The Design Strategy Podcast

Prapti is a strategist and researcher at Harvard D-lab where they’re bringing together design and public health. Besides her current role at Harvard D-lab, she also shares the learnings she has made throughout her career, starting as an architect and transitioning into design strategy by working at Ford and Cisco. In addition, she shares that she sees design strategists as connecters, breaking silos and bringing different knowledge areas together so they can learn from each other. Key words: Design-thinking Design for public health Etnographic research Quick interventions Educating non-designers Specialism versus Generalism Creative collaboration Humanity-centered design Web 3.0 Metaverse Sustainability Books: 101 Design Methods, Communicating The New, Ten Types of Innovation CNBC video series: How Companies Work Speculative fiction DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast, speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Pablo Groglopo shares insights about his job as a Circular Design Strategist. Among others, we talk about circular design, system thinking, identifying future scenarios and personal branding. Key words: - Circular design - System thinking - Value chain - Stakeholder management - Product service systems - Reframing questions - Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) - Future scenarios - Net zero vs. Net positive - Regenerative trend - Ellen McArthur Foundation - Intrapreneurship - Analysis paralysis - Personal branding - Books: The Blue Economy / Products That Last / Brand The Change - Documentary: Kiss the Ground DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast, speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

This episode's guest is Kartik Poria, a Product and Venture designer at BCG Digital Ventures. With a background in Architecture, UX and branding he has an inspiring career path and shares the lessons he learned along the way. In addition, he also shares what his current role at BCG DV looks like and how he applies design strategy on a daily basis. Key words: - Venture building - Corporate Startups - Portfolio Sprint - Minimal Viable Product (MVP) - Ethnographic Research - Lean UX - Design Thinking - Mentorship - Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Making technology more understandable - Democratizing Design Thinking - Books: Hidden in Plain Sight / Orchestrating Experiences / Reimagining Design - Design toolkit for brand extension decision of corporate startups: https://josephinescholtes.com/design-toolkit/ Disclaimer: all speakers on this podcast, speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

Seun started as a graphic designer and developed his career into being a successful freelance design strategist today. As he's based in Nigeria, he shares with us what the design strategy industry looks like over there and how he supports organizations in "going from standardization to humanization". In addition, he also shares a project example that illustrates how user research can change the course of a project. Key words: - Freelancing - User research - Butterfly Works - Design Strategy in Nigeria - Human-centricity - Strategic Fore sighting - Adaptability - Started as a Graphic Designer - Executive design strategy roles - Tim Brown DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

Kim is a Creative Strategist and works on a freelance basis. In this episode she shares what it's like to be a freelancer and why she decided to leave the corporate world to become a freelancer. Key words: - Freelancing - Project acquisition - Workshop facilitation - Consulting - Company politics - Defining your career path - Decision-making - Learning from mistakes - Lead your career changes - Theory by Jonathan Stark: getting rid of hourly billing DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this first episode of the second season, Liset explains her current role as an Innovation Coach at SHV Energy. In addition, we also discuss her career path, how she defines her path and what decisions she made along the way. Key words: - Digital Innovation Accelerator - Design Sprints - POC (Proof of Concept) - Expectation management - User research - Career learning curve - Switching jobs - Listening to your inner voice - Start doing instead of overthinking DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

We received multiple requests to create an episode in which our podcast host, Josephine, tells more about her role at Microsoft. And so in this episode, Josephine and Alina tell more about their roles as UX Consultants at Microsoft. Among others, they discuss the importance of storytelling and that working in tech does not always mean that you are focusing on disruptive technologies and innovation. Key words; - Tech Consulting - Tech Architects - Daily standups - DevOps - UX show & tells - Data visualization - Conversational AI - Mixed Reality - Product teams vs. consulting - Legacy systems - Company culture - Incremental vs. disruptive innovation - Managing backlogs (user stories, features, epics) - Inclusive Design DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Willem Evers joins us to talk about his job as a Product Manager at Picnic, an online supermarket. He shares his experiences, insights and challenges. Key words: - Product Owner - Product Roadmap - Optimizers vs. Creators - Creativity vs. Intuition - Being comfortable with ambiguity - Online groceries - Business cases - Measuring business impact DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

Susana Tort is a design strategist within the social innovation sector and is currently working as an innovation strategist and design lead at MIT GOV/LAB. This lab is part of the well-known university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and focuses on innovation in citizen engagement and government responsiveness. In this episode Susana talks about designing interventions, wicked problems, being comfortable with ambiguity and the importance of creating collaborative spaces so people can connect, communicate and create. In her opinion this last point, is something we as design strategists are good at and we should use that at our advantage. But there’s a fine line between creating collaborative spaces and letting the experts be the ones that are having the conversations. Listen to the episode to learn more. Key words: - Designing for governance - Designing interventions - Marshall Ganz - Tropicalization - Creating spaces - Wicked problems - Collaborative spaces - Unintended consequences - Viviane Castillo (challenges of design research) - Support systems for design researchers - Being comfortable with ambiguity DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

