Tentative
107 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsTentative is a podcast about digital product design.
Hosted by thoughtbot's Chief Design Officer Kyle Fiedler & Boston Design Director Jaclyn Perrone.
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Episodes
57: Summit Shenanigans
September 20, 2018 04:00 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBJaclyn & Kyle record in person (for the first time ever!) as thoughtbot gathers for our annual Summer Summit, and discuss the language around design / development, switch interviews, opinions about post-it notes, and the point of design sprints. Wanna Go on a Segway Tour? Rocketship.fm Bob Moesta Interviews: part 1, part 2 Mastering Jobs-To-Be-Done Interviews Workshop Kyle & His Clapper
56: From Entomology to Etymology
September 06, 2018 17:30 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBDawn & Sam take the reigns this week and discuss designing filter systems, World Emoji Day, a11y in Emoji, and how 'design goals' should merge with 'business goals'. Dawn on Twitter Sam on Twitter World Emoji Day input type="emoji" Compare Emoji Across Different Platforms An Entomologist Rates Ant Emojis Orkin, On Queen Ants How to Pronounce Chipotle Designing Parenthood Austin Design Week Greg Storey: Design @ USAA on Giant Robots Podcast
55: Hired to Help (Robert Indries)
July 26, 2018 20:00 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBJaclyn and Kyle are joined by Robert Indries of DG Studio to discuss applying design principles to other industries, deadlines (and procrastination), as well as the importance and difficulty of communication. DG Studio DermaSensor GDPR Robert on LinkedIn
54: Solutionize: Test the App, Not the User
July 06, 2018 04:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBSameera Kapila, a designer from thoughtbot Austin, joins Kyle to talk about prototype user testing, being wary of leading questions, challenging assumptions, and ways to take action on your findings. Podcasting Chic UserInterviews.com Rocket Surgery Made Easy- Steve Krug A Comprehensive Guide To User Testing barkTHINS Sameera on Twitter Foodstagram
53: BAM! Here's Your App!
May 23, 2018 04:00 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MBThis week we discuss the importance of keeping a tight feedback loop on communication, and allowing time for experimentation & validation. Also, are retro notes helpful? thoughtbot Playbook What's the Hardest Word to Spell? Just Like Mario
52: Kyle's Think Hut™
May 02, 2018 04:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBDealing with React Native, designing email templates for Outlook, "Designer News", and combating distraction. SendGrid Designer News no name®️ 5 steps to nailing your portfolio presentation in design interviews The First Cut is the Deepest Deep Work Carl Jung How to Pronounce 'Jung'
51: Batman's Fanny Pack
April 18, 2018 04:00 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBThis week, we discuss approaches to prototypes in User Testing, Sharpie preferences, how Batman arrived at the final design of his utility belt, and defining thoughtbot's design values. Tuxedo Snuggie Wonder Woman Snuggie Batman's Utility Belt thoughtbot Design Team Values thoughtbot Purpose Lucy's Psychiatry Booth
50: Immersed in Chaos
April 04, 2018 04:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBWhile recovering from SxSW Kyle & Jaclyn discuss design experiences in day-to-day life, and surviving conferences / networking events. Massive Change: Bruce Mau Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Massive Change South by Southwest Kyle @ SxSW Build Conf Wilson Miner - When We Build Jaclyn @ Venture Cafe
49: Food for Thought
March 21, 2018 04:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBKyle & Jaclyn discuss weather apps, maintaining focus in User Interviews, tips for managing frequent contexting switching, and documentation during a design sprint. Daily UI Challenge Dragon Speech Recognition Kyle's New BFF
48: Remove Thy Bias
March 02, 2018 05:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBJaclyn & Kyle catch up and chat about user testing, and empathizing with user-problems you haven't personally experienced. Other tangents include: sleep, traveling to NYC, the weather, spelling & pluralization techniques, the annoyance of advertisements, Netflix confessions, misadventures with torrenting, Kyle's new voice-acting career, and motivational speaking. Full Story Netflix Artwork Testing Bat Out of Hell in German
