Finding Our Way
Episodes
63: AI Means Product Needs UX More than Ever (ft. Christian Crumlish)
01 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Product leader, author, and civic tech veteran Christian Crumlish joins Peter and Jesse to discuss his transition from UX to product management and hi...
62: Design as Differentiator in a World of AI (ft. Andrew Hogan)
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Figma's Head of Insights Andrew Hogan joins Peter and Jesse to explore emerging trends in design practice as AI transforms creative workflows. The con...
61: The Paradoxes of Product Discovery (ft. Teresa Torres)
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Product Discovery coach, teacher, and author Teresa Torres joins Peter and Jesse to explore the messy reality of organizational change and cross-funct...
60: Making the World– Design Education and Social Change (ft. Lesley-Ann Noel, PhD)
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel, Dean of Design at OCAD, joins Jesse and Peter to discuss her global journey from Trinidad to Toronto, leading design education th...
59: Design Isn’t Dead, But It’s Seen Better Days (ft. John Gleason)
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Peter and Jesse are joined by design and business consultant John Gleason. Coming up through P&G's famous design initiative, we get his perspectiv...
58: AI is a Stress Test for Your UX: What Cracks Will It Show?
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse and Peter explore how AI is revealing the true value proposition of design teams. They discuss why "whoever controls the prompt controls the pro...
57: On Being a Chief Experience Officer (ft. Amy Lokey)
13 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is Amy Lokey, Chief Experience Officer for the enterprise software platform, ServiceNow. ...
56: Design’s Role in the Evolution of Product Management (ft. Sara Beckman)
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is Dr. Sara Beckman, Professor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and longtime observe...
55: The Maker Mindset Connecting Product, Design, and Engineering (ft. Todd Wilkens)
08 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is Todd Wilkens, part of our leadership at Adaptive Path years ago, who has gone from des...
54: At the Intersection of Design and Business, Be The Anomaly (ft. Roger Martin)
08 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse is business strategist Roger L. Martin, former Dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, who advanced t...
53: Leading Design Through Continual Evolution (ft. Peter Skillman)
04 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Head of Philips Design, Peter Skillman, joins Peter and Jesse to share lessons from Philips' century of design innovation, from light bulbs to the com...
52: Design at a Crossroads (ft. Audrey Crane)
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is veteran Silicon Valley design and product strategy consultant Audrey Crane, who will s...
51: Design-led Innovation in Emerging Markets (ft. Gaurav Mathur)
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this show, Peter and Jesse are joined by Gaurav Mathur, VP of Design for Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. He'll share with us his perspective on t...
50: Balancing Design and Business as a Utopian Pragmatist (ft. Leslie Witt)
26 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joining us to talk about what's next for digital product design is Leslie Witt, chief product and design officer for mental health care platform Heads...
49: Unraveling Complexity in Product Development (ft. John Cutler)
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for digital product design is John Cutler, veteran product manager and product management consultant...
48: Leading Design from IDEO to In-house (ft. Anne Pascual)
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Pascual, VP and Head of Design for European fashion e-commerce giant Zalando, joins Peter and Jesse to talk about driving innovation in a mature ...
47: Seeking Balance (ft. Koji Pereira)
18 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Koji Pereira, Chief Design Officer for Brazilian fintech Neon, joins Peter and Jesse to talk about his career journey from Brazil to Silicon Valley an...
46: Leading with Clarity (ft. Vuokko Aro)
05 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vuokko Aro, VP of Design for the UK's popular digital-only bank Monzo, joins Peter and Jesse to talk about shifting your design approach as your compa...
45: The Phase Shift
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse and Peter grapple with the prevailing discourse around design leadership, the shift occurring from what design has been to what it is becoming, ...
44: The Mindful Executive (ft. Christina Goldschmidt)
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christina Goldschmidt joins Peter and Jesse to reflect on her first 60 days on the job as the newly appointed VP of product design for the music indus...
