer at Home Depot. This episode is a mastercla...

The key to performance as designer is getting to a point where you are relaxed in the role.  I chat with Bobby Lloyd, a Principal at United Health and a former UX/UI Strategist at Goldman Sachs, about what needs to happen to become relaxed as a designer. Bobby calls it being "organic" and a lot of it has to do with practice and getting over imposter syndrome. We dive deep in this one.  Connect wit...

In this episode I chat with Janet Lee on operating a design business. Janet is Director Of Operations, Digital Agency for the prolific agency Impekable. Where she started off as a design intern. We discuss her shift from designing to becoming an operator of the business itself. Recommend this episode with anyone who is curious about operations in a design or product organization.  Find Janet here:...

This episode is about creating products that are designed to "generate value" for consumers, in place of "extracting value" from consumers. There is a big difference!  George Serediuc is a Principal Designer based in Romania. He runs a consultancy gig to help companies & institutions build inclusive digital products that are purposeful & human-centered.  We talk about the philosophy of use...

Why are designers moving into Product Managment roles? I bring on an old guest, Bryan Mortensen, to talk about our recent discussions on why we both are considering moving into Product Managment one day.  We discuss designers losing influence at the business seat of the table, how product management is taking over aspects of design thinking we both like doing, and why having a solid PM is a game c...

In this episode, Carey Jenkins and I talk about Digital Optimism, a school of thought that empowers technologists to believe in the power of technological innovation to improve our lives and society. Carey Jenkins is CEO of Substantial, a world-class product development studio based in Seattle, serving a diverse set of clients - from Fortune 50s like Google and Amazon to emerging start-ups and soc...

UX can be romanticized as a profession that can airdrop into any business and work miracles, when it's really just another stakeholder.  In this episode, I chat about the pitfalls of UX's rising popularity with Michael Tinglin. We also talk about the non-linear career, which is giving yourself the freedom to jump back and forth between IC and management roles as a design professional.  Michael has...

In this episode I chat with Adam Fry-Pierce, a former director of the design leadership forum at InVision and current head of design ops at Docusign. He has personally onboarded and interacted with over 3200 design leaders in the DLF and has some takeaways and lessons from those experiences that you might find interesting. Topics we cover: - If all design leaders have everything together. - Leader...

Audio Essay on Winning Companies If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

An audio essay on critical thinking If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

Why product work is about making complex things complicated.  If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe

In this episode I interviewed Terell Cobb , design leader at Microsoft and active leader in the Black UX community about diversity in design. He eloquently reframed the diversity argument in a way that really resonated with and made sense to me: "Its about exposing future designers to successful people that look like them, so they know what's possible in their career" Connect with Terrell: https:/...

In this episode, I chat with Patricia Dwyer, about designing for ecosystems.  Patricia is a content designer on Intuit's Platform Design team, and shares what the design challenges are in a platform environment.  Anyone interested in how design contributes to huge architectural efforts should give this a listen.  Connect with Patricia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciabdwyer/ If you get any val...

Let's talk about the next iteration of the internet. Web 3.0. In this episode, I chat with Tian Zhao about what kind of products and experiences will be possible with mass adoption of distributed computing.  Connect with Tian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tntyzhao/ If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for fre...

Drew Bridewell is the head of design and product at GrowthDay. and is the CEO and Founder of Next Level UX an education company designed to help designers level up their, planning, systems thinking, and soft skills so they can be a better contributor to their teams and be high performing UX designer overall.  We talk about what it takes to actually solve complex problems, how to map complex proble...