Power of Ten with Andy Polaine Power of Ten with Andy Polaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine. 

Indi Young is a solution strategist who uses purpose-focused qualitative data science. She created her method over a 30-year span, and teaches that method in courses, coaching, workshops, books, talks, and through working with teams on research studies.

Indi discusses how people are complex and nuanced and their mental models and thinking styles are not fixed personas or personalities. They changed based on context and it is essential that organisations listen to and consider different ways of thinking and addressing user needs.

Indi was a joy to speak with and this is a long episode, but she articulates her thinking and insights so well I could not bear to edit out more.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
01:25 Indi's background
04:12 Origin's of design and strategic research - before UX research existed!
08:50 Persuading stakeholders to trust research
18:25 On Netflix, bias and unintentional harm
26:42 On Mental Models and interior cognition
33:20 The gobstopper/jawbreaker model
40:01 Thinking Styles
47:35 Why do companies still get this wrong all the time?
55:07 One small thing
56:52 Where to find Indi online
57:45 Outro

SHOW LINKS
INDI
Website: https://indiyoung.com/
Indi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/indiyoung/
Indi on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/indiyoung.bsky.social
Indi's Newsletter: https://indiyoung.substack.com
Indi on Medium: https://indiyoung.medium.com
Time to Listen - https://indiyoung.com/books-time-to-listen/
Practical Empathy - https://indiyoung.com/books-practical-empathy/
Mental Models: https://indiyoung.com/books-mental-models/

ANDY
Website: https://www.polaine.com 
Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws 
Podcast: https://pln.me/p10 
Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
Courses: https://courses.polaine.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/ 
Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

MENTIONS
Lisa Dance's Today is the Perfect Day to Improve Customer Experiences: https://serviceease.net/book

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.

While every app rushes to add an AI assistant, iA Writer's Oliver Reichenstein asks, "Why should I bother reading what you haven't written?" 

Here he talks tells about the deep thinking behind the latest version 7 of IA Writer and the new feature that dims the text you paste from AI tools, keeping track of what is yours and what isn’t.





SHOW LINKS



OLIVER
iA - https://ia.net
iA Writer - https://ia.net/writer
iA Presenter - https://ia.net/presenter
Writing with AI - https://ia.net/topics/writing-with-ai
Oliver on Mastodon - @reichenstein@mastodon.net
iA on Mastodon - @ia@mastodon.net




ANDY
Website: https://www.polaine.com
Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.

Has the product and design obsession with frameworks and process led to everyone working on autopilot, churning out a bland monoculture of design? When are they useful and when do they simply become a crutch? Have we hit "peak framework"?

My guest is Jaimes Nel, founder of Path, a consultancy that helps organisations play the long game through design-led strategy. Jaimes was Head of Insight for pioneering service design agency Livework in the early years of service design practice. He’s worked on service transformation for brands such as the NHS, BBC, Aviva, Johnson&Johnson, Ebay, GOV.UK / HMRC and led a transformation design team at Westpac in Australia, delivering their digital mortgage service.




SHOW LINKS
JAIMES
• Path Ventures - https://pathventures.io
• Jaimes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimesnel/




ANDY
• Andy's website - https://www.polaine.com
• Andy's coaching practice: https://www.polaine.com/coaching
• Subscribe to Power of Ten - https://pln.me/p10
• Subscribe to Andy’s newsletter Doctor’s Note - https://pln.me/nws
• Andy's YouTube channel -   https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine
• Andy's online courses - https://courses.polaine.com
• Andy on Mastodon - https://pkm.social/@apolaine
• Andy on LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
• Suggestions? Feedback? Get in touch! - https://www.polaine.com/contact

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.

My guest in this episode is Peter Merholz. We talked about the state of the design nation, the burst bubble of the Cambrian explosion of design from the last 10-15 years, product, business and the issue of mediocrity.

Peter has worked at the intersection of design, technology, and humans for over 25 years. Currently, he’s an independent consultant focused on improving the effectiveness of design organisations.

He was a co-founder of Adaptive Path, acquired by Capital One in 2014 and he co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs, still the premier book on building in-house design teams. He co-hosts the Finding Our Way podcast exploring design leadership along with another Adaptive Path co-founder, Jesse James Garrett.

He also coined the word “blog.”




Show Links



Peter
Peter’s website: https://www.petermerholz.com
Org Design for Design Orgs: https://www.petermerholz.com/writing/#orgdesign
Finding Our Way podcast: https://findingourway.design/
Peter on Mastodon: https://sfba.social/@peterme
Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/




Andy
Website: https://www.polaine.com
Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine. 

My guest in this episode is Linn Vizard, one of Canada’s leading advocates of service design who co-founded Service Design Toronto in 2013.

She’s the founder of, Made Manifest, a service design consultancy on a mission to make services better for Canadians, whether that’s getting a blood test done, visiting City Hall to pay your property tax bill or buying the perfect luxury jewellery gift.

Linn and Andy discussed the state of Service Design in a Product world. She argues the case that service design needs to focus on services for real world outcomes — services that actually get made and out there for people to use.




Show Links
Linn

Linn Vizard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnvizard/

Made Manifest: https://www.made-manifest.com





Andy

Website: https://www.polaine.com

Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws

Podcast: https://pln.me/p10

Courses: https://courses.polaine.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/

Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the workplace should be driven by data and transparency. But, says Aparna Rae, it is not enough. The real work is deep structural change to the organisation if we are to make our systems more equitable, more fair, more just, and not take dignity and humanity away from people.

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine. 

My guest in this episode is Aparna Rae, an educator by training, innovator by chance and disrupter by choice who loves to solve problems, connect people and build power. 

She is an award-winning multi-startup founder and founder of Moving Beyond, leveraging data to create workplaces that work for everyone, building products that solve complex DEI and people challenges using real-time Employee Voice & Impact data, grounded in human-centered design.

In 2021, she joined a cadre of female founders - just 2% of all women-owned businesses whose companies reach $1M in revenue. 

SHOW LINKS:

APARNA
Aparna's website: https://www.aparnarae.com
Aparna's newsletter: https://aparnarae.substack.com

ANDY
Website: https://www.polaine.com
Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine