Design To Be Conversation
74 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsThe Design To Be Conversation podcast is a series of conversations with design leaders about how investing in their EQ has impacted their design careers. Rachel Weissman, the host of the show, is the Founder of Design To Be, a design leader, an EQ Coach, and a Meditation & Yoga Teacher. As a design leader, she has agency, start-up, and in-house experience most recently working at Google and Salesforce. The purpose of our show is to inspire designers with insightful conversations. Design To Be Conversation is brought to you by Design To Be, a community that elevates designers to become empowered, educated, and effective using EQ-based tools and practices. Visit us at www.designtobe.com.
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Episodes
Jason James: Navigate burnout and hustle culture with mindfulness
August 10, 2021 08:00 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Jason James. Jason is the VP of Design at Instacart, a grocery delivery and pick-up service where he leads product design, brand, and research. Previously, he served as VP of Design at Thumbtack and was leading design early in his career for Earnest, Intercom, Kin, and DoneDone. Jason is a mentor at Made in the Future, a program for emerging under-represented designers. We dive into the competitive field of design and how it fosters hustle culture, the fact...
Dori Tunstall: How inclusive leadership inspires greater meaning and purpose
August 03, 2021 08:00 - 47 minutes - 32.4 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Dori Tunstall. Dori is the Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, and the first black female dean of a faculty of design. She is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. Dori leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities. We dive into the...
Pablo Stanley: Curiosity will spark your design inspiration
May 25, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBToday’s episode marks our 18th episode and the final episode of the first season of Design To Be Conversation. Season 2 will start back up the first week of August. We are beyond excited for what’s ahead! Today, I speak with Pablo Stanley. Pablo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blush. Pablo has a YouTube channel called Sketch Together and gives talks and workshops around product design, animation, illustration systems, storytelling, behavioral economics, and the art of comics. He is also a wri...
Jared Erondu: Design for impact with a growth mindset
May 18, 2021 08:00 - 40 minutes - 27.9 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Jared Erondu. Jared is a design leader, investor, and advisor. He’s currently the VP of Design at Lattice where they are building people-first HR software to make the time we spend at work more meaningful. Jared is also the co-creator of Playbook and High Resolution, two projects dedicated to furthering knowledge-sharing in the design community. We dive into the different aspects of growing as a designer, how developing a growth mindset helps you navigate a ...
Tiffani Jones Brown: Communication tactics to manage conflict and improve collaboration
May 11, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Tiffani Jones Brown, Executive Editorial Director at Dropbox. Tiffani oversees an interdisciplinary team of copywriters, UX writers and graphic designers. She specializes in simple and emotionally intelligent branding and copy, defining the voice and tone for multiple startups, including Facebook and Pinterest. Tiffani currently helps lead the transition of Dropbox to Virtual First. We dive into the importance of effective communication by finding your authe...
Tiffani Jones Brown: Communication tactics to manage conflict and improve collaboration
May 11, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Tiffani Jones Brown, Executive Editorial Director at Dropbox. Tiffani oversees an interdisciplinary team of copywriters, UX writers and graphic designers. She specializes in simple and emotionally intelligent branding and copy, defining the voice and tone for multiple startups, including Facebook and Pinterest. Tiffani currently helps lead the transition of Dropbox to Virtual First. We dive into the importance of effective communication by finding your authe...
Pim Schachtschabel: Invite curiosity to fuel your creativity
May 04, 2021 08:00 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Pim Schachtschabel. Pim is the former Co-Founder and Design Director of the world-renowned Sherlocked, an experience design company in Amsterdam. He uses his formal training in architecture and design thinking as a backbone to enhance our human experience. During the pandemic, he went on a journey to research, experience and discover how we can train our muscle of curiosity. Pim is on a mission to bring more magic into the design world and currently wears th...
Pim Schachtschabel: Invite curiosity to fuel your creativity
May 04, 2021 08:00 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Pim Schachtschabel. Pim is the former Co-Founder and Design Director of the world-renowned Sherlocked, an experience design company in Amsterdam. He uses his formal training in architecture and design thinking as a backbone to enhance our human experience. During the pandemic, he went on a journey to research, experience and discover how we can train our muscle of curiosity. Pim is on a mission to bring more magic into the design world and currently wears th...
Sana Rao: How imposter syndrome feeds perfectionism and limiting beliefs
April 27, 2021 08:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Sana Rao. Sana is the VP of Product and Design at Peanut, a social network for connecting women. Previously, she has worked at Deliveroo and Twitter leading design, content and research. Sana has built a career challenging the status quo and cultivating inclusive communities through the power of connectivity. She is a poet and editor at Found Poems, a curated newsletter for poetry. We dive deeper into the lens of imposter syndrome and how it relates to p...
Gabe Valdivia: How authenticity can lead to a meaningful design career
April 20, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Gabe Valdivia. Gabe is a Cuban-American designer based in New York City. He’s been practicing design for more than fifteen years, leading teams in large organizations and designing for startups. He's currently leading Consumer Experience Design at Patreon, connecting artists with a passionate audience to help them make a living doing what they love. Before that, he led design and research teams at CNN Digital, Google Jigsaw, and Facebook. We dive into the im...
Irene Au: Your design EQ questions answered
April 13, 2021 08:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Irene Au. Irene is the Design Partner at Khosla Ventures where she works with startup CEOs. She is dedicated to raising the strategic value of design and user research within software companies, having built and led the entire User Experience and Design teams at Google, Yahoo! and Udacity. Irene teaches yoga at Avalon Yoga Center in Palo Alto. She has authored the definitive O’Reilly book, Design in Venture Capital, and popular essays found on Medium. Irene h...
