Design Better

Jason Giles is tuned into the habits of successful product design teams, not only because he’s been leading them for 15 years, but also because his team at UserTesting makes essential tools used by top design teams around the world. Jason thinks of the collaboration process in his team as similar to a jazz band where improvisation and exploration go hand-in-hand. We’re anxious to learn more. We’re excited to share this sponsored bonus episode, recorded live in Austin at The Human Insight Summit (THiS)—as UserTesting helps designers and product teams gain shared insight—seeing and hearing how another person engages with the world around them and taking in their perspective. Learn more about UserTesting Bio As VP of Product Design at UserTesting, Jason leads a team of designers, writers, and researchers across the US, Canada, and UK with the mission to enable real human insight and lead a movement for empathy. Jason Giles began his professional career as a designer at Microsoft, where he effectively “grew up” alongside the UX discipline itself. Having actively participated in that evolution, Jason transitioned to design management where he has focused on building teams with great cultures that deliver awesome product experiences. Visit our Substack to view the video of the interview: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/jason-giles

Sometimes, a creative transformation occurs after a painful experience in our lives. This certainly happened for our guest today, Bishop Briggs, who lost her sister at a young age in 2021. After a period of intense grieving, and struggling with depression, her son was born in 2022, and she went on to win The Masked Singer in 2023. Find the full episode on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/bishop-briggs We spoke with Bishop about how her creative process evolved during these life-changing events, as well as how she approaches creating with consistency, connects with her audience, and the surprising results of her experiments with generative AI. Also, a quick note for anyone who might be sensitive about the topics of depression and suicidal thoughts, Bishop does discuss these topics during the course of our interview, most notably around the 10 minute mark of the episode. Bio Bishop Briggs, born in London to Scottish parents, discovered her passion for music early, performing for the first time at a Tokyo karaoke bar at age four after her family relocated there. Immersed in Tokyo's karaoke culture and influenced by Motown and The Beatles at home, she began writing songs at seven. After moving to Hong Kong at 10, where she lived until 18, she pursued her dream of a music career by relocating to Los Angeles to attend the Musician’s Institute. In Los Angeles, Bishop released her debut single, "Wild Horses," in 2015 and rose to prominence with her 2018 debut album, Church of Scars, and her 2019 follow-up, Champion. Her music has since reflected her personal journey, including profound loss, motherhood, and resilience. In 2023, she won The Masked Singer as "Medusa" and released her EP When Everything Went Dark. Her latest album, Tell My Therapist I'm Fine, debuted in October 2024, and she is currently on tour through Spring 2025. *** This is a premium episode on Design Better. We release two premium episodes per month, along with two free episodes for everyone. ✨New benefits: Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books, as well as our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. Upgrade to paid ***

We're at the holidays once again and that means it's one of our favorite episodes, our Design Better holiday gift guide for designers, creatives, and anyone who appreciates well-designed products. This list is perfect for anyone hunting for the ideal gift for that special someone—or, let’s be honest, for themselves. And this year—like last year—we’ve curated some stellar picks. Visit our Substack for the full list: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/design-better-2024-holiday-gift-guide *** Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show: Wix Studio: With Wix Studio, agencies and enterprises can create, develop and manage exceptional web projects with hyper efficiency. And if you're worried about the learning curve eating into time you don't have, don't be. Wix Studio is intuitive by design, so your entire team can hit the ground running. For your next project, check out wixstudio.com. Wine Access: We love wine, but often feel overwhelmed by the options out there. But we recently joined Wine Access who not only ship to your door some of the world’s most inspiring wines, they also educate subscribers with full color information cards that accompany each bottle. You should totally join The Waitlist Wine Club. Just visit wineaccess.com/waitlist and use Promo Code: DESIGNBETTER for $25 off your first shipment. *** If you're interested in sponsoring the show, please contact us at: [email protected] If you'd like to submit a guest idea, please contact us at: [email protected]

When Aarron was in college studying painting and drawing, he had an absolute certainty about the path my career would take. He was going to move to New York, make it big as an artist, and never look back. And Eli, as an undergrad in product design, wasn’t sure what a career in his field even looked like. The skillset wasn’t clearly defined yet. The outdoor product companies he was eyeing wanted me to conform to a neat little box: “Are you an industrial designer, or a mechanical engineer?” He wasn’t sure how he fit in. Did our careers unfold as we expected? Absolutely not. Life and careers rarely go according to plan. There’s so much beyond our control. But, despite the unexpected twists, there are lessons that can guide us in the right direction. And that’s what we’re here to explore today in this special live episode of Design Better, recorded right here at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Today, we’ll be speaking with four design leaders who took a winding path but all found their way to significant work. Bios Kate Aronowitz is a design executive who has built her career empowering teams at some of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies. In addition to her role leading GV’s operations team, Kate coaches GV portfolio companies on cross-functional design processes, scale, product development, and management strategy. Kate has built world-class design teams at eBay, LinkedIn, Facebook (now Meta), and Wealthfront. She joined the first user experience team at eBay before taking her experience to LinkedIn, where she started the user research team. As Facebook’s first design executive, Kate grew the organization from 20 to 200, establishing multidisciplinary design teams in front-end engineering, user research, content strategy, and communication design. Steve Johnson, VP of Design at Netflix, leads a diverse, multidisciplinary, Emmy-award-winning Experience Design organization. His team's commitment to discovery, product innovation, brand development, and personalization has set the standard for streaming media platforms across the world. Prior to Netflix, Steve also led design teams at LinkedIn and Adobe. Jaime Lopez, Chief Design and Marketing Officer at Flatiron Health, Jaime Lopez is the Chief Design & Marketing Officer at Flatiron Health. She has over 15 years of startup product, design and marketing experience with a passion for creative problem solving and building and mentoring teams. In her role at Flatiron Health, Jaime uses her background to create and deliver high-quality experiences to oversee the company’s entire marketing and design suite.  Kat Holmes is EVP and Chief Design Officer at Salesforce where she's driving the future of AI, Data, and CRM experiences. As the author of the best-selling book Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, Holmes works with multidisciplinary teams to set a foundation for why designing with excluded communities drives better solutions for everyone. Her work has been featured by NPR, BBC, Fast Company, Forbes, The Economist, and many more. Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show: Wix Studio: With Wix Studio, agencies and enterprises can create, develop and manage exceptional web projects with hyper efficiency. And if you're worried about the learning curve eating into time you don't have, don't be. Wix Studio is intuitive by design, so your entire team can hit the ground running. For your next project, check out wixstudio.com. Wine Access: We love wine, but often feel overwhelmed by the options out there. But we recently joined Wine Access who not only ship to your door some of the world’s most inspiring wines, they also educate subscribers with full color information cards that accompany each bottle. You should totally join The Waitlist Wine Club. Just visit wineaccess.com/waitlist and use Promo Code: DESIGNBETTER for $25 off your first shipment.