What can designers learn from astronauts and race car drivers? In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou speaks with Katie Swindler to answer this and similar questions in her upcoming Rosenfeld Media book, Life and Death Design. Katie’s new book will help us redefine how we might view a core human function – specifically, the stress response – and how stress can be an informative tool for designers. As an experienced presenter who has spoken on UX topics internationally at industry events, Katie believes that brands who wish to truly connect with consumers must expand utility through emotion. She illustrates how leveraging stress-informed design enables users to perform optimally during high-stress or traumatic experiences. Important questions Katie tackles are: How does understanding the stress response help designers deal with high-stress situations? How can designers leverage redundancy and biomimicry to enhance a final product? How stress-informed design can support experts in a way that preserves an organic workflow? How did conscientious attention to detail in design help save the lives of heroic users? What is “abusive design,” and how do we avoid it? Life and Death Design contains these and many more fascinating examples that serve as beautifully counter-intuitive resources for designers. Sign up to be notified when Life and Death Design is available to order! rosenfeldmedia.com/books/life-and-death-design/ Learn more about Katie: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/people/katie-swindler/

Angelos Arnis is a strategic designer focusing on delivering experiences with humane principles. For the past 10 years, he has been working with product/service companies and startups, both in early and high growth stages. Angelos is currently changing the ways of working at Posti Group, Finland’s postal service. He is a co-founder at Joint Frontiers, and a co-host of ‘Human, the designer’. Additionally, he is a community organizer at IxDA Helsinki, as well as an alumnus organizer of Joint Futures, DSCONF, & Junction Hackathon. In his free time, he enjoys making music, and playing computer games. In this talk, Angelos discusses the State of DesignOps 2021 Global Report, and will be sharing this information during this year’s DesignOps Summit 2021 on September 29 - October 1. Angleos began his journey to better understand how one can position their career in design, which then led to exploring more questions that can present a wider range of answers on the subject. The quantitative data collected for the report was done in the form of surveys, and Angelos has provided us with valuable insights around the state of design operations. Additionally, he will present relevant qualitative research during this year’s summit program. Some highly-anticipated questions Angelos answers in this podcast include: 1) What DesignOps career opportunities are available to professionals in the field? 2) What ladder-climbing opportunities currently exist in design? 3) How would you describe the positioning of typical design practices? 4) What surprises you most about the commonalities you’ve identified? As of the time of this recording, the State of DesignOps 2021 Global Report has not yet been released. The full scoop will be available during the DesignOps Summit 2021 - don’t miss out! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2021/register/

Sarah Brooks is a design leader and intrapreneur who uses strategic design and mixed-methods research to help teams and organizations reach better outcomes. She has worked in enterprise, federal, non-profit, start-up, and hybrid organizations. If you’re one of millions of US military veterans, her work at the Veterans Administration has touched your life. We are pleased to welcome Sarah as a member of the Civic Design conference (https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/) and community curation team! In this Rosenfeld Review episode, she shares her experience at the VA, digging into specific challenges when working within a large org, learning what ‘patriotism’ means from people who are in the service, and how soft-skills (people skills, really) are needed at the systems level. Sarah recommends: Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown https://www.amazon.com/Emergent-Strategy-Shaping-Change-Changing/dp/1849352607 Tickets to Civic Design 2021 are now available; register now! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/ More about Sarah: Sarah Brooks is a design leader and intrapreneur working at the intersection of foresight, service design, and mixed-methods research approaches to help teams and organizations reach better outcomes. She has worked across the enterprise, federal, non-profit, start-up, and hybrid organizations. Currently, Sarah is the Executive design leader responsible for the development and diffusion of standards and practices that create experience excellence across IBM's product and service teams. She is an active mentor, author, educator, and speaker on the art & craft of seamless experiences and living systems approached to complex challenges. Sarah is the author of System Shifting, in the book Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services and Beyond, and the essay Collective Strength and Greater Understanding Through Co-Design in the book Leap Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation. Sarah served as a 2014-2015 U.S. Presidential Innovation Fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continuing on as a political appointee until the end of the Obama-Biden Administration, working as Chief Design Officer leading a team that worked on strategic transformation priorities. Prior to government service, Sarah lived in San Francisco and worked in the social impact ecosystem and currently lives in Montauk, New York.

Martha Dorris, Founder and CEO, Dorris Consulting International, has almost 34 years of government experience in acquisition, technical and program management to customer experience. Martha has run many government organizations that build and deliver agency and citizen facing programs to deliver government services anytime, anywhere on any device. Most recently, Martha led and managed GSA’s Office of Strategic Programs where she brought a customer-centric lens to the services and acquisitions they award. In this Rosenfeld Review episode, she takes a dive into her projects at the GSA improving Customer Experience (as opposed to the previous focus on Customer Service), as well as work across the government and her advice for anyone just starting out. We are pleased that Martha is supporting the curation team for our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/ Tickets to Civic Design 2021 are now available; register now! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/

Ariel Kennan is a service design and product development leader who has worked across the public, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University. We are pleased to announce that she has joined the curation team of our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/ In this Rosenfeld Review episode, Ariel discusses the myriad of public service projects she’s had a hand in, and particularly the ways in which Civic Design can improve peoples’ lives, especially those who are underprivileged (for example, the application for unemployment benefits during the covid-19 pandemic.) Ariel recommends: Creative Reaction Lab — building capacity in historically marginalized communities and training designers to work in new ways. https://www.creativereactionlab.com/

