Finding Our Way
A podcast about navigating the
opportunities and challenges of design leadership
with Jesse James Garrett and Peter Merholz
Recent Episodes
63: AI Means Product Needs UX More than Ever (ft. Christian Crumlish)
Product leader, author, and civic tech veteran Christian Crumlish joins Peter and Jesse to discuss his transition from UX to product management and his experimental AI product manager, Piper Morgan. The conversation explores how product and design roles can be…
62: Design as Differentiator in a World of AI (ft. Andrew Hogan)
Figma’s Head of Insights Andrew Hogan joins Peter and Jesse to explore emerging trends in design practice as AI transforms creative workflows. The conversation examines how role boundaries are blurring across product teams, where AI delivers real value versus hype,…
61: The Paradoxes of Product Discovery (ft. Teresa Torres)
Product Discovery coach, teacher, and author Teresa Torres joins Peter and Jesse to explore the messy reality of organizational change and cross-functional collaboration. She discusses why external coaching has limits, how individual contributors can drive change within resistant systems, and…
60: Making the World– Design Education and Social Change (ft. Lesley-Ann Noel, PhD)
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel, Dean of Design at OCAD, joins Jesse and Peter to discuss her global journey from Trinidad to Toronto, leading design education through relationships over craft, preparing students for social change, and her vision for decolonizing design while…
59: Design Isn’t Dead, But It’s Seen Better Days (ft. John Gleason)
Peter and Jesse are joined by design and business consultant John Gleason. Coming up through P&G’s famous design initiative, we get his perspective on design beyond digital products, such as consumer packaged goods, we explore some significant parallels across industries…
58: AI is a Stress Test for Your UX: What Cracks Will It Show?
Jesse and Peter explore how AI is revealing the true value proposition of design teams. They discuss why “whoever controls the prompt controls the product” and why design leaders must understand their organization’s expectations before embracing AI. The more things…
57: On Being a Chief Experience Officer (ft. Amy Lokey)
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what’s next for design is Amy Lokey, Chief Experience Officer for the enterprise software platform, ServiceNow. We’ll be talking about building a team that unifies product experience with customer experience, defining experience metrics…
56: Design’s Role in the Evolution of Product Management (ft. Sara Beckman)
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what’s next for design is Dr. Sara Beckman, Professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and longtime observer and commentator of the dynamic between design and business. We’ll be talking more about the…
55: The Maker Mindset Connecting Product, Design, and Engineering (ft. Todd Wilkens)
Joining Peter and Jesse to talk about what’s next for design is Todd Wilkens, part of our leadership at Adaptive Path years ago, who has gone from design leadership to product leadership to fully integrated leadership of design, product, and…
Finding Our Way 