Design Better

Mack Paul, a Raleigh attorney, real estate specialist, and co-author of Miracle Road, traces how Research Triangle Park transformed North Carolina’s economy. He explores the barcode, AZT, ultrasound, and AstroTurf; the leaders and institutions behind RTP’s unlikely success; its shift from suburban office park to connected innovation hub; university-industry collaboration; and writing the book with his father.

Federico Casalegno, Samsung EVP and founder of MIT’s Design Lab, brings sociology, technology, and design together. He explores why human purpose must guide innovation, how AI can extend creativity, and how multidisciplinary teams collaborate across cultures. Discover Samsung’s use of digital twins, robotics, and real-world testing to design more comfortable earbuds, plus why prototypes and critique are essential to global teamwork.

Jonathan Adler, the American potter, designer, and author behind his namesake brand, returns for a lively conversation about his Museum of Arts and Design retrospective, choosing commerce over the gallery world, and his expansive Michaels collaboration. He explores humor, camp, craft, digital production, collecting less, creative ambition, and why his famously colorful work is secretly minimalist.

Clay Parker Jones, Head of Organizational Design & Development at Airbnb and author of Hidden Patterns, brings org design and creativity-first thinking. He explains why most groups are just co-acting, how to make true teams legible, the need for written rules and structural safety, and ways to define roles, tours of duty, and organize around value creation.

A few years ago, Dropbox redesigned its website and revenue dropped by thirty percent. It was an all-hands-on-deck moment: people working weekends, everyone hunting for a systemic failure. Visit our Substack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/angel-steger The culprit turned out to be a pricing page — specifically, the white space between the feature list items was slightly too generous. Angel Steger noticed that her eye kept landing on the white instead of the words. They tightened the gaps, and the revenue came back. That’s the kind of thing Angel notices, and it’s not an accident. Currently the VP of Design at Wealthfront, She trained as an architect at RISD, where the first question in her first architecture class wasn’t about buildings. It was “What is a drawing?” — the sort of question that makes you realize every tool you reach for carries a point of view you probably haven’t examined. Angel’s path into tech was less deliberate. By her own account, she mouthed off to her boss, got fired, and spent the severance on O’Reilly books, taught herself to code, and became the first designer at MySpace — where the head of engineering proudly informed her that they had never had design and never would need it. She went on to become the first product designer at 23andMe, learned usability from Larry Tesler, and led design teams at Pinterest, Dropbox, and Meta before landing at Wealthfront. In this conversation, we get into what architecture teaches you about solving one problem at a time, why she tells her team to go lower fidelity, how a default chart setting can push someone into a financial decision they’ll regret, and what she looks for in a portfolio — high craft, high intentionality, and no boiled broccoli. Bio Angel joined Wealthfront in November 2023 and leads product design, content design, and creative teams, bringing 20+ years of experience building and leading customer-centric, business-focused design and product teams. What makes her perspective rare is the through-line she draws between business model and design quality — she's a practitioner who built her career arguing that growth design, done with rigor and craft, isn't a compromise but the highest form of product work. Beyond Wealthfront, she holds advisory positions at AudiencePlus and Ameelio, and previously held leadership design roles at Meta, Dropbox, and Pinterest, where major growth and user engagement initiatives were implemented. She guided Wealthfront's design organization through its December 2025 IPO, in which Wealthfront's shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "WLTH" — the first robo-advisor to go public. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This ad-supported episode is available to everyone. If you’d like to hear it ad-free, upgrade to our premium subscription, where you’ll get an additional 2 ad-free episodes per month (4 total). Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books. New premium subscriber benefit: we’ve launched a private Slack workspace…join now to connect with designers, product leaders & creative practitioners in our community. And get a behind-the-scenes pass to every episode with The Roundup, where each week we bring you insights and actionable tactics from recent episodes. You’ll also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. And subscribers at the annual level now get access to the Design Better Toolkit, which gets you major discounts and free access to tools and courses that will help you unlock new skills, make your workflow more efficient, and take your creativity further. Upgrade to paid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Drury, co-founder and CEO of Yoto, built a screen-free audio player for kids after hacking prototypes on Raspberry Pi. He talks about why audio sparks imagination, the simple cube-and-card design, manufacturing and safety hurdles, and how content, licensing, and scaling turned a parental idea into a growing hardware-plus-content business.

Jeff Hammoud, Rivian’s Chief Design Officer who leads exterior, interior, color & materials, and surfacing, talks constraints and making production match concept. He discusses adventurous color strategies and limited-run Studio Originals. He covers AI’s role in leveling storytelling, the balance of physical controls and haptics, and multisensory touches like scent.

Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of Lean Startup and Incorruptible, reflects on why fast growth can corrupt companies and how long-term design fixes that. He discusses linking Lean and design thinking, building the Long‑Term Stock Exchange, organizational character as an emergent superorganism, the “harder is easier” quality principle, and pitfalls of current AI tools.

Ian Bogost, writer, game designer, and professor who studies media and everyday life, explores why small sensory pleasures matter. He traces how efficiency and software erase tactile delight, contrasts gratification with purposive design, and argues designers should notice and restore the little textures—clicks, ridges, tinks—that make daily moments feel alive.

Mark Havens, artist and educator who researched Prestige’s visual history, and Chris Entwisle, illustrator and jazz collector, recount a two-decade hunt into record art. They talk about discovering Van Gelder’s studio, how tight budgets and no briefs shaped bold typography and DIY photography, and why constraints created a lasting visual identity for Prestige Records.