UX Maturity: Recent Episodes
Susan Zhuang, Sandrine Duval
Welcome to UX Maturity, a podcast for all things UX hosted by Susan Zhuang and Sandrine Duval, and founded by Leonardo Mattei. We want to help designers identify the maturity within their teams, and provide methods that help them adapt and optimise their processes to achieve success in their roles.
For new designers who are just starting their journey in UX, we also have a plethora of "dos and don'ts" to help you secure a role, or set you up for success in your existing role.
New episodes every week!
In our last episode of season 4, we ask ourselves: do we need product managers? Can people in other disciplines, like designers and engineers, do product management, or is it essential that there is a dedicated PM on every team? When does it make sense to have PMs and when does it not?
This week we're talking about delivery speed and the fine balance to find with delivering quality. We explore why it matters, the impact delivery speed can have on the quality of the team's outputs and how we as designers can face this challenge.
We talk about money. How transparent should we be about salaries with our peers, recruiters, and companies? How should salary negotiations be handled or not handled? What about raises and promotions?
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com.
We're back this week with a heavy topic on discrimination. We're trying to unpack how being discriminated feels like, what discrimination looks like and why it occurs in the workplace. We also explore how we can be better allies and improve our work environments.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com.
We talk about nepotism and other signs of toxicity in the workplace. We discuss why it’s so damaging to individuals and teams when there’s systemic toxicity at work, and share thoughts on what to do when you find yourself in these situations.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every other Friday!
We explore the challenges and difficult feelings of taking time off from work due to mental health. We discuss why it is tricky to be honest and upfront about it, and fears we may have about the perception others have of us and our reliability at work.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every two weeks on Friday
This week Tiia Meuronen and Tom Kerwin guest our podcast to share their experiences with redundancies and having their hours and pay cut. We talk about how you can look after yourself while going through such challenging experiences, how companies handle redundancies and pay cuts well and not so well, and what the wider design community can do to look after each other.
Find Tom on LinkedIn, his Innovation Tactics deck on Pip Decks, his Pivot Triggers on Maven, and his consulting services on Trigger Strategy Group.
Follow Tiia on LinkedIn and check out her company Béa Fertility.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every other Friday!
Today we’re discussing feedback and how it can sometimes be delivered poorly. We explore in what contexts or situations poor feedback tends to occur and how we can best react to it.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every two weeks on Friday
We talk about mediocrity and low standards where design over time doesn’t deliver impact or meet the standards set by ourselves and others. We discuss what might cause mediocre design, how experience as leaders and designers can affect our standards, and what we can do to improve our design standards.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com.
This week we talk about toxic goal-setting and productivity. We reflect on the best way to evaluate growth at work and best practices to set goals for ourselves. We also discuss productivity and how to set healthy boundaries when we're caught into the hustle mentality.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com.
We talk about being human at work, whether that's our emotional states or more enduring traits of our identities and personalities which all influence how we interact with our work and our coworkers. We discuss the challenges of the notion of “bringing your whole self” to work and how managers and leaders can better support humans at work.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com.
We're back for another design conversation, this time about bad job search experiences. We share our own past experiences searching for a design role and what we've found frustrating and uncomfortable when interviewing with companies. We also open the Pandora's Box on design tasks and share a few tips on what to do with unpleasant recruitment experiences.
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every other Friday!
In our first episode of season 4, we share our experiences of being introverted designers in extraverted workplaces. What challenges have we found, how have we overcome them, and what value can we bring by having more diversity of thinking and communication styles in our industry?
Follow us on Twitter @designkaffe and check out our website designkaffe.com. New episode every other Friday!
Welcome to Design Kaffé, a podcast where we have mindful, candid conversations for designers in tech. In our fortnightly episodes, we discuss a wide range of topics to explore what it means to be a designer, the challenges we face in the design and tech industry, and share thoughts on how we can all be better at what we do. We hope you enjoy listening!
