Design Better Podcast

“Designers are about possibilities. Engineers are about probabilities.” This quote, from Stephen Deasy, Head of Cloud Engineering at Atlassian, is just one example of how concisely he can describe the relationship between designers and engineers. Our interview with him was our first chance to learn from a leader on the engineering side, and he shared a wealth of knowledge that will help designers work more effectively with their engineering counterparts.

We're Webby nominated! Vote: https://dbtr.co/webby2020 Love it or hate it, the agile approach to software development seems to be here to stay. Often, it’s hard to get good design practice to fit within an agile framework, so our next guest, Joshua Seiden—co-author of Lean UX and Outcomes Over Output—may be particularly helpful to those of you who are struggling. We chat with Joshua about how to fit user research into a sprint, and how he advocates for setting outcomes to guide the work of your

We chat with Steve Rader, who is Deputy Director for the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation at NASA, about how he communicates across teams where expertise and vernacular might be very different, and the importance of having teams that are diverse on an array of different levels, from personal background to expertise. We also learn how vision gets communicated by leadership at NASA, and the lessons he’s learned in his career about leading people.

Now more than ever, designers need to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the business they work within, and show a return on investment for the work that they do. That's why we’ve just published a new book on DesignBetter.com called Business Thinking for Designers by Ryan Rumsey, formerly of Apple, USAA, EA, and Nestlé. In this episode we speak with author Ryan Rumsey about how designers can learn to speak the language of business and create more value for their companies and in their careers.

We’ve just published a new book on DesignBetter.com called Remote Work for Design Teams, to help you make a graceful transition from the office to a remote work environment. In this bonus episode, we speak with the authors (all from InVision): Abby Sinnott, Managing Editor, Greg Storey, Senior Director of Executive Programs, and Ben Goldman, Director of InVision Films. We chat with them about their own remote collaboration and teamwork while writing this book, which they turned around in record time.

In this bonus episode, we’re once more focused on remote teams, and more specifically on best practices for facilitating remote design sprints, building trust between teams in a remote environment, and running effective critiques and design reviews remotely. Tune in for our chat with Richard Banfield, VP of Design Transformation at InVision, and author of the book Enterprise Design Sprints, and Alison Rand, our Senior Director of Design Operations.

In this bonus episode, we chat about balancing personal and professional demands in a remote environment, especially during these challenging times. Join special guests Jennifer Aldrich, Senior Manager of Design Community Partnerships, and Stephen Gates, Head Design Evangelist, at InVision, as we discuss best practices for remote communication and how to build trust within your remote teams. We hope this episode helps you and your teams as you transition to remote work during this challenging time.

In this episode, we speak with VMWare’s Head of Design Jehad Affoneh about how he measures the business impact of design, and aligns design goals with engineering goals. We learn why he thinks it’s important to lead with context, and how he goes about ensuring that the diverse voices on his team are heard.

Joanna Peña-Bickley has had an amazing arc to her design leadership career: from Chief Creative Officer at Matter Worldwide and IBM, to her current role as Head of Research and Design for Alexa Devices at Amazon, Joanna has always sought to design things that are “useful, usable, and magical.” We get Joanna’s take on speaking design in the language of business, and how she works to bring more diversity into leadership at the companies where she's worked.

Natalya Shelburne, Tech Lead for Design Engineering at The New York Times, sits at a fascinating crossroad of design and development. We chat with Natalya about her move from design to front-end dev, and some of the fears she faced along the way. We also talk about her approach to bridging design and development, and what she brings from her prior career as a teacher into product design.

Kristin Wisnewski, VP of CIO Design at IBM, shares her story of career transformation and discusses what it takes to build teams and lead authentically.

Nancy Douyon has a remarkable story that lead her into a career in technology. From her childhood in Haiti, to moving to Boston and taking part in an MIT program as a kid, teaching as a teenager, and on to design roles at Google and Uber, Nancy’s unconventional path gives her a unique perspective on how to approach product design for an audience of everyone. We chat with Nancy about effective hiring through listening, making user research more representative, and ethical product design.

Next week we'll be launching our fourth season of the Design Better Podcast by InVision. Listen now for a special preview of the new season and get ready for new episodes coming to you weekly starting February 18th. In this new season we’re taking a closer look at how teams can work better together for greater impact across design, engineering, business, and product. Hear from the people shaping design and engineering transformation at The New York Times, Uber, Amazon, Pinterest, IBM, and even NASA.

To celebrate 1 million listens to the Design Better Podcast, we're rewinding to our episode with David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school, in honor of David just receiving the Edison Award for Innovation. Thank YOU for listening and helping us reach this milestone. We're tremendously grateful to you, your friends, and colleagues for tuning in and joining the journey with us.

In this bonus episode, we chat with Stephen Gates, Head Design Evangelist at InVision, about how InVision's new Design Trends Report on Talent can best be used by design leaders looking to hire, and individual contributors looking to get hired. Plus we try something new, a roundtable discussion on current topics in the design world.