A Digital Strategy Podcast

By Tennis

A Digital Strategy Podcast explores how design, technology, and business intersect to shape the way organizations grow and adapt. Through thoughtful discussions and interviews with leaders in tech, de... more

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FAQs about A Digital Strategy Podcast:

How many episodes does A Digital Strategy Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 51 episodes available.

A Digital Strategy Podcast episodes:

July 02, 2026Figma Config 2025 Review: Was It Worth the Trip?
💡 Key Topics:
What Config is really like in person, and why Toronto has no local equivalent (RGD, Tech Week, Web Summit gaps)

AI fatigue at the conference, and audiences literally clapping when a talk wasn't about AI

Why Figma let agents take a backseat in the keynote, unlike last year's AI-heavy product slate

John on the new production and motion features, and where designers will push them

Anna O on UX for robots and seniors, plus the idea that taste comes from the people you're responsible for

Ella Rochelle Lawton on street art as a design system, and real data on murals improving communities

The Waymo talk: designing for a driverless car and using the note E for calmness (psychoacoustics)

Jezebel DC's "low-tech" talk: why 2000s design was better before attention became the product, with Lego and Animal Crossing as case studies

Chelsea Larson (Anthropic) on language as design, prompts as UX, and AI as cars rather than the Industrial Revolution

A Stripe designer (Matthew) on density in design and the ink-to-meaning ratio, plus "prove the question is a bad idea before dismissing it"

The post-conference verdict versus the pre-trip guesses
📖 Chapters:
0:06 — Back from Config: first impressions

0:51 — Conference scale, and why Toronto has nothing like it

2:18 — Was it AI overkill? First day vs. second day

3:07 — Why Config is valuable: industry direction and art-based talks

3:44 — AI burnout and the crowd clapping for non-AI talks

4:14 — Why Figma let agents take a backseat this year

5:00 — John on the product release: production and motion

5:47 — Favorite talks begin

6:47 — Anna O: UX, robots, and design for seniors

7:43 — "Taste comes from the people you're responsible for"

9:01 — Ella Rochelle Lawton: street art as a living design system

10:14 — The Waymo talk and psychoacoustics (the note E)

12:10 — Jezebel DC: low-tech lessons from the 2000s

13:11 — Lego, Animal Crossing, and designing without dependency

14:53 — Chelsea Larson (Anthropic): language as design

16:25 — AI as cars, not the Industrial Revolution

18:50 — The Stripe density talk and the ink-to-meaning ratio

21:45 — "Prove the question is a bad idea before dismissing it"

23:33 — The secret second talk: too much talking about craft

24:40 — Final ratings: 9, 9, and 9.5

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.

#figma #figmaconfig #config2025 #figmaai #designconference #uxdesign #uidesign #designtools #waymo #anthropic #designsystems #b2bdesign #designindustry #datavisualization
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
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27min
June 23, 2026We Rated Figma Config 2026 Before Going
💡 Key Topics:
Figma's July IPO and the pivot to positioning itself as an AI company, right down to the software description

The claim that ~80% of Config talks are now AI, and whether that's a good or exhausting thing

What going public adds to the program: a new investor and analyst session

Why 3Blue1Brown, a math channel, is speaking at a design conference

Last year's product slate (Figma Make, Figma Buzz) and where those tools actually landed

Why Figma's AI feels painfully slow, and why some people are leaving for faster platforms

The talks that actually stuck: sentient car-factory robots, Nicole McLaughlin's upcycled fashion, the mouth-roof accessibility device

The Weavy acquisition and what node-based generative tooling adds to Figma

Anthropic on the Config lineup, and the design-tool overlap (they run on Webflow too)

The real question: with the IPO and the AI rebrand, is Config still worth the trip?
📖 Chapters:
0:06 — Heading to Config (and forgetting to pack)

0:31 — What Config is, and why the IPO changes it

1:47 — The big theme: AI, AI, AI

2:00 — Is Figma an AI company now?

2:56 — The new investor and analyst session

3:34 — Last year's drops: Make, Buzz, and the rest

4:00 — Why Figma's AI feels painfully slow

4:46 — AI fatigue vs. hoping for real use cases

5:42 — The talks they still remember: robots and upcycled fashion

6:12 — Hardware, accessibility, and Config as a tech conference

6:53 — Content and community-building talks

8:03 — Why Config matters for a B2B design shop

8:45 — The Weavy acquisition

9:28 — Anthropic at Config (and why they're on Webflow)

10:43 — Rating the conference before they go

11:46 — The verdict: a six and a seven
🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.
#figma #figmaconfig #config2025 #figmaai #designconference #uxdesign #uidesign #designtools #figmamake #aidesign #b2bdesign #designindustry
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
13min
June 19, 2026Italy Almost Had Its Own Silicon Valley. Then It Got Buried.
💡 Key Topics:
Why Italy was primed for this: arriving late to the Industrial Revolution and deciding to win on design instead

Camillo's 1908 factory and the "Olivetti style" that predated Apple's design manifesto by 40 years

Adriano embedding painters, architects, and writers as full-time co-builders, with design reporting to the top

Ivrea as the original Google campus: housing, clinics, libraries, Pasolini lecturing workers at lunch, a five-day week and maternity leave decades early

The Programma 101, the first desktop personal computer, and NASA buying it to help plan Apollo 11

The documented Steve Jobs connection: the 1981 "Italian Idea" conference, Bellini, Sottsass, and his pilgrimage to Ivrea

The mysterious death on a train, and what happened to the company once the visionary was gone

The real lesson: design-led is an operating model, not an aesthetic, and the culture dies if you never institutionalize it
📖 Chapters:
0:07 — The comment that started the rabbit hole

1:25 — How Olivetti made Italy an innovator

2:24 — Camillo and Italy's first typewriter factory

3:00 — Why Camillo looked to America

4:24 — 350,000 lire and a country playing catch-up

5:48 — The M1, and sending Adriano to the US in 1925

7:24 — Adriano takes over and hires artists as co-builders

8:39 — The backdrop: fascism, Futurism, and Rationalism

10:36 — The 1958 "Olivetti style" manifesto

11:28 — MoMA, and designing a whole society

12:56 — Ivrea as the original Google campus

13:43 — Where the idea came from: a double-minority origin

16:19 — A five-day week and maternity leave, decades early

17:30 — Exile and the Community Movement

19:30 — The Programma 101 and NASA's Apollo 11 order

20:48 — The Steve Jobs connection and the "Italian Idea" conference

24:12 — Jobs in exile: Italy, Apple Stores, and the 1997 return

27:11 — Why Apple doesn't look like Olivetti (enter Braun)

29:31 — Death on a train, and the conspiracy theories

32:17 — The real lesson and Italy's buried Silicon Valley

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
34min
June 12, 2026The 5 Website Principles Most Companies Get Wrong
In this episode:
Clarity beats cleverness: define the goal and the KPI before the design

Structure is the real UX: information architecture as the invisible foundation

Speed is a design decision: real speed, perceived speed, and the three-second rule

Building for the person who knows nothing about you, starting with ICP work

Why AI-generated copy keeps missing the mark

Every page needs one job, including the homepage as a traffic mediator

Why the first step is always an audit against your ICP
Chapters:
0:08 — Series recap and back to basics

1:15 — Principle 1: Clarity beats cleverness

3:50 — Principle 2: Structure is the real UX

6:00 — Principle 3: Speed is a design decision

8:40 — Principle 4: Build for the person who knows nothing

13:46 — Principle 5: Every page needs one job

17:17 — Recap and the first move: do an audit
New episodes weekly. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
20min
June 05, 2026Don't Build a Design System Until You See These 3 Signals
The worst design system project is one that starts too early. Wrong timing, wrong scope, wrong people and it dies in a folder somewhere, untouched.
In this episode, Symon and Marcello break down the three signals that tell you you're actually ready for a design system, the two signs you're definitely not, and how to scope a version one that people will actually use. They also cover the build or buy decision, and why adoption matters more than architecture.
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on design systems.
💡 Key Topics:
The 3 readiness signals: when a design system actually makes sense

2 signs you're starting too early (and will waste the investment)

Build, buy, or borrow: product systems vs. web experience systems

Who needs to be in the room beyond design and engineering

How to scope v1 so it ships in weeks, not months

The 90-day check: how to know if it's working

Why the first step is always an audit
📖 Chapters:
0:06 — Series recap and what we're covering today

0:56 — The worst design system project starts too early

1:30 — Signal 1: Multiple teams making decisions independently

2:22 — Signal 2: You're scaling, rebranding, or rebuilding

3:55 — Signal 3: Recreating instead of creating

4:30 — Not ready: your brand isn't stable yet

5:33 — Not ready: no one to own it

6:09 — Build, buy, or borrow

7:49 — Web experience systems: Relume and Osmo Supply

8:27 — Who should manage the design system

9:39 — Scoping version one: start with what you rebuild every time

10:48 — The most common scoping mistake

12:05 — The 90-day check: is anyone actually using it?

12:57 — Start with an audit

13:33 — It doesn't have to be perfect. It has to exist.
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
15min
May 22, 2026The Truth About Agency Growth, Pricing, and Why Agencies Fail | ft. Eli Rubel
💡 Key Topics:
Why most agencies get stuck and can't scale past the founder

How pricing affects client lifetime, team stability, and the work itself

The story behind going from $2,500/month to $45,000/month and back down

Why revenue is a vanity metric and what to measure instead

Employee churn as the red flag most clients ignore

What niching down actually looks like in practice

Why mutual respect is the real foundation of a great agency-client relationship

📖 Chapters:
0:00 — How most agencies fail (it's not the work)

