
Design Systems Podcast
Design Systems Podcast interviews industry leaders and product makers to share best practices and explore the areas where design and development come together.
Latest episodes

Oct 27, 2022 • 24min
52. Kathryn Gonzalez from DoorDash: Localize your design system
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Kathryn Gonzalez and Chris discuss the evolution of design systems from centralized to localized and how DoorDash’s design system team is evolving as their system matures. Guest:Kathryn Gonzalez is the head of design infrastructure at DoorDash, where she leads design systems design, design systems engineering, accessibility, and prototyping. She was the first designer and front-end engineer at DoorDash and has been living at the intersection of design and engineering for her entire career. She loves startups, sports, and fashion and is a proud queer woman of color from the South.Host:Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.View the transcript of this episode here.Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

Sep 21, 2022 • 34min
51. Evan Lovely, Chris Bloom, Jake Love, and Brittany Smart from Knapsack: Hot Takes on the State of Design Systems
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Evan Lovely (Head of Product & Engineering), Chris Bloom (Principal Front-End Engineer), Jake Love (Senior Solutions Engineer), and Brittany Smart (Solutions Engineer) join Chris to discuss the state of design systems today. Listen as the Knapsack team shares hot takes on everything from the lesser known elements of successful design systems to the role vulnerability should play in your system. Host:Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.View the transcript for this episode here. Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

4 snips
Sep 6, 2022 • 37min
50. Stephen Gates: What makes a good design leader?
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Stephen Gates and Chris discuss the realities of design system leadership, unconventional sources of inspiration, and the impact of design on society. Guest: With over 20 years of experience, Stephen is a global design leader who has built world-class teams at organizations that integrate research and data with human-centered design methods to drive business impact. He’s helped companies like Starwood Hotels, Citi, InVision, and WW scale their design practice and grow successful teams. Stephen is also the host of the award-winning podcast, The Crazy One, which features in-depth explorations of issues that matter to creatives, including leadership, creativity, and career development and innovation. You can find Stephen through his website, on Twitter or Instagram as @sdgates and on LinkedIn.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.View the transcript for this episode here. Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

Aug 1, 2022 • 37min
49. Vojtech Miksu from Uber: Next-gen tooling for developers
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.Vojtech Miksu (Software Engineer at Uber) and Evan Lovely (Chief Architect at Knapsack) join Chris to discuss the gap between a frontend developer’s code base and what actually gets shipped, the next-gen tool (Ladle) Vojtech created to address this, and ultimately helping developers get closer to what end users experience.View the transcript of this episode here.

Jun 6, 2022 • 41min
48. Meghan Rosatelli and Saejin Choi from Capital One: Navigating design system convergence, adoption, and contribution simultaneously
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Meghan Rosatelli and Saejin Choi join Chris to discuss transitioning multiple design systems into one, shifting system consumers’ mindset from working with a local system to working with a global system, and using play to drive excitement and adoption of a design system.Guest: Meghan Rosatelli is the Director of Design for Capital One’s enterprise design system. She also teaches courses in digital arts at the University of Richmond. You can find Meghan on LinkedIn. Guest: Saejin is currently the Experience Lead for Capital One's design system. His previous life at Capital One was leading the Digital Payments and Commerce design team. You can find Saejin on LinkedIn, or via his years-long dormant Twitter account @saejinchoi.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.View the transcript of this episode here.

May 16, 2022 • 35min
47. Nick Dorman and Ellis Capon from News UK: Bridging old and new media with News UK’s design system, NewsKit
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Nick, Ellis, and Chris discuss how News UK’s design system, NewsKit, united multiple disparate brands in a central source of truth, and how infrastructure management has helped scale design and engineering practices.Guest: Ellis Capon is a Senior Product Manager at News UK, who looks after the NewsKit design system amongst other products within the NewsKit ecosystem. You can find Ellis on Twitter as @ellis_capon and on LinkedIn.Guest: Nick Dorman is Head of Design Systems at News UK, a design leader with over 15 years of experience in publishing. You can find Nick on Twitter as @Nickdorman1 and on LinkedIn.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.View the transcript of this episode here.

May 2, 2022 • 32min
46. Davy Fung from Disney+/Hulu: Spicy takes on design system nuances
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Curious about the fun parts of design systems? Check out this episode of the Design Systems Podcast featuring Davy Fung, co-host of design systems podcast Design System Office Hours, who joined Chris to talk about working creatively within design system constraints, common structures for design systems, and building a Jedi Council of Design System Advocates. Guest: Davy Fung formerly led design systems across Disney+, Hulu, and Star+, now at Meta working on design systems for Meta Business Suite. You can find Davy on Twitter as @cobradave, his podcast Design System Office Hours, and on LinkedIn.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.View the transcript of this episode here.

Apr 18, 2022 • 50min
45. Una Kravets from Google Chrome and Chris Bloom from Knapsack: The internet’s dirty secret
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Una, Chris, and Chris talk about production-level code, the accessibility of Web3, and the new sliced bread of the web. Prepare for Una to blow your mind with how dynamic CSS can be.Guest: Una Kravets is a Brooklyn-based developer who's making the web more styleable as a Developer Advocate at Google Chrome. Previously, she was the Director of Product Design at Bustle Digital Group and worked on building maintainable design systems as a UI Engineer at both DigitalOcean and IBM Design. She co-hosts two web development podcasts: Toolsday and the CSS Podcast, as well as the web video series Designing in the Browser. She creates technical illustrations called Dev Doodles, does brush lettering and calligraphy, and has started technical meetup groups in Washington, DC and Austin, TX. You can check out her website for more about her work and projects, or learn a thing or two about code from her Twitter.Guest: Chris Bloom is a full-stack developer passionate about design systems, component-driven development, and many, many JavaScript frameworks. You can find Chris on Twitter as @illepic and on LinkedIn.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.View the transcript for this episode.

Apr 4, 2022 • 33min
44. Corey Greeneltch from Compass: Why design systems should be part of your company’s DNA
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Corey and Chris discuss how design systems represent an organization’s lifeblood, the sisyphean parts of design system maintenance, and what stands out about design system culture at Compass.Guest: Corey is the Head of Design Systems at Compass. He has made a career out of building and leading design teams through complicated enterprise challenges to create experiences that customers love. He has years of experience within agencies, consulting firms, and in-house organizations leading design teams, implementing enterprise-level design systems, and directing UX. He believes the best products are built by diverse teams and curious leaders. You can find Corey at his website, on Twitter as @BlankSky, and on LinkedIn.Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Design once, build once, use everywhere. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.View the transcript for this episode.

Mar 31, 2022 • 11min
Special announcement: Patterns, the design systems conference for leaders
Send us feedback or episode suggestions.Last week Knapsack announced Patterns, the leadership-focused design systems retreat. Chris and Ryan Peterson, Knapsack's VP Marketing, and Chris talk about the what, why, and who behind Patterns, an invite-only retreat for 50 engineering, product, and design leaders. Curious about why it's focused on leader-level topics? Wondering if it will help you get more investment in your design system? List in to learn about what we're planning—and why you (or your manager) should go.Ryan Peterson is VP of Marketing at Knapsack and producer of @TheDSPod. Ryan has spent the last seven years working with design systems and the teams that use them. You can find Ryan on Twitter as @ryanptrsn and on LinkedIn.Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsor: Knapsack unites your design, code, and content in a central source of truth for your entire product team. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.Read the transcript here.
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