Stephen Gates started his design education when he was two years old, setting type with his dad on a 700-pound cast iron letterpress in the basement. At the age of 12, he was introduced to the agency world, then moved in-house a time or two before arriving at his present gig as the Head Design Evangelist at InVision.

An international keynote speaker and host of The Crazy One podcast, Stephen points to the attacks on the World Trade Center as a defining point in his career. At the time he was working on creative for American Airlines.

On September 12th, Stephen’s world view had shifted. Design was no longer about making things look better. It was a way to heal a company. Today, Stephen sees many organizations struggling to find good form in dysfunction. As Stephen says, “Teams aren't struggling with the ability to do better-looking work. What they're struggling with is they're dealing with everything that surrounds that work.”

Tune in to hear Stephen’s thoughts on unspoken truths, design commoditization and the trouble with comparing our insides to others’ outsides.

Can code be cool, and appeal to a wider audience—even elementary students in underrepresented communities? Absolutely, according to Armando Somoza and Chenits Pettigrew. As co-founders of CodeScty, they’re out to change computer science training as we know it, teaching complex concepts and curriculum through original hip hop music and videos.

So why hip hop? In their view, if a student can’t learn in the way that you teach, you have to teach in a way that a student can learn. And that means transforming learning and standards into a vocabulary and a culture that resonates with young people. Armando and Chenits join us to talk about CodeScty and their quest to develop not just coders, but true innovators who can impact our world and our societies in constructive and positive ways.

A few weeks back, we posed the following question to 100+ design leaders, “What are the biggest challenges facing design leadership?” A flood of responses came flying back, citing everything from recruiting to utilization, growth, imposter syndrome, remote work and more. But one respondent had a different take: none of these challenges should really be challenges if we start looking at things a different way.

Is it that simple? Could a change in perspective truly unlock our design leadership woes and shape the future of design? Tune in to hear Chris Wilkinson, Director of Product Design at Devbridge Group, talk about a shift in mindset, and ways we can help prepare the next generation of design leaders.

Imagine a world where you know who’s working on what, how much is coming in and how much you need to close. Where your nights and weekends are your own, and you don’t keep losing money because you’re awful at pricing or can’t seem to hone in on problems to fix them.

Rob Harr, Vice President of Sparkbox, lives in that world, alongside Judy Grunden, Managing Member of Summit CPA and Summit CPA’s clients. Over the years, Rob and Jody have tamed the dark arts of forecasting, putting their unique spin on things and also combining forces to help digital shops, large and small.

Forecasting may seem complex, confusing and largely unattainable. But with the right guidance, it’s within reach. Rob and Jody join us to share their perspectives on forecasting, understanding capacity and determining a systematic approach to operations and your finances.

Time. What would you do if you had more of it? Take a trip, visit with family and friends, pick up a new hobby or maybe, just maybe…do nothing at all?

After working as the VP of Design at Etsy and Head of Design at Artsy, Randy J. Hunt recently completed, as he calls it, “a big, deep, multi-month breath.” Taking time for personal projects, reading, reflection and life’s little things, Randy is now in Singapore, working on a super app called Grab.

Tune in to hear about Randy’s journey to product design, Etsy (when it had no designers) and four levels of learning gained through authoring his book, Product Design for the Web. Then we’re off to Singapore for a look at a huge, complex project, and the best place to start when you want to make the best use of everyone’s time.

In the ‘90s, Bill Barbot was part of the alternative rock band Jawbox. On the road over 200 days a year and signed to a major record label, they spent almost a decade fighting to make a difference through their music. When Jawbox broke up in 1997, Bill went on to play in other bands and eventually co-founded Threespot, a successful digital agency focused on helping companies who help others.

Fast forward 25 years and the previous members of Jawbox approach Bill about getting back together. He’s got a full-time job running Threespot and is busy as a dedicated dad and husband in a growing family. So he did the only thing he could. He said yes to the reunion. Bill joins us to talk about his decision and the importance of putting your passion into everything you do.

Dean Schuster is a big-picture guy. Vision, high-level solutions, blue skies, those things come easily to Dean. Details, not so much. A self-proclaimed “reluctant detailed guy,” Dean is Founder and Partner at truematter. Truematter is a UX consultancy that helps create digital products including apps, websites and wearable software.

As Dean says, you can’t let a big-picture person loose in a project management scenario and

expect good things to happen. Unless you have some processes in place. Dean joins us to talk about project management at Truematter, the qualities they look for in a DPM and how managing client relationships is really about setting up processes to rein yourself in.

You’ve got your process. Ironed out. Ironclad. Agile, scrum, Kanban, waterfall…it’s working. But then you get this new project, or new team members or new stakeholders, and suddenly your project management approach starts to break down. What is happening?

Anita Sagar, Agile Consultant at Enterprise Knowledge, has a simple explanation: not all situations or challenges are created equal. So no single process will fit all contexts. As Anita says, the context of a federal organization, a commercial one, a tech giant, startup or nonprofit—it’s all different. One organization may need Agile, whereas the solution for another may be scrum or Kanban. Or…dare we say it, waterfall. That’s right, Waterfall with a capital W.

So how does a DPM or organization truly understand context and visualize different solutions before diving into the wrong approach? Anita joins us to talk about the Cynefin framework, and how to use it to place yourself in the right scenario and right project management approach to achieve optimal results.

The workforce is changing, that is a fact. Debt-free college, twenty-some-year tenures, gold watches, solid retirement plans, even job stability…Largely, these things are relics of the past.

As humans, we all have different dreams and needs. Generationally, though, we share similar characteristics. Rightfully so. Every generation experiences a different culture, economic reality, social forces and so on. Inevitably, these different experiences can cause conflict when we’re all working together.

Dr. Sidjae Price, CEO at Priceless Planning and Founder of Speak Loud Inc., is in the business of organizational conflict. She helps organizations sort out issues, to build a better workforce and future. As Dr. Price points out, every generation has a stereotype. But we all share a desire to be human, to be treated as we would treat others. Dr. Price joins us to talk about generational pressures, organizational conflict and how we can make our businesses better.

Like many digital companies, SUMO Heavy Industries knows no bounds. The eCommerce consulting firm began with two people working out of a spare room in an apartment in Philly. They moved to New York, bounced around WeWorks and are now back in Philly again. This time, with their own dedicated office space.

So how much does the decision of a physical location impact a business? With people working out of New York and Poland, SUMO Heavy isn’t limited to zip codes or timezones. As Bart Mroz, CEO of SUMO Heavy, says, “Live where you want to live.” Bart joins us to talk about making seven or eight moves in nine years, how remote thinking can help onsite teams and how moving can actually be kind of fun.