We are excited to welcome Charlotte Lee as a co-curator of our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/ In this episode, Charlotte and Lou discuss the intersection of design and technology, machine learning, how the House of Representatives legislates, and more. She also shares details about her current project, redesigning congress.gov, and a peek into what you can expect from the Civic Design Conference. Looking for a great read? Charlotte recommends: Humanocracy https://www.humanocracy.com/ by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini About Charlotte: Charlotte Lee is an award-winning entrepreneur and human-centered design practitioner based in Washington D.C. She is the founder and CEO of Monday Design Company, a service design consultancy as well as Kastling Group, a digital transformation consultancy. She is a strategic advisor to public and private executives in organizations undergoing IT modernization. Many of her clients seek partnership to help execute their vision of a holistic view of transformation that places human achievement as the measure of success. Her professional path in product management and user experience design was taken with the vision of a more human-friendly world in every way. Charlotte’s current portfolio at the House of Representatives exemplifies her two biggest passions- human centricity and strengthening democracy. She is very energized by the opportunity to apply HCD and design thinking to examine and reimagine the way ideas turn into law.

Caroline’s book “Surveys That Work: A Practical Guide for Designing and Running Better Surveys” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/surveys-that-work/ is a decade in the making — and finally coming in July 2021! Here, Caroline shares some glimpses into the methodologies and tricks she’ll share in the book, and how it evolved along the years. Caroline recommends: Mentor Black Business https://blackbusiness.mcsaatchi.com/ founded by Akil Benjamin More about the book: Surveys That Work explains a seven-step process for designing, running, and reporting on a survey that gets accurate results. In a no-nonsense style with plenty of examples about real-world compromises, the book focuses on reducing the errors that make up Total Survey Error—a key concept in survey methodology. If you are conducting a survey, this book is a must-have.

Surya Vanka, a speaker at the Design at Scale conference, discusses the power of design swarms in solving major social problems. He shares his experiences working on gender discrimination and the opioid crisis. The podcast explores how the swarm method is applied in teaching, addresses challenges in enterprises, and emphasizes the importance of leadership and creating a safe space for creativity.

A self-described “failed architect,” Sha Hwang joins Lou to discuss the challenges of scale when merging two companies, and his journey from Trulia and Stamen Design to being part of the team that rescued Healthcare.gov and, subsequently, founding Nava, a public benefit corporation formed during those efforts. Sha Recommends: • Civic Technologists Practice Guide https://www.amazon.com/Civic-Technologists-Practice-Guide/dp/1735286508 Sha will be speaking at Design at Scale 2021 this June 9-11. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/sessions/the-lost-year/ About Sha’s talk, The Lost Year: The pandemic made it painfully clear that the failure of critical public services causes real harm, both physical and financial. Our healthcare system is being overwhelmed, millions are pouring onto unemployment, and we’ve seen an unprecedented number of people trying to access government programs. It has never been more important for government services to be simple, effective, and accessible to all, yet we’re far from that vision today. In this talk, Sha Hwang, co-founder and chief operating officer of Nava Public Benefit Corporation, will discuss the opportunities designers have to build government services that prioritize equity and resiliency—and the responsibility that comes with designing systems that serve millions of people. About Sha: Sha Hwang is the COO and co-founder of Nava, a public benefit corporation formed during efforts to help fix HealthCare.gov. Nava partners with government agencies to improve critical public services, and now works across several projects in the US on programs including Medicare, Veterans Affairs, and unemployment benefits and paid family leave at the state level. Nava has helped tens of millions of people enroll in critical programs, streamlined processes to save decades of labor years, and saved government agencies hundreds of millions of dollars. A failed architect and accidental entrepreneur, Sha has worked with clients such as the New York Times, the Harvard Library Lab, MTV, Flickr, and Adobe. Previously, Sha worked at Stamen Design and later cofounded the company Movity, which was acquired by Trulia.

Sheri is the author of the upcoming book Giving a Damn about Accessibility, and a speaker at Design at Scale 2021 this June 9-11. In this latest Rosenfeld Review podcast, she discusses the critical importance of starting projects and products with a mindset of accessibility. Spoiler alert: it’s far more difficult to go back later. VMWare, where Sheri is currently an Accessibility Architect, recently launched an Accessibility Champions program, increasing their hires with disabilities and those with interest in specialized training. She and Lou talk through the program and other ways you can scale accessibility—even while acquiring new companies, as Sheri has experienced (more than ten in two years!) Interested in learning more? Check out Sheri’s presentation at DAS2021: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/sessions/accessibility-at-scale/ Sheri recommends: Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School https://habengirma.com/ Lily Zheng, DEI Consultant https://lilyzheng.co/ Sheri Byrne-Haber is a prominent global subject matter expert in the fields of disability and accessibility. She is best known for launching digital accessibility programs at multiple Fortune 200 companies, including McDonald’s, Albertsons, and VMware, as well as consulting on government and education accessibility. Sheri’s award-winning Medium blog summarizes legal cases and issues facing people implementing accessibility programs, with over 300,000 readers since its launch. Sheri is a frequent panelist and speaker at accessibility related conferences and an active member of several accessibility committees and non-profits, helping drive and communicate the evolution of accessibility standards.