What does it actually take to be the first, or only, designer or researcher on a team? Spoiler: it’s not just about doing great work. This week, we get into the unglamorous, under-discussed side of the solo role: building systems, managing up, and earning trust before you’ve even shipped anything.

What happens when you’re really good at the craft, but nobody around you understands what you do, why it matters, or how to support you?

Julian Della Mattia has spent his career doing one of the hardest things in UX: showing up first. As a researcher who has repeatedly been the founding or solo practitioner inside organizations, Julian has learned, mostly the hard way, that being great at research is only a fraction of the actual job. He’s also the host of Finders to Builders, a podcast built specifically for researchers navigating this exact challenge.

In this conversation, we dig into what Julian calls the “finder to builder” mindset shift: moving from someone who just surfaces insights to someone who builds the infrastructure, earns the trust, and creates the conditions for research (and design) to actually matter inside an organization. We talk about how to manage up when your manager doesn’t fully understand your work, how to know when your efforts are starting to gain traction, and what the invisible job description of a solo or founding designer really looks like.

If you’ve ever landed a solo design or research role and felt the gap between what you prepared for and what the job actually demanded, this one’s for you. Julian brings a grounded, practical perspective that goes well beyond frameworks, because, as he puts it, in this context, frameworks rarely fly out of the box. Hit play.

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Julian on LinkedIn
• Follow Julian’s Substack
• Finders to Builders Podcast

Topics:

• 02:25 – Meet Julian Della Mattia

• 03:48 – From PM to first researcher

• 06:06 – Agency advice for juniors

• 10:54 – Accidental in-house research role

• 14:28 – Finder to builder mindset

• 18:51 – Time triage and playmaker mode

• 24:53 – Invisible work and org dynamics

• 27:49 – Managing up and selling research

• 32:23 – Signals and metrics that it’s working

• 36:48 – Measuring research impact

• 38:35 – Skip the framework trap

• 39:02 – Managing up tactics

• 40:16 – Aligning with business goals

• 43:37 – Just ask your boss

• 44:43 – When to start hiring

• 46:32 – Recap and teamwork

• 48:37 – Parting advice for firsts

• 60:39 – Where to find Julian

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Why does one vivid customer story outweigh months of research? This week on the Cognition Catalog, we break down the anecdotal fallacy — our tendency to let a single experience override real evidence. Learn why stories hijack decisions, how this shows up on product teams, and what you can do about it.

Have you ever watched weeks of solid research get sidelined by one person saying, "Yeah, but I talked to a customer who hated it"?

We've all been in that meeting. The team has done the work—research is solid, the data points in a clear direction—and then someone shares a single story that shifts the entire conversation. A stakeholder mentions one piece of feedback from a sales call, or an engineer pushes back on a technology choice because of a bad experience three jobs ago. Suddenly, the energy in the room changes, and the data fades into the background. That's the anecdotal fallacy at work, and it's one of the quietest ways teams get pulled off course.

In this episode of the Cognition Catalog, I'm breaking down why our brains are wired to favor stories over statistics, and how this bias shows up constantly on product teams, from design critiques to sprint planning to roadmap discussions. We'll look at the research behind why personal narratives outperform aggregate data in persuasion (hint: it's not because people reject evidence, it's because stories are just easier to process and remember). And we'll talk about the HiPPO effect — when the highest paid person's opinion carries disproportionate weight simply because of who's telling the story.

But here's the thing... the goal isn't to eliminate anecdotes. Stories surface edge cases, highlight blind spots, and humanize insights. The key is learning to treat them as hypotheses, not proof. I'm sharing five practical takeaways your team can start using right away to keep one person's experience from becoming the whole team's strategy. Give it a listen.

Topics:

• 01:50 - When one story derails the team

• 03:49 - What the Anecdotal Fallacy is

• 04:21 - Why stories feel true

• 06:03 - How it hurts our team

• 07:36 - Fixes and team habits

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Mahnaz has lived with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in ways most product teams never will. In this episode, we talk about what happens when VUCA isn’t theoretical, how to avoid becoming an order taker, and how courage, empathy, and initiative can reshape your role as a designer.

What if the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity you’re facing at work feel overwhelming only because you’ve never had to live through it in your everyday life?

I throw the word VUCA around like it’s a trendy framework. Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. But for Mahnaz Hajesmaeili, those aren’t abstract concepts; they’re lived experience.

Originally from Iran, before becoming a product designer, she built a life in China, knowing she could never fully belong there. When COVID hit, borders closed, savings ran out, and the life she had carefully constructed disappeared almost overnight. She returned to Iran, started over, taught herself UX, and eventually rebuilt her career in the United States.

That’s not “roadmap volatility.” That’s real volatility.

