Today, I’m chatting with Manuel Lima, a UX design thought leader, author, and leading figure in visual culture development, the intersection between art and technology, and data visualisation. Manuel Lima's latest book, The New Designer: Rejecting Myths, Embracing Change, challenges traditional notions of design by emphasizing designers' ethical responsibilities in today's society. In this thought-provoking conversation, we explore how design shapes not just what we see but also how we live, think, and interact with the world around us. Manuel dismantles traditional design paradigms and presents a compelling case for designers to embrace their role as architects of change, addressing crucial challenges at personal, societal, cultural, and environmental levels.
Today, I’m chatting with Lawton Pybus and Thomas Stokes, UX Research veterans and founders of Drill Bit Labs, a research strategy consultancy. They have also researched and authored several UX industry meta-reports and educational articles that can help UX researchers, designers, and UCD leaders stand out from the crowd. In this riveting episode, we explore: 💼 The evolving UX industry job market: insights into the skills, roles, and opportunities defining the next generation of UX researchers. 🤖 AI's growing role in UX Research: how artificial intelligence is reshaping our methodologies and deliverables. 🔬 Essential and more advanced research methods: tried and tested, and innovative techniques that are pushing the boundaries of marrying user needs with tech advancements. And much more. If you’ve enjoyed this conversation, please remember to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
My guest today, Wolfgang Bremer, is an award-winning UX leader and design executive who has worked in multiple Fortune 500 companies. In his career to date, he has managed several highly performing global design orgs and teams. In this conversation, we delve into a few topics surrounding design leadership: The ever-desired and elusive seat at the table, and how to do it right The difficulties of leadership positions and how Wolfgang balances out highly abstracted leadership work and personal achievements Design leadership principles that Wolfgang leads his large design orgs Advice for buddying managers and design leaders, as well as ICs who would want to lead design organisations Ever-increasing levels of uncertainty due to emerging tech and AI and what design leaders should be prepared for And much more. If you’ve enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Thomas Wilson is a UX design thought leader, service designer and industry veteran currently focusing on CX/UX/EX and AI strategies. In this session we delve into a few hot topics: service design and its stark differences across the UK and the US, how future digital services can be shaped with AI, why absolutely everyone needs a portfolio and what makes for good and bad design leadership. We also discuss the recent theme of 'founder mode' and how it's masking more pertinent issues of innovators vs adaptors in tech. This episode offers valuable perspectives for design professionals and enthusiasts on staying ahead in the rapidly evolving field of experience design. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Greg Nudelman is a UX thought leader, serial design book author and speaker. With over 32 projects in AI, he's a true veteran in emerging tech-powered user experience design. In this session, we discuss the evolving landscape of UX design in the era of AI. Greg shares key challenges, principles and how to pick the right tools to deliver great user experiences and become more future-proof. We also delve into how tech teams can pick the right use cases for AI projects, the value of field research and user interviews, and the concept of digital twins, value matrix and more in UX design. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Christian Crumlish is a UXer turned product management leader. He's also an author of the Product Management for UX People book and a host of Design in Product community and conferences on the same topic. In this conversation, we delve into the turf wars between UX and PMs, the unique challenges from both sides, potential career transition strategies and tactics for those keen to take their UCD skills to more business-oriented realms and much more. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Mike Green is a user research leader specialising in research and service design for public services. He's also a host of the Understanding Users podcast. In this episode, we delve into the current state of user research with AI: tools, limits and opportunities. Additionally, we also cover Mike's rich background in government public services and what private companies and UX designers and researchers can learn from it. We also discuss the state of the general UX job market and share advice for newcomers and existing people struggling to find the next job. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Ha Phan is an inventor, speaker, product and design leader. She specialises in emerging tech, user-centric product innovation and experimentation. In this episode, we delve into her product innovation experiences at Zillow, GoPro and many others. We explore the evolution of design beyond traditional UX practices, especially in the realm of emerging technologies like AI. This conversation will spark new ideas and perspectives. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading!
Dr. Nick Fine is user research leader, known for advocating standards within the broader UX design community. He is also a recurring guest on our podcast. In this follow-up session, we continue exploring the theme of 'Better at UX Research than AI' and delve into the future of user research practices. We discuss how the UX industry and its user-centric approach will evolve over the next five years, emphasizing the significance of evaluative research in today's landscape, among other topics.
Kevin Richard is a strategist, critical thinking and design leader. Also, a regular guest on the podcast with whom we dive into industry intricacies and specific hot topics. In this episode, we will revisit sustainable futures, in particular, the Solarpunk as an upcoming design trend. We will also chat about the vanishing UX industry and often problematic positioning of design in businesses.
Cal Thompson (they/them) is a design leader and the VP of User Experience at Headspace. They are leading a talented and mindful team of researchers and designers. Cal has extensive experience working with emerging tech, enterprise and customer experience challenges. In this conversation, we will focus on strategic product design, how UX is done at Headspace, what matters most to them when crafting mindful experiences, a career in design tips and much more.
Debbie Levitt, MBA, a CX leader focused on strategy, research and Human-Centered Design/User-Centered Design. She’s the author of a recently published Customer Know You Suck book which covers actionable CX strategies to understand, attract, and retain customers. In this session, we discuss her book, the tech industry dysfunctions, how UX professionals are being gaslighted and ideas to correct the course for designers and tech teams alike.
Dan Saffer is a UX design leader, author and assistant professor at CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Dan's work has directly influenced my career development as such this conversation will also be extremely valuable to buddying and leading user researchers, designers and product managers. We discuss everything AI: the industry, the good and not-so-great examples, principles that UXers and product folk should keep in mind and much more.
Hang Xu is a UX leader turned recruiter and one of the most prominent design industry figures on Linkedin. In this session, we discuss the current state of the UX industry and what's to come. We also will delve into job-seeking aspects and what designers need to showcase in their portfolio to land the job in probably the most difficult time in history. Hang will also share his philosophy on what makes and breaks UX portfolios and much more.
In this episode, I'm talking to strategist and designer Kevin Richard. We delve into a few sustainable futures-focused topics and how designers can design them. In particular, Kevin shares his thoughts and ideas about Solarpunk as a concept and assemblage of narratives that could inspire more sustainable action.
Jennifer Blatz is a UX leader, strategist, and co-founder of the UX Research and Strategy group. We delve into the world of user personas in UX, exploring their strengths, limitations, and innovative alternatives. Jennifer introduces her latest framework, the Scenario Alignment Canvas, aimed at aiding product teams in fostering a deeper understanding of their users.
Steve Bromley is a highly regarded figure in the user research community, renowned for his expertise in game user research and playtesting. He has authored numerous books aimed at developing and guiding researchers. In this session, we will delve into the distinctive aspects of conducting playtests, explore his insights gained from both the gaming and software development industries, and discuss the future of UX research.
In this episode, I'm talking with Michelle P., a UXer, product marketing researcher and former community manager at Fatshark Games. Michelle shares her unique perspective from her community-building experiences in the gaming industry. We will draw a lot of learnings and parallels to more standard/web product and service community building. As well as explore the user research nuances and the differences between healthy and performant communities.
In this episode, I'm talking with Daiana Zavate, Krasi Bozhinkova and Kevin Richard - the strategic design trio who most recently published a new strategy framework for business and product teams and strategic professionals called Multi-Ocean Strategy Framework. In this session, we will deconstruct this framework, discuss its application and benefits and more. Make sure to check more information to familiarise and start using it here and here.
In this episode, I'm talking with Samuel Huber. Samuel is one of the leading voices for planet-centric design, design thinking for AI coach, one of the founding members of For Planet Strategy Lab and many other things that we will cover in this session. We will also discuss strategy prototyping, human-centred design pitfalls and how absolutely anyone can create sustainability-focused movements within their organizations.