Finding Our Way

Jesse James Garrett and Peter Merholz
  • 4.8 (30)
  • DESIGN
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY

UX design pioneers and Adaptive Path co-founders Peter Merholz and Jesse James Garrett discuss the evolving challenges and opportunities for design leaders.

  1. 11/01/2025

    63: AI Means Product Needs UX More than Ever (ft. Christian Crumlish)

    Product leader, author, and civic tech veteran Christian Crumlish joins Peter and Jesse to discuss his transition from UX to product management and his experimental AI product manager, Piper Morgan. The conversation explores how product and design roles can be natural allies rather than adversaries, where AI truly adds value versus hype, and how practitioners can thoughtfully adopt new tools while staying grounded in fundamental UX principles and maintaining agency over their practice.

    1 hr

  2. 09/14/2025

    62: Design as Differentiator in a World of AI (ft. Andrew Hogan)

    Figma's Head of Insights Andrew Hogan joins Peter and Jesse to explore emerging trends in design practice as AI transforms creative workflows. The conversation examines how role boundaries are blurring across product teams, where AI delivers real value versus hype, and design's growing opportunity to lead strategic orchestration in increasingly complex digital experiences.

    48 min

  3. 08/09/2025

    61: The Paradoxes of Product Discovery (ft. Teresa Torres)

    Product Discovery coach, teacher, and author Teresa Torres joins Peter and Jesse to explore the messy reality of organizational change and cross-functional collaboration. She discusses why external coaching has limits, how individual contributors can drive change within resistant systems, and what the rise of AI means for blurring roles between product, design, and engineering teams.

    48 min

  4. 06/29/2025

    60: Making the World– Design Education and Social Change (ft. Lesley-Ann Noel, PhD)

    Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel, Dean of Design at OCAD, joins Jesse and Peter to discuss her global journey from Trinidad to Toronto, leading design education through relationships over craft, preparing students for social change, and her vision for decolonizing design while navigating the tension between academic values and industry demands.

    54 min

  5. 06/06/2025

    59: Design Isn’t Dead, But It’s Seen Better Days (ft. John Gleason)

    Peter and Jesse are joined by design and business consultant John Gleason. Coming up through P&G's famous design initiative, we get his perspective on design beyond digital products, such as consumer packaged goods, we explore some significant parallels across industries and design domains with important lessons on the pitfalls that lead to diminishing influence for design leaders, and share what they should advocate in order to break the downward spiral.

    53 min

  6. 05/02/2025

    58: AI is a Stress Test for Your UX: What Cracks Will It Show?

    Jesse and Peter explore how AI is revealing the true value proposition of design teams. They discuss why "whoever controls the prompt controls the product" and why design leaders must understand their organization's expectations before embracing AI. The more things change, the more they stay the same—AI may be new, but the fundamentals of design leadership remain critical.

    52 min

  7. 04/13/2025

    57: On Being a Chief Experience Officer (ft. Amy Lokey)

    Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is Amy Lokey, Chief Experience Officer for the enterprise software platform, ServiceNow. We'll be talking about building a team that unifies product experience with customer experience, defining experience metrics that actually matter, investing in her own growth as a leader, and the real implications of AI for digital product design.

    54 min

  8. 03/23/2025

    56: Design’s Role in the Evolution of Product Management (ft. Sara Beckman)

    Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what's next for design is Dr. Sara Beckman, Professor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and longtime observer and commentator of the dynamic between design and business. We'll be talking more about the legacy and impact, for better or worse, of design thinking, how design leaders should talk about metrics and how they shouldn't, and what she's learning from educating the next generation of product managers.

    58 min
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4.8
out of 5
30 Ratings

About

UX design pioneers and Adaptive Path co-founders Peter Merholz and Jesse James Garrett discuss the evolving challenges and opportunities for design leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    Jesse James Garrett and Peter Merholz
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2020-2025 Peter Merholz and Jesse James Garrett
  • Show Website
    Finding Our Way

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