Designdrives

We had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Lafata, VP of product management at Heal and former CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA/Lab1886 Daimler's USA, in this episode.

He has also worked as the Head of Design & Innovation at Laureti, the Experience Design Director at BCG Digital Ventures, the Design Director at Bird, the Director of User Experience at Qualcomm, and other companies.

Aside from being a great CEO, Design Director Paul distinguished himself by being a true intrapreneur, developing venture ideas, pitching them, and securing funding for them, as well as signing on investors and major clients.

In EP73 we discuss the differences between designing a digital automotive experience and designing a digital consumer app, as well as the opportunities for innovation, with Paul.

We also talk about the true meaning of good design leadership and how we are involved as a designer in building bridges with business stakeholders.

In the episode, we jump into:

How can designers have the most impact on their work from a business standpoint?

In the automotive industry, Where can designers have the most influence?

What new business models are emerging in the automotive industry, particularly in terms of digital products and innovation?

What are the opportunities and challenges for designers in the healthcare space?

How can digital innovation enable people to receive more measurable assistance?

What are the main obstacles to communicating the "value of design" to business stakeholders?

How should design be integrated into an organization to be most effective?

And many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and your learning Paul!

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The Guest

Paul Lafata is the VP of Product Management & Design at Heal.

He is a product creator, startup builder, and team leader.

He has over 20 years of experience working in design firms, consultancies, tech behemoths, and media conglomerates as a Product Designer, Creative Director, and Venture Studio CEO.

Paul creates consumer products with the goal of providing unique and seamless CX (customer experiences) in healthcare, mobility services, IOT devices, and media.

He guides multidisciplinary teams through the product development process's stages of innovation, incubation, and commercialization.

He has also worked as a product manager and design leader at Heal, Mercedes, BCG Digital Ventures, Bird, Qualcomm, and Nokia, where he built and led teams to create digital products and services.

In EP72, we are talking with Jan-Erik Baars

Currently, Jan-Erik is head of the CAS in Design Management at the University of Applied Science in Lucerne, Switzerland.

He also does research on the aspects of organizational maturity, design leadership and customer-centricity.

As a result, he created the Customer Centricity Score (CCS) and is the author of the book “Leading Design”, a hand and brain book to develop design-led organizations.

He is recognised as one of the leading experts in design management and led the Bachelor Program in Design Management in Lucerne from 2011 to 2019.

He also lectures at universities in Germany and the Netherlands.

In the episode, we talk about how the future of mysticism relies on the ability to design and create many companies onto the track after a certain time to assist to focus too much on the business administration of existing processes rather than creating new ones.

In the episode, we jump into:

What are some of the mistakes design leaders are doing and what would recommend them to do?

Why are many organisations “losing the ability to design/create” and why is the future relying on that?

How to help businesses succeed through creativity and design.

What are the key challenges for people to communicate the “value of design” with business stakeholders?

How designers should be integrated into an organisation to be most effective?

And many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and your learning Jan!

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The Guest

Jan-Erik Baars heads the CAS in Design Management at the University of Applied Science (HSLU) in Lucerne, Switzerland, and does research in the field of design management and customer-centricity.

Furthermore, he is a member of the board at Vetica AG, a Swiss design agency, and co-owner of Customer Metrics AG, a Swiss-based service agency.

He is a recognized expert in design management and the author of many publications in this field. He lives in Germany, close to the Dutch border.

“If you know every single thing, then it’s hard to think outside of the box”

— TESLIM ALABI

Buckle up for a fresh episode of Designdrives, where you can learn from the world’s best and most forward-thinking design minds.

In EP71, as inspirational as it was, we had a great time hosting Teslim Alabi, who serves as a Product Design Lead at Netflix, the leading streaming entertainment service in the world with 200+ million paid memberships.

During Teslim’s decorated career before Netflix, he worked at one of the “Big Five” in Silicon Valley, Microsoft for almost 5 years, and co-founded and led the design team for Project Moca a.k.a. Outlook Spaces.

We talk about his life experiences, challenges that he faced and also the story behind starting the social enterprise called Leads By Design, to actualize the mission of inspiring people from underrepresented backgrounds and underserved communities.

In 2017 Teslim co-founded Seattle-based watch company, James & Muriel and led end-to-end for both industrial and product design teams on some high-end timekeeping instrument projects.

During the episode, we chat about how he used a “yes mindset” to gain opportunities and get ahead in his career and also how his background as a designer coming from Nigeria make an impact to make organizations more customer-centric.

We also chat about designing at Netflix, what makes their design culture more special and share some thoughts and predictions on what lies ahead for designers working in the media and entertainment industry.

In the episode, we jump into:

The power of creative ignorance in innovation.

What are the opportunities and challenges in the entertainment content space and where can designers have the biggest impact?

New content models with growth in contexts of digital products and innovation?

What are the key challenges for people to communicate the “value of design” with business stakeholders?

Role of the designer working in the entertainment industry in the future.

and many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and your learning Teslim!

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The Guest

Teslim Alabi is a Product design lead, Entrepreneur and Mentor, currently at Netflix who is passionate about creating delightful and intuitive human-centred experiences at scale through innovation and product strategy.

‍Prior to Netflix, he worked at Microsoft for almost 5 years, scaling innovative products, building 0 to 1 projects and leading design on several features and tools that help hundreds of millions of people worldwide be more productive.

In 2020, He co-founded and co-invented a canvas-based technology named Project Moca a.k.a Outlook Spaces for organizing artifacts around projects and goals, leveraging it to explore the next frontier of connected collaboration and time management.

With a background in Computer Science and Digital Media, he has explored storytelling and problem solving through various mediums like video games, animation and visual design.

Teslim strongly believes in the value and power of mentorship, and views it as a way for anyone to pay it forward.

He founded the Leads By Design Fellowship to inspire more people from underrepresented backgrounds and underserved communities to pursue careers in tech and to thrive.

Also he co-founded and serves as the Design Director at James & Muriel, a watch brand based out of Seattle.

“Design’s superpower is to evolve abstract into concrete”

— DOGAN SEKERCIOGLU

In this episode, we chat with Dogan Sekercioglu, who is a former Industrial Design Lead from IDEO and currently works on future robotic and medical designs at Intuitive in California.

With Dogan we chat about the interplay between abstract and concrete and how it’s actually a superpower of the designer.

Throughout the episode, he shares his learnings from projects where he had worked, which made a positive impact on the world.

We also talk about his experiences working on sustainability design projects and how changing the question from solving to reducing can actually open up new opportunities for innovation that might be just an iteration but also a step forward because moving is better than not moving.

In the episode, we jump into:

The role of advanced design when it comes to designing complex systems.

How can constraints and requirements and fighting them, and questioning them could lead to product innovation?

What are the key challenges in designing in the medical space?

Why is “creative” not a department but a culture?

and many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learning Dogan!

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The Guest

Dogan Sekercioglu is currently a Senior Industrial Designer at Intuitive, focusing on developing human-centred solutions to improve patient outcomes in minimally invasive robotic surgery.

His previous consulting experience at IDEO as an industrial design lead spans medical tools & robotics, autonomous mobility UX, lifestyle, and consumer electronics.

He has helped shape future product experiences for Johnson & Johnson (Auris), Ford, ConAgra, Biotronik, Medtronic, Atlas Copco, Timberland, Jordan, and Cisco.

Dogan is passionate about infusing human insights with craft excellence to deliver delightful products.

He has deep experience designing for dynamic hardware systems such as autonomous vehicles and robotics, seeking design opportunities in often ignored physical transitions.

"Every project needs to start with inspiration" - Hussain Almsosawi.

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Hussain Almsosawi.

Hailing from Bahrain, 3D motion designer Hussain Almsosawi has since moved to Brooklyn, New York, and started his own studio – Mossawi Studios.

Across his exciting career, which is equally striking as it is satisfying, Hussain has worked for huge brands, including Adidas Football, Adidas Basketball and EA.

The strength of Hussain’s work lies in its confident simplicity, flourishing in intelligently reserved aesthetics and concept.

