Head of design at Optimism, Kathy Zheng, discusses traits of senior designers at Github, giving ideas a chance to become memes, avoiding conversational spinout, identifying opportunities using systems thinking, and techniques for storytelling. Mentions key figures including Max Schoening and Jack Conte.

Join the podcast with Alex Cornell, where he delves into communication, storytelling in design, and his journey from video production to design. Discover his startup Cocoon, the precision in his work, generative AI at Meta, and more. Explore his wild videos at Facebook, lessons from designing mobile apps, and the mental models he uses for narratives. Dive into his favorite fonts, type foundries, and the challenges of transitioning to new mediums in design.

Experienced designer Maggie Appleton talks about designing for AI products and LLMs, challenges of interface with LLMs, technical literacy improvement strategies, AI-native tools, redefining designer roles with AI advancements, cognitive vs generative AI focus, and more

Ian Wharton, Apple Design Award winner and CEO of Aide Health, discusses key storytelling concepts in his course 'Sell the Idea' such as the inciting incident and empowering others to share ideas. He also shares insights on why designers are suited to solve societal challenges and the importance of bias toward action in starting companies. The podcast explores Ian's journey as a design founder and offers a 30% discount on his course with the code RIDD.

Amy Lima shares her journey from being laid off to landing a dream role at Duolingo. Topics include avoiding burnout, negotiating job offers, preparing for a layoff, and lessons learned during the job hunt process. She emphasizes the importance of self-care, time management, and upskilling post-layoff.

Designer Julius Tarng shares insights on approaching work with an engineering mindset. Discusses deep background in prototyping, collaboration at Linear, and why design engineering is a missed opportunity. Explores evolution of design tools, challenges of fulfilling both design and engineering roles, collaboration between engineer and designer, and leveraging AI in the tech industry.

Raphael Schaad, design founder of Cron (which became Notion Calendar), shares insights on sketching, MVP identification, building Cron in YC during COVID, designing dialogues, and lessons as a first-time design founder.

Former Chief Design Officer at Airbnb, Alex Schleifer, discusses creating a culture of decisiveness, leadership in design, preparing for an AI future, achieving craft at scale, and instilling Airbnb's culture in your team. He also touches on the importance of tools in design, storytelling potential in games, and his journey post-Airbnb.

Noam Segal, experienced user research leader, shares insights on conducting better interviews, effective research planning, AI in research, qualitative vs. quantitative tactics, and modern user research tools. He discusses the importance of storytelling, integration of research in the product process, and highlights various tools like Sprig, Genway, and Dscout. Segal also explores the significance of follow-up questions in interviews and crafting compelling research stories.

Guest Helen Tran, early designer at Shopify, discusses designing with a founder mindset. Topics include approaching design leadership differently, constructing hypotheses for product strategy, sacrifices to production skills, designing in a pre-PMF company, and ways to help founders. The conversation delves into Helen's design journey, emphasizing adaptability, strategic impact in early startup stages, and traits sought by AngelList in candidates.