
DesignOps Island Discs
The podcast from zeroheight, where we talk to the best folks in DesignOps from around the world to help you build the best darn DesignOps practice you possibly can. Hosted by Luke Murphy, design advocate at zeroheight, each episode focuses on a specific part of the DesignOps pie, gaining insight from both established DesignOps practitioners, as well as up and coming DesignOps voices.
Latest episodes

5 snips
Feb 7, 2023 • 57min
Sheena Lydon - Being a DPM
Sheena Lydon, DPM on Design Systems at Wise, brings her civil engineering expertise to the design world. The discussion covers essential skills for Design Program Managers, emphasizing collaboration and communication in design operations. Sheena dives into upcoming WCAG 3 accessibility standards, innovative plugins for design issues, and the importance of supporting non-designers in teams. Light-hearted banter about personal music favorites adds a fun twist, making for an engaging exploration of the evolving landscape of design systems.

Dec 9, 2022 • 58min
Heydon Pickering - Being a Design Systems Engineer
DesignOps Island Discs is a live-recorded, interactive podcast, looking at what's coming up in the world of designops and design systems. For season three, we're focussing on the roles that make up designops and design systems, from content designers to leads to engineers to accessibility specialists to DPMs. For episode 4, we welcome Heydon Pickering, design and engineering consultant, who has worked with Springer Nature, The Paciello Group, BBC, Smashing Mag, and Bulb. We're going to talk to Heydon about being a front-end engineer on design systems... what the challenges are from an engineering point of view with design systems, what makes a good engineer on design systems, and where we need to be heading.

5 snips
Nov 14, 2022 • 50min
Amy Hupe - Being a Content Specialist on Design Systems
DesignOps Island Discs is a live-recorded, interactive podcast, looking at what's coming up in the world of designops and design systems. For season three, we're focussing on the roles that make up designops and design systems, from content designers to leads to engineers to accessibility specialists to DPMs. For episode three, we welcome (back) Amy Hupe! Amy is a content specialist and design system consultant, having worked on design systems from Springer Nature, to BT, to Babylon Health, to Gov.uk. Luke and Amy chat about what a content specialist actually does, why they're the essential third pillar of a design system, what makes a good design system content person, and some of the things that are exciting Amy about the future of content design in design systems (hello structured content), before answering super interesting questions from the live audience!

Oct 19, 2022 • 56min
Arielle Benedek - Being a Product Manager on Design Systems
DesignOps Island Discs is a live-recorded, interactive podcast, looking at what's coming up in the world of designops and design systems. For season three, we're focussing on the roles that make up designops and design systems, from content designers to leads to engineers to accessibility specialists to DPMs. For episode two, we welcome Arielle Benedek, one of the Product Managers on Encore, Spotify's design system, on what a product manager on a design system actually does, what the biggest challenges are, how we need to change what we do, and answers a whole bunch of interesting questions from the live audience.

Sep 26, 2022 • 30min
Geri Reid - Being a Lead Designer on Design Systems
DesignOps Island Discs is a live-recorded, interactive podcast, looking at what's coming up in the world of designops and design systems. For season three, we're focussing on the roles that make up designops and design systems, from content designers to leads to engineers to accessibility specialists to DPMs. For our first episode, we welcome Geri Reid, lead designer on Newskit, the News UK design system. We'll talk about what a lead designer does in the context of design systems, the challenges, what could change, and when you might think about hiring your first lead designer.

Dec 13, 2021 • 33min
Patrizia Bertini - Change Management in DesignOps
Patrizia Bertini, Associate Director of DesignOps at Babylon talks to us about how change management is an essential part of any org change, the benefits of going slow to go fast, how to win over the team with changes in their processes and tooling and why DesignOps at the C suite level.Patrizia on TwitterPat-bertini.medium.comLewin's Model of ChangeParov Stelar DiscographyDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

Nov 29, 2021 • 39min
Dan Mall - How Designers can be Better Partners
Dan Mall, Creative director and advisor, founder and director of both SuperFriendly and Arcade and design systems extraordinaire talks to us about the collaboration between designers and engineers to hot potatoing between design and development and the shift that is needed in design to better focus on people. DanMall.meDan on TwitterSuperFriendlyArcadeStand By Me, Ben E. KingThe Count of Monte Cristo , Alexandre DumasDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

Nov 22, 2021 • 24min
Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent - Standardizing Design Tokens
Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent, design and developer advocate and co-chair of the design tokens W3C community group, talks to us about the history of design tokens, the standardization of design tokens and the future of DesignOps.Kaelig.frKaelig on TwitterDesign Tokens W3C Community GroupPink Floyd, The WallTough Guides: How to Stay Alive on A Desert IslandDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

Nov 15, 2021 • 50min
Brad Frost - The Developer Experience in Design Systems
Brad Frost, Web Designer, Speaker, Consultant, Writer, Podcast Host and 'Grangfather' of Design Systems and Atomic Design , talks to us about the developer experience in design systems, the tools and processes out there to make design systems easier and what hopefully the future of design systems looks like. Bradfrost.comBrad on TwitterPattern LabAtomic DesignOutkast, StankoniaThe Element, Sir Ken RobinsonDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

Nov 8, 2021 • 25min
Tim Gilligan - The role of a Chief of Staff
Tim Gilligan, a Chief of Staff at Capital One, talks to us about their journey into their current role, what benefits a Chief of Staff can bring to an org, and what they are excited about the future of DesignOps.Tim Gilligan Tim on TwitterHundred Days, The BengsonsA Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle DesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...