In this last episode of season 3, we look back and reflect over the season’s episodes and format. We talk about what felt challenging to us and what lessons we took away from this season.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We complete our last theme for season 3 by exploring the when and how of gathering insights. When during design do we know we should gather insights? How do we get started gathering insights, and what are some of the common mistakes we make in doing so?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
This week we continue our theme on Insights and deep-dive into identifying and using insights. We talk about the best ways to analyse data and extract meaningful insights, what methodologies we like to use and how visualising insights can be key to retain them throughout the design process.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday
We have the wonderful Léa Samrani on as a guest this week to discuss how product managers and designers can collaborate well with each other. We explore the differences and overlap in PM and designer roles and responsibilities, and the importance of nurturing the PM-designer duo relationship to drive better outcomes.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday!
We’re starting a new theme on Insights and discuss the differences of being Data-Driven vs Data-Informed. We dive into how team dynamics or design process can differ with each approach. We also cover lessons from our experience and share why we believe in a Data-informed approach ourselves.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday
We round off our Management theme by talking about managing ourselves. How do we manage our goals—whether they’re project goals or career goals—and ensure we set the right goals to begin with? How do we self-manage both our deliverables as well as our ultimate impact and outcomes? And how do we keep ourselves accountable?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday!
We’re continuing our Management theme this week and talk about managing upwards. We share our experience and lessons on how to challenge or give feedback to senior colleagues and managers.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday!
This week we are kicking off a new theme on Management, starting with some reflections on what it’s like ‘to be managed’. We explore what qualities we value in a great design manager and what management practices have marked us in our experience.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday!
We round off our Productivity theme by discussing how we can be better at making decisions and be biased towards action. How do we create an environment where people are empowered and trusted to make decisions in the face of risk and incomplete information? How do we mitigate sign-off culture and decision paralysis, so that we can effectively move forward towards better outcomes?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday!
In our second episode on Productivity, we deep-dive into the value of slack: why is it important — and not counterproductive — for productivity to have downtime, take breaks, and not do work for a while? What does good slack and bad slack look like? How can we be better at incorporating slack into our practice as individual designers as well as teams?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
In this week’s episode, Yuri Martins joined us to talk about accessibility and his approach at Typeform! We dive into accessibility by design, what a good process looks like and also chat about some of the big misconceptions about accessibility.
Yuri recommends the following resources for accessibility: Microsoft figma library, Twitter Figma library, Microsoft/Inclusive, Building for Everyone, Universal Design, Designing Voice User Interfaces
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday
We kick off a new theme, Productivity, by discussing the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. How are they different, and how do they go hand in hand? When should we focus on being efficient and when should we focus on being effective? What are our hacks and tips for have we can be more productive by working more efficiently and effectively?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episodes every Friday!
This week, we cover our last topic in our theme of The Designer Role where we talk about those valuable skills that sit outside the core product design skills. We explore how service, research and content design skills can either often be included in your responsibilities or be stand alone functions that you collaborate with.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday morning!
We continue exploring the theme of The Designer Role by discussing whether or not a UX/UI Designer is the same as a Product Designer. Where are they similar? What makes them different? Do titles even matter?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episodes every Friday!
We start a new theme about The Designer Role. Our episode this week tackles the controversial topic about UX vs UI 🙈. We talk about the differences in the two roles and explore the value of both being a specialist or a hybrid designer.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com. New episode every Friday morning!
In our last episode about Discovery, we discuss how we deal with ambiguity in discovery: when and how do we run into ambiguity in our discovery work? Should we always seek certainty or embrace ambiguity? How do we help our stakeholders deal with ambiguity as well?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
This week is about Continuous Discovery! We explore how it differs from project-based discovery as well as some of the best practices about when and how to implement it in your team.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday morning.
This week we are tackling the big mighty theme of Discovery. Starting with a first topic on how to design the right thing VS designing the thing right. We talk about how we frame problems, when we feel that it’s time to move forward within the design process and how solution phase also involves discovery.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday.
For our last episode in our trilogy on how to not lose your soul, we talk about knowing our value as designers: when do we think we’re being undervalued as designers? What can we do to help the rest of the organisation understand what value we bring? To what extent does where design sit in the org chart speak to our value?