47: Cubital Fossa
February 16, 2018 05:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBWe're a bit giddy this rare pre-coffee morning recording, before Segway-ing into naming conventions in CSS, as well as communicating about the design process and decisions. AeroPress Elbow Pit BEM The Agile Bicycle
46: The Danger Zone
February 02, 2018 05:00 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBJaclyn and Kyle ponder their past lives and spirit animals, and manage to squeeze in some design talk about condensed sprints, tips for managing remote user testing, reinforcing best-practices, and time management. Danger Zone
45: Happy Mistakes
January 19, 2018 05:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBKyle & Jaclyn are back for 2018! This week they discuss Die Hard, designing on an iPad, the importance of community to creation, and embracing the flaws in your art. Daily UI Challenge My Kid Could Paint That Trailer Art & Fear: On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking- David Bayles iCarez matte iPad Pro Screen Protector New Skype Ringtone
44: Helvetica Wasn’t Designed Yet
December 15, 2017 05:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBKyle & Jaclyn chat about Stranger Things, design approaches to personal sites, using improv to build better trust & communication on a team, & the importance of naming and language. Keep Ruby Weird Kyle on thoughtbot Blog Rocket Surgery Made Easy- Steve Krug Just Enough Research- Erika Hall A Script To Kickstart Your Jobs To Be Done Interviews JTBD Mattress Interview Mixed Methods Podcast Design Systems- Alla Kholmatova
43: I Don't Know What NeoPets are Either
November 24, 2017 05:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBBrenda and Dawn talk about early experiences with tech, CSS DevConf, code review, performance considerations around the world, and refactoring legacy sketch files. Keep Ruby Weird Elle Meredith KRW Keynote NeoPets CSS Dev Conf CSS Layout Club NYC Incomplete List of Mistakes in the Design of CSS The Ins and Outs of Easing- Val Head Cubic Bezier Curves - Under the Hood Slides and Resources from CSS Dev Conf 2017 New Orleans
42: Start Building, Start Meeting
November 09, 2017 05:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBJaclyn and Kyle talk about ways to start a design career, as well as what happens when you're deep in the trenches building products. Headspace thoughtbot Jobs thoughtbot Purpose Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 for Dummies A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS Tricks Upcase Treehouse Optimizely thoughtbot Product Design Sprint jaclynperrone.com
41: Happy Birthday Kyle
July 31, 2017 04:00 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBReda & Kyle discuss color consistency across tools and devices, as well as the inefficiencies of design workflows. Making Sense Of Color Management- Craig Hockenberry React Sketch.app "Inventing on Principle"- Brett Victor Talk Abstract
40: CoolGraphics.com
June 30, 2017 04:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBKyle & Reda discuss search engines, documentation searches, reminisce about Photoshop Slices in Dreamweaver, and question Reda's Google-Fu. DuckDuckGo Dash Documentation Dreamweaver Keep Ruby Weird Call For Proposals PSD2HTML
39: Too Much Fiddling
June 09, 2017 04:00 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBKyle & Dawn discuss end-of-project planning / organization, jobs vs user stories, and the merits of Austin TX. thoughtbot Home Page Parent/Child Management for Trello Converting to Jobs Stories
38: Grid Locked
May 26, 2017 04:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBBrenda joins Reda to discuss CSS Grid Layout, the reasons they don't use grid frameworks as much anymore, iPad design, and the pros/cons of client vs product work. CSS Layout Club CSS Working Group "Learn CSS Grid"- Jen Simmons Neat
37: That Sounds Very Obvious Coming Out of My Mouth
April 28, 2017 04:00 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MBDawn and Kyle talk about Dawn’s recent experience running usability tests, and what learned from running them. Kyle discusses how he's using Jobs-to-be-done theory to build a marketing landing page. Finally, how they approach which resolution screen to design for first.
