82 episodes

Leading design minds share their perspective on why, how and what design drives forward.

Designdrives Sebastian Gier

    • Arts
    • 4.9 • 7 Ratings

Leading design minds share their perspective on why, how and what design drives forward.

    #82 | Felix Lee | Empowering the next generation of creative leaders

    #82 | Felix Lee | Empowering the next generation of creative leaders

    Felix is the Co-founder & CEO of ADPList and sets the vision and strategy for the company. Founded in 2021, the company grew into a global town square for expert knowledge, with 20K+ Mentors from companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and Google, hosting over 100 million minutes of sessions on topics such as product design, product management, and coding in 140+ countries.

    As a designer, Felix has embedded his creative roots in ADPList's culture, product, and community.

    Featured on Forbes 30 under 30 Asia List and Tatler's Generation T Future Leader List in 2023. In 2021, ADPList raised $1.3 million from Sequoia Capital India and Goodwater Capital.

    The Guest

    Felix is the Co-founder & CEO of ADPList and sets the vision and strategy for the company. Founded in 2021, the company grew into a global town square for expert knowledge, with 20K+ Mentors from companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and Google, hosting over 100 million minutes of sessions on topics such as product design, product management, and coding in 140+ countries.

    As a designer, Felix has embedded his creative roots in ADPList's culture, product, and community.

    Featured on Forbes 30 under 30 Asia List and Tatler's Generation T Future Leader List in 2023. In 2021, ADPList raised $1.3 million from Sequoia Capital India and Goodwater Capital.

    #81 | Ole Lutjens | Creating World Class Digital Product Experiences

    #81 | Ole Lutjens | Creating World Class Digital Product Experiences

    In our new episode, we delve into an enriching conversation with Ole Lutjens, exploring the fascinating evolution of design, both in his personal journey and the current technological landscape.

    Ole shared captivating anecdotes, starting from his childhood fascination with Commodore 64, where coding ignited his passion for computer graphics.

    #80 | Wolfgang Bremer | Design Leadership, Mobility & Pushing New ideas.

    #80 | Wolfgang Bremer | Design Leadership, Mobility & Pushing New ideas.

    In the episode, together with Wolfgang we talk about what designers need to learn in order to become great design leaders, which kind of skills they need. And how do you push forward design ideas or innovation ideas within an organization and create a win-win between different stakeholders?Wolfgang has a lot of experience in the space and giving a lot of talks on innovation, leadership, and design. He has gained a lot of experiences, both in the startup area, but then also agencies and enterprises, for example, at Nokia or SAP.

    In this episode, we look at:

    What are the key elements of effective design leadership?

    How important is clear communication in cross-departmental collaboration?

    “It's about teamwork and finding allies to make joint decisions for a great product experience.”

    Why is it important to have allies who champion the cause of design within the company?

    What are the benefits of designers proactively seeking out opportunities to contribute and solve problems within their organization?

    "Proactivity and initiative are crucial for changing the perception of design within an organization."

    And plenty more!

    Thank you very much for your time and knowledge, Wolfgang!

    #79 | Sheng-Hung Lee | Empowering people through service design.

    #79 | Sheng-Hung Lee | Empowering people through service design.

    In this episode of Designdrives, we engage in a captivating conversation with Sheng-Hung Lee, an accomplished design expert and a dedicated PhD researcher at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

    Sheng-Hung's journey in the realms of design, engineering, and academia has equipped him with a wealth of knowledge and insights, making this discussion truly enriching.

    Through this engaging dialogue, we unravel intriguing topics at the crossroads of science, engineering, and design. Sheng-Hung passionately advocates for the necessity of constraints and friction in this intersection, underscoring how these elements serve as catalysts for innovation and the birth of creative solutions.

    In the episode, we jump into:

    Intersection of science, engineering, and design.

    Design in financial services.

    How to balance design and engineering perspectives?

    Sustainability and design in academic environments.

    “As designers and engineers, understanding the user's perspective is essential. It's like speaking a language that the user understands, and that language is empathy.”

    What is the power of design in innovation?

