Design This Day

Ed Doran has had a storied career as the “translation layer” - bringing products from the messy research stage to the market. He shares with Devin the lessons he’s learned in launching a variety of high profile products, including his work at Microsoft where he co-founded Cortana, their first voice AI assistant. 

Today he’s working as the VP of Strategy at Edge AI Foundation, an organization supporting the mission to bring AI into devices rather than gigantic cloud servers, so AI can analyze data and work offline. This would be a critical advancement in settings like hospitals, mines, or submarines, letting anyone, anywhere, use AI to compute quickly and securely.

Time Stamps:

01:25 The hurdles in a product launch

04:37 Bridging researchers and productization

06:25 Neapolitan Ice Cream Innovation

12:48 Cortana Origins

15:28 Trust and “Vegas Mode”

17:34 The Tone for Voice Assistants

20:28 AI as Coworker

26:30 Edge AI Explained

32:23 Challenges Moving AI to the “Edge”

34:06 Lightning Round

35:54 Wrap Up and Thanks

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Ed Doran

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks to Michael Brett, a quantum computing lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS) to dig into the remarkable potential of quantum – and the current struggles getting in its way. Michael shares that quantum computing is no longer a far-off promise, it’s here. So how is it going to shape our world, and what intractable problems will it solve first?

Michael explains that the current problem is scarcity – and the solution is in design thinking, and learning which problems to prioritize. He and Devin dig into the issue of quantum error correction, which is on its way to being solved. Michael reveals that AWS is so confident, they’ve recently announced a fault-tolerant quantum computer, accessible to users by as early as 2028.

Time Stamps:

1:40 Real world quantum applications

7:16 AWS customers using quantum today

14:09 The first no fault quantum computer

16:25 First quantum use cases

21:55 How cities use quantum

23:15 What’s holding quantum back now

30:11 Lightning round 

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Michael Brett

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin sits down with Emily Vetterick, Director of Product, Program, and Ops at Amazon Industrial Robotics, whose career has taken her from assembling aircraft at Boeing to scaling drone delivery at Prime Air. She now oversees the world's largest fleet of mobile robots, totaling over one million, and shares how Amazon designs for a world where humans and robots share the same physical space.

She walks Devin through the design challenges behind Proteus, Amazon's autonomous mobile robot, from giving it eyes that signal intent to dialing in an acoustic chirp that works for a fleet without sounding like, as a colleague once put it, a bog full of frogs. Along the way, Emily reflects on a career-defining lesson she learned watching mechanics join a 767 at 2am: that the best design insights come from listening to the people actually doing the work.

Time Stamps:

2:09 Lessons from the Boeing night shift

3:37 Customer trust and listening

6:38 Customer-first drone design

8:16 The “beehive ballet”

10:31 Meet Amazon’s mobile robots

13:13 Shreveport facility tour

15:40 Proteus’ human robot signals

24:15 AI for fleet and design

30:37 Lightning round 

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Emily Vetterick

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin sits down with Rob Meyerson, the former president of Blue Origin, to talk about his startup, Interlune, that is on track to harvest resources from the Moon’s surface. Interlune is after one element in particular: Helium-3. It’s extremely rare and valuable on Earth, but plentiful on the Moon. So they partnered with an unlikely collaborator to design a “harvester” that they’re planning to send to the Moon’s surface in the early 2030s.

Rob shares how his team designed creative ways to test their prototype in conditions that mirror the Moon’s environment. He tells Devin about the ways his team is turning science fiction into science fact, and about how Interlune is planning to iterate as they go, allowing them to send missions to the Moon sooner.

1:00 Why helium-3 matters

1:38 The helium-3 supply crunch

2:40 Customers and early demand

4:29 Mining at a lunar scale

5:35 Finding an earth partner

6:48 Designing the harvester

9:13 Prototyping to full scale

12:31 Testing for moon conditions

20:18 Earth return and space economy

26:19 Moon timeline

32:19 Lightning round

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Rob Meyerson

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks with two leaders  at Slate Auto, an EV startup that’s designed a cheap modular pickup truck. Tisha Johnson, Head of Design, and Ben Whitla, Head of Brand and Marketing, join Devin to share the big, gnarly challenges Slate is facing in getting a low-cost, personalizable vehicle to consumers—from design to production.

They tell Devin about the joy and terror of relinquishing design control to their customers, and how they take inspiration from collaborative brands like Lego and Vans. They explain where their two disciplines, vehicle and brand design, inform one another at Slate, leading to a more integrated design approach than either of them expected. Plus, they share their hot takes on why screens in vehicles are totally overrated. 