43: Leading Enterprise UX for LEGO Group (ft. Rebecca Nordstrom)
09 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
LEGO's Rebecca Nordstrom leads the team designing the software they use to produce those billions of little bricks. She joins us today to talk about b...
42: Leading From Trust (ft. Cynthia Savard Saucier)
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter and Jesse are joined by Cynthia Savard Saucier, co-author of the book Tragic Design and VP of UX for the Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify. We t...
41: Leading Experience Design for the Military (ft. Colt Whittall)
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, "mission critical" takes on a whole new meaning when you're the Chief Experience Officer for the United States Air Force. The first p...
40: The Cross-Trained Design Leader (ft. Rajat Shail)
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hardware design, software design, package design, experience design. Rajat Shail oversees all of it for home automation company Vivint. Rajat joins us...
39: Reflections on the State of Design Leadership (Season 3 finale)
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Peter and Jesse reflect on the conversations they had with senior design leaders, the themes that emerged, the challenges facing desi...
38: The Craft-led Design Executive (ft. Tim Allen)
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Peter and Jesse speak with Tim Allen, Global Head of Design and Research for Instacart, about his craft-forward approach to design le...
37: From Design Leadership to Product Leadership (ft. Che Douglas)
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Peter and Jesse speak with Che Douglas, who has shifted from VP of Design to VP of Product for Booking.com, the world's leading trave...
36: The Chief Design Officer as Corporate Executive (ft. Jehad Affoneh)
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Peter and Jesse speak with Jehad Affoneh, Chief Design Officer of Toast, on topics ranging from the what it means to be an executive,...
35—The Actualized Design Executive (ft. Daniela Jorge)
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Peter and Jesse speak with Daniela Jorge, Chief Design Officer at PayPal, about vision, delivering on an end-to-end customer experien...
34: Design leadership to support organizational transformation (ft. Rachel Kobetz)
09 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Jesse and Peter speak with Rachel Kobetz, Global Head of Design for Expedia Group, about how at the core of her role is organizationa...
33: Leading Design in a Product World (ft. Greg Petroff)
18 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Jesse and Peter are joined by Greg Petroff, Chief Design Officer at Cisco Secure, and former design executive at GE, ServiceNow, and ...
32: The Intentional Design Executive (ft. Kaaren Hanson)
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kaaren Hanson, Chief Design Officer at Chase Bank, joins Peter and Jesse to discuss her approach to being a design executive, including what component...
31: Sustaining yourself as a design executive (ft. Katrina Alcorn, GM IBM Design)
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Katrina Alcorn, General Manager for IBM Design, joins Peter and Jesse to uncover various aspects of being a design executive, includi...
30— Mailbag: UX maturity, conflict fatigue, and getting past imposter syndrome
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
(This is our last episode for a couple months. Talk to you in August!) In this episode, Jesse and Peter field questions from listeners, which lead to...
29: Listening with Intent (ft. Indi Young)
14 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Jesse and Peter speak with their friend and former colleague Indi Young on the eve of the release of her forthcoming book, Time to Li...
28: The Leadership Ceiling (ft. Tim Kieschnick)
29 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Jesse and Peter talk to Tim Kieschnick, who established the UX practice at healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente, and then went on to sp...
27: Choose Yourself—Making up your career path as you go (ft. Abby Covert)
20 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse are joined by information architect and author Abby Covert, who shares her story of moving from independent consultant, to Et...
26: Chief Design Officers and Design Executive Effectiveness (ft. Gordon Ching)
12 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse chat with Gordon Ching about the emerging role of the Chief Design Officer, design executive effectiveness, the power of bran...
25—The Reckoning
22 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse take stock of emerging themes from prior conversations, trying to make sense of the crucial challenges of design and design l...
24: Delving into digital design—craft, teaching, lessons from architecture, standards and certification (ft. Jorge Arango)
05 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse chat with Jorge Arango about the state of digital design, his background in architecture, teaching the next generation of des...
