Don Norman was the founding Director of The Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego; is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group; a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and former VP of Apple.

His latest work expands the notion of being human centered to consider the impact upon the environment, upon all cultures, and upon quality of life—Humanity centered.

This is explained in his latest book "Design for a Better world: Meaningful, sustainable, humanity centered." His most popular introduction to design was through his book — The Design of Everyday Things.

Don Norman is now busily engaged in his 5th retirement, busy helping run his charity, the Don Norman Design Award and Summit.In this episode we discuss what he got wrong about human-centered design, how designers should shift from being colonizers to helpers, principles from Apple for design practitioners & consultants, and how designers can change the world.

Don's website

Don Norman Design Award

Design for a Better World

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Rachel Gogel (she/her) is a Parisian creative director, speaker, mentor, and educator. She runs her own consultancy as a fractional design executive. She’s led major brand initiatives at GQ, The New York Times, Meta, Godfrey Dadich, Airbnb, and Dropbox.

As a solopreneur, Rachel has been launching editorial publications from scratch, leading org design efforts, designing TV show pitch decks, and building brand systems for global media and entertainment companies.

Rachel teaches in the Master’s of Interaction Design program at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and runs the Women in Leadership & Design (WILD) initiative as Chair and AIGA SF Board Member. 

She has been recognized by Inc. as one of 2016’s “30 under 30 Movers and Shakers” and by Forbes as one of 2015’s “30 under 30" in media.

In this episode, we talk about the moments in time you decide you go on on your own, why the term “fractional” resonated with Rachel, why relationships are the best way to get clients, the benefits of tracking your time, how to speak at conferences, and insights on building your personal brand.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelgogel/

rachelgogel.com

John Paul Alcala is a Fractional Solutions Architect and Chief Technology Officer who has managed over PHP 2 Billion of cloud budget in the Philippines. Recently, he was a Partner Solutions Architect for ASEAN at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Before that, he was an Associate Vice President, Head of Infrastructure and Special Projects at GCash.

A builder at heart, he is passionate about making people’s lives simpler with technology and has been helping customers solve some of the most challenging problems for over 20 years.

When not assisting customers, JP can be found at home, either sipping a good cup of coffee, tinkering with IoT projects, or building crazy contraptions in Minecraft.  

In this episode, we talk about pillars that make a great software architect; solutions architecture pitfalls in startup vs corporate environments; obsessing over what the customer needs; and how to solve problems through listening.

JP's LinkedIn

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David Fallarme is the VP of Marketing at Owner.com. At the time of recording, he was a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing Advisor for Series A and B startups.

He's built and led marketing teams at companies big and small, from public companies like HubSpot and Electronic Arts to venture-backed startups like On Deck, ReferralCandy, and App Annie.

David has seen versions of the "growth movie" a few times, having driven growth & acquisition for products with millions of users, leading regional marketing teams, and working with founders at growth-stage startups.

In this episode, we talk about growth marketing advice for Series A and B founders; playing games of mastery and learning; what it takes to be a fractional CMO and marketer; and how to really build community.

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⁠(00:00)⁠ Trailer 

⁠(00:19)⁠ Fractional Intro ⁠

(01:30)⁠ David’s introduction 

⁠(03:04⁠) What Fractional marketers get wrong ⁠

(04:59)⁠ Equation of Career Progression 

⁠(05:27)⁠ Playing the game as a Fractional CMO 

⁠(06:33)⁠ Working on mastery and learning 

⁠(09:15)⁠ 6 games you can play in your life 

⁠(11:39⁠) Introspection and choosing your path 

⁠(13:48⁠) Shifting to a business mindset in marketing ⁠

(15:44⁠) Working as VP marketing at SpotDraft ⁠

(16:55⁠) Common mistakes in marketing strategy ⁠

(18:44⁠) Learning from similar business models 

⁠(19:44⁠) Navigating changes on On Deck 

⁠(22:31⁠) Building marketing communities in APAC 

⁠(25:57⁠) Pain points as a Fractional CMO 

⁠(27:06⁠) David’s tech stack ⁠

(27:29⁠) Crafting service menus for clients 

⁠(31:25⁠) Final advice for fractional marketers

Andrei Gonzales, is a multi-disciplinary design mentor, human-centered design evangelist, and current Senior Manager for Service and Experience Design for Deloitte Digital Canberra.

He has 20 years of professional experience in the digital industry across design, consulting, and digital innovation. 

He held roles as an Experience Architect, Manager, and Designer at Salesforce, Fjord, BCG Digital Ventures, and the billion dollar start-up: InVision App.

In this episode, we talk about building trust with clients as a consultant, using workshops for workshops to uncover client dynamics, pricing your work, and treating every bid as a high risk assumption.

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Joshua Arvin Lat is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of NuWorks Interactive Labs, Inc. He is also an AWS Machine Learning Hero and he has been an international speaker on machine learning, engineering, security, and management. 

He’s the author of three books — “Machine Learning with Amazon SageMaker Cookbook," "Machine Learning Engineering on AWS," and "Building and Automating Penetration Testing Labs in the Cloud." He’s also an AI Hive leader on Swarm.

In this episode, we talk about how he got to write multiple books, leading as a CTO in large organizations, and how to execute digital and AI transformations with technology.

(00:00) Trailer

(00:16) Fractional Intro

(01:04) Arvs Introduction

(02:16) Books written

(03:39) Writing journey for Sagemaker

(07:40) Machine learning engineering on AWS

(11:49) AI and security

(17:42) Leading as a CTO

(19:05) Utilizing tech to solve real business requirements

(20:35) Using Sagemaker for custom AI solutions

(21:45) Adapting to the AI Landscape

(22:24) Prioritizing initiatives across problem areas

(24:02) Using AI the right way

(25:02) Listening and Understanding The Problem

(27:59) What to focus on and specialize on as a CTO

(29:53) Giving a buffer to solve challenges yourself

(32:34) Hive leader advice

Tim Santos is the Director of Product for AI Cloud Solutions at Graphcore, He leads the product strategy and vision for enabling developers, plus AI & ML software organisations to build and deploy cutting-edge AI models in production. Tim also leads the AI Hive on Swarm. With over 13 years of experience in data science, AI, and MLOps, Tim has a strong background and passion for delivering impactful and scalable AI products and services that solve real-world problems and create value for customers and stakeholders.

In this episode, we talk about understanding your business problem before building AI solutions, turning to the open source community for help, and building teams in the lens of the data science triangle.

(00:00) Trailer

(00:22) Fractional Intro

(01:38) Tim's Introduction

(02:56) Considerations for using AI as a founder and corporate innovator

(04:41) Starting with the problem

(05:31) Finding pain points

(06:15) Following the hype

(07:06) Foundational models

(7:39) Executive buy-in and experiments

(08:39) Building success stories with small wins

(09:49) Doing research when you're new

(10:27) The open source community

(11:11) Why get help from community

(12:01) Examples and use cases in healthcare

(13:07) Getting strategists and advisers

(13:48) Building teams with the data science triangle

(15:18) Hiring AI consultancy teams

(16:50) Final advice for founders and corporate innovators

Grace Walker is an independent web designer and Webflow developer building marketing sites that are visually stunning and technically sound. She has launched over 90 marketing sites in Webflow and has become a client favorite not only for her designs, but also her organization and project management. Her deep understanding of Webflow allows her to create custom solutions that are tailored to the unique needs of each of her clients, and her commitment to delivering high-quality work has earned her a reputation as a trusted and reliable designer and developer.

00:00 - Set goals and be patient

01:03 - Who is Grace?