1:49 Why this kind of modularity hasn’t been seen before

3:43 Their breakthrough in designing the front fascia 

5:51 How brand and vehicle design align

8:58 Designing for customer’s self-expression

11:38 When car owners go wild

14:30 Affordability through minimalism

19:00 Taking the leap on a start-up

23:26 Collaboration vs. AI agents

26:16 Lightning round

A new season is around the corner, celebrating Teague’s 100th anniversary and exploring the future of design. Hit follow to make sure you don’t miss what’s next.
If you have a story to share, drop us a line at [email protected].

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell
Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company.

Get in Touch
Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks with Corey Clothier, a longtime leader in autonomous vehicles. Corey is the co-founder and CEO of ARIBO Autonomous Solutions, where he helps government agencies and private companies deploy autonomous tech in the real world. In this episode, Corey and Devin talk about autonomy as a shift in how systems work. Good design considers not just what machines can do, but also how they fit into the complex realities of human life. The two explore what that looks like when the human element is a family on vacation, an airport manager struggling to hire staff, and a wounded veteran looking for care. Longtime listeners take note: autonomous lawnmowers make another appearance.

1:34 Fort Bragg's wounded warrior problem

2:23 Convincing a two-star general

6:30 Most useful robot for Marines? 

8:53 Vegas says yes to robot shuttles

12:01 "There's no steering wheel!"

13:12 From Johnny Cab to real autonomy

16:35 The curb space conundrum

17:38 Difference makers: the people in charge

18:21 Michigan leading by example

20:32 Evil robots and American pop culture

21:18 Painted forklifts

23:06 Autonomous lawnmowers

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Corey Clothier on LinkedIn

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks with Robert Walker, a senior design leader who recently transitioned from a two-decade career in automotive design into the world of defense. He previously led design for some of Ford and GM’s most iconic vehicles. Now, he’s applying that experience to the radically different challenge of designing tactical vehicles for military use. It’s a dramatic shift – one that raises big questions about how design adapts when the stakes are high. 

1:47 Welcome to the defense industry  

4:01 The designer's ”curse”

5:13 Humvees and backup cameras

8:44 Success redefined – getting soldiers home

11:38 Humans vs machines on the battlefield

13:13 Leading both design and engineering teams

15:18 Prototyping: build first, get permission later 

17:49 Lightening Round

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Robert Walker on LinkedIn

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks with Jen Bucci, VP of Design at Anduril Industries, a defense company specializing in autonomous technology. Jen leads a hands-on creative team that covers everything from industrial and graphic design to film and photography.

Jen shares how her love for James Bond films shaped her approach to design, how branding ties into accountability, and why designing for defense means developing a clear, cohesive design language that touches everything from hardware to typography. It’s a strikingly modern approach in an industry where user experience is often overlooked. Plus, Jen tips her hat to Virgil Abloh — because sometimes the label is the design.

1:22 When missiles get the anime treatment

5:18 Designing for the 18-year-old warfighter

7:26 Virgil Abloh and the art of labeling everything

11:02 If your brand color is blue…

14:35 Function as features: design under constraints

16:42 Respect for the user in high-stakes design

17:49 Hard questions: ethics and transparency

20:33 Inspiration from Minority Report to Cyberpunk

22:35 Lightning round

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Jen Bucci on LinkedIn

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]

Devin speaks with Christina O'Claire, the Mobility Division Director at King County Metro, the public transit agency serving Seattle and the surrounding region. Chris has over 15 years of experience shaping mobility services in communities and championing innovation in the public sector. In this episode, we talk about designing mobility that actually works for people today while laying the groundwork for what comes next. Plus Chris shares how she thinks new modalities and technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, fit into a more connected future.

0:00 Intro

1:22 Microtransit pilot: failure and lessons

04:59 Balancing public and private partnerships

08:27 Role of employer shuttles

12:26 Data privacy in modern transit

14:16 Future technologies and fundamentals

16:43 Disruptors and system gaps

18:53 Lightening round

Links

Devin Liddell on LinkedIn

Christina O’Claire on LinkedIn

Teague

About the Host: Futurist Devin Liddell

Devin Liddell is the Principal Futurist at Teague. With over two decades of experience in innovation and design strategy, Devin has worked with industry giants like Boeing, Intel, and Nike, helping organizations anticipate changes across both near- and far-term horizons to create their preferred futures. Devin is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. 

Get in Touch 

Have a complex problem that needs solving? Have a great guest or topic idea? We want to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at [email protected]