Patterns Podcast

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. AI can generate a screen in seconds. Deciding whether that screen is right still takes someone who has seen enough of them. In this episode of Patterns, Chris Strahl talks with design leader Alexis Puchek about what design judgment means when agents do more of the building. Drawing on about 20 years at frog, Hudl, and Procore, in fields where the screen often isn't the point, Alexis explains why judgment gets more valuable as systems get better. The c...

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. Design systems were built to close the gap between a brand and the products that express it. Now an agent sits in that gap, and it arrives at every task like a new hire who has never seen the system. In this episode of Patterns, Chris Strahl talks with Mike Kamminga, CEO and founder of Tokens Studio, about what that changes for tokens, components, and the context teams hand to their agents. Mike describes a design system as component definitions, desi...

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. AI makes it easier than ever to build the wrong thing quickly. Zooming out to see the whole system is one way teams notice. In this episode of Patterns, Chris Strahl talks with James McElroy, a designer and design leader who started in mechanical engineering, about keeping the big picture in view while the tools get faster. James traces a systems mindset from childhood terminals at home to a first design job at Bose, where a handheld home theater remo...

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. Software teams are operating in an environment where the job description changes every two months. As agentic AI moves from novelty to real engineering capability, the assumptions that have held enterprise software together — long SaaS contracts, stable teams, predictable agile rhythms — are starting to bend. In this episode of Patterns, Chris Strahl talks with engineering leader Alex Wilson about what it actually takes to bring AI into a large, regula...

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. Digital products no longer exist as standalone apps. They live inside complex ecosystems of interfaces, AI systems, legacy infrastructure, and workflows that all have to work together. In this episode of Patterns, Chris Strahl talks with product design leader Andi Rusu about what it takes to design reliable digital experiences in environments where multiple systems—and increasingly AI—are shaping how products behave. Drawing on experience at Disney, So...