0:54 — Eli's background: SaaS, e-commerce, and the leap to agencies

3:52 — Starting MatterMade and the rollercoaster of scaling

5:04 — How an agency operator ended up running an accounting firm

8:26 — The three stuck moments every agency founder faces

12:25 — Why intent matters: choosing to operate as a business

13:38 — Pricing is everything: how it shapes the entire business

17:08 — Client lifetime value: from 7 months to 2.5 years

19:05 — Why agency profitability matters to clients

20:40 — How to vet agency health before signing

22:40 — Revenue vs. profit: what real scale looks like

25:10 — Niching down: why it's scary and why it works

30:58 — What a real agency-client partnership looks like

34:16 — One hard truth and one piece of encouragement

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.
#agencygrowth #agencyprofitability #B2Bagency #clientretention #agencybusiness #pricingstrategy #digitalagency
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
38min
May 15, 2026 What a Design System Actually Is (Explained by Someone Who Builds One)
Key Topics:
• The Lego analogy: the simplest way to explain a design system to anyone
• What's actually inside a design system: foundations, components, patterns, and documentation
• How designers, developers, and product managers use a design system day to day
• Why a brand guide and a design system are not the same thing
• Design system governance: who owns what, and what happens without it
• Opinionated vs. flexible: how Intuit decides what teams can and can't change
• Why adoption is a culture problem, not a technical one
• The ROI question: because it always comes back to ROI

Chapters:
0:00 — The Lego analogy for design systems
0:42 — Intro: Part 2 of the design system series
1:35 — Avi's role on Intuit's design platform team
3:08 — How the GenUX team serves internal business units
5:04 — Catching AI inconsistency before it scaled out of control
6:09 — Explaining a design system to someone who's never heard the term
8:42 — Why every new brick has to work for every set
9:52 — What a design system actually touches inside an organization
10:19 — Benefits: consistency, trust, and a shared language
11:47 — Drawbacks: slowing down in a world that moves fast
12:52 — Does a design system help resolve conflict between teams?
14:06 — When teams build outside the system (and why that's useful feedback)
15:55 — Fixed vs. flex: what's opinionated and what's open
17:20 — Advice for smaller companies: know your why
19:04 — The communication breakdown that kills adoption
19:52 — Getting people to actually commit: governance and culture
20:08 — Why it always comes back to ROI
22:42 — One thing to take away if you've never thought about design systems
25:08 — Symon's takeaway: know the why before you build
25:28 — Marcello's takeaway: the Lego analogy
25:55 — Where to find Avi
26:35 — What's next: Part 3 on building a design system

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
27min
May 08, 2026Why people don't trust your business
Key Topics:
Why AI is accelerating brand chaos at the mid-market level

The difference between a brand guide and a design system

What design debt looks like, and why you don't feel it until it breaks

Single source of truth: why every team having its own components is killing your brand

Why speed without systems is just expensive chaos
Chapters:
0:16 — Why design systems are blowing up right now

1:12 — How AI is accelerating brand chaos

3:22 — What brand drift actually looks like in organizations

5:18 — Is this a design problem or a systems problem?

7:20 — The single source of truth problem

9:30 — What design debt actually costs

12:26 — Why you don't feel it until it breaks

13:41 — What to do if you're moving too fast

14:11 — Speed without a system is just expensive chaos

15:52 — Fix it upstream, not downstream

16:51 — The only real starting point

17:20 — One thing to take away
🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses.
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
19min
April 30, 2026 Design Is on Trial (And the Evidence Is Damning)
What we cover in this episode:
🔹 [0:00] — The verdict: What actually happened in the Meta/YouTube lawsuit
🔹 [2:16] — Kaye's story and why starting social media at age 6 matters
🔹 [3:55] — Internal Meta documents: "If we want to win big with teens, we must bring in tweens"
🔹 [7:50] — Section 230: The 30-year legal shield that finally cracked
🔹 [9:06] — Engineering addiction through design — and why that's different from designing for engagement
🔹 [11:07] — Infinite scroll, autoplay, and push notifications: tools or weapons?
🔹 [15:14] — Why this is a bellwether trial and what comes next
🔹 [18:02] — The Big Tobacco parallel: history is repeating itself
🔹 [22:27] — How this affects adults too: deleting Instagram, capping Reddit, and reclaiming attention
🔹 [26:36] — What should Meta do now?

This case isn't just about one family. It's a signal that real UX decisions made by real teams carry legal, ethical, and societal weight.
If you work in tech, product, or design, this episode is essential listening.
🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss our next episode
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
30min
April 24, 2026 AI Didn't Commoditize Design. Designers Did.
In this episode:
• How design evolved from a contained discipline in 2006 to absorbing everything by 2020
• Why low-code, no-code, the gig economy, and nearshoring created a race to the bottom on execution
• The three disciplines of market leaders — and which one actually resists commoditization
• How network effects are reshaping agencies, product teams, and businesses
• Why focus is the only real differentiator left

Chapters
• 00:00 The Evolution of Design and Technology
• 04:17 The Impact of AI on Design
• 09:33 Redefining the Value of Design
• 15:18 Focus and Niching Down in Design
• 21:24 Operational Excellence, Product Leadership, and Customer Intimacy
• 25:45 Navigating the Network Effect in Modern Business

Follow Tennis: tennis.digital @design_tennis
Links
You can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter
...more
28min

FAQs about A Digital Strategy Podcast:

How many episodes does A Digital Strategy Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 51 episodes available.