This week, I chat with Mahnaz to explore how living through that level of instability reshaped her approach to work. Why rejected designs don’t shake her. Why unclear strategy doesn’t rattle her and why she doesn’t default to being an order taker.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by shifting priorities or frustrated by leaders who “don’t know what they want,” this episode offers perspective—and practical lessons.

Give it a listen. It might change how you define uncertainty.

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Mahnaz on LinkedIn

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You can have clear meetings, clean decks, and unanimous nods and still walk away misaligned. In this episode of the Cognition Catalog, we break down the testing effect and why teams confuse exposure with learning. We’ll look at how recall, not agreement, is what actually creates alignment.

If everyone was in the same meeting… why does everyone remember it differently?

You’ve probably experienced this before: a meeting ends with clear action items, apparent alignment, and a general sense that things are settled, only for confusion to resurface weeks later. Different assumptions. Different memories. Same meeting. This episode unpacks why that gap happens and why alignment without recall is basically an illusion.

This week, we walk through the testing effect and how it explains a common team failure mode: mistaking discussion, documentation, and agreement for learning. From onboarding to retrospectives to roadmap reviews, teams overload people with information and assume that exposure equals understanding. It doesn’t. Without retrieval, memory fades, rationales drift, and alignment quietly decays.

We’ll also look at what it actually takes to apply the testing effect at work, without quizzes or formal tests. Simple changes to how meetings end, how onboarding is structured, and how teams normalize recall can reduce rework, friction, and those “wait, when did that change?” moments. If you want decisions to stick, this episode is for you.

Topics:

• 00:00 - Introduction: The Meeting Dilemma

• 01:35 - The Illusion of Learning in Teams

• 03:48 - Understanding the Testing Effect

• 07:43 - Applying the Testing Effect in Teams

To explore more about the Testing Effect, don’t miss the full article @ ⁠⁠⁠cognitioncatalog.com⁠⁠⁠

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Most teams treat conflict as something to avoid. In this episode, I sit down with Yaprak Gültay Davison to talk about why that instinct backfires. We explore how healthy disagreement builds trust, improves decision-making, and helps teams move faster... without blowing things up.

What if the tension you’re trying to avoid at work is actually the thing your team needs most?

Most design teams say they value collaboration, empathy, and alignment, but rarely talk about disagreement. In this conversation, I sat down with Yaprak Davison, Head of Design at Goodnotes and former design leader at Spotify, to unpack why conflict isn’t a threat to good teams. It’s often the foundation of trust.

Yaprak shares how designers are trained to optimize for harmony, and how that instinct can quietly erode clarity, slow teams down, and lead to decisions being made without the right people in the room. We talk about the real signals of unaddressed conflict—delayed replies, passive agreement, quiet misalignment—and why silence often causes more damage than open disagreement ever could.

We also dig into what it actually looks like to lead through conflict: naming tension early, separating facts from the stories we tell ourselves, and turning disagreement into a co-design moment rather than a power struggle. If you’ve ever felt stuck “keeping the peace” while things quietly fall apart, this episode will change how you think about conflict and your role in it.

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Yaprak on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to “Leadership as Craft”

Topics:
• 02:49 – Diving into Conflict in Teams
• 03:18 – Guest Introduction: YRA Davidson
• 04:25 – The Role of Conflict in Design
• 05:45 – Managing Conflict in Design Teams
• 11:31 – Coaching and Cultural Differences
• 22:21 – Building Trust Through Conflict
• 25:21 – Scaling Teams and Systems
• 30:53 – Exploring the Concept of Followership
• 32:31 – Leadership as a Team Sport
• 33:40 – Balancing Leadership and Craft
• 35:43 – Building High-Performing Remote Teams
• 39:40 – Handling Remote Conflict
• 41:46 – Personal Insights and Advice
• 52:51 – Final Thoughts and Resources

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Design was supposed to be creative work. For a lot of designers, it’s turned into endurance. In this episode, I’m joined by Vivianne Castillo to unpack how corporate design culture quietly rewards burnout, why endurance gets mistaken for professionalism, and how designers can start reclaiming creativity, agency, and choice.

What if the behaviors that made you successful in design are the same ones slowly disconnecting you from yourself?

Design culture loves to celebrate resilience, but too often what’s really being rewarded is endurance: tolerating vague feedback, late pivots, constant urgency, and emotional labor without complaint. In this conversation, Vivianne Castillo shares why so many designers feel drained, disconnected, and quietly shrinking inside roles that were supposed to be creative and human-centered.

Vivianne draws on her background in trauma counseling, psychology, and design to explain how corporate UX environments often reward unhealed coping patterns—people-pleasing, hyper-vigilance, over-responsibility, and self-silencing—while calling it “professionalism.” The work still gets done, praise still comes, but the cost is creativity, curiosity, and a sense of agency.

