Design Driven

How can companies — especially large companies — achieve that perfect triad of collaboration between the design, business, and technology teams? It’s a perennial question that remains largely unsolved. 

We’ll tell you what’s decidedly not helping. Those balanced, beautiful Venn diagrams keynote speakers present at industry conferences illustrating the ideal design, business, tech dynamic. 

Behind the scenes, design teams make fun of these cliched diagrams because they know real-world working relationships are lopsided. Business or tech reign, and design is too often seen as a mere contributing cog instead of an equal leader. 

Clearly, achieving cross-team balance takes more than sketching circles. 

To gain respect, designers need to bolster their business IQs. In fintech, that means learning about markets, trading, rates, money movement — all to show the business team that you do get their end-game and you are contributing to their strategy. 

Even with business-savvy designers in your corner, this kind of collaboration is always hard. And it requires a more modern design mindset. It might seem impossible for large, complex organizations to work together — and work quickly — like startups seem to do. 

Listen as host J Cornelius and guest Jose Coronado discuss leading efficient, cross-functional teams, even within legacy fintech companies.  

• Why your design organization should run like a business
• How to get your teams to stop arguing and complaining, and start articulating needs stakeholders can get behind
• Applying today’s design thinking to yesterday’s big bank infrastructure

Jose Coronado is the Executive Director, Head of DesignOps at JPMorgan. He helps UX teams amplify their impact, and companies maximize the business value of investing in design. 

As a design executive and management consultant, Jose’s work includes projects with organizations like McKinsey, Accenture, Aquent, Bain Capital, and AIG. Jose’s impressive career spans leadership roles with Fortune 500 companies ADP, Oracle, and AT&T, among others. 

He is also the Managing Editor of Design Impact, a digital publication where he shares leadership lessons from emerging and established design leaders around the world. Jose is a sought-after international speaker and workshop facilitator.

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The tech industry is full of stereotypes. The business exec who only talks in MBA acronyms and spreadsheets. The developer who’d rather code alone in a dark room than attend a co-worker's birthday lunch. The diva designer who always insists on more whitespace and is overly-concerned with font choices.

In reality, these stereotypes are dated. Worse, they’re impeding great teamwork. When designers, developers, and business people work in siloed teams, and only come together in progress report meetings, they are pitted against each other because that's how their departments are structured.

Too many companies think different skills should be independent, to think on their own to create the best thinking. The reality is we need teams to be interdependent so they can collectively create better outcomes. When we seek to understand the individual people in these roles, we can map out how to use their natural skills in more effective ways.

How do you understand individuals? You need a handle on the principles of neuroscience and how the human brain actually works. Then, you can structure your teams not by departmental silo — but by personality, motivations, and natural talent. This creates a culture of truth seeking, progress, and true innovation. And isn't that what we all want?

Listen as host J Cornelius and guest Evan LaPointe explain how neuroscience helps you understand the people on your team and, ultimately, streamline design and development. 

• How to align team members’ personalities with strategic business goals to get things done
• Why asking, “What am I missing?” is your most potent tool to expand your team’s collective intelligence
• How to get your entire company to embrace the power of brain science to apply its principles to customer behavior

Evan LaPointe has a proven track record of founding, growing, and selling top-tier businesses. This includes: Satellite, acquired by Adobe Systems and now one of the largest analytics-based technologies available; and Search Discovery, the most prominent independently-held analytics and business intelligence consultancy in the United States. And that’s just the start. 

In sum, Evan’s products and services have helped thousands of brands better their products, cultures, processes, client success and value assurance programs, and so much more. 

Learn more about Evan and connect on LinkedIn.

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Speed is a key ingredient in a successful product design process. After all, if you can’t iterate fast enough, you risk losing the market for your product. Not to mention that a poor design process drains your resources. 

But, when a project stalls, too many companies focus on optimizing the process itself, neglecting the people who make that process possible to begin with. 

Have you considered that team efficiency might be more of a cultural and emotional challenge than a technical one? 

Try fostering empathy across teams for each other's objectives, goals, and even life circumstances. Empathy can get your people through the long days of product design knowing everyone’s pushing towards the same end result. 

Listen as host J Cornelius and guest Candice Faul discuss human-first strategies to better your team and, ultimately, your products. 

• Bringing together each person’s ‘hacks’ to uncover fresh product solutions
• Embracing occasional silliness to build cross-team empathy
• Translating internal empathy into empathy for your customers to create user-centric products
• Building scalable and repeatable processes to drive efficiency through teamwork 

Candice Faul is the Program Director of Digital and UX at Glen Dimplex Americas. She works across digital and physical products and consumer packaged goods. Candice also has deep experience in the fintech industry as well as digital product design. 