36: Floating in Space
April 07, 2017 04:00 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBReda and Jack talk about design from the perspective of a developer, why CSS sucks for layout, retro game making, and App Store things. Jack’s Twitter Safari default CSS CSS Grid module CSS Flexbox Build Phase Scribattle FlippyBit App Store purge
35: Design Debt
March 24, 2017 04:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBWe talk about the dichotomy of perfection in design, versus shipping something that is 'good enough'. Reda discusses how he is keeping track of the places in the app that he wants to improve while trying to hit deadlines. Also, recent experience jumping on print design and branding projects, and the different tools used when tackling them.
34: Big Human Aspect
March 10, 2017 05:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBWe discuss whether it is better to have a bunch of work waiting for you or none when getting back from a vacation, what it’s like being the only designer on a project, documenting design, and trends / style specifically for iOS (and how it relates to the web). Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball Bear Notes App
33: Design Speak
February 24, 2017 05:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBKyle is joined by Jaclyn Perrone to talk about designing with seed data, and how to make a new interface not look empty. They discuss using jobs-to-be-done to influence a product through interviews and job statements, as well as how they approach designing with users in mind, and the value of real users' reactions when testing interfaces. Jobs-to-be-done Design sprints Alan Klement Design sprint episode with Reda Remote design sprint episode with Dawn Jaclyn Perrone
32: Sprinting Remotely
February 10, 2017 05:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBKyle is joined by Dawn Delatte to discuss the different tools and methodology employed in tackling a remote design sprint. They cover some of the success and failures of a recent sprint and how they split up work afterwards. Dawn talks about diving into JavaScript which leads to a discussion on how they learn new technology and design techniques. Kyle is back on a rails app and is enjoying planning out the product. Trello Board For Design Sprints Trello App Miro - Whiteboard App (formerl...
31: A Whiff of a Story
January 26, 2017 05:00 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBThey're back! Reda and Kyle team up for a new season of Tentative. In this episode we discuss the thought process, tools, and execution plan for goals and resolutions in the new year. Plus, books for Reda to read over the coming year, and the importance of reading not only as a designer but also as a person. Gina Bolton’s V2MOM Getting Things Done Moonwalking with Einstein Kindle Competing Against Luck- Clayton Christiansen Kale and Coffee Compete- Alan Klement Making Sense of Color M...
30: 50 Shades of Blue
August 19, 2016 04:00 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MBUsing Instagram’s redesign as an example, we discuss the new wave of apps that are starting a trend of black and white UI. This leads to a debate on having concrete style trends, and why it doesn’t always make sense to follow them (but why it might make sense for Instagram). Episode about burnout Reda’s tweet Instagram redesign Reda’s Build Phase Episode Laila & Brenda Show
29: A Midsummer Night's Podcast
July 15, 2016 04:00 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBReda and Kyle talk about how Kyle is tackling a branding project for a fantasy sports app. They then dig into how both are planning for upcoming design sprints, and the methodology behind their different approaches. Stattleship Logo Dribbble thoughtbot design sprint guide Reda’s WWDC post HiRes with Kyle
28: A Big Blob of Happiness
June 24, 2016 17:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBThis episode Reda and Kyle talk about WWDC. They review new features for both iOS and the Apple Watch before discussing Apple's public attitude towards design, and speculate about the process Apple follows building software. WWDC iOS watchOS macOS WWDC Keynote Reda's WWDC blog post Swift Playgrounds
27: Rollercoaster of Feelings
June 10, 2016 12:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBThis episode Reda and Kyle start off by talking about podcasting competition and Reda's childhood psychology. Then they talk about how both are tackling SVG and walk away with different feelings about it. Reda wraps up by bashing HAML while Kyle tries to defend its pros. Build Phase Massimo Vinelli SVG episode Deal with it Glass case of emotion SMIL Gapplin Markoff Sassquatch HAML Sass Coffeescript
26: Vector of a Tack
May 27, 2016 04:00 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBThis week Reda and Kyle talk about content and typography, how both apply to the web, and why they try to use real content as much as possible. Also, the problems that they run into when designing forms and the trade offs between usability and style. Brutalist websites WWDC
25: Everything's a Nail
May 13, 2016 04:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBReda and Kyle talk about the new thoughtbot.com. Kyle explains some of the reasons why they redesigned instead of iterating over the existing design. They talk about parts of their process and how tools like code and graphical editors fit in. They discuss the balance between shipping and getting pixel perfection. They wrap up talking about how they balance multiple projects and multiple tasks. thoughtbot.com Last iteration of thoughtbot.com on wayback machine How we use trello Design spr...
