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Perspectives from industry leaders on the future of innovation and design.

Interviews, field notes and guides from the people building tomorrow’s digital experiences — published between the editions.

Digital Innovators — the quote wall

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While AI can read a deck, a doc, a website, your emails… it can’t read the room. AI is a tool, just like the internet was a tool. It may augment us, but it can never replace us.

Kara Fitzpatrick

Director of Experience Design, Obama White House

As AI becomes more capable and generates more machine output, human originality becomes a scarce resource. We need to protect and foster the conditions where humans can continue to create original ideas.

Stephanie Mencarelli

VP of Design, Document Cloud, Adobe

Embracing the AI transformation is incredibly exciting because the book on how we design for it isn’t finished yet — we’re the ones actively writing the chapters.

Brandon Burlington

Staff UX Designer, Google

I believe the Experience Economy is reshaping how brands compete: digital experiences are no longer a layer on top of the business — they are the business.

Ann Kostopanagiotou

Managing Director, Mondo Robot

When AI can act on your brand’s behalf, the question shifts from what can we build, to what should it stand for? Trust is the new design challenge, and strategy is the instruction layer that earns it.

Chuck Wells

Group Strategy Director, Brand & Content, Fantasy

Design is shifting from creating standalone artifacts to architecting systems that amplify human capability and solve real problems.

Raul Justiniano

Senior Director of Design

I think the future of design is less about the tools we use and more about the systems we build to keep AI-assisted work consistent, coherent and human at scale.

Jonathan Ruiz

Sr. Manager, Product Design, Docusign

AI is changing the way we create, but I believe the future of creativity is still human. The most valuable skill will be knowing how to use new technology without losing your own ideas, vision and point of view.

Anastasiia Leliakova

Founder & Creative Director, Vegas Creative

For me, good design has always been about staying close to real people and genuinely enjoying the process of solving problems for them. I think the future of innovation is about embracing speed without losing either one.

Lauren Hughes

Lead Product Designer, Dscout

Innovation is a discipline every leader has to build muscle for, especially when it translates into differentiated experiences that stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Aimee Schier

VP, Global Experience Design

While AI can read a deck, a doc, a website, your emails… it can’t read the room. AI is a tool, just like the internet was a tool. It may augment us, but it can never replace us.

Kara Fitzpatrick

Director of Experience Design, Obama White House

As AI becomes more capable and generates more machine output, human originality becomes a scarce resource. We need to protect and foster the conditions where humans can continue to create original ideas.

Stephanie Mencarelli

VP of Design, Document Cloud, Adobe

Embracing the AI transformation is incredibly exciting because the book on how we design for it isn’t finished yet — we’re the ones actively writing the chapters.

Brandon Burlington

Staff UX Designer, Google

I believe the Experience Economy is reshaping how brands compete: digital experiences are no longer a layer on top of the business — they are the business.

Ann Kostopanagiotou

Managing Director, Mondo Robot

When AI can act on your brand’s behalf, the question shifts from what can we build, to what should it stand for? Trust is the new design challenge, and strategy is the instruction layer that earns it.

Chuck Wells

Group Strategy Director, Brand & Content, Fantasy

Design is shifting from creating standalone artifacts to architecting systems that amplify human capability and solve real problems.

Raul Justiniano

Senior Director of Design

I think the future of design is less about the tools we use and more about the systems we build to keep AI-assisted work consistent, coherent and human at scale.

Jonathan Ruiz

Sr. Manager, Product Design, Docusign

AI is changing the way we create, but I believe the future of creativity is still human. The most valuable skill will be knowing how to use new technology without losing your own ideas, vision and point of view.

Anastasiia Leliakova

Founder & Creative Director, Vegas Creative

For me, good design has always been about staying close to real people and genuinely enjoying the process of solving problems for them. I think the future of innovation is about embracing speed without losing either one.

Lauren Hughes

Lead Product Designer, Dscout

Innovation is a discipline every leader has to build muscle for, especially when it translates into differentiated experiences that stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Aimee Schier

VP, Global Experience Design

Field notes

DDX NYC Recap: The Future of Design Is Not AI-First. It Is Judgment-First.

At DDX New York, leaders from Bloomberg, Google, OpenAI, Amazon, Dropbox, Fable, Dscout, Walmart Global Tech and more explored what the future of design really demands: not more AI-first thinking, but better human judgment.

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Essay

Theme 2026/27: The Inflection Point: Why the Choices We Make Now Define the Future of Design, Business, and Humanity

“ The inflection isn’t really about AI… it’s about us (as designers, as human beings). It’s about imagination of our collective future. When the cost of building digital products drops to near zero, critical…

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City guide

NYC Guide: Things to Explore in New York

Things to Explore in NYC During DDX NYC 2026

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Interview

Isao Toyama: Beyond Human-Centered Design

Isao Toyama UX Ops This article was written by Isao Toyama , reflecting on why design responsibility must go beyond the user, especially in the age of AI. We’re sharing this perspective to highlight the…

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Interview

Martin Naithani - We Domesticated Wolves Into Dogs. Now AI Is Doing the Same to Us?

In this article, we delve into Martin’s views on cognitive domestication, the hidden costs of AI dependency, and why preserving human agency is the ultimate edge for innovators—all vital perspectives in the…

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City guide

Design Guide: Things to Explore in Munich

Things to Explore in Munich During Munich 2026

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Field notes

Inside DDX New York: A Reflection by Marcel Mcvay

This article was written by Marcel Mcvay , an attendee of DDX New York , reflecting on the signals, tensions, and systems shaping UX and design in the age of AI. We’re sharing this perspective to highlight…

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Field notes

Inside DDX San Diego: A Reflection by Marcel Mcvay

This article was written by Marcel Mcvay , an attendee of DDX San Diego , reflecting on the systems, signals, and cultural shifts shaping UX and design in the age of AI. We’re sharing this perspective to…

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Interview

Khai Seng Hong – Designing for Complexity & Humanity-Centered Impact

The Don Norman Design Award highlights design that is responsible, human-centered, and focused on solving real problems. In connection with this year’s award and Summit, we spoke with Khai Seng Hong about…

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News

DDX x Doers Summit: Strategic Partnership with Dubai Silicon Oasis

We’re excited to announce that DDX will join forces with the Doers Summit and our strategic partner Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) for a special collaboration during the Doers Summit Dubai, taking place November…

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City guide

Design Guide: Things to Explore in Dubai

Things to Explore in Dubai During DDX 2026

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City guide

Design Guide: Things to Explore in Tokyo

Things to Explore in Tokyo During DDX 2026

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News

DDX & GxP - Strategic Partnership

GxP and DDX are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to co-host a landmark conference on February 4, 2025, in Tokyo , for around 250 attendees, alongside an exclusive leadership event on February 3,…

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Interview

Jasmine Oh - Designing the Future: Innovation, Simplicity & Ethics

In this article, we delve into Jasmine’s views on digital innovation, responsible design for youth, and the evolving role of artificial intelligence, all vital in the rapidly changing landscape of UX/UI design…

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Interview

Misti Cain - Unlocking the Future of Digital Innovation

In an era defined by rapid change and constant disruption, innovation is no longer optional. It's essential. But what does it really take to innovate in ways that last? Misti Cain, Venture Partner at Techstars…

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News

DDX Dubai: Celebrating Excellence in Digital Innovation

The DDX Awards are more than just a recognition—they are a celebration of creativity, innovation, and digital brilliance. As part of the DDX Conference , these awards shine a spotlight on the agencies that are…

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News

DDX Awards: Celebrating the Brightest Talents in Digital Innovation

The DDX Awards honor the individuals whose creativity, technical expertise, and problem-solving skills are shaping the future of digital experiences. These talents are innovators, disruptors, and visionaries…

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News

DDX & Startup World Cup Dubai: A Showcase of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Startup World Cup Dubai, held as part of the DDX Conference, was a thrilling highlight of the event, bringing together some of the most promising startups from across the region to pitch their ideas in…

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Interview

Leopold Ajami - Embracing Foundational Skills in Digital Innovation

Leopold Ajami Chief Influence Officer | Speaking, Training, Coaching & Consulting at Novel Philosophy Academy

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Interview

Jennifer Kaiser-Steiner - Enable New Ventures to Succeed

Jennifer Kaiser-Steiner Head of Learning & Exchange Center at UnternehmerTUM

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Interview

Wolfgang Bremer — Design Leadership, Mobility & Pushing New ideas.

In the episode, together with Wolfgang we talk about what designers need to learn in order to become great design leaders, which kind of skills they need. And how do you push forward design ideas or innovation ideas within an organization and create a win-win between different stakeholders?

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Interview

Sheng-Hung Lee — Empowering people through service design.

In this episode #79, we explore the dynamic relationship between design as a creative discipline and the systems and tools that shape this creativity, for better or for worse. Together with Sheng-Hung Lee we delve into the importance of customizing design processes to allow designers to focus on the

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Interview

Mustafa Kurtuldu — How tools & systems influence design.

Mustafa is a Staff Product Designer at Twitter working on design systems. Previously, he was UX lead on install-ability on Chrome and Design Advocate at Google. His work involves bridging the mobile and desktop PWA Eng through cross-platform designs.

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Interview

Lindsey Mosby — Better healthcare experiences

In Designdrives Episode 76, we talked about healthcare experiences with Lindsey Mosby, who is a partner in Prophet's Austin office, specializing in healthcare transformation and innovation.

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Interview

James Martin — Designing outstanding brands.

In Episode 75, we talked about brand design with James Martin, who is the founder of Made By James and Co-Founder of BabyGiant Design Co., a brand-focused and design-led creative agency in the UK.

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Interview

Liliia Mandrino — UX:UI Design for Gaming.

In Episode 74, we talked about game design with Liliia Mandrino, UX Director at EA Sports.

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Interview

Paul Lafata - From designer to business leader

We had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Lafata , VP of product management at Heal and former CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA/Lab1886 Daimler's USA , in this episode.

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Interview

Jan-Erik Baars - Why design is business-critical

Currently, Jan-Erik is head of the CAS in Design Management at the University of Applied Science in Lucerne, Switzerland.

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Interview

Teslim Alabi - The power of thinking differently

In EP71, as inspirational as it was, we had a great time hosting Teslim Alabi , who serves as a Product Design Lead at Netflix , the leading streaming entertainment service in the world with 200+ million paid…

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Interview

Dogan Sekercioglu - Accelerate innovation by materializing ideas

In this episode, we chat with Dogan Sekercioglu , who is a former Industrial Design Lead from IDEO and currently works on future robotic and medical designs at Intuitive in California.

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Interview

Hussain Almossawi - How CGI is changing design

In this episode, we learn from Hussain Almossawi on how advanced CGI is changing design forever, and blurs the digital and physical world.

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Interview

Samuel Northway - Empowering and managing design teams

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Samuel Northway, Head of Product Design at Mason .

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Interview

Scott Robinson - The Future of Human-Centred Design

In this episode, we had the pleasure to chat with Scott Robinson , Founder and CEO of FreshForm . A customer and UX agency based in San Diego.

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Interview

Karel J. Golta - Designing for a circular future

Circular design, by bringing the subject of resources to the forefront, also creates an opportunity to integrate increasingly more important strategic dimensions in an ever-changing world.

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Interview

Dan LaCivita - The future of mobile-first design

What if it were possible to design and build a mobile product all on your phone — and what if it were a better way of working? As designers, we are used to designing on our computer - which is often not the…

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Interview

Michael Janda - How to grow your design business

So you are planning to launch your own creative business or you’ve already launched, and you’re starting to grow.

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Interview

Kadambari Sahu - Driving new sensing experiences

We are super excited to launch another episode of Designdrives where we explore why, how, and what design drives forward.

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Interview

Darshan Gajara - Driving digital design resources, education, inspiration

We are super excited to kick off 2022 with a fresh episode of Designdrives.

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Interview

Josh Clark - Driving digital AI product experiences

We are thrilled to launch our EP61 featuring Josh Clark founder of Big Medium in New York.

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Interview

Brittany Arthur - Driving innovation cultures through facilitation

We are excited to announce our EP60 featuring Brittany Arthur , Co-founder & Director of Design Thinking Japan & Business Karaoke Podcast.

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Interview

Fabrice Pöhlmann - Driving behavior design and gamification

We are thrilled to announce our EP59 featuring Fabrice Pöhlmann , Founder and CEO at HelloDesign With Fabrice , talk about why, how, and what to focus on behavior design principles and how he's now…

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Interview

Bob Baxley - Driving UX Leadership at Apple, ThoughtSpot, Pinterest and more

We are thrilled to launch EP58 with Bob Baxley , Senior Vice-President of Design at ThoughtSpot .

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Interview

Catherine Nygaard - Driving UX/UI for billion+ users

We are very excited to launch EP57 with Catherine Nygaard , Design Director wat WhatsApp and former Director at Airbnb and Spotify . With Catherine, we explore how to grow design teams, foster creativity in…

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Interview

Margot Bloomstein - Driving Content Strategy

In EP56 we have the chance to learn from Margot Bloomstein , author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap (2021) and Content Strategy at Work (2012) .

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Interview

Jaime Levy - Driving UX Strategy

Very excited to launch our 55th episode featuring Jaime Levy an American author, lecturer, interface designer, and user experience strategist.