Aside from some of these projects with the big brands in the industry, a massive part of his self-initiated projects has led him to gain a large following on social media, with followers captivated by his gratifying and eye-catching outcomes.In the episode, we jump into:

What are common challenges in CGI projects?

At what part of the process to bring in advanced visualization? (Early-phase vs final renderings)

How will “designing in real-time rendering” change the design process?

How will digital and physical be coming together in the world of design?

What will the metaverse and "instant real-time visualization" mean for the future of design?

and many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learning Hussain!

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The Guest

Hussain Almossawiis an international designer based in New York City who has worked on various products across different industries worldwide.

Hussain began his career designing official websites and logos forNBAplayers such asDerrick Rose,Allen IversonandTracy McGrady.

He also designed official websites forAdidas Basketball.

Almossawi created Type Fluid, a 3-D typography experiment. He was named one ofFast Company'sCompany's ""10 Inspiring Type Designers From A New Generation"".

In 2016 he designed a pair of sneakers based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with footwear designerQuintin Williams. That same year, Almossawi createdEnfuse, a custom tea maker.

A significant part of his work has been working with world-famous companies such asNike,Adidas,EA Sports,Ogilvy & Mather, and other world-known brands.

He currently works out of hisMossawi Studiosin New York.

Mossawi Studios is a multi-disciplinary studio specialized in creating memorable, iconic, and bold experiences, blurring the lines between CGI, VFX, and Product Design.

From 2018 to 2019, Hussain Almossawi was an adjunct professor atThe New School.

He taught Human factors and ergonomics and now serves as a member of the advisory panel forPace University'sUniversity's Lubin School of Businessin New York, Design Thinking Program.

He is a frequent public speaker and has presented workshops and designs atBike to the Future, Solidworks Conference in Bologna,Saudi Design Week, and-ING Creative Festival in Dubai.

He frequently publishes design tutorials and articles in magazines and trade publications.

His designs have been featured in publications such asWired UK,Motor1.com,Mashable,Auto Motor und Sport, Highsnobiety, Fast Company,Yanko Design, SoccerBible, Hypebeast, Gizmodo, andAdobe'sAdobe's Substance 3D Magazine.

“Failing is the first ingredient of design”

— SAMUEL NORTHWAY

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Samuel Northway, Head of Product Design at Mason.

In the past, he worked as VP of Brand Product Design at Goldman Sachs, worked as a lead designer on Deloitte and as Design Director at AT&T, among many other experiences.

We talk about his mindset and motivation for working in the creative industry during the episode. And uncover many insights on approaching innovation projects or innovation in general without getting burned out and creating shared ownership, which is critical for innovation to move forward.

We also talk about how he has grown in design maturity at Goldman Sachs and his learnings as a designer and leader. And what opportunities designers have when changing industries, and how to overcome the fear of leaving your company.

Further, we also explore the intersection of physical and digital design and how new business models actually bring both aspects closer together.

In the episode, we jump into:

How to empower and manage design teams?

What are the challenges when you are confronted with new environments/companies as a designer and how do you overcome them?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of designers switching between industries?

What impact can designers create in the future?

What are the key challenges for designers to communicate the “value of design” to business stakeholders?

and many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learning Samuel!

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The Guest

Samuel Nothway is an Executive Design Director with a broad background across industries in data-driven design systems, software/hardware development, and product/brand strategy.

Samuel enjoys leading teams working closely with clients and internal partners to develop and execute user-centric products and branded experiences.

Through understanding and empathizing with the needs of users/customers, his research and design work focuses on delivering experiences that elevate the brand and enhance the consumer's everyday lives.

Samuel solves complex challenges for his clients and their brands using new technologies and age-old techniques.

Talking about his career, which started in 2007 as an assistant photographer & art curator, by 2016, he was Design Director at AT&T for innovation planning.

After the Lead Product Designer at Deloitte Digital and VP Product Design, Private Wealth Management, then VP Brand & Product Design, Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs now, he is serving as Head of Product Design at Mason.

“If it’s not Co-Created it will fundamentally fail ”

— SCOTT ROBINSON

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Scott Robinson, Founder and CEO of FreshForm. A customer and UX agency based in San Diego.