02:14 - Grace's journey as a fractional worker

03:39 - Choosing the quality of your clients

04:50 - What she looks for in clients

06:42 - Grace's favorite client

08:10 - How to evaluate the impact of your work

11:57 - Alexis' positive feedback

13:56 - Finding the right tools

15:29 - "Every new project I do is the best"

17:34 - Personal taste + Industry appropriate

18:20 - Tips for increasing income

20:20 - PATIENCE (our fave part!)

22:14 - Working hard vs. Burning out

25:07 - Grace's hobbies :)

28:20 - Can working less be a goal?

30:18 - Webflow vs. Framer

32:26 - Designers that mentored Grace

34:34 - Grace's advice to fractional workers

Matthias Cordes is a Web Designer and Webflow Developer. He runs his own freelance business and creates high converting websites for fast growing technology startups. Matthias had his first freelance “gig” as a designer after highschool and while traveling around Australia and Bali. After graduating with a degree in Creative Technology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, he pursued his passion by working on his agency full-time. Now, he supports tech companies as a team of one, with a specialty in Webflow development.

In this episode, we talk about becoming a specialist in Webflow design and development, building trust and reputation as a freelancer, writing his case studies together with a copywriter, his design collaboration process with clients, ChatGPT for web development tasks, and so much more.

00:00 - LinkedIn videos

01:48 - Going freelance straight out of university

02:45 - Deciding to build a freelance career

05:17 - Client RED FLAGS

08:45 - Becoming a Webflow professional partner

11:41 - Results > Credentials

13:02 - Recent project + cool tricks

15:48 - Why his case studies are so good

18:15 - Basecamp for managing projects

22:00 - What clients did Mattias start with?

24:10 - "find a real job at a real company"

25:43 - The agency he started

28:11 - Professional video set up

29:48 - Video marketing for his freelance practice

31:41 - Web development vs. web design projects

34:54 - cheese with holes

36:14 - Switching from Sketch to Figma

38:00 - The adrenaline from collaboration

39:11 - What do you do when you get stuck?

40:17 - Using ChatGPT to build websites

42:21 - Coding as a non-coder

43:45 - Matthias' piece of advice

Lex Roman empowers early stage solopreneurs to find their clients without playing Google and Instagram’s games. A former Silicon Valley growth designer turned small biz growth marketer, Lex has been crafting winning conversion strategies for companies like Nissan, Macys, Gusto and The Black Tux since 2010. She popularized the term “growth design” and built a community of over 2k practitioners that’s still expanding called Growth Designers. Her work has been featured in MarTech, Monocle, KCRW, the LA Design Festival, the LA Times and Good Makers and she’s spoken at conferences around the world.

Now, she’s on a mission to help solopreneurs get seen and get sales without being beholden to big tech. With her company Super Easy Digital, Lex supports small business owners with her signature marketing experimentation program Growthtrackers. Check out Lex’s referral toolkit!

In this episode of Fractional, we talk about applying growth design to fractional work, capturing high quality leads, creating valuable referral systems, and building a trusted network whether online or offline.

00:00 This makes your business weaker

02:10 Who is Lex?

02:49 What is a growth designer?

04:10 Are all designers growth designers?

05:00 What most designers struggle with

06:25 How Lex got passionate for small business owners

08:17 Lex's evolution

11:10 The difference with small business owners

12:33 How Lex found her own leads

15:44 Upwork is exploitative

18:24 What worked best for Lex that aligns with her values?

19:37 How do you build good business relationships?

22:07 Why Lex is a referral queen

23:45 Amber!!!!!!!

24:40 Friends of Super Easy

25:55 The biggest blocker for fractional talent

26:50 So what's the solution?

29:02 The other solution

29:58 Lex and community networking

33:50 How Lex applied her own advice

35:30 Networking is not a quantity game

37:20 Used car salesman tactics

38:55 Lex's advice for fractional workers

Swarm just released the the referrals leaderboard⁠⁠! Check out our thoughts about healthy competition.