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday.
We continue our topic on how to not lose your soul by deep-diving into the challenges of staying creative as a designer. What is creativity in UX and design, and why can it sometimes be so hard to stay creative? What are some ways we can overcome our creativity blocks?
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday.
Sarah Doody joins us this week to talk about UX career and job search. She tells us about how we can benefit from treating our career like a product and gives many valuable advice to designers in search for their next role. Sarah is the founder and CEO of the Career Strategy Lab™.
Articles and videos mentioned in the episode can be found right here: how to write a case study, how to create a UX resume and how to optimise your LinkedIn profile
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates. New episode every Friday.
We explore a new theme: how to not lose your soul. How do we keep our soul as product designers? How do we stick to our user-centred values and principles while meeting business needs? How do we escape the feature factory?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity or buy us a coffee to support us.
This week, we dive into our last empathy topic and talk about the importance of building empathy with ourselves. We discuss how self-empathy impacts us both positively or negatively at work and what practices we’ve tried to build self compassion.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates.
We continue our empathy theme and talk about why it’s important to build empathy with stakeholders. We also share thoughts on how we might be better at being empathetic to our stakeholders and building a compassionate culture.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates.
Our first theme for the season is empathy: we define empathy, talk about the importance of building empathy with our users, and share ways we can be more empathetic with users throughout our design process.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates.
We're back! Here's an overview of who we are and what to expect from UX Maturity season 3.
We are @UX_Maturity on Twitter and UX Maturity on LinkedIn — follow us there for the latest updates.
In our last episode of season 2, we share our thoughts and opinions on what’s valuable to consider when switching careers into UX. See you in season 3!
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website: uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about active listening: what it is, why it’s important, and tools and techniques to improve how we actively listen to our users, stakeholders, and colleagues — so that we can be better designers.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website: uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Joshua Mauldin talks to us about conflict resolution: what is a healthy conflict and what is an unhealthy conflict? How do we create safe spaces that nurture healthy conflict resolution? How do we use empathy in ourselves and others when faced with conflict?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website: uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about the importance of fun and whimsy at work, and how it fosters creativity, interpersonal relationships, and a redefinition of work itself.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website: uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about comfort zones: what are they, how do we get out of them, and why should we get out of them? We touch on growth mindsets, being comfortable with uncertainty, and the consequences of having teams that are too comfortable.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Kay McMahon talks to us about content strategy: what it is, why it’s important, and what skills are involved to ensure the right content is delivered to the right people at the right time.
The content strategy tools Kay mentions:
http://guidetouxr.com — Guide to User Research (UXR): A curated collection of 250+ resources & tools dedicated to user research, that will help you incorporate it into your design practice
https://answerthepublic.com — Answer The Public: uses search insight to generate questions around a topic (for idea generation, phrasing, terminology)
https://www.googlefight.co.uk — Google Fight: pit two words against each other for search volume (by country or worldwide)
Good sites and people to follow
https://builtformars.com/ — Built for Mars: for onboarding teardowns
https://workingincontent.com/resources — Working in Content: for people looking to break into CS roles (US focussed but some good articles)
https://twitter.com/halvorson - Kristina Halvorson
https://twitter.com/hilarymarsh - Hilary Marsh
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Tom Kerwin talks to us about how we can do discovery and delivery at the same time: Pivot Triggers is a lightweight scaffolding framework he’s developed to enable teams to identify and gather signals to decide whether or not we should keep investing in an initiative.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about the importance of falling in love with the problem rather than getting attached to solutions, the value of continuously learning and identifying opportunities, how to approach “MVP”s, and why we’re never really “done” with design.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Is everyone a designer? We talk about what role we have in helping people in other disciplines understand the impact their decisions have on end user experiences. We talk about the unique skills and perspectives designers do bring to the table, while also democratising design to others to increase UX maturity.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about what impostor syndrome is, why we might have it, and how we can manage it better. The more psychological safety we create at work to talk about topics such as impostor syndrome, the better practitioners, team members, and leaders we become.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Tim Yeo (https://www.thequietachievr.com/) talks to us about being introverts in the design industry, how introversion is a strength and not a weakness, and techniques we can use to succeed as introverted designers.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
How do we avoid deterioration of user experiences by neglecting design debt and UX maintenance? We talk about the importance and value of fixing UX issues, paper cut bugs, and making small UX improvements over time — even though it's not the most exciting thing to work on. We discuss why it's a common challenge, and techniques we can use to ensure we tend to our UX gardens.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Stakeholder management is a nuanced skill we all need to learn as practitioners. We talk about why it's important to manage stakeholders, discuss techniques of effective stakeholder management, and reflect on times we've managed stakeholders poorly.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
How do we make sure we continuously grow and learn as UX practitioners? We talk about techniques to keep developing our craft and career, how we learn differently, and how to explain the value of carving out space to learn at work. We touch on personal OKRs, networking, mentoring, and more!
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
What's the best design talent and how do you hire them? We talk about how to design better hiring processes, good and bad experiences we've had ourselves when being interviewed for design roles, and how to deal with subjectivity and bias in hiring.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
What to expect from UX Maturity and a chance for us to introduce ourselves.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Season 2 is here! In this episode, we talk about learning from mistakes, how to foster a positive culture, how to grow together by reflecting on our actions.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We reflect on the first season, what we learned, what it takes to launch a podcast or a new project, and what we are expecting from season 2. See you soon!
We reflect on what it means that a growing number of companies are more design mature than ever. We talk about how branding can be a differentiator and how important it is to have a unique experience for people. We ask ourselves whether uniformity leads to better experiences or not.
We give our opinions and highlight pros and cons about working in small and big teams. We Touch upon culture, scale, structure, and chaos.
How do we deal with conflict? How important is it? What do we usually do when people disagree in a team? How can we use conflict to learn and move forward?
We talk about all of this and share our experiences with conflict.
We share our opinions on what it means for us to be happy in our roles, touching upon independence, flexibility, and personal values. We also talk about how companies can support people's growth and create a good environment.
We talk about how we manage side projects, how we motivate ourselves, and what works for us. We also cover how they improve us as designers.
What's the best way to deliver feedback? Is there a structure that we can follow? How do we make sure that the other person takes action on the feedback we deliver? Also, what's the best attitude to receive feedback?
We talk about all of this in this episode and we reflect on the importance of feedback.
We talk about promotion, both from the employee and manager perspectives. We unpack key aspects related to it like career progression and owning your career path, setting the right expectations, and imposter syndrome. We also share our perspectives on how to understand if someone is ready to be promoted and how to support them to succeed in their new role.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Federico Francioni talks to us about the future of design and how design roles will evolve in the future, highlighting the most important skills to have an impact on the world.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We define creativity and talk about how to set up a creative environment. We talk about why it's crucial to innovate and improve people's lives.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about how to set healthy boundaries in the team, and how to use them to encourage collaboration and improve the design process.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
What are the most important aspects of being a design manager? What are the key responsibilities? How do design managers manage themselves?
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about what we believe is the best approach to start a career in design. We cover dealing with insecurities, learning, and mindsets.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about the different types of designers, and cover important aspects of designers' lives like being empathetic, being facilitators, and learning.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We talk about what works in a portfolio at different career stages, and what we believe can be more attractive for a company.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We have a discussion on design tasks during interviews, how we can better assess candidates and how we can design a fairer interview process.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
We exchange ideas and points of view on how we learn as humans and designers, and reflect on failure and creativity in the workplace.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Susan Zhuang talks to us about the principles of inclusive and accessible design, how it can be strategically important, and also a competitive advantage.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
In this episode we cover the different users that designers have, how to make a bigger impact, and how equity plays a role in our design decisions.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.
Welcome to UX Maturity! In the first episode we give our definition of UX Maturity and tell you what to expect from the next episodes.
Follow us on Twitter @UX_Maturity and check out our website uxmaturitypodcast.com.