Alastair Simpson is a design leader and mentor, serving as VP of Design at Dropbox. Prior to Dropbox, Alastair was Head of Design at Atlassian, where he helped scale the design team from 20 to over 250. On today's show we chat about craft and how important it is for designers at any level, persuasion, how to present work, and how to deal with puzzling feedback.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 02:28 – Alastair's journey into Design
• 06:34 – On building the right habits
• 11:24 – Sharing work, getting feedback, and storytelling
• 27:45 – How to get good at presenting work
• 31:44 – Soft skills that are important for designers
• 33:56 – Craft of Design vs. surgical optimisation
• 41:29 – Leading through craft
• 47:16 – The importance of inspiring others
• 50:06 – What Alastair hopes will happen over the next decade
• 52:02 – End of show questions

Connect with Alastair

LinkedIn, Medium

Selected links from the episode

The one critical skill most designers overlook, by Alastair
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini
Start With Why, by Simon Sinek
Atomic Habits, by James Clear

Sean has spent the past 25 years at the intersection of commerce, consumer behaviour, and data-driven feedback loops. This included working for Tesco, GfK, and two long stints with Amazon, among others. In this chat we talk about how design can better work with product, how to speak the language of our senior stakeholders, and what he's learned about hiring from interviewing over a thousand people at Amazon.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:54 – How does Product act differently in small vs. in big companies
• 05:53 – Interviewing others as a Bar Raiser at Amazon
• 10:55 – Portfolios – How do you get to the bottom of study cases?
• 13:24 – The one question Sean likes to ask in interviews
• 17:58 – How does a good relationship between Design and Product look like?
• 29:58 – Challenges that Product faces when they deal with Design
• 49:10 – Making it 'cheap' to be wrong
• 53:23 – Why sometimes Design reports to Product
• 56:53 – End of show questions.

Connect with Sean

LinkedIn

Selected notes from the episode

Sean's 10 Product Development Principles (to create the right culture and velocity):
1. Solve the right user need
2. Measurable accountability to outcomes
3. Release value in slices (avoid long bets)
4. Put data in the hands of decision makers
5. Build once, run everywhere
6. Make it cheap to be wrong 
7. Build it fast AND proper
8. Extreme focus on top priorities
9. Simplify, simplify, simplify
10. Be credible

We're switching gears a little from Design and catch up with Tom Scott, who's sharing his thoughts on building and using your network for your job search, the rise of the player-coach designer, and his thoughts on design education.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:52 – Community approach in recruitment
• 09:30 – The current state of design recruitment
• 13:56 – Portfolios – Do you need them?
• 23:04 – How to build and use your network for your job search
• 29:51 – The rise of the player-coach designer
• 36:51 – On design education
• 44:28 – End of show questions

Connect with Tom

LinkedIn, Verified, Verified Insights, Verified Insider Podcast

Selected links from the episode

Why You Shouldn’t Hire Junior Designers, by Christian Vasile

We're launching season 3 together with Nate Langley (Monzo), talking about how constraints breed creativity, the five pillars you want to touch on in interviews, and the importance of an integrated brand experience.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:38 – How Nate started out
• 05:50 – On confidence and how to build it
• 14:17 – Best ways to start out in Design
• 21:09 – Individual Contributor vs. Manager track
• 28:45 – How to do well in interviews
• 40:26 – On how constraints breed creativity 
• 45:58 – End of show questions

Connect with Nate

LinkedIn, ADPlist

Selected links from the episode

Peak, by Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool
The Rebalancing of Design Management, by Cap Watkins

Jamie shares with us his thoughts on the evolution of the design role, the need to be a good storyteller, and about staying an individual contributor vs. moving into management.

Connect with Jamie

LinkedIn, ADPlist

Get your notebooks out for this conversation, because Alex is sharing all about his experience leading design organisations, and about his management style, and about how to frame design at the C-level.

Connect with Alex

LinkedIn, Website, Medium

Selected links from the episode

The value of design at the C-level

Dean shares with us his thoughts on how you can put your best foot forward during your job search and how you can make design more transparent through relationship building and collaboration.

Connect with Dean

LinkedIn, Instagram

On this episode I talk to Ioana about the importance of speaking your stakeholders' language, how you can learn from her career trajectory, and about design education.

Connect with Ioana

LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Mento Design Academy, Honest UX Talks Podcast, TikTok

Selected links from the episode

UX Rescue

Democracy Lab

Roger shares with us the value framework his team uses to quantify design and talks about the 'invisible' work of a design leader.

Connect with Roger

LinkedIn

Selected links from the episode

Brian Pagan

This is an insights-packed conversation around how to build better relationships at work, how to use data to your advantage, and about design ethics.

Connect with Leonardo

LinkedIn, Instagram, Website, ADPlist

Selected links from the episode

99% Invisible Podcast