Everything is a Prototype: The DMBA Podcast

From Fashion Forecasting to Futures Thinking: Laura Ogle on Curiosity, Design Strategy & More Fun at Work.In this special episode, featuring DMBA alums Anita Chordia and Laura Ogle from the live webinar series “Where Are They Now?”, Laura shares her path from studying fashion and designing at Athleta for eight years to becoming lead design strategist at Whipsaw, where she works across industrial design, strategy, UX/UI, and brand to create cohesive physical-digital experiences.

The conversation highlights design strategy as an inclusive toolkit, the importance of curiosity, shared language, and communication frameworks, and Laura’s belief that work (and life) needs more fun—using constraints and guardrails to create freedom.

Laura discusses myths about design thinking “not working,” her approach to futures thinking (inspired by the Institute for the Future), and her concept of voting on ideas rather than people. She describes People on a Mission and their San Francisco newsstand project “Disposable Culture,” where passersby trade spontaneous art for a newspaper, then see their work turned into posters around the city.

In rapid-fire hot takes, Laura emphasizes “you win, or you learn,” strategy as creative work, and the future as something designed rather than predicted.

Student Q&A covers how DMBA courses transfer to real work (including communication tools from Live EC), roles DMBA graduates pursue, differences from traditional MBAs, what to highlight on resumes, and examples of integrated work, such as Whipsaw’s ReefTrack underwater navigation product.

Laura also reflects on being laid off and unemployed for a year, using daily LinkedIn posts to demonstrate her thinking, and ends with a provocation: decide what you want to make—and do it without waiting for permission.00:00 Welcome to the DMBA Podcast + Today’s Alumni Takeover01:30 Meet Laura Ogle: From Fashion to Design Strategy04:07 Why Design Strategy: Curiosity, Toolkits, and a Shared Vocabulary06:58 We Need More Fun at Work: Curiosity, Reframing, and Guardrails09:52 Design Strategy Myths: “We Tried Design Thinking and It Didn’t Work”11:31 Futures Thinking in Practice: Agency, Big Visions, and Daily Use13:41 People on a Mission: Playful Futures + The Disposable Culture Newsstand17:57 Hot Takes (Rapid Fire): Winning vs Learning, Strategy as Creativity, Designing the Future21:41 DMBA Lessons Learned: Follow Curiosity + Quilters vs Questers24:24 Defining Success + The Layoff Year: Finding Fulfillment and Rebuilding28:08 Reframing the Job Search: LinkedIn as a Daily Thinking Practice29:13 Sharing Your Thinking: From Cringe to Self‑Starter Signal31:39 What’s Lighting You Up Now: Futures Report & Tech in the Home32:50 Designing with Hope & Delight: Inside the Futures Report Process33:57 Audience Prompt + Q&A Kickoff: Curiosity, Frameworks, and Real-World Transfer37:04 When Physical + Digital + Brand Click: ReefTrack Case Study40:47 Future-Thinking Prompts: “What Do You Want to Feel?”41:42 DMBA Career Paths: The Strategist as Translator (and Active Listener)45:19 DMBA vs Traditional MBA: How to Position Yourself Authentically50:06 Impact of the Futures Report: Building an Internal Capability52:31 Leading Creative Teams: Matching Strengths Through Listening54:17 Final Provocation: What Do You Want to Make?55:28 Closing Thanks + What’s Next in the Webinar Series

What if reupholstering a chair could cut your carbon footprint by 80%? In this episode of Everything Is a Prototype, Kriss Kokoefer, founder of 2080 Reuse, shares how she’s building a whole new category at the intersection of circular economy, commercial interiors, and design-led innovation...with help from DMBA students and alumni.

Kriss opens up about pivoting careers, launching (and selling) a century-old upholstery business, and her mission to make reuse the easy button for businesses. We talk about building trust, embracing uncertainty, and why good project management might just be the secret weapon for sustainability.

This is one for the builders, designers, and anyone curious about how to scale impact through systems, not just products.

 THE FUTURE OF THINGS: AI as a new material for Design. 

On Saturday, Apr 5, chairs from the Design Division at CCA co-moderated an insightful panel discussion that explored the transformative role of design in shaping the future of products, services, and systems enabled by generative, agentic, and distributed physical AI. Moving beyond the conventional focus on AI as a set of tools for designing, our expert panelists discussed how designers can reimagine and craft the next generation of "things"—from rethinking transportation and healthcare to reinventing how we cook, shop, communicate, entertain, and/or safeguard our communities from natural disasters. This conversation highlighted design’s power to envision future lifestyles, steer technological evolution, and generate lasting value for communities and our planet.

Panelists:

Lauren Bedal / ArchetypeAI - Design, Product Lead

Tim Belonax / Anthropic - Brand

TJ McLeish / CCA MDes Faculty + AI Expert

Karl Willis / Autodesk - Senior Research Manager

Moderators:

Justin Lokitz, DMBA and Elena Pacenti, MDes

In this episode, we break down innovation to its very core with Rio Cruz Morales, a DMBA, multi-time startup founder, and Senior Product Manager of AI Foundations @ Velocity Black.

Rio is a product and innovation expert, who created the Product Experimentation Method and framework to help others do what they do. And...what's so cool about Rio, is they found the DMBA by happenstance. In a word, Rio is awesome!

In this episode, we get deep into the startup space with AK Raja, a DMBA alum and former EY Design Strategist, and JJ Velez, a former software engineer from Apple. This dynamic duo is working on Lawgical, a tech startup focused on helping law firms (and companies) streamline their immigration paperwork. Check them out here: https://lawgical.app/

This entire episode is one big prototype. Rather than talk to real humans, we’ve asked Google’s NotebookLM tool to create a discussion around the value of the DMBA. I think the insights are pretty spot on. What do you think? 

In this episode, we dive deep into design strategy with Izzy Shu, Dave Korstad, and Tony Jimenez, the DMBA alumni behind the amazing alternative milk brand JOI. Enjoy!

Hi, welcome to Everything Is a Prototype, The DMBA podcast, where we talk all things design strategy…and prototypes. In this episode, Jinney Kho, a former interior architect and recent DMBA grad, talks about her journey and how she has designed a new path as a design strategist and startup founder. Enjoy! 

Hi, welcome to Everything Is a Prototype, The DMBA podcast, where we talk all things design strategy…and prototypes. In this episode, Jo Marini, a DMBA alum, professor, and kickass entrepreneur, discusses her amazing new company Mothership Materials, and how she plans on saving the world. Enjoy!

In this exciting episode, Kirsten, Michelle, Bhumika, and Julia, current DMBA students (C15s), discuss how the DMBA is helping them to design their next lives and careers and why they decided to co-create the first ever Career Design Club within the DMBA…which helps other DMBA students design their own next thing. Enjoy!