The Way of Product with Caden Damiano

In one of my morning walks, I reflect on the things that help designers get jobs. I cover the base requirements and then the differentiator for designers with accelerated growth.If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

I'm excited to introduce Aladrian Goods, who is a content designer at Intuit. What is a content designer? What do they do? Short answer: They make sure your messaging is intentional across the whole product experience. If that is too general for you, then listen to this episode! We go in-depth on how Intuit pulls off their iconic user experiences with the content design being top of mind. Contact Aladrian at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aladriangoods/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

WELCOME TO SEASON THREE!I kick it off interviewing the author of Invison's new book, "Business Thinking for Designers", Ryan Rumsey!Ryan is the CEO of an "Un-Consulting" firm Second Wave Dive, which helps design organizations and individual designers improve their design maturity and better articulate business value. Before that SWD, he was a design executive at Apple and EA.Do we talk about defining good design, tying it to business outcomes, driving business impact as an individual contributor, and design manager! Connect with Ryan at:https://www.ryanrumsey.com/https://www.secondwavedive.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanrumsey/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

🎉Bonus episode🎉In preparation for season three, I want to share ideas I have been developing through synthesizing of all my past interviews.When hiring, there is a bias towards hiring people with great visual production skills.  That makes sense, a high level of visual polish gives the secure feeling that their work will transfer to good business outcomes.That will probably work in use cases where you have already built out the foundation of the product and need incremental improvements.But what happens when your company needs to execute on digital transformation? What happens if you need to rearchitect legacy systems, and set the strategic vision of your product moving forward? How do you find candidates that can pull that kind of work off?My hypothesis is to hire designers with robust side projects. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

How do you measure your counterpart's critical thinking?What does critical thinking look like? What does it sound like? What are the results of it?In this episode, I have a deep discussion with one of the best critical thinkers in the industry, Albert Packer. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Today, I wanted to learn more about how to work better with product managers. So I interviewed one for the podcast. In this episode, I chat with Trae Winterton, a product manager at Workfront. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

I really enjoyed this interview with @Sean Qureshi from Lucid on increasing learning velocity.   In this episode, we chat about the concept of lean startups MVP and we openly discuss our qualms about it.   We also discuss what is so misunderstood about the lean startup MVP framework.  Sean also shares how product discovery is done at Lucid which allows product teams to increase learning velocity while not compromising in the quality and the experience. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

We know design is valuable, but how can you unlock its true value and tie your design work to business impact?This show interviews, product designers, product managers, and tech leads from places like Google, Domo, Podium, Divvy, IBM, Intuit, and Uber to find out what makes a valuable product designer and how you can be one as well. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

How do you know that you're on the right track when performing research?To answer that question, I talked about the subtle art of research rigor with DJ Green, research manager at Jane.In this episode, we take a deep dive into her process of translating research insights into actionable steps that product managers and designers can use to execute great work.If you're struggling to influence product strategy with your research work, this episode is for you. On the other hand, if you're looking for a 10 step process to better automate product discovery, then look somewhere else.At the end of the day, research is just structured critical thinking and like any other skill set, is something that needs to be practiced to get better at.DJ provides invaluable insights into some of the most asked questions in the research rigor debates that we're currently having in the product community. So pay attention. She is super generous with her expertise in this interview.If you get any value out of this show, or if it has helped you in any way, please subscribe to “Thinking Out Loud About Design” for free to get the distilled learnings on being a staff-level individual contributor. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

How do you know if you've done enough research?With tight deadlines, competing priorities, and potentially millions of dollars on the line, getting that right amount of research to mitigate the business risk is critical to your product's success. In this episode, I interviewed Jenny Taylor, a product designer at Divvy. We take the time to chat about when it's appropriate to apply more rigor to the research process and when it isn't worth your time.Jenny demonstrates an incredible depth of process in her work and knowledge drops on how you can create distance between everyone's opinions and the problem at hand. One thing Jenny shares in this episode is her checklist for designing a research plan for a project. If you're trying to level up your research skills, this is definitely worth a listen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com