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Interview

Philipp Steiner - Driving industries with future thinking

In EP54 we have the chance to learn from Philipp Steiner a Design Leader, former Executive Director at IDEO, and Senior Director at Teague.

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Interview

Dr. Elizabeth Churchill — Google

In EP53 we interviewed Elizabeth Churchill a Director of User Experience at Google, the Executive Vice President of the Association of Computing Machinery.

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Interview

Phil Balagtas — Driving speculative futures

In episode 48 I had the absolute pleasure to catch up and learn from Phil Balagtas. Phil Balagtas is an Experience Design Director at McKinsey & Co. in San Francisco, CA. He is also the founder of The Design Futures Initiative (DFI) that focuses on speculative design.

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Interview

Bilgi Karan — Driving future hybrid design experiences

In episode 47 I had the absolute pleasure to catch up and learn again from Bilgi Karan - UX Manager at Inter IKEA Group - working on Smart Home experiences. Bilgi is a champion of hybrid design experiences, connecting physical and digital design aspects.

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Interview

Kevin Bethune — Driving business innovation and impact

This time we had the great opportunity to speak to Kevin Bethune - Founder & Chief Creative Officer at dreams • design + life Chair of the Design Management Institute Board of Directors, and Author at the The MIT Press - as he is writing a book on the intersection of design and business.

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Interview

Matt Wallaert — Driving behaviour outcomes

In episode 45 I chat with Matt Wallaert on driving behaviour outcomes. Matt is the author of “Start at the end” and former director of Microsoft Ventures. Formerly he was also Chief Behavioural Officer at Clover Health.

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Interview

Marc Abraham — Driving products by balancing tensions.

In episode 44 I chat with Marc Abraham about innovating in product strategy and product development by balancing different tensions and how they could even create a better outcome in the end.

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Interview

Rob Harrigan — Driving AI potentials and visions.

In episode 43, we chat with Rob Harrigan, Lead Designer at Y Media Labs and former Design Principle at IBM within the Data & AI organisation. In the episodes he shares how designers can see, explore and visualise potentials and visions of technology - making ideas tangible and tell stories that

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Interview

Scott Nazarian — Driving capabilities and integrations of design

In episode 43, we chat with Scott Nazarian, Design Director at groundstate. Scott spent his formative years in design at frog, working his way up to Executive Creative Director at the design agency. He most recently was the Experience Design Director at McKinsey, leading teams in building design cap

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Interview

Kristie Fisher — Driving new cloud gaming experiences

In Episode 41, we chat with Kristie Fisher, Staff UX Researcher at Google. Kristie is currently building the UX Design Research at Google Stadia, and has previously worked on Google Suite and Google Ads, and has previously worked at Xbox and Microsoft.

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Interview

Janaki Kumar — Driving business transformation

In Episode 40, we talk with Janaki Kumar, Head of Design of Commercial Bank at JPMorgan Chase, and co-instructor at Stanford’s LEAD course on Customer Experience Design, and has previously led the Design and Co-Innovation Center at SAP, helping businesses transform through design.

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Interview

Ben Reason — Driving sustainable service design

In episode #39 we talk with Ben Reason, Founding Partner at Livework, a service design & innovation consultancy. Ben and Livework where one of the very early adaptors and drivers of the “service design” discipline, bringing a new approach to designing experiences.

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Interview

Ana Sofia Gonzalez — Driving mixed reality experiences

In episode #37 we talk with Ana Sofía González, Senior Designer at Microsoft on designing future mixed reality experiences in the B2B space.💡 We chat with Ana about what excites her about Mixed Reality and the applications of it. MR brings together real world and digital elements, allowing us to

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Interview

Dan Saffer — Driving product strategy and interaction design

In episode #36 we talk with Dan Saffer, Product Design Leader and Author of 4 influential design books. He gained work experience as a Senior Staff Designer at Twitter, Creative Director at Jawbone, Smart Design and AdaptivePath.

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Interview

Mark Rolston — Driving futures of digital interaction

In episode 35 we talk with Mark Rolston who is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at argodesign as part of a series of conversations at Interaction 20 in Milan by IXDA. Formerly he served as Chief Creative Officer of frogdesign, founding the firm’s software business and guiding its transformatio

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Interview

Doug Powell — Driving global design leadership

Episode 34 kicks off a series of conversations at Interaction 20 in Milan by IXDA. I had the outstanding opportunity to sit together with Doug Powell, Vice President of Design at IBM.

