NCOMMON

Alison Rand & Jacqui Frey
NCOMMON

Jacqui Frey and Alison Rand are tired of the same talks from the same people about Design. Join them, along with some incredible friends and guests, as they try to understand design and relevant adjacencies, all meeting at the intersection of art and science. Expect some deep sh*t like the future of the industry, how we can learn from history and the social sciences, Design Operations (duh), and their personal experiences as designing women.

Episodes

  1. 07/03/2020

    Hella Justice

    In this final episode of season one, Jacqui and Alison reflect on the times with Quinnton Harris, one of the founders of Hella Creative – the team behind the Hella Juneteenth movement. We talk about his incredible journey, the importance of Juneteenth not just as a day, or a moment, but a call for organizational change. How we can continue to grow, listen, learn, do much better, and make the hire.

    53 min

  2. 05/28/2020

    The Future is Bright

    Episode 11 is part two of the conversation about Design Operations and where we are heading. In this episode, Jacqui and Alison go broad and extensive (and somewhat meandering ) about future opportunity areas for Design Operations and how we, as design leaders, can lead the charge in laying the groundwork for that future. We charge forward into the unknown with the responsibility to consider society, ethics, customer experience, and the employee experience. Discuss.

    28 min

  3. 05/21/2020

    Lets talk about DesignOps

    In episode 10 Jacqui and Alison begin to dig into the current state of Design Operations. Get ready for some more real talk around what is Design Ops anyway, where does it come from, what (and who) does it look like, and why/when/do we even need it.

    36 min

  4. 05/15/2020

    Think Fast Talk Smart

    We have a special guest this week! Matt Abrahams, Principal and Co-Founder Company of Bold Echo Communication Solutions, Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and host of the podcast Think Fast Talk Smart. Matt chats with us about how to be more mindful of how we communicate and bring intention to our daily interactions. We also ask him how we, as hosts, could talk a Lil less and land subject matter a Lil more.

    39 min

  5. 05/07/2020

    What is up with Organizational Maturity?

    In this episode, Jacqui and Alison unpack the different levels of organizational maturity. To Design in general, and the future as Design is embedded in our every day. How do we, as Design leaders, continue to balance the present need, with the future state – in service of business needs to change and evolve in order to remain relevant.

    38 min

  6. 04/30/2020

    Human Centered Operations

    Businesses are trying to implement Design Thinking & Human-Centered Design – the struggle is real. In this episode, Jacqui and Alison talk about that struggle as well as why it's not just about a great design org or methods that will get you there, and why transformation (led by human-centered operations) needs to take shape in order for organizations to truly understand why good design is good business.

    27 min

  7. 04/23/2020

    Pressure Testing the Meritocracy

    In episode 6, Jacqui and Alison speak with Connie Liu, founder of Project Invent. Project Invent empowers students with the 21st-century skills to succeed individually and impact globally with the goal of “creating a generation of fearless problem solvers.” We unpack how Connie had her epiphany while attending MIT for Mechanical Engineering that designing a better world isn’t going to come from textbooks. We have to meet people where they are, give them the tools to think differently, empower them to be the change they want to see and change the face of the mirrortocracy.

    32 min

  8. 04/16/2020

    The Art of Failure

    In this episode, Jacqui and Alison share some real talk about failures and learnings. Falling down and getting back up — because we’re gonna fall down a lot. Especially as the trailblazers in the nascent discipline of DesignOps (in a relatively nascent field), we are going at it alone, which makes that failure feels so much more acute.

    29 min

  9. 04/09/2020

    Flow & Fluidity

    In this episode, Jacqui shares her experience of the boiling ocean of Design Operations. Through a memory of her experience as a collegiate athlete, she came upon the concept of Flow. Inspired by this positive psychology concept, Jacqui tells the story of how she found some patterns in the chaos.

    34 min

  10. 04/02/2020

    Design for Systems, Not Users

    In the third episode of our inaugural season, we welcome our first guest and who better than Alexis Loyd, VP of Design at Medium, Co-Founder of Ethical Futures Lab, and third in line to the throne after Oprah and Beyonce. Listen to us talk about the unintended consequences of user-centered design, Society-Centered Design, and our greater responsibility before, during, and after this time of COVID-19.

    37 min

  11. 03/26/2020

    Process, by Design

    In this episode, Jacqui and Alison discuss Alison’s post on the work she has been doing to connect the dots between her past and her current role, our responsibility as women of color leading in this industry, the experience of being an “only”, and calling a bit of BS on the talk du jour around Belonging.

    29 min

  12. 03/19/2020

    Scale is Social Work

    In this first episode of ncommon, Alison talks to Jacqui about the successes and failures of scaling design through DesignOps. Amongst other things, Jacqui shares how she learned that true scale is social work and requires the power of the community. Enjoy!

    29 min
  • 12 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Jacqui Frey and Alison Rand are tired of the same talks from the same people about Design. Join them, along with some incredible friends and guests, as they try to understand design and relevant adjacencies, all meeting at the intersection of art and science. Expect some deep sh*t like the future of the industry, how we can learn from history and the social sciences, Design Operations (duh), and their personal experiences as designing women.

Information

  • Creator
    Alison Rand & Jacqui Frey
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    NCOMMON

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada