UX Cake

Leigh Allen-Arredondo
UX Cake Podcast

UX Cake is helping you become more effective in your UX work and career. Join host Leigh Allen-Arredondo as she speaks with leaders in the field from around the globe, bringing you practical advice to get the best outcomes for your work, your users, and your career in UX. Our guests include well-known leaders like Don Norman and Indi Young, as well as many less globally-known voices with fantastic insights to share, like disability designer & activist Liz Jackson, agile coach & UX champion Shayna Atkins, and UX team experts Mary & David Sherwin. The podcast launched in February 2018 quickly grew an audience of UX pros around the globe. Our aim is to help the growing UX community become stronger and more effective, by sharing the experience and expertise from leaders in the field. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Shaping Design Careers, featuring Jason Mesut

    01/06/2023

    Shaping Design Careers, featuring Jason Mesut

    Do you want your career to be sustainable and aligned with what truly matters to you? Designing a holistic career that embraces every part of who we are can be a complex and meaningful challenge. This week Leigh and guest Jason Mesut have a captivating discussion about the significance of aligning personal values with work and finding meaning in one's career. Jason is an experienced design strategist and leader, who conducts workshops on and has written extensively about shaping one’s future in design. Jason sheds light on the limitations of traditional career labels and role descriptions, advocating for a more holistic approach. He shares his own path of creating visual frameworks and facilitating workshops that empower individuals and teams to delve into their unique qualities, values, and skills. Join Leigh and Jason in this episode as they discuss the common challenges that people bring to coaching sessions, from navigating the job market to making critical decisions about leadership roles, reigniting passions, or even contemplating a career change. Tune in to discover practical tools and strategies that can propel you toward shaping a more aligned career. 🎤About Our Guest: Jason Mesut helps people and organizations navigate their uncertain futures. He does this through executive coaching, community leadership, strategic consulting, futures design and shaping workshops. 📚Additional Resources Jason’s DesignOps 2019 talk “Shaping Design, Designers and Teams” Jason’s Medium article series on Shaping Designers and Design Teams --- Connect with Jason Website | LinkedIn | Linktr.ee Connect with UX Cake! uxcake.co | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube Connect with Leigh Strategic UX Leader Coaching and Workshops Follow on LinkedIn Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    41 min
  2. Adding Strategic Value to Tactical Work with Laura Barboza

    06/04/2023

    Adding Strategic Value to Tactical Work with Laura Barboza

    Are you a UX practitioner who's frustrated with feeling like you lack agency in your work? Or maybe you're someone who wants to take their UX game to the next level by incorporating strategic outcomes into your tactical deliverables? You’re not alone! Listen (or watch) on… This week I’m joined by my long-time friend, colleague, and UX Strategy expert Laura Barboza for the beginning of our 4th season of UX Cake!  Laura and I explore the differences between strategic and tactical work in UX research and design. We start by discussing why it's so important to incorporate strategic objectives into your tactical deliverables. After all, without a bigger picture in mind, your work may lack direction and purpose. We give you practical tips for adding strategic outcomes to your tactical UX deliverables in both research and design. We discuss the challenges that designers and researchers may face and possible pushback from stakeholders who are more focused on short-term goals, and how to speak to the value of your efforts and tie it back to user and business objectives. By being clear on these objectives from the start, you can ensure that everything ties back to the larger strategic goals. At the heart of this episode is the message that everyone, regardless of level, can and should think more strategically in their work. By understanding the bigger picture and incorporating strategic outcomes into your tactical deliverables, you can become a more effective UX practitioner and build products that truly meet the needs of your users. Connect with UX Cake uxcake.co | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube Connect with Leigh Strategic UX Leader Coaching and Workshops Follow on LinkedIn Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min
  3. (Best of) On Recovering and Reinvention: Navigating Career Changes with John Maeda

    22/02/2023

    (Best of) On Recovering and Reinvention: Navigating Career Changes with John Maeda