She specializes in user experience and human centered design. In her daily life, this manifests as constant curiosity about how people feel as they complete their tasks and what influences their actions.   

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Because of today’s advanced technology and malleable software, there’s almost no product idea that’s too outlandish to create in some form. While it’s exciting to have seemingly endless possibilities, actually ideating and making truly new, innovative products is a huge undertaking. Add the need to ensure that these products are user-friendly and simple, yet groundbreaking and fresh, and the challenge becomes almost insurmountable. 

How do you define the scope of a new product? Who is going to design it? How do you get multiple teams aligned around the same idea for the project’s duration? Who’s the leader when several stakeholders are involved? How do you design with users in mind when users have never seen anything like what you’re proposing? 

In this episode, host J Cornelius and guest Jacob Glenn address these questions and more. They illuminate how to take an innovative idea and turn it into a marketable, desirable product.

Topics Include

• How staying true to your core promise will lead to a more intuitive product 
• Why products demand cross-discipline teams to bring them to fruition 
• How to work well across team lines, and resolve difficulties when they do arise 
• How to take cues from successful products to inform unprecedented ideas 

About Jacob Glenn

Jacob Glenn is the Founder and President of M Genio, a boutique software development and consulting firm offering strategy, execution, and support for industry leading companies. They specialize in mobile solutions, Internet of Things, and Salesforce automation.

Throughout his more than two decades of experience, Jacob has maintained a consistent track record of success leading complex engagements focused on strategy, process, and emerging technologies. The projects he spearheads create value at the unique intersection of business and technology.

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About This Episode

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of dropping big, bold, and shocking product changes without a lot of forethought. But, unless you’re Apple or Tesla, this approach to design just isn’t sustainable. 

Instead, focus on releasing product enhancements that are measurable, reversible, iterative, even humble. This isn’t a sexy approach, but it will yield a shipping cycle that produces consistent upgrades customers actually care about.

Listen as host J Cornelius and guest Katrina Bautista uncover user research methods and team alignment tactics that enable this dependable shipping schedule.

Topics Include

• ‘MacGyvering’ research to bring customer desires to light 
• Applying psychology principles to user research questions to reveal truths 
• Using the “Anti-Surprise Law” to safeguard product improvement releases 

About Katrina Bautista 

Katrina Bautista is a UX Manager with Shopify, one of the world’s top e-commerce platforms. She shapes the way Shopify empowers merchants so they can fully leverage the platform through apps. 

Beyond her day-to-day role, Katrina is a self-described noticer of things and never-give-upper. She prides herself on her mastery of making all things simple, clear, elegant, and persuasive. 

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It’s human nature to want to solve problems as soon as they come into view — no matter if the problem is worth your efforts in the first place. We’re also wired to think a complex problem warrants an equally complex solution. 

However, we sometimes need to work to overcome this human nature during the product design process. Don’t fall prey to confirmation bias because of an impulse to prove your idea right or get something done quickly. Unbiased user research, an expert view of the problem, and simple solutions are key for developers. 

In this episode, host J Cornelius and guest Ryan Frederick discuss how to make better, smarter design choices by analyzing common mistakes developers make on the path to their finished product. 

Topics Include

• Why unsuccessful products still make it to market
• How solving low value problems leads to low value solutions
• Why complex problems call for simplicity and elegance, not complexity 

About Ryan Frederick

Ryan Frederick is currently the Principal of AWH, a product and data consulting firm. He has been an integral part of starting and growing several software and service companies, seeing these companies through from inception to sustainability. Originally a developer, Ryan’s experience is at the unique and advantageous intersection of business acumen and technical knowledge. 

Ryan is the author of The Founder’s Manual: A Guidebook for Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur. He also authored the forthcoming book, Sell Naked - And Other Advice for Growing and Managing Service Firms. 

An active angel investor, Ryan mentors and advises entrepreneurs and start-ups, as well as corporate innovation leaders. He also launched a non-profit workforce development program, i.c.stars, to train under-employed adults on digital skills.

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Innovation isn’t a project, it’s a mindset. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of approaching innovation with the same guidelines, principles, and processes that you would a project, but when it comes to real innovation isn’t the whole point to do something new?

In the last six months, COVID has been a market accelerator, but not a change agent from a product perspective according to product geek Chidi Afulezi. “If you thought you had time to test and address changes for your product, you’re wrong.”