We also talk about what it actually looks like to take that agency back. Not through dramatic exits or rage-quitting, but through small, intentional experiments: setting boundaries, asking better questions, redefining security, and exploring entrepreneurial paths without burning everything down. If your design job feels more like survival than creation, this episode is for you.

Topics:
• 04:57 – Vivian’s Journey
• 07:16 – The Toxicity in UX Culture
• 19:14 – Reclaiming Agency as Designers
• 29:20 – Unhealed Patterns in the Workplace
• 31:13 – Understanding Corporate Culture and Personal Responsibility
• 32:01 – Self-Silencing and Professionalism
• 32:30 – Endurance vs. Resilience
• 33:04 – Updating Unhealed Behaviors
• 35:34 – Navigating Toxic Workplaces
• 37:14 – The Illusion of Job Security
• 43:09 – Entrepreneurship as a Healing Experience
• 43:37 – The Walkout Event for UX Professionals

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Vivianne on LinkedIn
• Join the Walkout

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We love talking about growth mindset, but curiosity without action doesn’t move your career forward. In this episode, Jayneil Dalal shares what he’s learned from interviewing hundreds of designers—and why the people who actually ship, share, and care about craft are the ones who keep growing.

What if the fastest way to grow your career isn’t asking for a promotion—but becoming the designer everyone trusts?

In this episode, I sit down with Jayneil Dalal to talk less about career ladders and more about what actually earns trust inside organizations. After interviewing hundreds of designers on Design MBA and Sneak Peek, Jayneil has seen the same patterns repeat across teams, companies, and seniority levels.

The designers who advance aren’t the loudest or the most credentialed. They’re the ones who care deeply about their work—clean files, thoughtful handoffs, clear communication, and sharing what they learn with others. No one tells them to do this. They do it because they give a damn, and that care compounds into credibility.

We also unpack the idea of “internal brand,” why chasing credit often backfires, and how being generous with your knowledge can quietly change team culture. If you’ve ever felt invisible at work or unsure how to stand out without self-promotion, this conversation reframes what influence really looks like.

Topics:

• 04:54 - Early Curiosity and Interviewing Journey

• 06:17 - The Birth of a Podcast Idea

• 07:23 - Launching Design MBA

• 09:53 - The Value of Execution

• 12:21 - Challenges and Realizations

• 15:36 - Content Creation and Audience Fit

• 19:35 - Learning from Top Designers

• 22:49 - The Importance of Craft and Mentorship

• 38:04 - Advocating for Yourself

• 41:58 - Navigating Internal Branding

• 46:34 - The Importance of Communication Skills

• 48:10 - Balancing Multiple Projects

• 51:36 - Effective Use of AI in Design

• 53:21 - Public Speaking and Presentation Tips

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Most designers hit senior level and suddenly there’s no obvious next step. In this episode, Ran Liu breaks down why the smartest career move may not be straight up, but diagonal. We unpack how to recognize stagnation, build visibility, stretch your skills, and create the kind of opportunities your company can’t (or won’t) give you.

What if the fastest way to grow your design career isn’t a promotion?

What if it's a diagonal move into work that stretches your range and makes you harder to replace?

Every designer eventually hits that moment: you’ve earned trust, you’re doing great work, you’ve reached senior… and then the ladder suddenly disappears. No clear next step. No path to promotion. And maybe no manager who even understands your craft well enough to help. In this episode, I talk with product designer and Ran Talks Design host Ran Liu about why this happens so often—and why the smartest career move isn’t always upward.

Ran shares how she discovered the idea of the diagonal move: a strategic shift that increases your scope, title, or company maturity all at once. She opens up about the moment she realized she was stuck—after years of impact, only to hear “you’re almost there” during promotion season. We walk through how to identify when your environment can’t (or won’t) support your growth: unclear leveling, lack of ownership, inconsistent feedback, and a ceiling that never seems to move.

We also explore the kind of work you need before you make a diagonal move—building the right experience, designing your portfolio strategically, navigating “visibility guilt,” and reframing self-promotion as sharing what you’ve learned instead of bragging. Ran also breaks down practical ways to expand your influence inside your company, build a network that remembers you, and create opportunities even when no one is handing them out. If you’ve ever felt stuck at senior, this episode will show you how to take the wheel again. Give it a listen—you’ll walk away with a new way to think about your career.

Topics:

• 02:59 - The Career Plateau: What's Next?

• 03:14 - Guest Introduction: Ran Liu

• 04:08 - Understanding the Diagonal Move

• 06:22 - Challenges in Career Growth

• 13:28 - Taking Control of Your Career

• 22:48 - Strategic Career Planning

• 32:05 - The Shocking Pay Disparity Revelation

• 32:34 - The Importance of Visibility in Career Growth

• 33:20 - Building Confidence and Visibility

• 34:59 - Leveraging LinkedIn for Networking

• 36:40 - The Power of Community Engagement

• 39:49 - Navigating Internal Visibility for Promotions

• 44:03 - Sharing Failures and Learning from Them

• 46:11 - Daily Habits for Career Momentum

Helpful Links:

•

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We talk about collaboration, but our brains often treat work like a win-lose game. In this episode, I break down Zero-Sum Bias, the belief that someone else’s win automatically means your loss, where it comes from, how it quietly shapes team dynamics, and what you can do to build more win-win outcomes at work.

What if your brain has been keeping score at work this whole time? And the game it thinks you’re playing doesn’t actually exist?

We repeat lines like, “If a stakeholder wins, designers lose,” or “If the PM wins, users lose,” so often that they start to feel like facts. In this episode of the Cognition Catalog, we unpack Zero-Sum Bias, the belief that someone else’s gain must come at your expense, and how that thinking quietly turns collaboration into a contest.

I walk through where this bias comes from, starting with early economic and game theory models like zero-sum games, where wins and losses truly do net out to zero, and how that maps onto our evolutionary history of genuine scarcity. Food, safety, and resources really were limited, so one person’s gain often did mean someone else’s loss. The problem is that our brains still carry that wiring into modern workplaces that are full of shared goals, interdependence, and cross-functional teams.

From design vs. product vs. engineering “tensions” to resourcing, prioritization, and recognition, I break down how zero-sum thinking shows up in everyday UX work—and what changes when you stop assuming only one side can win. We’ll talk about practical ways to spot the bias, shift toward non-zero-sum thinking, and design team habits that reward collaboration over quiet competition.

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “If they win, I lose,” this episode will help you reset the scoreboard and build healthier ways of working together.

Topics:

• 02:08 Debunking Zero Sum Thinking

• 03:13 Origins and Evolution of Zero Sum Bias

• 04:09 Impact of Zero Sum Bias on Teams

• 06:18 Strategies to Combat Zero-Sum Bias

To explore more about the Naive Cynicism, don’t miss the full article @ ⁠⁠cognitioncatalog.com⁠⁠

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This week, I sit down with Sarah Doody to talk about why so many designers feel stuck, and why it has nothing to do with talent. We explore how designers can apply their own UX process to their careers, create clarity through “compass statements,” and build a roadmap that actually leads somewhere.

What would happen if you stopped treating your portfolio like the product—and started treating yourself like the product?

This week, I’m joined by UX researcher, product designer, and career strategist Sarah Doody to unpack a hard truth: most designers aren’t broken; they’re just not applying their own process to their careers. After years of helping teams build the right products, Sarah noticed the same patterns designers use at work rarely show up in their job search. That gap is exactly what inspired her to start Career Strategy Lab.

In our conversation, we dig into the symptoms of “identity fog,” why so many designers struggle to articulate their own value, and how the industry’s obsession with FANG feeds unrealistic expectations. Sarah breaks down her “Product of You” framework—designing yourself, marketing yourself, and selling yourself—and shows how a single compass statement can influence everything from what projects you showcase to which jobs you apply for.

We also talk about experimentation, metrics, tailoring your materials, and the surprising reasons why designers waste months tweaking their portfolios without improving their outcomes. If you’ve ever felt stuck, lost, or unsure how to stand out in a crowded market, this episode will give you the clarity and the next steps you’ve been missing.

Give it a listen. You might walk away with a completely new way to think about your career.

Topics:
• 01:57 – Feeling Stuck in Your UX Career
• 03:28 – Understanding Career Identity Fog
• 06:00 – The Importance of an Elevator Pitch
• 09:57 – Applying UX Processes to Your Career
• 23:24 – Experimentation and Metrics in Job Search
• 26:39 – Tailoring Your Resume and Portfolio
• 34:02 – The Role of ATS and AI in Job Applications
• 37:47 – Rethinking Success Beyond FANG Companies
• 39:40 – Golden Handcuffs: The Reality of Working at FANG
• 41:17 – Creating a Life Roadmap Before a Career Roadmap
• 43:39 – Defining Your Perfect Day and Career Goals
• 45:17 – The Importance of Total Compensation Packages
• 46:57 – Effective Job Search Strategies and Networking
• 48:47 – Documenting Your Work and Portfolio Tips
• 53:56 – The Value of Paid Career Coaching

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn
• The Career Strategy Lab
• The Career Strategy Podcast

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