Design Better

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/ts-balajiDesign leaders spend a lot of energy trying to get a seat at the table. It’s an ongoing process—and it’s tough to keep design involved over time. What questions should be asked along the way, and what business language can design leaders use?In this episode, LogMeIn’s Vice President Product Design & Customer Experience TS Balaji talks about helping big corporations use design to be competitive in new ways. He covers everything from maturity models and setting up team playbooks to how LogMeIn measures the business impact of design.Listen as Eli and Aarron chat with TS about design’s place in business—and hear why a multidisciplinary background could be the ultimate career boon, even if it does require a bit of statistics.TS Balaji's BioTS is a user experience and product development executive, currently leading product design, internationalization, and insights and analytics functions for LogMeIn.As a former designer turned strategist, TS specializes in identifying new technologies, spotting trends, introducing business models, and combining all of the above with design to advocate for customers. Prior to his current role, TS established and led digital experience practices at Cox Communications and Sprint.

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/diana-mounterDesign systems give product designers and developers reusable, interchangeable components to make the design process efficient and repeatable. They’re a critical part of scaling—so why build everything from scratch when you can plug in pre-built elements?In this episode, GitHub’s Design Systems Manager Diana Mounter talks about navigating the path from style guide contributor to full-time design systems manager. She covers everything from getting buy-in beyond the design team to deciding whether or not to make a system open source.Listen as Eli and Aarron chat with Diana about refining and growing GitHub’s design system, Primer—and learn how a little-known vegetable became part of her personal brand.Diana's bioDiana Mounter is a designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She specializes in design systems and has a background in user-centered design.Diana currently leads the Design Systems team at GitHub, where she helps manage their design system, Primer. In her spare time, she organizes the NYC Design Systems Coalition, writes, and speaks about design, code, and working with people.Diana is also a co-author of the DesignBetter.Co Design Systems Handbook

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/meredith-blackA lot of companies are investing more in design. As they do, the organization scales. As it scales, it has to operationalize, become more efficient, and plug into the rest of the company—but what makes all that possible?In this episode, Pinterest’s Head of Design Operations Meredith Black talks about the emerging practice of DesignOps, and how she introduced it to Pinterest more than three years ago. Meredith covers everything from when it’s time to start building a DesignOps team to advice for getting started. She even reveals where she finds most of her best hires.Listen as Eli and Aarron chat with Meredith about starting and growing a DesignOps practice—and how she nearly joined the FBI before finding herself in a different kind of “ops” career.Meredith's bioMeredith Black is the Head of Design Operations at Pinterest, where she's pioneered the Design Program Management organization and grown it to 11 design program managers in almost four years. Within Product Design, she’s also responsible for operations, recruiting, resourcing and risk management.Prior to Pinterest, Meredith worked at design firms Hot Studio (acquired by Facebook) and IDEO. Her love for design runs deep. Real deep.

Lynsey Thornton, Shopify's VP of UX and Core Product, shares insights on scaling a company, leadership development, and the challenges of reorganization in design teams. They discuss the importance of design systems and the benefits of Shopify's Polaris Design System, including speeding up prototyping and focusing on big problems rather than UI details.

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/mia-blume“Will I lose my creativity? Will I be stuck in meetings all day?” Those are common concerns for any individual contributor transitioning to a managerial role—even experienced product leaders like Mia Blume.Luckily, Mia’s impressive career spans positions at places like IDEO, Pinterest, and Square, so she’s had plenty of opportunities to see what it takes to make a fundamental impact on culture from beyond her laptop screen.In this episode, Mia shares what it was like stepping away from daily design work to lead, how she combats imposter syndrome, and how being a designer ultimately made her a more effective manager. Now, with a motto for time management and loads of experience walking other people through that transition, Mia can expertly explain how to navigate the intricacies of being a great leader—which includes everything from managing priorities to being vulnerable on the job.Mia’s bioAs a former design leader at Pinterest, Square, and IDEO, Mia’s work is informed by her deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities designers face in hyper-growth start-up environments. She is specifically attuned to the challenges of women in tech—and, more importantly, their potential impact on individuals, teams, and organizations when their authentic, empathetic, and intuitive leadership style is unlocked.

Christian Madsbjerg, an expert in ethnography, discusses the value of understanding humans and their cultures in a tech-driven economy. They explore the benefits of a liberal arts education in fostering critical thinking skills. The conversation delves into the methodologies employed by Red Associates to understand how individuals perceive the world. They also highlight the importance of addressing unmet and over-met needs of users and the significance of deep understanding and connection with customers for business success.

Jake Knapp, author of 'Sprint,' shares insights on design sprints' alignment with agile dev, when not to use them, and a preview of his next book. The podcast explores the relationship between design thinking and sprints, their impact on product vision and validation, the power of writing in design processes, and personal reflections on career growth. It also touches on travel experiences, language learning, web design, and IDEO work.

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/007-laura-martini-getting-to-the-right-finish-lineIf there’s anyone we’ve interviewed on the Design Better Podcast so far that really embodies the product-driven concept, it’s Laura Martini. Not only does she have a background in both design and engineering, but she also has a keen product sense with a real understanding the business factors behind good design decisions.Laura's article on Medium entitled, "So your boss doesn’t believe in design research" caught our attention as it speaks to a common challenge we hear in design teams and offers a smart way to reframe things. https://blog.prototypr.io/so-your-boss-doesn-t-believe-in-user-research-40d8128db08eLaura has had a really interesting career too—from working as a researcher in John Maeda’s Media Lab at MIT and leading the design team at med-tech startup Counsyl to her current role as a senior interaction designer on Google’s Analytics Platform.In this episode, Aarron and Eli chat with Laura about how her engineering and design backgrounds complement each other, how a company’s values shape her own work, and how design leaders can help individual contributors grow.

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/michael-leonHow do you go from being a self-professed skate punk, to a design director at Nike, creative director at Patagonia, and land as the global creative director for Sonos? As a creative force, Michael Leon has worked with some of the most product driven companies out there.In this episode, Aaron and Eli talk with Michael about the tension between sustainability and business goals, maintaining a consistent voice and tone across a company like Patagonia that sells hundreds of different products globally, and some of the traits that Michael looks for when hiring for his creative teams.So crank up your Sonos and enjoy this episode with Michael Leon!

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/alex-schleiferAirbnb’s mission is both simple and powerful: to help create a world where you can belong anywhere. Alex Schleifer, Airbnb’s head of design, fully embraces this mission. To create the products that make the Airbnb experience so welcoming and immersive, he also believes in being product driven, and organizes his teams in an Engineering, Product, Design (EPD) structure, which they also call “the triforce.”Have a listen as Aarron and Eli talk with Alex about the advantages of this team structure, and about some of the problems companies run into when they try to create a “design-led” culture. They also dig into Airbnb’s mission and vision, and talk about the tradeoffs between quality and speed when building products. Enjoy the episode, and may the triforce be with you!Alex Schleifer’s BioAlex is a designer, who as a teenager co-founded the digital agency Sideshow, which went on to produce award-winning work for a variety of global clients. They were acquired by Say Media in 2011.He’s been on the incredible design team at Airbnb since 2015.