When it comes to design, Scott Robinson thinks Frank Lloyd Wright said it best: “Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

Robinson takes that advice to heart, leveraging human-centred design principles to grow and differentiate brands in today's ever-changing digital landscape, including Acura, Honda, Ballast Point, Facebook, Intel, ExxonMobil, Qualcomm and the University of San Diego.

Robinson has been in the field of design and marketing for nearly 20 years and at the helm of FreshForm since 2001 and remains intensely passionate about the intersection of marketing, design, technology, innovation and consumer behaviour in the digital age.

We've got a chat about how human-centred design is changing as humans evolve but also the environment of humans becomes increasingly technological.

We also dive into the difference and intersection of CX design and EX design, further Scott does play a key role in the context of design capital 2024, which will be a collaboration between San Diego and Tijuana in Mexico, in the episode we learn about what makes the region special and unique

In the episode, we jump into:

✔️Designing for humans and technology in harmony.

✔️Why Co-Creation is critical for innovations to survive?

✔️Why great CX Design requires great EX (Employee Experience) Design?

✔️How technology is becoming an extension of the human body, and how to design for it?

✔️The mission and journey behind the Design Capital 2024 (San Diego and Tijuana)

and many more!

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learning Scott!

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The Guest

Scott Robinson is the founder of FreshForm, an experience design consultancy that leverages a combination of design thinking, business thinking and customer experience principles to grow and differentiate companies.

Scott has been in the field of design and digital experiences for over 20 years and at the helm of FreshForm since 2001.

Scott is an advocate for the business value of design and was the Founding President of the Design Forward Alliance from 2016-2020, where he led the non-profit to bid and win the designation of World Design Capital 2024 for the San Diego/Tijuana region.

Scott is intensely interested in the intersection of design, technology, business and human behaviour in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

"The circular design is about really eliminating the concept of waste by designing it in a way that every material can be reused." - Karel J. Golta

Circular design: the next step of design thinking?

Circular design, by bringing the subject of resources to the forefront, also creates an opportunity to integrate increasingly more important strategic dimensions in an ever-changing world.

Shifting to a circular mindset when it comes to design can prove to be delicate.

Thrilled to launch our EP66 which is all about circular design thinking.

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Karel J. Golta, Founder and CEO of INDEED Innovation, about circular design, strategic innovation, and speculative design.

His team had the chance to bring a strong perspective of circular design into recent projects and he shares the learnings on scaling from user-centric design to circular design.

Where not just incorporate more data and more stakeholders into the project but also approach your design with a new mindset.

Further, we also discussed the overlap between speculative design and circular design.

We also talk about AI and how the tools and the processes actually going to change and influence the future job of the designer.

In the episode, we jump into,

How to design for circularity.

The role of ESGs for designers.

User-centered design vs circular design.

Why sustainability requires system thinking.

Creating frameworks for circularity.

Importance of Co-Creation on designing a circular product.

Why designers should be more focused on the circular design.

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learning Karel!

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The Guest

A humane innovation advocate, Karel J. Golta is on a mission to reverse human impact on the planet by using the power of design to build a more livable future for all life on earth.

With the undeniable effects of climate change and major planetary boundaries at tipping points, Karel demands for businesses and innovation to turn their focus from a human-centric model to a planet-centric one in order to preserve not only humanity, but our entire global ecosystem.

A strong believer in boldness and courage, he never does things halfway. The declared business romantic thrives when he is contributing and sharing visionary ideas with others – whether as an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, lecturer or author.

As founder of multiple companies and CEO of INDEED Innovation Karel loves to discuss big ideas, poke at rigid thinking, and ultimately unearth previously unrealized possibilities.

“With Play, we just serve up all of these amazing things that Apple has created and give designers the ability to kind of play in the sandbox that Apple has created we layer our essentially our play UI on top o that and we give them the properties to manipulate.” — Dan LaCivita

What if it were possible to design and build a mobile product all on your phone — and what if it were a better way of working?

As designers, we are used to designing on our computer - which is often not the end-device of interaction. There are easy ways to transfer the content to phones but with our new guest Dan LaCivita we discuss a bold new idea:

What if you could design directly on your phone and it would be even better then designing on a different device?

Are a keyboard, mouse, and desktop the best tools for creating mobile products… or have they become barriers?

That question started the journey of what came to be Play which Dan founded together with colleagues.

Play is the first native iOS design tool built for creating mobile products.

What does it mean for the future of design?

Design, iterate, and collaborate directly from your phone, experiencing your design as you create it while taking full advantage of native iOS features to bring your product to life.

We are thrilled to launch our EP65 with Dan LaCivita, Co-Founder of Play.

In the episode, we chat about the role of mobile interactions for innovation.

Also why innovation often starts by saying "NO" when it comes to product requirements. The approach of focus actually opens up the field for innovation.

We also dig into cross-device interaction and his experience leading a major design agency in New York called Firstborn, which got later acquired where you can learn about how to run a large design business and grow it even further.

Thanks a lot for your time and for your learnings Dan!

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The Guest

Dan LaCivita is an entrepreneur and servant leader who has built, grown and led successful teams and businesses in the digital space for over 15 years.

His latest venture, Play, is transforming how teams create mobile products by empowering them to design, build and experience their product in real time—all on the medium they’re designing for—their phone.

Previously, as CEO of award-winning agency Firstborn, Dan led teams to create powerful digital products and experiences for a client roster that includes PepsiCo, L’Oréal, Adidas, S&P Global, Supercell, Jet & NYU Langone.

Under his guidance, Firstborn’s work has been recognized with numerous awards including Clios, Cannes Lions and One Show Pencils; the agency, itself, has been placed on prestigious rosters such as Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies (2x), Advertising Age’s Agency A List and Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City (4x).

A thoughtful commentator thanks to his diverse roles within the industry, Dan has penned his point of view for Fast Company, Forbes, Advertising Age and Adweek and has spoken at the Financial Times, Ad Age Digital, 99U and FITC conferences, to name a few.

Dan was also named to the 4A’s “100 People Who Make Advertising Great” list, Direct Marketing News' 2016 '40 Under 40' list and sat on the Digital Board of Directors of the 4A's.

Outside of work, Dan’s passions include participating in GORUCK Challenges, team-based endurance events that push your physical and mental limits.

Inside and outside the office, Dan can often be found shuffling a deck of cards—a nod to his passion for the art of close-up magic.

“There’s such a business aspect to design that doesn’t exist in the creative artistic world, and we got to remember that when we are doing design it’s artistic by nature but it’s a lot different than art”

— MICHAEL JANDA

So you are planning to launch your own creative business or you’ve already launched, and you’re starting to grow.

That’s great!

But good growth won’t just happen. Just like a junior designer starts with small projects and slowly builds skills, a new business needs time to mature, test new ideas, and prepare itself, too.

We are happy to tell you that this episode is packed with tips and strategies that can help you with your business.

In EP64 we chat with Michael Janda on the intersection of business and design.

We talk about how you set up a design agency so you can actually sell the business at some point and also how you scale the design business and drive sales.

That means how you get clients or get better ones and how you can convince them to spend more money with you.

We also drive into some of the biggest mistakes designers are doing, and how you can communicate the value of design towards business and marketing in the most powerful way.

Mike is running one of our absolute favorite Instagram channels where he inspires and shares his insights on business aspects of design.

So we are really honored to have him on the show.

With Mike, we jump into;

Why systemising the business is key.

How to design your business as a system.

How to communicate design deliveries when negotiating with clients.

Communicating the positive business impact of design.

Disadvantages of value-based pricing.

How to find new customers and boost sales.

How to convince price-sensitive customers to invest into design.

Thanks a lot for your time and for learning Mike!

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The Guest

Michael Janda is an award-winning creative director, designer, and agency veteran.

In 2002, he founded the creative agency Riser, which provided design and development services for clients that included Disney, Google, Warner Bros., Fox, NBC, ABC, National Geographic and many other high-profile brands.

Michael sold his agency in 2015 and now spends his time speaking, developing books, courses, and social media content to help creatives level up.

He is the author of “Burn Your Portfolio” and “The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing”