Design Chats Podcast Pragmatic Institute

"I believe design leadership is shining a light on what could be complex, gnarly challenges. It comes down to three things for me. I think it's about creating a safe and trusted space, aligning multiple people and not losing sight that we are in service to people." - Vincent Matyi
 
In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris talks to Vincent Matyi, the global head of design for Onyx at JPMorgan Chase. Vincent shares his unique perspective on design leadership.
 
During this episode, they discuss:
Vincent's philosophy on design leadership and its three core principles
Strategies for leading design teams with trust and alignment
How to approach complex challenges and create impact through design
The importance of staying in service to people and harmonizing different stakeholders
Enhance Your Design Strategy with Pragmatic InstituteWant to align your design work with business outcomes and demonstrate its value? Enroll in Pragmatic Institute's Business Strategy & Design course.
 
Gain grounding in business strategy, learn the tools and vocabulary of key business stakeholders, and actively apply knowledge to contribute to strategic conversations. Discover how to demonstrate design's return on investment and advance key business objectives.
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“Technical skills are great up to a certain point in your career. However, When you're trying to do that jump from senior to lead or senior to manager, that is when you really need to be thinking about these power skills.” - Rochelle Williams, lead product designer at Elsewhen.
In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris and Rochelle explore a variety of power skills, how to build them and demonstrate them daily. During this conversation, Rochelle not only provides an overview of her winding design career but also gives practical advice to both novice and experienced designers on how to grow their strategic impact and advance their careers.
During this episode, they discuss:
Why Rochelle urges people to use “power skills” instead of “soft skills” because they “aren’t a nice to have, they are a must-have.”
How to enable decision-making (aka facilitation)
Strategies to get more from design workshops
How to navigate conflict management and self-management
Ways to start building your power skills today
Learn How to Incorporate Business Strategy into Your Design Role
Discover how to align your design work with business outcomes and demonstrate its value to business objectives in Pragmatic’s Business Strategy & Design course, where you'll develop skills to participate in strategic conversations, improve cross-functional partnerships and show return on investment.Learn More 

"Good leadership really comes down to one thing. Do people want to follow you? And you can't force people to follow you. So if no one's following, you're not a leader." - Eddie Ishak
In this episode of Design Chats, hosted by Rebecca Kalogeris, we delve into the world of design and its strategic impact.
Our special guest is Eddie Ishak, Managing Director of UX and Product Design at JP Morgan, sheds light on the essence of leadership in design and how it doesn't necessarily correlate with one's position in an organization.
Whether you are a seasoned designer or just starting, this episode is packed with insights and stories that will inspire you to think about design more strategically and consider the role of leadership in your career.
Eddie discusses:
What makes a good leader
Why it's so important to connect design to the business goals and how to do it
How design maturity will impact your effectiveness
Unlock Your Design Potential!Elevate the impact of your designs by enrolling in Pragmatic Institute's design courses. Our interactive and actionable courses will empower you to contribute strategically to your organization. Take advantage of this opportunity to transform your design skills.Explore Pragmatic Institute's Design Courses

Cindy Brummer is the CEO and Creative Director of Standard Beagle Studio, an award-winning UX agency for digital B2B products that she built from the ground up. With a career beginning in TV news, she moved into UX design as the field was burgeoning and went on to teach a UX/UI bootcamp at the University of Texas at Austin.
 
In a conversation with host Rebecca Kalogeris, Cindy talks about her winding career path, navigating interpersonal dynamics in a consulting environment, and the nuances of UX design in B2B projects – when the end user trying to complete a task might be a developer using a platform to set up an integration or a nurse completing a clinical trial.
 
The two also discuss:
Why teaching UX is like chicken sexing
How Cindy builds alignment and trust with stakeholders, and brings them into decision-making, to ensure a project is successful
Her guidance for new grads entering UX design, from reading widely to being comfortable with ambiguity
Why she believes most personas are “total crap” and how she takes a behavior-first approach to creating personas
The implications of AI on UX roles
...and more
Are you a designer eager to level up your strategic impact? Pragmatic Institute's Business Strategy & Design course is tailored to empower designers with the tools and knowledge to align their user-centered work with key business objectives.Learn More
 
Unlock the power of storytelling in design. Engage teams, create alignment, and craft compelling narratives with Pragmatic Institute's Influence Through Storytelling course.Learn More

“Leadership is the act of driving change with others,” says Brett Macfarlane.
 
Brett Macfarlane is an organizational consultant who focuses on leadership development for innovation and change. Based in Vancouver, he works primarily with tech and creative organizations and counts Visa, Unilever, and Apple among his past clients. (Read his Apple Watch case study.)
 
On Design Chats, Brett goes deep on leadership as an act, not a position; his guiding principles of empathy, intent, and compassion; and insights from his work in leadership and culture development. With VP of Product Strategy Rebecca Kalogeris, Brett also discusses:
The nuances of leadership within innovation environments—which are high risk, high reward, high emotion situations
Brett’s six practices for leading empowered teams, from questioning critical assumptions to seeking different perspectives
The identity shift for a designer who gets that sought-after seat at the table
Switching between charismatic leadership (setting vision, inspiring teams) and architectural leadership (putting systems in place, delegating tasks)
How self-awareness is key to realizing change in your organization
…and much more
For more on leading from where you are and driving change through design, enroll in Business Strategy & Design. Learn how to tie design work to business value in this interactive, actionable course from Pragmatic Institute.
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Jason Grigsby is the co-founder of Cloud Four—a leading web design and development agency based in Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Progressive Web Apps and the co-author of Head First Mobile Web. From tinkering on a Commodore 64 as a child to studying journalism in college before venturing into PR, advertising and design—and ultimately, co-founding his company—Jason’s path has led him to a deeper understanding of design principles, the needs of responsive design and how to overcome various design challenges.On Design Chats, Jason talks with host Rebecca Kalogeris about the innate complexities in responsive design and how designers and coders can collaborate to deliver optimally designed experiences for users. They also cover:
The value of designers who code and coders who design
Tools and techniques instrumental in responsive design
How his company uses responsive design sprints
“Mobile first” as a useful design constraint
The future of responsive design
How designers can get a seat at the decision-making table
Why prototypes and performance still matter