Finding Our Way

Design #11

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

57: On Being a Chief Experience Officer (ft. Amy Lokey)
Apr 13, 2025 – 53:30
56: Design’s Role in the Evolution of Product Management (ft. Sara Beckman)
Mar 23, 2025 – 57:46
55: The Maker Mindset Connecting Product, Design, and Engineering (ft. Todd Wilkens)
Mar 8, 2025 – 53:54
54: At the Intersection of Design and Business, Be The Anomaly (ft. Roger Martin)
Feb 8, 2025 – 49:02
53: Leading Design Through Continual Evolution (ft. Peter Skillman)
Jan 4, 2025 – 57:09
52: Design at a Crossroads (ft. Audrey Crane)
Dec 1, 2024 – 45:40
51: Design-led Innovation in Emerging Markets (ft. Gaurav Mathur)
Nov 20, 2024 – 43:10
50: Balancing Design and Business as a Utopian Pragmatist (ft. Leslie Witt)
Oct 26, 2024 – 57:20
49: Unraveling Complexity in Product Development (ft. John Cutler)
Oct 8, 2024 – 01:03:08
48: Leading Design from IDEO to In-house (ft. Anne Pascual)
Jun 28, 2024 – 50:07
47: Seeking Balance (ft. Koji Pereira)
May 18, 2024 – 49:46
46: Leading with Clarity (ft. Vuokko Aro)
May 5, 2024 – 52:32
45: The Phase Shift
Apr 24, 2024 – 47:04
44: The Mindful Executive (ft. Christina Goldschmidt)
Mar 25, 2024 – 51:06
43: Leading Enterprise UX for LEGO Group (ft. Rebecca Nordstrom)
Mar 9, 2024 – 49:56
42: Leading From Trust (ft. Cynthia Savard Saucier)
Feb 23, 2024 – 52:48
41: Leading Experience Design for the Military (ft. Colt Whittall)
Feb 5, 2024 – 43:46
40: The Cross-Trained Design Leader (ft. Rajat Shail)
Jan 19, 2024 – 55:32
39: Reflections on the State of Design Leadership (Season 3 finale)
May 31, 2023 – 55:09
38: The Craft-led Design Executive (ft. Tim Allen)
Apr 12, 2023 – 43:25
37: From Design Leadership to Product Leadership (ft. Che Douglas)
Mar 20, 2023 – 57:35
36: The Chief Design Officer as Corporate Executive (ft. Jehad Affoneh)
Mar 6, 2023 – 53:10
35—The Actualized Design Executive (ft. Daniela Jorge)
Dec 19, 2022 – 49:10
34: Design leadership to support organizational transformation (ft. Rachel Kobetz)
Oct 9, 2022 – 56:41
33: Leading Design in a Product World (ft. Greg Petroff)
Sep 18, 2022 – 01:03:39
32: The Intentional Design Executive (ft. Kaaren Hanson)
Sep 5, 2022 – 01:04:36
31: Sustaining yourself as a design executive (ft. Katrina Alcorn, GM IBM Design)
Aug 25, 2022 – 01:01:13
30— Mailbag: UX maturity, conflict fatigue, and getting past imposter syndrome
May 25, 2022 – 48:39
29: Listening with Intent (ft. Indi Young)
May 14, 2022 – 54:50
28: The Leadership Ceiling (ft. Tim Kieschnick)
Apr 29, 2022 – 01:02:57
27: Choose Yourself—Making up your career path as you go (ft. Abby Covert)
Mar 20, 2022 – 59:23
26: Chief Design Officers and Design Executive Effectiveness (ft. Gordon Ching)
Mar 12, 2022 – 55:04
25—The Reckoning
Jan 22, 2021 – 45:07
24: Delving into digital design—craft, teaching, lessons from architecture, standards and certification (ft. Jorge Arango)
Jan 5, 2021 – 47:41
23–Make UX truly human-centered by addressing trauma, power, and other necessary and uncomfortable realities (ft. Vivianne Castillo)
Dec 10, 2020 – 54:41
22: “Right problem, right solution, done right”—The Vanguard of User Research (ft. Jen Cardello)
Nov 17, 2020 – 49:18
21—Creativity, banishing inner critics, impostor syndrome, and systemic racism (ft Denise Jacobs)
Nov 5, 2020 – 35:58
20—The business model is the new grid, and other mindbombs (ft. Erika Hall)
Oct 27, 2020 – 44:16
19 – Growth mindsets, vulnerability, sociopathy, totalitarianism… that escalated quickly (ft. Billie Mandel)
Oct 20, 2020 – 43:32
18: How Agile and Scrum ruined product management, and other things (ft. Melissa Perri)
Oct 8, 2020 – 41:10
17 – Design leadership lessons from bicycling (ft. Sally Carson)
Sep 29, 2020 – 46:37
16 – How can a designer grow in their career without becoming a manager? (and more)
Sep 15, 2020 – 46:45
15: Mailbag—Funding models; from output to impact; personal safety and security
Jul 24, 2020 – 42:32
14: “If your team’s work isn’t good, you didn’t set clear expectations,” and other Design Leadership Truisms
Jul 15, 2020 – 34:28
13: Facing Systemic Racism in Design
Jul 9, 2020 – 41:07
12: Ands Not Ors (ft. Maria Giudice)
Jul 1, 2020 – 39:20
11: The Leadership Plateau and the Marketing Vortex
Jun 24, 2020 – 37:22
10: We Have Trust Issues
Jun 16, 2020 – 40:27
9: Consultancy Rat Blues, Part 2
Jun 9, 2020 – 26:57
8: Consultancy Rat Blues, Part 1
Jun 5, 2020 – 32:06

Recent Reviews

AnnoyedUser_ks

Brilliant podcast about the challenges facing UX design leadership

I just finished the season finale of the Finding Our Way podcast and I absolutely loved it. Through all 25 episodes they tackled some truly important challenges facing UX design leadership. Even as a freelance researcher that has not worked internally for 15 years, I got a tremendous amount out of it. What I enjoyed most (and honestly found refreshing) was how Jesse and Peter made it clear that they did NOT have all the answers. Navigating the direction of our industry is a journey we’re all on together and I just love how they invited us to figure this out together. Through amazing discussions with admirable guests, they unpacked some juicy topics with brilliant insights. Some of my favorite episodes were with Erika Hall, Jen Cardello, Billie Mandel
newuxer

Great

Episode 22 is awesome. Listened multiple times.
glencoco11

What happened to episodes 1-5?!

I enjoyed episode 6, but what happened to the beginning episodes of this podcast? I feel like I missed something