Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/joanna-pena-bickley
Joanna Peña-Bickley has had an amazing arc to her design leadership career: from Chief Creative Officer at Matter Worldwide and IBM, to her current role as Head of Research and Design for Alexa Devices at Amazon, Joanna has always sought to design things that are “useful, usable, and magical.”
In this interview, we talk with Joanna about working cross functionally with both software and hardware teams, and what she’s learned about building a more connected workflow. We also get Joanna’s take on speaking design in the language of business, and how she works to bring more diversity into leadership at the companies where she's worked.
Takeaways:

How Joanna approaches building high-functioning teams.

What the opportunities and challenges are when designing for invisible interfaces.

How to create partnerships that will make your team successful.


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Joanna Peña-Bickley: Amazon Alexa's design leader on collaboration and diverse teams

Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with inspiring guests across many creative fields. Whether you’re design curious or a design pro, Design Better is guaranteed to inspire and inform. Episodes are released semi-weekly. Vanity Fair calls Design Better, “sharp, to the point, and full of incredibly valuable information for anyone looking to better understand how to build a more innovative world.”

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Find full show notes, transcript, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/tasha-golden
As designers and creatives, we often find our work to be meaningful and fulfilling. But creativity can also come at a price. There can be a danger of burning out when we pursue creativity with passion, and our guest today, Tasha Golden, has experienced this herself. She lost her music career as a touring songwriter due to severe burnout and depression, and now researches well-being, how it’s affected by creativity, and how to use this knowledge to drive real change.
We speak with Tasha about her work on Project Uncaged, a trauma-informed creative writing program for incarcerated girls, as well as the The Arts on Prescription program: a model of care that’s gaining traction in the US—in which health- and social care providers can refer patients to community arts, culture, and nature experiences to support their health.
We also also discuss how creatives can better support mental health—for themselves and others.
Bio
Learn more about Tasha here on her site.
Tasha Golden, PhD is a singer/songwriter turned public health scientist, and a leading expert in Creativity and Wellbeing. Holding a PhD in Public Health, Dr. Golden has published extensively on the impacts of creativity, aesthetics, and the arts on health and well-being. She leads research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, serves as adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine, and is lead author of “Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.” [Find Tasha's full bio, and ways to connect with her, here: https://www.tashagolden.com/designbetter]
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Tasha Golden: Avoiding burnout while pursuing creativity with passion

Visit our Substack to get access to the full show: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/jonathan-adler
We’ve admired Jonathan Adler’s work for a long time. Though he started his career as a potter, today he designs sumptuous furnishings and interiors that inject energy and joy into everyday life. His work is decadent but not frumpy and always delivered with a winking sense of humor. If anyone truly knows how to bring creativity into all aspects of life, it’s Jonathan Adler.
We speak with Jonathan about why every creative person needs a naysayer to rebel against, how he surrounds himself with things that make him happy, and how he balances the tension between creating objects that have a lot of color and contrast, while making sure everything works together.
By the way, Eli’s wife Courtney has listened to many (though not all!) of our episodes, and this one happens to be her favorite so far—so you’re in for a treat. 
Brace yourself for some adult language. 

Jonathan Adler: Famed potter and designer on bringing creativity into all aspects of life

Tldr; We’re transitioning to weekly episode releases, publishing an enhanced newsletter, and simplifying our premium subscription which will now be on Substack. Read the details below …
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Find the transcript, full show notes, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/brian-tyler
Our conversation today takes us further into the creative process across different mediums.
If you’re a fan of Yellowstone, Crazy Rich Asians, Iron Man 3, or the recent Mario Brothers movie, then chances are good that one of the soundtrack clips in the trailer below is familiar to you. And today on Design Better we speak with the person behind them all: Emmy-award nominated composer Brian Tyler.
We talk to Brian about his childhood influences, growing up in an artistic family, and how he finds the starting threads of a score.
Bio
Brian Tyler is a multiple BAFTA and Emmy Award nominee, platinum-selling recording artist, and has been a composer and conductor on over 100 feature films. Tyler’s scoring credits include Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron, James Wan’s Furious 7 and F. Gary Gray’s Fate of the Furious as well as others in the Fast and the Furious franchise, Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World, Jon Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians, for which he was voted to the 2019 Oscar shortlist for Best Original Score.
Brian also tours as a successful electronic artist and producer, playing major festivals such as EDC and Hardfest, and he recently launched "Are We Dreaming", a completely immersive audio-visual experience created by Tyler himself, which debuted in October 2021 on the 400-foot Main Stage at Lost Lands Music Festival; an epic two-hour midnight performance for a crowd of 30,000 people. 
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Brian Tyler, composer for Yellowstone, Crazy Rich Asians, Mario Brothers, and more, on his creative process

Find the transcript, show notes, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/eric-snowden
Adobe has been the big wrench in our creative toolbox for decades. But there’s a new tool shaking up our workflow —Generative AI. Eric Snowden, leader of Adobe’s design team, sees a big opportunity for designers to extend and enhance the creative process by folding generative AI into each of our tools and we wanted to get his take on what’s around the corner. 
We spoke with Eric about his journey from Atlantic records during a period of upheaval in the music industry and what he learned there, to his time on the Behance product team and working his way up through leadership roles at Adobe.
Eric leads a team of over 600 people, so we also talk about finding the right size for teams (and Amazon’s “Two Pizza Team” framework), as well as how R&D works at Adobe.
Bio
Eric Snowden is the Vice President of Design at Adobe overseeing a multidisciplinary team of designers responsible for the Creative Cloud & Document Cloud suite of product and services. His team is responsible for the Digital Video & Audio, Digital Imaging, Design & Web, Documents, Mobile, Portfolio, and Services across web, desktop, and mobile surfaces.
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Joanna Peña-Bickley: Amazon Alexa's design leader on collaboration and diverse teams

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