PODCAST · arts
World-class Designer Podcast
by Guidione Machava
This podcast is a series of interviews with world-class designers. I interview designers from world-leading tech companies such as IDEO, Dropbox, Airbnb, Google, Youtube and others.
Episodes
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"Fixed Customer Journeys Are Worthless" — Designing for Customers That Aren't Human | Katja Forbes
Katja Forbes has spent 30 years in digital and design. She built, scaled and sold her own design consultancy, led design inside corporate, and now calls herself "a recovering design leader". She is the author of Machine Customers: The Evolution Has Begun, and she flew from Australia to Paris for...
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"It's Not Taste, It's Discipline" — A Paris Design Partner's 80/20 Rule | Maxime Frere
Maxime Frere is Partner and Principal Designer at Source Paris and leads a design team at Bpifrance. He has changed companies seven times, run a team of 25 as Head of Design at BPCE, worked at frog and Capgemini, and gone back to craft on purpose.In this episode he says the things most hiring...
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"AI Is Confident When It's Wrong" | NYU Professor Regine Gilbert on Who Design Leaves Out
AI as Designer? Regine Gilbert on Inclusive Design, Bias, and Ethical UX in a Faster Workflow In the first episode of the World Class Design podcast, host Guidione Machava interviews NYU professor and author Regine Gilbert about how generative AI is changing design work, why speed-focused…
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A Larger Role for Product Design by Marty Cagan
Marty Cagan explores a broader role for product designers in empowered teams. The session examines the difference between delivering requested features and helping discover solutions to customer and business problems. In this session: • Feature teams and empowered product teams • Giving teams...
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Introduction to the WCD Initiative and Keynote by Randy J hunt
Randy J. Hunt reflects on expanding his design practice from individual touchpoints to whole businesses and complex marketplaces. Drawing on experiences including Supermarket, Etsy and Grab, the keynote explores design at different scales. In this session: • Designing a complete customer…
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Disambiguating Design by Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan
Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan explores the changing shape of design roles and the skills designers can develop. The session moves from specialist and broader skill profiles to reflection on career direction and design’s wider impact. In this session: • Building depth and breadth in design skills •...
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Don t think like a designer by Jamie Lee Easton
Jamie-Lee Easton challenges designers to look beyond copying established products and processes. The talk explores how to understand real user needs, use familiar patterns thoughtfully and adapt the design process to the situation. In this session: • Using competitors as inputs instead of...
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Hacking Your Design Career by Christian San Jose
Christian San Jose reflects on a design career that moved through illustration, freelance work, agencies and business ownership. The session explores experimentation, relationships and the freedom to change direction. In this session: • Why design careers rarely follow a straight line • Learning...
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How to Build a Career in Design with Side Projects by Darshan Gajara
Darshan Gajara shares how Product Disrupt began as a side project and created unexpected career opportunities. The talk explores starting with a useful problem, sharing what you make and learning through the process. In this session: • The difference between a side project and a side business •...
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Vacuums, Gasses, and the Road to UX Management by Jack Moffett
Jack Moffett reflects on moving from an individual contributor role into UX management. The talk explores learning to support other designers, letting go of hands-on work and finding satisfaction in a team’s growth. In this session: • Learning with and without a design manager • Giving colleagues...
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Design into Strategy and Innovation - RoI by Sanmitra Chitte
Sanmitra Chitte explores how design management connects creative work with business strategy. The session focuses on explaining design’s value through the language of business and identifying direct and indirect impact. In this session: • Design management as facilitation • Developing business...
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Death of a UX Salesman or UX is Dead, Long Live UX by Lola Oyelayo Pearson
Lola Oyelayo Pearson challenges narrow ideas of UX and asks how designers can remain useful as business and technology change. The talk connects user-centered practice with commercial understanding and opportunities beyond familiar interfaces. In this session: • Understanding business constraints...
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Designing for Trust by Katja Forbes
Katja Forbes examines how design decisions can earn or undermine trust, especially when technology makes decisions people cannot see. The session offers ways to think about trustworthiness in products and services. In this session: • Individual and institutional trust • Making invisible decisions...
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Design Products for Happiness by Alipta Ballav
Alipta Ballav explores how products can support pleasure, meaning and a sense of accomplishment. The session introduces positive-design ideas and the PERMA model as ways to think beyond basic functionality. In this session: • Balancing practical, pleasurable and meaningful product qualities •...
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Transformation through Design by Jane Vita
Jane Vita explores how design can help organizations move through uncertainty and build a shared direction. The talk connects dialogue, collaboration and service planning with the practical work of testing assumptions. In this session: • Recognizing the limits of individual perspectives •…
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Output vs Outcome Why Your Best Design is Invisible by Lily Konings
Visible design work is only part of the value a designer creates. Lily Konings explores the decisions, trade-offs and understanding behind effective products, and why beautiful output needs a clear purpose. In this session: • Distinguishing visible output from meaningful outcomes • Understanding...
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Uprooting Stereotypes through Research and Allyship by Brenda Laurel
Brenda Laurel revisits the research behind Purple Moon to show how better questions can challenge stereotypes. The session connects research methods with self-inquiry and the responsibilities of allyship. In this session: • Questioning assumptions about girls and technology • Learning through...
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Design Professionalism, Innovation, and Being Human by Jonathan Strebly
What responsibilities come with being a design professional? Johnathon Strebly connects the history of designing to the standards, collective action and public obligations that can shape the profession’s future. In this session: • Design as a human practice across cultures • Professional…
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“Have you eaten_”_ Mindsets to thrive in teams without borders by Zoey Nguyen
Working across cultures starts with recognizing that your own assumptions are not universal. Zoey Nguyen shares mindsets for building respectful, inclusive relationships in teams without borders. In this session: • Respecting different perspectives and your own cultural identity • Adapting…
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Scaling Innovation by Sam Yen and Janaki Kumar
Innovation needs both creativity and execution. Sam Yen and Janaki Kumar explore why finding the right problem matters as much as solving it, and how design thinking can spread beyond a small design team. In this session: • Finding problems worth solving • Moving from pushing design to creating...
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How to influence product decisions by leveraging design debt by Susan Park and Sahana Kumar
Design debt builds up when teams ship decisions without clear user needs, shared product goals or a plan to learn after launch. Susan Park and Sahana Kumar explain how to spot those warning signs and bring design into product decisions earlier. In this session: • Recognizing design debt before it...
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How a Design System Helped Change My Career | Hannah Dreher
A project that improves everyone’s work can also change the direction of your career. For Hannah Dreher, building a modular email design system was part of the journey from graphic design into product management. Hannah shares how she developed digital skills, earned the trust of developers and...
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Why I Design Things You Can’t See | Juliana Proserpio
Some of the most important things we design never appear on a screen. Juliana Proserpio explores the systems, services, strategies and business models that shape how people live and work. Drawing on her experience building Echos and moving between Brazil and Australia, Juliana discusses how...
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What I Found Missing in Western Design Education | Sarah El Khamsa
Whose knowledge gets treated as universal in design education? Sarah El Khamsa reflects on studying European design traditions while seeing a different creative heritage around her in Tunisia. We discuss what designers miss when they overlook local craft, culture and lived experience. Sarah…
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Why I Design for Users and the Business | Renato Paixão
A design can look good and still miss the point. Renato Paixão explains why designers need to understand how their work helps users achieve their goals and contributes to the business. We discuss finding the problem beneath the symptoms, resisting the urge to jump straight into solutions and...
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Why I Left Google to Prototype a Different Life | Jonah Goldsaito
What happens when the career you’ve built no longer fits the life you want? Jonah Goldsaito shares why he left Google and began experimenting with different ways of living with his family. Our conversation follows the varied projects and skills that shaped his path as a design generalist. We also...
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How I Bring My Team Into User Research | Patricia Machado
Understanding users is only part of the job. Your research also needs people inside the organization who understand it, care about it and can act on it. Patricia Machado shares how she approaches the relationships behind effective user research. We discuss engaging stakeholders, speaking up…
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The Website Mistake That Changed How I Design | Sabeeha Banubhai
The layouts were ready. Then the content arrived, and much of the website needed to change. Sabeeha Banubhai shares a project lesson that reshaped how she thinks about designing content-driven experiences. The developer turned design entrepreneur also explains why a process should serve the...
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What I Learned About Leadership Beyond Job Titles | Thaisa Fernandes
You can lead through your expertise before you have a senior title. Thaisa Fernandes reflects on the leadership opportunities she once avoided and what changed her perspective. We follow her move from design into project and program management, exploring the strengths that carried across those...
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What I Look for Beyond a Designer’s Portfolio | Koji Pereira
A strong portfolio can get you considered. What helps convince a team that you can do the job? Koji Pereira shares a hiring manager’s perspective on the judgment, collaboration and product thinking behind successful design work. Drawing on his experience working internationally, Koji discusses…
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What Nairobi Taught Me About Design | Adrian Jankowiak
Adrian Jankowiak approached design as a minimalist. Nairobi’s creative community expanded his sense of what good design could look and feel like. Adrian traces a journey through industrial design, travel and community building that helped lead to Nairobi Design Week. We discuss learning from…
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What I Look for in a Design Mentor | Alex Morin
An admired designer’s online work shows only part of the story. Alex Morin explains why learning the job also means seeing difficult conversations, imperfect decisions and what it takes to ship a product. We discuss finding mentors, learning with a community and staying open to the expertise of...
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The Career Opportunity I Didn’t Think I Deserved | Indaiá Militão
Early in her career, Indaiá Militão was offered an opportunity to stay in Europe and move into management. She turned it down. Looking back, she describes how fear and doubt shaped a decision she came to regret. Indaiá shares lessons from a career spanning automotive design, aircraft interiors…
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Why I Stopped Thinking I Had All the Design Answers | Thomas Link
Being the designer doesn’t mean you’re the only person with a useful design idea. Thomas Link reflects on moving beyond an early belief that the designer should have all the answers. We discuss the gap between a convincing concept and an experience people can actually use, and why a new context…
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What Working for Exposure Taught Me | Maria Karnaukhova
An offer to work for exposure can sound like a way into the industry. Maria Karnaukhova explains what it can cost when expectations, boundaries and the value of design are left undefined. Drawing on her own experience, Maria discusses unpaid work for commercial clients and why she distinguishes…
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How I Went From Back-End Development to UX | Bianca Lima
Bianca Lima could build the technology, but she wanted to understand the people using it. That curiosity helped take her from back-end development into UX. Bianca shares how independent study, workshops and a career move within her company helped her begin again in a new field. We discuss the...
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Why I Want Design to Serve the Planet Too | Daniela Maldonado
A product can help its users while creating problems elsewhere. Daniela Maldonado asks what changes when designers consider the planet as a stakeholder too. We discuss her move from engineering into design and her search for work with a social purpose. Daniela reflects on the wider consequences…
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What I Wish I’d Known Before Studying Design Abroad | Yohe Wang
Moving abroad to study design can open your world, and expose gaps you didn’t know you had. Yohe Wang reflects on his experience moving from China to New York for a master’s in interaction design. Yohe shares why he wishes he had gained more work experience and clearer goals before making the…
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Why I Treat My Stakeholders Like Users | Viviane Tavares
The people who need your design skills aren’t always outside the company. Viviane Tavares explains how understanding stakeholders as individuals can improve the way a team works together. Vivi reflects on moving from trying to prove her opinions right toward listening, asking for help and...
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How Doing Only What I Was Good At Held Me Back | Megha Damani
Being good at something can make it tempting to stay there. Megha Damani reflects on how choosing only her existing strengths kept her from exploring other work that interested her. We discuss trying unfamiliar disciplines, learning through small projects and finding people who can help you...
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Why I’m Willing to Throw Away My First Idea | Abhinav Ramesh
Letting go of an idea is harder when you’ve already invested in it. Abhinav Ramesh shares a lesson from his mentor: be willing to start again, bringing what you learned from the first attempt. The architect turned interaction designer discusses how feedback and iteration can strengthen a concept...
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Why I Don’t Copy Services Without Understanding the Context | María Isabel Chalco
A service that succeeds in one place may answer a need that doesn’t exist in the same way elsewhere. María Isabel Chalco explains why copying a familiar model is no substitute for understanding its context. We discuss her move from journalism and marketing into service design, and how curiosity...
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How I Learned to Design My Pitch for Its Audience | Pradyumna Surampudi
You’ve designed the product. Have you designed how people will understand it? Pradyumna Surampudi explains why presenting an idea requires the same attention to an audience as the experience itself. We discuss learning to tell a clear story, adapting a pitch to different people and improving...
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Why I’m Rethinking How to Find Problems Worth Solving | Mauro Banze
Having a product idea doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve found a problem worth solving. Mauro Banze joins Guidione Machava for a discussion about the needs, habits and barriers behind useful products. Mauro explores an approach that starts with understanding people before searching for solutions. We...
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Why I Wouldn’t Work for a Social Media Company | Elaine Chu
What kind of work are you willing to put your design skills behind? Elaine Chu explains the values shaping her career choices and, in this conversation, why she would avoid working for a social media company. We also discuss joining an experienced design team at Uber, learning from mistakes and...
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Why I Ask Designers to Advise Their Younger Selves | Guidione Machava
What would experienced designers tell their younger selves? Host Guidione Machava introduces World Class Design, a podcast about the choices, mistakes and lessons that shape a design career. Each conversation invites a guest to look back and share the advice they wish they had heard earlier.…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does World-class Designer Podcast have?
World-class Designer Podcast currently has 46 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is World-class Designer Podcast about?
This podcast is a series of interviews with world-class designers. I interview designers from world-leading tech companies such as IDEO, Dropbox, Airbnb, Google, Youtube and others.
How often does World-class Designer Podcast release new episodes?
World-class Designer Podcast has 46 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to World-class Designer Podcast?
You can listen to World-class Designer Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts World-class Designer Podcast?
World-class Designer Podcast is created and hosted by Guidione Machava.
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