    "Innovation thrives in constraints. Constraints are not roadblocks; they're the creative boundaries within which we find our best solutions.”

    And plenty more!

    Thank you very much for your time, Sheng!

    #78 | Don Norman | Design for a Better World: Sustainability, Meaning, Humanity & Future.

    #78 | Don Norman | Design for a Better World: Sustainability, Meaning, Humanity & Future.

    In this episode, we explore the dynamic relationship between design as a creative discipline and the systems and tools that shape this creativity, for better or for worse. We delve into the importance of customizing design processes to allow designers to focus on the most impactful aspects of their work, including the strategic and psychological components of problem-solving.

    Our guest, Don Norman, a renowned design expert with over four decades of experience in academia and industry, shares his insights on a range of design topics. We discuss the challenges designers face in avoiding quick assumptions and solutions when tackling design briefs and how to choose the most effective methods for problem-solving.

    Don also offers guidance on incorporating principles of visual perception and affordance into the design process, as well as creating artificial friction in designs.

    In addition, we explore the importance of designing for a better world and the role that sustainability and humanity-centeredness play in this process.

    Don shares his thoughts on how designers can effectively communicate the value of design to business stakeholders and the common mistakes to avoid.

    We also discuss the need for a different kind of design in the fifth industrial revolution and the arbitrary and artificial measurements that govern our lives.

    Tune in to this episode for an engaging conversation on design's impact on the world and how designers can play a crucial role in shaping a better future.

    In the episode, we jump into:

    Design Industry / Role of designers - how is it changing?

    What do you think are key challenges for people to communicate the “value of design” to a business stakeholders? Common mistakes you see? What did you learn about framing design for business stakeholders?

    How do you try to balance challenging the status quo and also pushing forward existing initiatives?

    “Human behavior brought our world to the brink, human behavior can save us.”

    Why do we need to design a better world and what is broken?

    "If design got us into today’s mess, can design get us out?”

    Why if Design is to Save the World, It Must Be a Different Kind of Design

    "Almost Everything I see is Artificial"

    "Almost Everything Artificial Has Been Designed"

    And plenty more!

    Thank you very much for your time and knowledge, Don!

    #77 | Mustafa Kurtuldu | How tools & systems influence design.

    #77 | Mustafa Kurtuldu | How tools & systems influence design.

    In this episode, we delve into the relationship between design as a creative discipline and how systems and tools shape this creativity for better or worse.

    We also talk about why it helps designers to customize their processes and how this allows designers to focus on where they can have the most impact, which is often the strategic side of design, as well as the psychological aspects of the creative problem-solving process.

    In this episode, we look at:

    How can you challenge the design brief while avoiding "quick assumptions/solutions"?

    How do you choose the best methods to solve the problem (JTBD, Sprints, etc.)?

    How do you incorporate principles of visual perception and affordance into your design process?

    How do you create artificial friction in your designs?

    How can designers envision the future using today's tools?

    And plenty more!

    Thank you very much for your time and knowledge, Mustafa!

    ******

    The Guest

    Mustafa is a Staff Product Designer at Twitter working on design systems.

    Previously he was UX lead on install-ability on Chrome and Design Advocate at Google. His work involves bridging the Mobile and Desktop PWA Eng through cross-platform designs. He takes concepts through requirements docs to fully finished and implemented designs.

    Also he was the UX design lead and manager for the Developer Relations Infrastructure team and launched Google.dev, a learning platform for developers.

    He can create interactive prototypes, whiteboard/brainstorming, paper prototyping, and low and high fidelity mock-ups quickly. He is also a Design Sprint Master Trainer and has led numerous design sprints for Google's product teams and top-tier partners.

    He has over twenty years of experience working with a variety of organizations, including News International, Middlesex University, Metro Newspaper, BBC/Arts Council of England, and Macmillan Publishing, in a variety of sectors, including publishing, charities, local, central government, education, and finance.

    He has also been asked to write articles for the Times Online and.netmagazine, as well as to speak at Future of Web Design and London Web Meetup.

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
7 Ratings

7 Ratings

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