24: Hunky Dory All the Time
April 22, 2016 19:00 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBOn this episode Reda and Kyle rehash their conversation about Should designers code. They talk about teams and how design should fit in. They discuss design and design thinking at a high level in the company and design leadership in our community. Should designers code episode Julie Zhuo Medium Geoff Teehan Medium John Lax Medium Cap Watkins Blog
23: Darkish-Gray Patterns
April 04, 2016 04:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MBCheerful Reda and Kyle talk about ethics in their work. Discussion hovers around dark patterns in design. They talk about dark patterns with cable companies, airlines, and domain registrars. And how dark patterns can effect the long term sustainability of the business. Kyle talks about the technology he's been using on parental leave and his purchase of an Apple Watch. The Dark Side Apple Watch Darkpatterns.org
22: Best of Both Words
March 18, 2016 13:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBReda and Kyle talk about writing as a designer. What their process is for writing, what the process is like writing for thoughtbot, and how they differentiate posts on thoughtbot’s blog and their personal blog. Plus Reda goes on a rant against Medium. Giant Robots Reda’s iOS posts Building iOS Interfaces: A Custom Button Building iOS Interfaces: Views Building iOS Interfaces: A Primer Reda’s blog Reda’s Smashing Magazine Retina Article Blurred lines Kyle’s personal blog Six years ...
21: Snapchat For Design Feedback
February 26, 2016 16:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBThis week Reda and Kyle talk about tools for collaborative design feedback. They talk about how they’ve used tools at thoughtbot and what are the pros and cons of each of the tools. They also talk about how they use these tools to get feedback from other designers in different thoughtbot offices for more varied design feedback. Red Pen Invision Relay.io Hunie Hound Wake Buzzfeed: Snapchat Like The Teens NDA
20: Minimal Viable Design
February 12, 2016 05:00 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBIn this episode Red-A and Kyle talk about product design and development at thoughtbot. They go over how they use tools like Trello and Slack to communicate with their teams and their clients and how design fits into that process. They talk about how they validate design decisions and argue about the proper pronunciation of GIF. Playbook Design sprint Design sprint tentative episode How we use Trello Replacing The User Story With The Job Story Converting To Jobs Stories High voltage ...
19: Death to GUIs
January 22, 2016 15:00 - 44 minutes - 41 MBDuring this episode, Reda and Kyle talk about conversational user interfaces. They talk about popular implementations of conversational UIs, how they use these tools and what effect it has on the future of graphical user interface.