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Interview

Tanu Malhotra — Driving design innovation for enterprise and consumer products

In episode 33 I talk with Tanu Malhotra during UX India who is a UX Manager at IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie Investments. Before that she was Senior UX Designer at SAP working on B2B Enterprise products and Lead UX Designer at Samsung B2C consumer product concepts and visions.

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Interview

Ruchin Shah — Driving interaction design in India

In episode 32 I got the chance to talk to Ruchin Shah, Senior Interaction Designer at Frog India who joined the Bangalore studio when it was being set up and was an active contributor in scaling up the studio and its culture

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Interview

Lajja Mehta — Driving UX Research within organisations

In episode 31 we get the chance to learn from Lajja Mehta Senior UX Researcher at Salesforce and dive into UX Research at large corporations and driving it within organisation.

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Interview

Nick Cochran — Driving and growing design within organisations

In episode 30 I talk with Nick Cochran, Design Strategy Manager at ExxonMobil. During UX India we sat together and exchanged over his experiences building and growing internal design communities, resources and culture for many years.

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Interview

Bermon Painter — Driving innovation strategy and design leadership

In episode 29 I had a very inspiring talk with Bermon Painter, Innovation & Strategy Lead at EY Wavespace. During the conversation at UX India we dive into his approach on design leadership, hiring, team building and much more around design, innovation and strategy,

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Interview

Mario Van Der Meulen — Driving counterintuitive innovation

“Innovation has become a lazy industry word” - Mario van der Meulen In episode 28 I had the great opportunity to talk to Mario van der Meulen living in Singapore as Head of CX at Tribal Worldwide and Author of "COUNTERINTUITIVITY"

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Interview

Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan — Driving strategic innovation & entrepreneurship

Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan, Global Strategic Design Director at Designit, a Wipro Company. Certainly one of the most inspiring conversations I had during the podcast. Udhaya shares insights from his proven track recording on the intersection of entrepreneurship and design consulting for companies arou

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Interview

Steve Fadden — Driving UX Research and Insights

In episode 26 I had the chance to chat with Steve Fadden on driving UX Research and Insights. Steve is the Head of User Research for Analytics, Insights, & Measurement at Google as well as Lecturer for User Experience Research at UC Berkeley. We get the chance to learn from his deep experie

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Interview

Shiva Jaini — Driving intrapreneurship

Shiva Jaini, Product Design Manager at Google, on driving intrapreneurship as a designer. Learnings from co-founding efforts like YouTube Kids & Google Assistant Meals.

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Interview

Heike Rapp — Driving brand and product design strategies

In this episode I have the chance to talk to Heike Rapp, former VP of Product Design at SAP in San Francisco and former Senior Director, Brand Strategy & Design at Autodesk. Heike shares her insights on designing enterprise solution and digital platforms at SAP that need to integrate variou

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Interview

Hannah Thomas — Driving sustainable services

In this episode, I talk with Hannah Thomas, a Senior Business Designer at Fjord London who is driven by a huge passion to create change towards a more sustainable future. We talk about how service and business designer can contribute drive business and services to be sustainable and circular. Hannah

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Interview

Nancy Diniz — Driving biology through design

This episode I talk Nancy Diniz , an architect and teacher from Portugal who is heading and developing the world first “Bio Design” Programme which explores the intersection of design and biology at Central Saint Martins in London. In addition, we talk about the opportunity of that intersection and

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Interview

Michael Seum — Driving design leadership

This episode I talk with Michael Seum on design leadership and his career from in-house experiences in the USA and Italy to startup and consulting work at Minimal and Lunatik but also his roles afterwards in design leadership at Pepsi and most recently Grohe. Michael gives important design advice

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Interview

Kathryn Richards — Driving innovation in different countries and cultures

The newest guest at Designdrives is Kathryn Richards , Design Director at Fjord in South Africa. Kathryn had the chance to drive Service Design and Design Strategy in an impressive amount of countries - she designed in London, Munich, Paris, Istanbul and across South Africa. This rich experience as

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Interview

Siri Johansson — Driving new paths between Interface and Industrial Design

We talk with Siri Johansson , who is working as a Senior Designer at Spotify. We talk about her transition from design agency IDEO to in-house design at Spotify and her personal transition from Industrial to Interaction Design - and how both sides can learn from each other.

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Interview

Cheryl Platz — Driving future interfaces, from Amazon Alexa to Microsoft Azure

We talk with Cheryl Platz , a pioneer in the area of AI-driven Voice User Interface Design and one of the first designer on the Amazon Echo System.

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Read it. Then come argue about it.

2026–27年ツアー

7つの都市、ひとつのコミュニティ.