Dan Mall: Creating boundaries and psychological safety
April 06, 2021 08:00 - 44 minutes - 30.6 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Dan Mall. Dan is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s the founder and CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Dan is the author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of Arcade, a fun way to manage design tokens for enterprise teams. Enthralled by his role as husband and dad, he also finds joy writing about design and other issues on Twitter and on his industry-recognized...
Dan Mall: Creating boundaries and psychological safety
April 06, 2021 08:00 - 44 minutes - 30.6 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Dan Mall. Dan is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s the founder and CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Dan is the author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of Arcade, a fun way to manage design tokens for enterprise teams. Enthralled by his role as husband and dad, he also finds joy writing about design and other issues on Twitter and on his industry-recognized...
Ioana Teleanu: Self-awareness, the heart of authenticity and imposter syndrome
March 30, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Ioana Adriana Teleanu. Ioana is a UX Designer driven by the ambition to craft great products that people love. She currently works at UiPath on building RPA-enabling products that are easy to use. In the past, alongside years of working for ING Bank, she took on various freelancing and consulting roles with startups. As a personal project, she’s built UX Goodies, an Instagram design community with over 200,000 followers, sparking healthy design conversation...
Self-awareness, the heart of authenticity and imposter syndrome
March 30, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Ioana Adriana Teleanu. Ioana is a UX Designer driven by the ambition to craft great products that people love. She currently works at UiPath on building RPA-enabling products that are easy to use. In the past, alongside years of working for ING Bank, she took on various freelancing and consulting roles with startups. As a personal project, she’s built UX Goodies, an Instagram design community with over 200,000 followers, sparking healthy design conversation...
Mig Reyes: You can’t build a strong design team and culture without self-awareness
March 23, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Mig Reyes, Product Design Manager at Instagram that helps bring the world closer to people and things they love. As a passionate supporter of the design community, Mig, together with his team, tirelessly works to improve the simplicity and craft of Instagram wherever you may find it. Mig is the president emeritus of AIGA Chicago and founded the Chicago chapters of Creative Mornings. We dive into the importance of self-awareness, how it is necessary when bui...
Frank Bach: Meditate to become a better designer
March 16, 2021 08:00 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Frank Bach. Frank is a Lead Product Designer at Headspace in LA. Prior to this, he worked on the global launch of Red Bull TV. His work spans product, growth and brand design. He's interested in the relationship between mindfulness and creativity: how meditation can empower you to be a stronger designer and more engaged contributor. We dive into how meditation and mindfulness has impacted his personal and career journey, mindfulness techniques to weave into y...
Debbie Levitt: Elevate your EQ and be a low-ego action hero
March 09, 2021 09:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBIn today’s episode, I speak with Debbie Levitt. Debbie is the CXO of Delta CX, has been a CX and UX strategist, designer, and trainer since the 1990s. As a “serial contractor” who lived in the Bay Area for most of this decade, Debbie has influenced interfaces at Sony, Wells Fargo, Constant Contact, Macys.com, Oracle, and a variety of Silicon Valley startups. Clients have given her the nickname, “Mary Poppins,” because she flies in, improves everything she can, sings a few songs, and flies aw...
Adam Rotmil: Feedback to drive self-awareness
March 02, 2021 09:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBAdam Rotmil is a product discovery and design lead at AstraZeneca and a product design professor at Maryland Institute College of Art. We dive into why it’s essential to cultivate self-awareness as a designer, how to make your career strengths and weaknesses actionable, the importance of retrospectives, how to create a safe working environment, as well as stories and strategies for giving and receiving feedback.
Greg Bennett: Conversation design as a cornerstone of social awareness
February 23, 2021 09:00 - 51 minutes - 35.5 MBGreg Bennett is a Conversation Design Principal at Salesforce, leading the company’s first dedicated Conversation Design practice since its inception. As a linguist, Greg focuses his work on empowering designers to create conversational experiences that feel natural and helpful, build user trust, and meet customer expectations. We dive into the art and science of conversation design and how to apply it to human interaction, how conversations build trust with teammates, we break down differe...
Yuan Wang: Mindset over toolset
February 16, 2021 09:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBYuan Wang is a leadership coach for creative professionals, an adjunct professor at California College of Arts, and a design mentor with ADPlist.org. For the past ten years, she’s led design at Airbnb, Twitter, and Mozilla. We dive into her career journey, how to be a great mentor and how to bring mentorship into your organization, the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, the qualities of a great mentee, core mindsets for designers to invest in, imposter syndrome, her path to resil...
Dennis Lenard: Design EQ as a fundamental requirement in the hiring process
February 09, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBDennis Lenard is the CEO at Creative Navy and a digital product architect. He comes from a cognitive science background and has helped to shape and launch more than 150 digital products in industries such as healthcare, embedded interfaces, and enterprise. We dive into the ideals of the theory of mind, the importance of regulation of emotion, the distinction between the what and why with emotions, as well as what to look for when evaluating a designer’s EQ during the hiring process, and mu...
Lara Mendonça: Creating accountable trusting relationships and design decisions
February 02, 2021 14:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MBLara Mendonça is a Brazilian design leader. She's the Head of Product Design at Bumble in London, where she's growing a diverse team of product and content designers, developing a new creative vision, maturing design operations, and evolving a product loved by millions. In this episode, we dive into her learnings from working at a dating company, how to manage relationship conflict, how to build trusting relationships, having accountability for design decisions, the importance of psychologi...
David Hoang: Self-awareness to form your design path
January 21, 2021 06:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBDavid Hoang is a design leader, educator, and startup advisor. He’s currently the Director of Design at Webflow and User Experience Design Instructor at General Assembly. He loves curiosity that leads to action and invention. David hails from the Pacific Northwest and currently resides in Santa Monica, California. In this episode, you’ll learn the ins and outs of self-awareness, perfectionism, professional development, and what techniques you can start to implement to become a more self-aw...