UX Fika Podcast

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Luciano Lykkebo, entrepreneur and event creator behind Future Product Days and a growing number of conferences across Europe. We talk about Luciano’s journey from studying linguistics and starting a translation company in his early twenties to, 18 years later, asking himself what he would build if he had to start all over again. The answer wa...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Indi Young, solution strategist, author, teacher, and creator of a method that lets teams clarify, measure, and grow their solutions and audience based on thinking styles. Indi has spent decades helping teams move beyond behaviours, opinions, demographics, and assumptions to better understand what is actually going through people's minds....

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Joe Macleod, founder of andEnd and pioneer of Endineering — a practice focused on designing how products, services, and relationships end. Joe has spent more than three decades working across digital, physical, and service design, including leading design at ustwo. Today, his work centres on something most organisations tend to avoid: what ha...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Vitaly Friedman, UX Lead, founder and editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine , and curator of the SmashingConf conferences. Vitaly has spent more than two decades working with large organisations on complex digital systems, helping teams improve the user experience of intricate products while also figuring out how to actually measure the impact...

Welcome to season 4 of the UX Fika podcast where I sit down with people who have built both the big and the small, for others and themselves. Our first guest is no other than Björn Jeffery, former CEO of kids-app studio Toca Boca, now a tech columnist and podcast host at Svenska Dagbladet, and an independent analyst working at the intersection of technology, finance, and society. We talk about the...

Welcome to Season 4 of the UX Fika podcast: The Founders. This season is about the people behind the things we see. Some have built big, global companies. Others have built small, intentional businesses around the life they want to live. Some planned it. Some stumbled into it. What fascinates me are the stories behind the building — the risks, the trade-offs, the perspective shifts, and the lesson...

Season 3 is a wrap and in this first bonus episode we share what's to come in, not the least in 2026, say thank you as well as how you can support us and the show. Here's a taster of what we offer: Storyboarding Presentations & Deliverables course Storytelling For Effective Meetings & Presentations Course 5 x One-on-one Coaching Sessions Membership to our community the Fika Room Wh...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Kate Tarling, service leadership expert, author of The Service Organisation, and founder of The Service Org Group, where she helps large and complex organisations shift to a more service-oriented way of working. We talk about what it really means for organisations to become service-oriented, and why so many still haven’t grasped what their se...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Jim Kalbach, author of several books including Mapping Experiences and The Jobs To Be Done Playbook , Collaborative Intelligence. Jim is also the Chief Evangelist at Mural and has spent more than two decades shaping how teams understand human experiences, uncover customer needs, and collaborate more meaningfully. We talk about the evolution o...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Tom Greever, executive design leader, author of Articulating Design Decisions, and someone who’s spent over 20 years helping teams communicate their ideas clearly, confidently, and with impact. We talk about how his now classic book came to be, what’s changed since the first edition, and why articulating design decisions is more important tha...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Abby Covert, information architect, writer, and community organiser who’s spent the past two decades helping people make sense of messes. She’s the author of ‘How to Make Sense of Any Mess’ and ‘Stuck? Diagrams Help’, and the founder of The Sensemakers Club, a growing community where sensemakers from diffferent walks of life come together to...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Sarah Doody — UX researcher, product designer, and founder of Career Strategy Lab, a job search accelerator helping UX and product professionals find their next role and succeed once they’re there. We talk about treating your career like a product — creating a roadmap, defining outcomes, and using research to uncover your blind spots, and why...

In this episode of the UX Fika Podcast, I sit down with Cheryl Platz — actress, designer, author, and creative director for the Game Studio at The Pokémon Company International — whose career has spanned everything from The Sims and Alexa to Marvel Strike Force and Pokémon TCG Live. We talk about what games can teach us about human behaviour, creativity, and community, and why the future of design...

In this episode I sit down with Paulina Modlitba, AI strategist, angel investor, author of 'Vad fan ska vi med AI till?' (“What the hell do we need AI for?”), and one of Sweden’s leading voices on technology and innovation. We talk about how AI makes us feel and why Paulina believes it’s ultimately a deeply human topic. She shares her journey from studying human–robot interaction at MIT Me...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred from Big Medium — design leaders and co-authors of the upcoming book Sentient Design . We talk about what it’s like to work and write a book together as father and daughter, and how that partnership has shaped both their working relationships and their ideas about what design needs next. They share how Sentient...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Melissa Perri, strategic adviser, author of Escaping the Build Trap, CEO of Produx Labs, and faculty member at Harvard Business School. We talk about why product management is more critical than ever as AI accelerates how we build, test, and ship ideas, and why the difference between great product managers and average ones is about to become...

Welcome to episode 15 of the UX Fika podcast. In this conversation sit down with Giles Colborne — design leader, strategist, author of Simple and Usable , and now founder of Made Simple. We talk about his journey from studying physics to co-founding cxpartners, what it meant to grow it into one of the UK’s leading design consultancies, and the mixed emotions of eventually letting it go. Giles shar...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I reconnect with Richard Banfield — author, advisor, and co-founder of Second Harvest, a retreat and coaching venture that believes the second half of life can be the most creative, exciting, and rewarding. We talk about how the idea for Second Harvest came from Richard’s own transitions, and how he’s now applying the UX toolbox — mapping assumptions, testin...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Jared Spool — Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre, designer, speaker, and someone who’s been shaping the field of UX for nearly 5 decades. We talk about how the role of UX has shifted (and in some cases shrunk) over the years, why so many UX teams still struggle to show their value, why measuring success only through conversion rates is mis...

Hi and welcome to season 3 of the UX Fika podcast. I'm your host Anna and I knew I wanted to do this podcast but I had no idea just how much I would love it. Re-listening to the chats from 2021 and then doing the the catch up chats in season 2 has given me so much and I'm pleased to share that as of today episodes of season 3 will start to be released. Season 3 is called the ‘Conference pe...

In this episode of UX Fika podcast, I reconnect with Jonty Sharples – product, design, and business leader, and now consulting CPO working from a wooden box at the bottom of his garden. When we first spoke in 2021, Jonty was at Where Is My Transport, building products for emerging markets. Four years later, we catch up on where he is now, what he learned from building and scaling teams across cont...

In this episode of UX Fika podcast, I reconnect with Be Kaler Pilgrim – founder of Smithfield Search and long-time leader in the digital recruitment world. When we last spoke in 2021, Be was still running Futureheads Recruitment, navigating a pandemic and a shifting job market. Four years later, we catch up on what’s changed, not the least in recruitment. We talk about why she launched a new busin...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I catch up again with Jason Mesut – creative coach, strategic consultant, and long-time shaper of designers. When we first spoke in 2021, Jason was stepping into coaching, deep into writing his ‘Shaping Design’ book, and exploring new ways of working. Four years later, we catch up on everything that’s happened since. Jason shares why he ultimately stepped aw...

In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I reconnect with Jeff Gothelf – author of Lean UX , Sense & Respond , Forever Employable , and most recently Who Does What By How Much? , his latest book with Josh Seidon on making OKRs actually work. When we last spoke in 2021, Jeff was launching his own podcast and was deep in the third edition of Lean UX . Now, four years later, we catch up on what’s...

In this episode of UX Fika podcast, I reconnect with Andy Budd – design leader, coach, investor, and long-time advocate for the design community. When we last spoke in 2021, Andy had just stepped away from Clearleft, the agency he co-founded, and was embracing a new chapter. Four years on, we catch up on what’s happened since. We talk about his transition from agency founder to solo coach and advi...