23–Make UX truly human-centered by addressing trauma, power, and other necessary and uncomfortable realities (ft. Vivianne Castillo)
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse speak with UX researcher, educator, and humanity advocate Vivianne Castillo about what it takes to be truly human-centered, t...
22: “Right problem, right solution, done right”—The Vanguard of User Research (ft. Jen Cardello)
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse talk to Jen Cardello, head of UX Research at Fidelity Investments, about her team's uncommon organization structure (within a...
21—Creativity, banishing inner critics, impostor syndrome, and systemic racism (ft Denise Jacobs)
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse talk to creativity consultant and author (and former front-end developer!) Denise Jacobs about just what is creativity, how t...
20—The business model is the new grid, and other mindbombs (ft. Erika Hall)
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse talk to strategic design and research consultant Erika Hall of Mule Design, learn about how "the business model is the new gr...
19 – Growth mindsets, vulnerability, sociopathy, totalitarianism… that escalated quickly (ft. Billie Mandel)
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse speak with Billie Mandel, design leader, team coach, and UX educator, and we somehow get from team dynamics to leadership qua...
18: How Agile and Scrum ruined product management, and other things (ft. Melissa Perri)
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Product management consultant and educator Melissa Perri joins Peter and Jesse to talk about the view of design from the product management side of th...
17 – Design leadership lessons from bicycling (ft. Sally Carson)
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter and Jesse talk to Sally Carson, Head of Product Design at Duo Security (now part of Cisco), about her journey, from bike messenger to m...
16 – How can a designer grow in their career without becoming a manager? (and more)
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse and Peter return from their hiatus and dig into a few emerging trends we've seen in product design teams, including (00:25) the rise of the seni...
15: Mailbag—Funding models; from output to impact; personal safety and security
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Jesse and Peter answer questions on funding models, shifting from output to impact, demonstrating value, and the challenges of being a desig...
14: “If your team’s work isn’t good, you didn’t set clear expectations,” and other Design Leadership Truisms
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Peter shares some of his Design Leadership Truisms (inspired by the work of Jenny Holzer), and Jesse reacts. Truisms discussed: (03:29) “P...
13: Facing Systemic Racism in Design
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which Jesse and Peter discuss their relationship to systemic racism, as individuals, as leaders, and as members of the design and UX communities.
12: Ands Not Ors (ft. Maria Giudice)
01 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we are joined by Maria Giudice, founder of Hot Studio, former design executive at Facebook and Autodesk, for a whirlwind discussion of her c...
11: The Leadership Plateau and the Marketing Vortex
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we address the how to grow as a design leader when the opportunities thin out, and then take a hard turn and address the culture of marketin...
10: We Have Trust Issues
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we grapple with the multifarious concept of trust, in light of how important it is for leaders to establish, build, and maintain it in their...
9: Consultancy Rat Blues, Part 2
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we continue to grapple with in-house vs design consultancy distinctions, and see promise in the creation of senior strategic design roles wit...
8: Consultancy Rat Blues, Part 1
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which an email from a design leader self-labelled "Consultancy Rat" spurs a wide-ranging discussion on strategic design leadership, product managem...
7: Leading From Home
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we discuss the challenges of relationship management when leading from home, and then start a potentially promising discussion on the subject...
6: Defining Your Charter, Part 2: The How
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we break down the components of a team charter, and the ways it helps design leaders, particularly with people matters of recruiting, hiring,...
5: Defining Your Charter, Part 1: The Why
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we look at the purpose behind defining purpose, and discover some unexpectedly useful new frames along the way.
4: Management Leadership Jazz
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which reflections on the coronavirus pandemic spark a freeform conversation ranging from Trump to Jobs on management, leadership, power, uncertaint...
3: Range and Craft
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which a discussion of David Epstein's book Range leads to a consideration of craft, practice, and the medium of leadership.
2: Elements Turns 20
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we learn more of Peter's recent adventures in design leadership, and we reflect on 20 years of Jesse's Elements of User Experience.
1: The Story So Far
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we learn a little of Peter and Jesse, their past history together, and their more recent history apart.