Paths, Puddles, Products puddles.media

On building respect for designers in an organization, with our guest Scott Zimmer.
In part 2 of this guest episode, Juli and Scott continued their hike on the Buda Hills, discussing hiring designers, giving them a seat at the table, and building a culture that respects design.
The path we took:
Treating designers as a partner, not a resource;The risks of hiring external design help;Explaining and selling the idea of iteration;Why the first impression is important, and how a bad experience with a designer can feed bad stereotypes;The dangers of the agency model, and a better alternative for dedicated persistent internal design teams;Pleasing versus challenging the client;Hiring for aptitude and interest, and filling the rest with mentorship;And finding upsides for AI, supercharging human connections.Further reading:
https://www.tmpt.me/https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/this-is-why-i-dont-call-myself-a-service-designer-any-more-5dcf639bebe0https://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design-dp-0321683684/dp/0321683684/ref=dp_ob_title_bkGrab your headphones, and come walk with us!
Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us, comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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On building respect for designers in an organization, with our guest Scott Zimmer.
In this guest episode, Juli and Scott hiked the Buda Hills and talked about hiring designers, giving them a seat at the table, and building a culture that respects design.
The path we took:
Making connections over a Medium article;Building design teams and the dangers of naive hiring;Entrepreneurship as a creative output;How a culture that respects design can look like;Designers getting a seat at the table, and going from receivers to influencers of decisions;The importance of apprenticeship and mentorship in designer careers;And treating designers as a partner, not a resource.Further reading:
https://www.tmpt.me/https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/this-is-why-i-dont-call-myself-a-service-designer-any-more-5dcf639bebe0https://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design-dp-0321683684/dp/0321683684/ref=dp_ob_title_bkhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/adaptive-path/about/Grab your headphones, and come walk with us!
Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us, comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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On Service design as mediation, on the borders of organizational development, with guest Morten Pedersten.
In this guest episode, Juli, Morten, and guest dog Max hiked around the Hålandsvatnet lake near Stavanger and talked about Scandinavian design and business culture.
The path we took:
A brief intro to Morten, and the step to leave a management role to build something new;How a background in psychology and organizational development can merge with service design;A dream Scandinavian company: transparency, open salaries, sharing burdens and ownership at Canoe;The Scandinavian design world, with a history of collaboration, flat hierarchies, and government support for design;Designers who help and serve vs designers who want to impress;Changing definitions and expectations around design work;And a brief glimpse into AI, as a mediator between people, not a shortcut to cheaper work.Further reading:
https://servicedesignnext.comhttps://www.canoe.no/https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/bld/nedsatt-funksjonsevne/norway-universally-designed-by-2025-web.pdfMauricio Manhaes' article in Touchpoint Magazine about Design as Female Characteristics can be downloaded here. Ongoing conversation on the subject on Linkedin can be followed here.
Grab your headphones, and head to the nearest lake to walk with us!
Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål. The second part of a two-part episode.
In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.
The path we took:
Thought leaders who can expand our understanding of tech possibilitiesHumans changing the job landscape with AI, or AI taking our jobsHow AI is about predicting the future, and how that can go very wrongThe agency of designers on a strategic level, design maturity in an organizationThe way forward is education - different education paths leading to responsible service designWorries about the dilution of the service design professionHow interaction design can finally be about designing interactions, not just screensAnd advice for mindful design in the age of AIFurther reading:
https://warnestal.com/https://drpontus.medium.com/ai-will-not-take-any-jobs-cdea12d86d2chttps://www.predictionmachines.ai/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40102.Blinkhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-paradigm/https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-agentive-technology/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63631742-frankensteinGrab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!
Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål.
In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.
The path we took:
The importance of having a critical eye toward AI, and why it is no longer optional to be interested in AIDefining AI and ML among fluffy terms, stochastic parrots, and semantic dragonsThe five pillars of service design, and the necessity of focusing on backstage operationsLegal implications, and the current state of tech based on data theftBreaking things fast vs the ethics of business decisionsAnd a brief history lesson with Ada Lovelace, envisioning a machine capable of composing musicGrab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!
Further reading:
https://warnestal.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pontuswarnestalhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62588814-designing-ai-powered-serviceshttps://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_ithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_LovelacePs. At some point in our lives, we all were tech bros. Sorry for all the tech bro-bashing that’s about to happen in this episode.

Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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On AI, with its threats and hopes, history and religion.
We are back! In the last season, we mostly focused on our past: where we came from, and how our history affected the value we seek to create in our career. This season, we are looking towards the future. 
This time we recorded among the mushrooms of the autumn forest. While the dogs ran around sniffing the wind, we discussed what we hope from AI, and what we fear the most.
The path we took:
Science fiction's AI promises, teaching us to fear the robots early on.The promise of growth and prosperity, and the last time we heard those promises: in the mobile revolution.Machines doing stupid human stuff much more efficiently than humans.The brief history of AI, or all the different things we called AI at some point.Regulation, legislation, and setting rules for something we don't fully understand.Surpassing human intelligence being a thread in itself or a way to salvation.Robot gods, robots with emotions.And for a more grounded ending: AI tools we use now, in our daily work, and why we're not worried about robots taking our jobs just yet.Further reading:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398163-the-orchid-cagehttps://www.fastcompany.com/90942310/ai-napster-who-going-to-own-it-nexthttps://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/12/30/a-very-short-history-of-artificial-intelligence-ai/https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebookhttps://ourworldindata.org/artificial-intelligencehttps://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/04/28/yuval-noah-harari-argues-that-ai-has-hacked-the-operating-system-of-human-civilisationhttps://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/artificial-intelligence/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40947778-the-outsideSpoiler warning: This episode contains major plot spoilers for the following sci-fi movies or books: The Matrix franchise, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator, The Orchid Cage by Herbert W. Franke, and The Outside series by Ada Hoffman. 
Grab your headphones, and walk with us! We have some sparkly winter sunshine, just ideal for a one-episode-long walk.
Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!


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