Gustavo Zepeda is an experience strategist at PWC and in this episode we discuss the ins and outs on experience consulting. In addition, Gustavo talks about humanity-centered design, how it’s different from human-centered design and why it is a trending subject. Many thanks to Gustavo for joining the podcast and sharing your insights with us! Key words: - Experience consulting - Evidence-based research - Business Experience Design (BXD) approach - Double Diamond process - Fuzzy front end - RFPs (Requests For Proposal) - Co-creation - Creative facilitation - Humanity-centered design - Personal branding DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, I’m talking to Emma van der Veen who is a Product Manager at Philips. This role is an interesting one as it is one of the few roles that allows you to be involved in the complete product design process. Starting at the very beginning, also known as the fuzzy front end, until the very end of launching the product on the market and improving it. Emma shares a lot of interesting insights about how she experiences this role, why she likes it so much and what challenges she faces as a Product Manager. In addition, we also talk about the process of finding your first job and Emma shares some great tips, such as: don’t put too much pressure on finding that perfect first job. Key words: - Design thinking - Visualizing strategies - Traineeship (rotations-program) - Product management - Stakeholder management - Product Development - Product launch - Cheap vs. Fast vs. Good - Net Present Value - Idea assessment - Book ‘Nice girls don’t get the corner office’ DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

Blanca is a User Experience Consultant at IBM iX, a design consultancy within IBM. Together we discuss what it is like to be a consultant within a tech company and, as we have similar roles, we compare our experiences within Microsoft and IBM. If you’re interested in becoming a design strategist within the field of tech-driven innovation, this is definitely an episode you want to listen to. Key words: • Business strategy • User experience design • Consulting • Interface design • IBM Garage • Corporate Startups • Fuzzy Front End • Product owner • Collaborating with developers • Agile processes • (Digital) Architects • The power of visualization • Service Design • Coaching in remote working • Sustainability DISCLAIMER: all speakers on this podcast, speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

This episode is the first one with two participants joining the podcast. Emma and Joris both studied Strategic Product Design (SPD) in Delft and are currently working at a service design studio called Koos. During this episode, they explain what service design is, why it adds value for end users and how it relates to design strategy. Throughout the episode we discuss a lot of insights and look critically at the standard design process (double diamond), i.e. why it’s important to not only think about solving the problem right, but also solving the right problem at the start of a design project. Key words: - Service Design - Service Design principals - User research - Double Diamond model - Tension model - Need-based personas - Importance of visualization - Design sprints - Touchpoint intervention - Customer Experience (CX) - Working in squads - Contextmapping - Data-driven service design - Customer Experience (CX) Management DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Peter Spijkers talks about his role as an innovation lead at TUI. After doing his graduation internship at TUI, Peter decided to continue his career there. Together with another colleague they became a two-men team, responsible for driving innovation within TUI. Peter explains, among others, how they’ve contributed to the innovation culture within the company, what it’s like to design for holiday experiences, the risks of pushing technology and the importance of information provision in user experiences. Note: unfortunately there were some difficulties with the quality of the recording. Therefore, you might notice this while listening. Key words: - Innovation culture - Holiday experiences - Travel industry - Vertical customer experience integration - Technology push - Conversational AI - Visionary thinking - The Horizon model - Impact of COVID19 - Information provision - Data transparency - The commercial side of design - Buzzword bingo DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Irene speaks about her experience at Butterfly Works. This social design studio combines the use of co-creation and design thinking in international development. This has led to, among others, different projects in Asia and Africa. During the conversation, Irene covers several topics, such as why she wanted to work at a social design studio and how she got from her MSc in Strategic Product Design at the TU Delft to a role at Butterfly Works. In addition, she gives her perspective on the difference between Design Thinking, Service Design and Strategic Design and how she applies these three concepts in her daily work. Key words: - Holacracy, an organizational structure - Design Thinking vs. Service Design vs. Strategic Design - Learning Experience Design (LXD) - Boosting the design community in Ghana - Working in economically developing nations - Working with different cultures - Why Social Design - Tackling social challenges - Democratic Design Thinking - Remote workshop facilitation - Benefits of digital design tools - Accessibility challenges - Peer-2-peer learning - Co-creation DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Sen and Josephine talk about design strategy at the software consultancy company Thoughtworks. Sen explains their way of working and lists the design methodologies they use on a day-to-day base. Also, they discuss design strategy within the consultancy industry and what it is like to work in a creative role at a more tech-savy company. Key words: - Consultancy - Agile business processes - Digital transformation - Change management - Collaborating with front-end and back-end developers - Thoughtworks’ methodology: Inception - Stakeholder alignment - Designing for digital channels - Making a vision tangible - T-shaped person - Creativity in the tech industry - Personal reflection DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode Max and Josephine talk about Max' experiences working as an innovation coach at the biggest museum in the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum. They discuss designing for visitor experiences and using technology while preserving a museum brand. Key words: - Tech-driven innovation - Prototyping - Visitor experience - Virtual Reality (VR) - User testing - 360 technology - Uncertainty - Exploration - Personalization - Inspiring book: Humankind - A Hopeful History DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.

In this episode, Tim and Josephine talk about design strategy at Kiwi.com and in the online travel industry. Besides working at Kiwi.com, Tim also is the co-founder of a startup which leads to an interesting discussion about the different experiences when working at a scale-up vs. co-founding a startup. Key words: - Workshop facilitation - Visualization as a strategic tool - Design agencies vs. Product companies - Stakeholder Management - Creativity during the pandemic - Co-founding a startup - Startup vs. Kiwi.com - Ethics - Policymakers - Sources for design inspiration - Learning by doing DISCLAIMER: all speakers on the podcast speak on behalf of themselves and do not represent the company they work for.