All industries have been impacted by the ripple effects of the global pandemic and the companies that are thriving today were those that created a healthy environment for pivotal decision making and innovation.

In this episode Chidi and J discuss:

1. The typical pitfalls when companies try to establish innovation.
2. What the companies who are implementing innovation “right” are doing
3. How do you take the risk out of innovation, or at least minimize it?

About Chidi Afulezi:

Chidi Afulezi is Managing Principal at redKola digital labs and Head Faculty of Product, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at ALU School of Business. Chidi is a product scientist, consultant, and creative entrepreneur. Chidi began his career out of college working for Sony, Time Warner, CNN, and Turner Broadcasting after graduating with training in electrical engineering. During his time at Turner, he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, which eventually led him to found his own consulting practice centered around solving existential problems for the customer.

Chidi brings unique energy about products and today his work spans several continents. Most recently, Chidi has been teaching and advising start-ups in Africa, which offers a diverse landscape for business, culture, and technological innovation.

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The question that we’re all asking today: How do you sustain your differentiation in shifting market conditions?

Furthermore, how do you build consumer loyalty in a world where products and technologies are copied almost instantly and brands struggle to differentiate themselves?

In this conversation, J Cornelius and Udaiyan Jatar (“UJ”), Founder of Blue Earth Network, discussed what it takes for an organization to be truly different, how to fight against the rapid product commoditization that is occurring in the 21st century, and the most important factor in establishing brand affinity. 

Topics include:

• Why do some brands transcend their competitors so much faster today?
• The two forces of differentiation
• How do you sustain your differentiation in shifting market conditions?
• The positive impacts of aligning your front and back office
• The “Iceberg Analogy” behind product design
• How do you create brand affinity?

About Udaiyan Jatar: 

Udaiyan Jatar, widely known as "UJ," has been spearheading transformation initiatives for global organizations for decades. He's led global brand development and marketing at Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola and been an educator and board member at the Presidio Graduate School and Georgia Tech Institute of Technology. He now runs Blue Earth Network, a platform for creating systemic change and sustainable differentiation for organizations of all sizes. 

UJ’s TEDx talk, The 7 Disciplines for Building a Transcendent Brand, explains the counterintuitive disciplines that helped small entrepreneurs create iconic brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Harley-Davidson that eventually "transcended" global culture. These brands pass the tattoo test.

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How do you go about creating a single design system to support multiple brands and products at the same time? What’s the impact of design systems for startups vs large companies? We’ll find out in today’s conversation with Mike Dick.

A design-engineer solving large-scale design system problems. Mike leads the design systems team, where they’re building next-generation design tools that merge the gap between design and engineering. Previously, he led design systems at Quora and Twitch. He co-founded two startups, nvite (acquired by Eventbrite) and Cage (acquired).

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What is the difference between innovation and R&D? For Martin Ringlein, Global Head of R&D at San Francisco based ticketing platform Eventbrite, innovation is a cliche. It’s no longer innovative to strive for an “innovative” product. Instead, Martin prefers the classic phrasing “R&D”, or research and development but with a slight twist.

The “D” in R&D is limitless. Although it traditionally refers to research and development, it can be research and design, research and diversity, research and data analysis, and so much more. The key element that ties the possibilities together is the research.

Eventbrite is continually seeking unconventional growth and attempting to predict what’s next.

“What would Eventbrite look like if it wasn’t Eventbrite? If it did things that it didn’t do if it was in places that it has never been before?” - Martin Ringlein

These are the questions that Martin and his team are seeking answers to, and while they may not have them today, it’s sometimes more important to be asking the right questions than finding the solutions too quickly.

In this episode, J Cornelius and Martin explore topics like:

1. What is the common pattern of successful R&D in any tech company?
2. Why should you be focusing on your customer’s customers?
3. How do you validate your data and research?
4. Why is it sometimes okay to rely on your gut?

Martin Ringlein is the Global Head of R&D at Eventbrite, one of the largest ticketing platforms in the world.

In late 2016, Martin joined Eventbrite pre-IPO through the acquisition of his previous startup, nvite, where he served as CEO and Chairman of the Board. Prior, Martin was a Presidential Innovation Fellow at The White House working directly within the Executive Office of the President for the Obama administration. Martin’s first company, nclud, a research and design consultancy, was acquired by Twitter pre-IPO, where he went on to become their first Design Manager, helping build and lead the R&D team. Martin is also a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, where he invests in early and late-stage startups, such as Hyperloop One and Chime.

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