Naming is hard, but have you tried working with people? with Guy Segal — #15

📲 Text the show your thoughts!

Guy Segal joins Elyse to unpack the messy, complicated world of… people. Guy shares practical strategies from his experience at Thomson Reuters, including the powerful "pre-mortem" exercise he used to rebuild trust and alignment for the design system. They get vulnerable and unpack why (as cliche as it sounds!) genuine listening, storytelling, learning to give and receive feedback, and actively engaging with product teams, is so much more impactful than relying solely on processes or artifacts. Plus, Guy shares why he hated it at first when product teams started using the name of the design system.

Links & References

• Guy Segal on LinkedIn
• Guy's talk at BeMore Festival on feedback, Working with Humans: Resolving Conflicts with Empathy
• Guy's talk Mastering the Painless Design Critique
• Guy on the Knapsack Design Systems Podcast
• Guy's podcast, Design Downtime, celebrating the joys of living a balanced creative life outside the pixels and wireframes
• Brad Frost's article Choosing a Name for your Design System

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🎨🎟️ Into Design Systems is May 25-28
Get your ticket at intodesignsystems.com/ontheme

Into Design Systems is back with their annual virtual conference, May 28-30, 2025. Get your ticket now for three days of practical, hands on sessions showing the what, why, and how of design systems. This year, the conference is focused on developer handoff, accessibility, multi brand theming, and governance. You'll get hands on knowledge you can put to use at work immediately, files and resources to take away, and hear from very well known industry speakers.