Rosenfeld Review Podcast
The Rosenfeld Review Podcast (Rosenfeld Media)
Lou Rosenfeld talks with a LOT of brilliant, interesting changemakers in the UX world and beyond. Subscribe to the Rosenfeld Media podcast for a bird's eye view into what shifts UX faces, and how individuals and teams can respond in ways that drive success.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 30, 2019 • 27min
The Lens of Language: authors Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts on why Writing Is Designing
Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/
Michael Metts and Andy Welfle, authors of the new Rosenfeld Media book Writing Is Designing, get meta and discuss writing about UX writing with Lou Rosenfeld. They also stress the importance of looking through the “lens of language,” when solving problems – reworking your existing language to make things clear from the outset, rather than fixing problems by adding more copy later. Their book will help those responsible for digital copy communicate more effectively—from designers to marketers who might never have considered themselves “UX people.”
Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts are the co-authors of the upcoming Rosenfeld Media title, Writing Is Designing, available January 14, 2020. Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/
What Andy’s reading: Strategic Writing for UX https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Writing-Engagement-Conversion-Retention/dp/1492049395
What Michael’s reading: Content Strategy is Boring (and that’s okay) https://www.braintraffic.com/blog/content-strategy-is-boring-and-thats-ok

Dec 27, 2019 • 33min
Silos, Chauvinism, and Insight: A discussion with Christian Madsbjerg
Christian Madsbjerg, Cofounder of ReD Associates and author, discusses the challenges of aligning social sciences research with data science. He delves into academic chauvinism, the shortcomings of anthropology, and the importance of viewing 'people as people'. The podcast explores the integration of diverse practices for problem-solving, bridging research challenges with AI, and the hurdles faced in merging data science and social science for organizational success.
Oct 9, 2019 • 27min
Researching the Researchers: From 721 responses to 5 personas to a new conference
Four members of our Advancing Research curation team join Lou to discuss the research they did to help shape our inaugural Advancing Research conference (New York City; March 30-April 1, 2020). The team analyzed over 700 survey responses (including about 10,000 answers to open-ended questions!) to learn about user and customer researchers, their learning behaviors, and what they want from conference experiences. Read their summary of the results here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-community/archive/who-does-research-and-how-do-they-learn/ ; you can also explore the study’s quantitative data yourself via Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/lou.rosenfeld.rosenfeld.media#!/vizhome/WhoDoesResearchandHowDoTheyLearn/StoryDraft1
Podcast guests:
Abby Covert (principal investigator), Staff Information Architect at Etsy
Sean Oslin, Consultant at Aventine Hill Partners
Rocio Werner, Senior User Experience Researcher at ZS
Patricia Thommi, User Experience Researcher at ZS
The rest of the team:
Johan Sarmiento, Steve Portigal, Natalie Hanson, Lou Rosenfeld
Oct 3, 2019 • 36min
The Bigger Picture: DesignOps Panel Discussion
Current Design and Research Operations practices face three huge, overarching challenges:
•Proving value and measuring outcomes
•Partnering outside design
•Change management
In this episode of Rosenfeld Review, four DesignOps and ResearchOps leaders—Jose Coronado, Crystal Yan, Guneet Singh, and Rachel Posman—tackle these challenges from a rich set of perspectives, ranging from heading up DesignOps at a large, long-established corporation like JP Morgan Chase, to launching a whole new department at a young company.
Panel Members:
•Jose Coronado, VP Design Operations | Head of DesignOps at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
•Rachel Posman, Head of Design Operations, UberEats
•Crystal Yan, Product Lead, New Initiatives, Remitly
•Guneet Singh, Director of Customer Experience Programs, Docusign

Oct 1, 2019 • 27min
Amplify, Not Optimize: Dave Malouf Returns to Rosenfeld Review
Our closing keynoter at DesignOps 2019, Dave Malouf a veteran design leader, strategist, facilitator, researcher, and educator who has worked with some of the largest and fastest growing organizations globally. He was also one of the creators of the very first DesignOps Summit in 2017. Hear from him about the evolution of DesignOps, and his belief that we need a new framework that emphasizes the topline—the creation of value—over bottomline fixation on resource optimization. This new framing is at the root of DesignOps framework that Dave Malouf will share in his closing keynote. Get a taste of what’s in store for Dave’s keynote “Amplify, Not Optimize” at this year’s DesignOps Summit in New York City, October 23-25.
• Hear from Dave in his past appearance on Rosenfeld Review:
https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/malouf-podcast
• Follow Dave on Twitter: www.twitter.com/daveixd
• Dave’s shoutout: Harry Max, upcoming Rosenfeld Media author! Sign up for updates on his book “Prioritization” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/prioritization-book
... AND Kristin Skinner, who has been “a pioneer in putting theory to practice.”
•More about DesignOps Summit: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/

4 snips
Sep 30, 2019 • 26min
Operating Design Systems: Curating a Product, Serving Products with Nathan Curtis
Managing an effective design system program is a challenge. In his new workshop “Operating Design Systems” at this year’s DesignOps Summit (October 25), design systems guru Nathan Curtis will explore the operational topics that matter most: defining a system’s vision, forming a core team, scoping and making features, and communicating and contributing across a community. He’ll also zoom out, taking on higher-order challenges of multiple systems that overlap and conflict with one another, and the competition for capacity and attention that every system craves.
On this episode of Rosenfeld Review, you’ll get a taste of Nathan’s workshop on operating design systems. Learn more and register here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/sessions/operating-design-systems-curating-a-product-serving-products/

Sep 25, 2019 • 26min
Productive Discontent: a Conversation with Amy Thibodeau
Our opening keynoter at DesignOps 2019, Amy Thibodeau is a UX director at Shopify, where she’s responsible for UX Operations. In four years there, her role has changed dramatically, broadening from an initial focus on supporting content strategy. Hear her story, and get a taste of what’s in store for Amy’s keynote “Process and Ambiguity” at this year’s DesignOps Summit in New York City, October 23-25.
Follow Amy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amythibodeau
More about Amy: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/speakers/amy-thibodeau/
Amy’s shoutout - Lara Hogan, author of Resilient Management https://larahogan.me/
11 snips
Aug 20, 2019 • 32min
Designing your Design Org with Kristin Skinner and Peter Merholz
In this engaging discussion, Kristin Skinner, a design leader and co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs, teams up with Peter Merholz, co-founder of Adaptive Path, to explore the complexities of design organizations. They highlight their journeys from individual contributors to leaders, emphasizing the need for adaptive design practices. The duo also delves into fostering psychological safety and the importance of diverse skill sets in design teams. Their insights shine a light on effective management strategies that can enhance collaboration and innovation within organizations.
Aug 13, 2019 • 24min
The Evolution of Joint Futures Conference with Producer Angelos Arnis
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou and Angelos Arnis, Producer of the Joint Futures Conference in Helsinki, Finland (September 2-5, 2019), discuss the evolving landscape of design professionals’ needs, and how the Joint Futures Conference has changed to suit them.
Rosenfeld Media is pleased to partner with Joint Futures this year to offer four full-day workshops on September 5, 2019.
For more about the workshops: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/public-workshops/helsinki-ux-workshops/
For more about Angelos: www.Arn.is
Follow Angelos on twitter: www.twitter.com/angelosarnis
Jun 12, 2019 • 20min
Preparing Industry-Ready Designers at the Center Centre with Jessica Ivins
Jessica Ivins is a UX designer and facilitator at the Center Centre in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Jessica discusses the methods and philosophy employed by the Center Centre to produce industry-ready designers.
She shares the story of how, after speaking with hiring managers in the industry, co-founders Leslie Jensen-Inman and Jared M. Spool saw a need for an educational program that prepares designers to enter the workforce and start contributing from Day One with minimal onboarding. The Center Centre achieves this by offering a full-time two year program that more closely resembles a workplace experience than a traditional school. Students work on real world projects from large companies that span 3-5 months, and graduate with a portfolio of real world experience.
More about the Center Centre: http://centercentre.com/about


