Rosenfeld Review Podcast

Aletheia Delivre, Senior Program Manager of Design Engineering Collaboration & Strategy at Microsoft, discusses the seismic shifts in design operations due to AI. She highlights how AI-infused tools are transforming workflows, demanding professionals to rethink roles and collaboration methods. Aletheia compares design leaders to architects, guiding their teams through evolving dynamics. She also offers insights on maintaining situational awareness in an AI landscape and emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and innovative practices in design.

Doug Powell, an executive coach and former IBM design leader, shares insights from IBM's bold design transformation. Discover how centralization kickstarted progress and why timing was crucial for decentralization. He emphasizes the importance of building a supportive design culture and using metrics to demonstrate design's business value. Doug offers valuable advice for design leaders navigating change and complexity, making his wisdom essential for anyone shaping the future of design operations.

What do video games and world-building have in common? Everything. Lou reconnects with Cheryl Platz—author, designer, and creative director—to explore the evolving world of video game development. Cheryl shares what drew her back to the gaming industry after years in enterprise UX and voice design, and how her new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide, distills insights across disciplines to help teams build modern games that truly thrive. The conversation ranges from the power of cross-functional collaboration to the benefits UX skills bring to game development to the monetization models shaping today’s games. Cheryl reflects on the challenges facing the industry—massive layoffs, misaligned incentives, and a lack of shared understanding—and how a more human-centered, sustainable approach could be a game changer. Whether you're a UX professional, game developer, or just curious about what makes great video games tick, this episode offers a sharp, wide-angle view of where the field is headed.

Design operations isn’t just about process—it’s about shaping better products, teams, and organizations from the inside out. José Coronado joins Lou to unpack why DesignOps deserves to be treated as a true design discipline. Drawing on his experience leading global teams at JPMorgan Chase, Target, and beyond, José shares strategies for embedding operational roles into business units, measuring impact, and scaling design without sacrificing quality. They explore how enterprise UX has evolved since the iPhone, why service design is the right lens for thinking about internal operations, and what it takes to foster effective cross-functional collaboration. The conversation offers a preview of José’s upcoming panel at the 2025 DesignOps Summit—and plenty of practical insights for DesignOps professionals at any stage of their journey.

What happens when you combine righteous anger with unwavering hope? You get George Aye—and the “Angry Hour.” In this lively episode, Lou Rosenfeld chats with George Aye, co-founder of Greater Good Studio, about his mission to create spaces for “pissed off optimists”—people who see the world’s injustices and refuse to give up on making things better. George shares the philosophy behind Angry Hour, a growing series of meetups uniting professionals from diverse fields around shared frustration and hope. He explains how these gatherings channel collective energy into meaningful connections, local nonprofit support, and even bigger plans like the upcoming Livid Conference—a national gathering for changemakers who are angry enough to care and optimistic enough to act. If you’re searching for solidarity in uncertain times—or simply wondering how to turn anger into action—this conversation offers insight, inspiration, and a glimpse into a movement fueled by equal parts rage and resolve.

What do you do when a successful tech career leaves you feeling like an empty shell? For Francois Burra, the answer was to look inward and transform his life—and help transform an industry. Lou Rosenfeld talks with Francois, a UX designer turned digital decarbonization consultant, about how a personal crisis led him to channel his “infinite energy” into tackling the tech industry’s overlooked climate impact. Francois shares how he co-founded Climate Product Leaders and co-authored Sustainable by Design: A Playbook for Product Managers—a free, practical guide brimming with best practices and real-world case studies for weaving sustainability into everyday product and design work. They explore how sustainability intersects with design, product management, and hot topics like AI, highlighting how even small steps can create meaningful change. Francois also offers candid reflections on career pivots, mental health, and finding purpose-driven work that feeds both your soul and the planet.

In this engaging conversation, designer and technologist Matt Webb shares his unique insights on emerging technologies and their implications. He discusses how generative AI represents a leap into capabilities that feel ahead of their time. Matt explores 'weak signals' and how personal experiments can hint at larger trends. He also highlights the evolving relationship between humans and design—where dialogue with AI tools replaces traditional search. Expect fascinating ideas about adaptive design and the potential for anyone to become a creator.

What happens when a cognitive psychologist turned UX researcher brings a critical eye to AI? Dr. Llewyn Paine shares her unique perspective at the intersection of emerging technology and user research. With experience spanning neuromarketing, 3D television, and mixed reality, Llewyn has seen the hype cycles come and go—and learned to spot the gap between promise and practical value. Llewyn and Lou explore the parallels between now-defunct technologies and today’s AI surge, noting how often new tools are overmarketed before their implications are truly understood. Llewyn urges researchers to engage with AI not as passive users but as experimenters: to test, retest, document, and analyze like scientists. Her recent workshop revealed how even identical prompts to the same model can yield wildly different results—an important reminder that AI is non-deterministic and context-sensitive. Llewyn also shares a behind-the-scenes look at curating the Designing with AI 2025 conference, built around both the realities of today and the creative possibilities of tomorrow. She reminds us that critical thinking, experimentation, and thoughtful documentation are the UX research community’s superpowers in this unpredictable AI era.

Guest Joshua Graves, an author and artist known for his spooky aesthetic, shares insights from his book, 'We Need to Talk: A Survival Guide for Tough Conversations.' He explores how to navigate tough discussions with clear tools from neuroscience and psychology. Key topics include addressing workplace power dynamics and emotional triggers, emphasizing the power of slowing down and asking the right questions. Joshua encourages listeners to embrace self-awareness and authenticity, asserting that conflict can be managed with flexibility and personal agency.

Jake Burghardt, author of Stop Wasting Research and an advocate for effective use of customer insights, dives into how organizations often fail to leverage valuable research. He reveals that the solution isn't just building repositories but treating research as a renewable asset. The discussion covers the three main causes of research waste: poor preparation, lack of motivation, and weak decision-making integration. Burghardt also introduces innovative frameworks like the 'Insight Summary Hub' to enhance knowledge-sharing and drive impactful actions.