18: It's Not Satisfying Unless You Blow Into the Cartridge
January 08, 2016 05:00 - 44 minutes - 41.2 MBIn this episode Reda and Kyle talk about the homogenization in web design. How styles have evolved in the pas and how they see style trends in graphic design evolving in the future. They discuss the issues and problems facing archiving application design. What they use Dribbble for and what kind of a tool it is now. The Dribbblisation of Design Agency Landing Pages History of trends in graphic design Big Spaceship Scrolljacking Braun Dieter Rams Dribbble Apple TV Behance App
17: Let's Talk About CSS Baby (Lets Talk About You and Me)
December 24, 2015 05:00 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MBDuring this episode, Reda and Kyle talk about their qualms with CSS. They talk about CSS naming conventions, how they tackle layout and the wonderful world of flexbox. Kyle tries to educate Reda on some early 90’s pop music and fails. Let’s talk about sex baby BEM Flexbox Neat OOCSS CSS Variables
16: Master of IE
December 04, 2015 05:00 - 45 minutes - 30.9 MBIn this episode Reda and Kyle talk about browser testing. They discuss how they approach testing each browser and operating system and devices. They talk about the differences in type rendering, browser user interface, and layout. Reda talks about how he approaches a simple fluid layout, Kyle talks about his most recent project and some layout challenges and they talk about using CSS for layout. Browserstack IE blog post IE Setup Feedback episode
15: X is bad for Y
November 13, 2015 05:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBIn this episode Reda and Kyle discuss iteration and design process. They talk about the differences between how a junior designer takes on a project and how a senior designer takes on a project. Kyle talks about how jobs to be done fits into his design process. They also go on a few tangents of tracking personal data and posting articles on medium. Julie Zhuo on Junior Designers vs. Senior Designers Design sprints Jobs to be done Invision Marvel Blurred lines Medium
14: Photoskop and Other Tools
October 23, 2015 04:00 - 45 minutes - 31.4 MBThis week Reda and Kyle talk about the tools that they use during their design process. They touch on everything from graphical editors, color pickers and task list applications. Text Editor Episode Photoshop Illustrator Sketch Chrome preference for change Affinity designer Brenda’s SVG Episode SVGo Sip Pixa Colour lovers Kuler ImageOptim Typekit Google Fonts Sublime Text Dash Text Expander El Capitan Evernote Simplenote Google Keep Yojimbo Omnifocus Things Wunderli...
13: Designing For Human Emotion
September 18, 2015 04:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBThis week Reda and Kyle talk about empathy in design and keeping in mind a users state of mind while designing. They give examples when when humor and playfulness are good to add into user experience and some cases when it isn't. Reda's tweet about Slack changelog Timehop on Valentine's Day Eric Meyer year on Facebook Eric Meyer on Designing for Crisis Children's pirate-themed scanner (In NYC not Philly!) Mailchimp party pooper mode Basecamp default profile photos
12: How Many Questions Do You Ask?
September 04, 2015 04:00 - 42 minutes - 28.9 MBThis episode Reda and Kyle talk about the thoughtbot hiring process for designers. They talk about what they look for in designers, what they look for in a portfolio, and details about each step in the hiring process. Blurred lines Organically designing the pathways around buildings The Feedback Episode Playbook hiring
11: Your Favicon is Ugly
August 28, 2015 04:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBReda and Kyle follow up on SVGs, talk about differences between Chrome and new Safari's pinned tabs. They discuss some of the ways of allowing users control over design and themes of the app they are designing. Lastly they talk about how they design with real content or as close to as real as possible. BONUS: Kyle sings a line of Aerosmith. Trello inspiration Safaris new features Vimium MySpace default theme WWDC Session introducing NSPersonNameComponentsFormatter Sketch Data Populator...
10: Doing Things the Hard Way (Brenda Storer)
July 31, 2015 04:00 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MBIn this episode, Brenda Storer stands in for the vacationing Reda. Brenda and Kyle talk about Brenda's recent talk on SVG's. The in's and out's of her process of learning about them and talking about them. They also talk about giving talks. This episode of The Bike Shed is sponsored by: Code School: Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School. Links and Show Notes Slides from the tal...
9: Should Designers Code?
July 17, 2015 04:00 - 36 minutes - 24.8 MBIn this episode, Kyle and Reda tackle the 'should designers code' debate. They talk about the differences between designing vs implementing, what to look for in a good designer and if developers should know how to design. This episode of Tentative is sponsored by: Code School: Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School. Links & Show Notes Between Screens with Kyle
8: Padding Rocks & Kerning Waves
July 03, 2015 04:00 - 40 minutes - 28 MBIn this episode, Kyle and Reda talk about vacation as a designer, some of the signs that they are burning out and how they deal with burnout. This episode of Tentative is sponsored by: Code School: Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School. Links & Show Notes Between Screens Podcast with Kyle