    With so many people facing changes in their work and careers right now, navigating the complex and turbulent waters of layoffs, org changes, and economic adjustments can be incredibly challenging. My guest today is renowned design leader and author John Maeda - who is no stranger to career shifts and changes. In this inspiring episode, John shares his message of focusing on recovery instead of failure, the importance of intentional reinvention, and the benefits of renewal and rebuilding. This episode is a replay from 2019, and it's just as relevant today as it was then. Since our conversation in 2019, John has gone on to take on different roles and is now the VP of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft. We mentioned his keynote at Interaction 19, which has since been recorded and is available online - we've included the link to that and other inspiring references we mention in the show description and on our website at uxcake.co. This episode covers a lot of ground - John talked about why we should focus on recover fast vs. fail fast, why inclusive design is so important, and why we should be using Anpanman to train our AI platforms.  Links from this episode John’s Keynote on Recovering & Reinvention at Interaction19 John Gardner’s Essay “Self Renewal”  Get the Collected Works of classic poet Kahlil Gibran Joy and Sorrow - poem excerpt from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran Books by John Maeda The Laws of Simplicity How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us Redesigning Leadership Links for John Maeda YouTube LinkedIn Twitter More resources from John available on his site https://maedastudio.com Connect with UX Cake uxcake.co | Twitter | Instagram | Linked In | YouTube Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    30 min
  4. Unleashing Your Best Work Through Healthy Conflict and Feedback with Billie Mandel

    09/02/2023

    Unleashing Your Best Work Through Healthy Conflict and Feedback with Billie Mandel

    Do you want to unlock your creative potential and foster innovation? We know that collaboration and communication are vital to producing outstanding work, but what you might not know is that the foundation of that is healthy conflict. Without it, we can't achieve our creative best. On this episode, we welcome Billie Mandel, a seasoned expert in design, coaching, and education with a focus on critique, conflict, and creativity. We'll delve into the importance of expressing divergent ideas, how to ask difficult questions, and creating a safe space for diverse thoughts, mistakes, and asking "what am I missing." Additionally, we'll highlight the critical role of feedback in this journey and offer tips on how to solicit, offer, and receive feedback with care and effectiveness. So tune in as we uncover the impact of productive conflict in the quest for creativity and innovation. Books mentioned in this episode Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live by Brené Brown Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean by Kim Scott Connect with Billie Mandel CEO and Chief Instigator, Mandel Creative Speaking engagements LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Connect with UX Cake uxcake.co | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube Connect with Leigh Strategic UX Leader Coaching and Workshops Follow on LinkedIn Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min
  5. Making Space For Meaning and Success with Tutti Taygerly

    19/01/2023

    Making Space For Meaning and Success with Tutti Taygerly

    As human beings, it is embedded in us to seek purpose in everything we do. We want to do meaningful work that affects other people or pursue the passion within us. But many people wonder, is it too much to ask for an opportunity to work on something valuable? In today's episode, we are joined by Tutti Taygerly, a Leadership Coach, speaker, and author of the book “Make Space To Lead: Break patterns to find flow and focus on what matters”  Tutti's primary focus is to help high-achievers make space for sustainable success, so we dive deep into conversations about making space for the things you want to do and achieve. We delve into how we can create more fulfilling work and build a career that is sustainable, by making space for what matters most to us, and how you can navigate through your current environment to maximize your creativity.  Join us in this jam-packed episode filled with actionable tips on how to deal with the "Achievement Monster" and what steps you can take to create your space and utilize it the best way possible. Tutti coaches cofounders and tech leaders to embrace their unique leadership style to achieve professional impact and a sustainable company culture. She focuses on working with women, people of color, and immigrants. Previously she was a design leader at design firms, startups, and large companies including Disney and Facebook. Tutti writes for Harvard Business Review, Business Insider,  and Fast Company and her book Make Space to Lead shows high achievers how to reframe our relationship to work.   Connect with Tutti https://www.tuttitaygerly.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tuttitaygerly https://www.instagram.com/tutti/ Connect with UX Cake Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min

About

UX Cake is helping you become more effective in your UX work and career. Join host Leigh Allen-Arredondo as she speaks with leaders in the field from around the globe, bringing you practical advice to get the best outcomes for your work, your users, and your career in UX. Our guests include well-known leaders like Don Norman and Indi Young, as well as many less globally-known voices with fantastic insights to share, like disability designer & activist Liz Jackson, agile coach & UX champion Shayna Atkins, and UX team experts Mary & David Sherwin. The podcast launched in February 2018 quickly grew an audience of UX pros around the globe. Our aim is to help the growing UX community become stronger and more effective, by sharing the experience and expertise from leaders in the field. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/uxcake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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