Design Systems Podcast

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On today's episode of The Design Systems Podcast, Allison Shaw, Director of Design at Adobe, shares insights from her expansive journey in design systems. From her early days modernizing Yelp’s desktop experience to her pivotal roles at Zendesk and Adobe, Allison talks openly about transitioning from a designer IC role to management, the power of humility, and the importance of fostering strong mentor relationships. Check it out!
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Guest
Allison helps companies mature and scale their design system practices and is passionate about inclusive, accessible design. Currently, Allison is the Director of Design for the Spectrum Design System at Adobe, leading the core design system and unified experiences across Creative Cloud and Generative AI. She previously led the Garden Design System at Zendesk, and also worked across consumer tech at places like Thumbtack, Twitter, and Yelp.

Host
Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsor
Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

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Josh Clark and Chris Strahl dive into an in-depth discussion about navigating the digital landscape amidst economic unpredictability. They discuss the intricacies of building and maintaining design systems in large organizations, addressing the challenges of scaling, and emphasizing the strategic value of digital investments. Josh, an advocate for design systems as capital expenditure, shares his expertise on how these systems contribute to product development, impact revenue, and enhance customer retention, all while ensuring a balance between innovation and automation.

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Guest

Josh Clark is the founder and principal of Big Medium, a digital agency that specializes in big design, helping complex organizations design at scale. He‘s a UX design leader who guides projects to build design systems and transform digital organizations through emerging technology, process, and user experience. At Big Medium, Josh’s clients include Caterpillar, United Airlines, UPS, the Cigna Group, Dotdash Meredith, Pfizer, and many others.

Host

Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsor

Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

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Zach, Aaron, and Chris discuss the commonalities between design systems and products, as well as how a product-driven mindset can help your design systems achieve new levels of enterprise adoption and scale.

Guest: Zach Hendershot is a Managing Partner at Crux Digital. He is a leader with a diverse background of building and growing digital products within startups and large enterprises. He's passionate about scaling, reusability, and great customer experiences everywhere, and has worked to find new ways to bridge the gap between great customer experience and great digital products. He's led cross-functional digital teams at Charter Spectrum, Ogilvy, and others. You can find Zach on LinkedIn.

Guest: Aaron Stone is the Founder of Crux Digital. He is an experienced technology leader, full-stack application developer, and UX evangelist with a focus on user-driven digital products, insightful interaction design, and scalable, high-quality code. He has been the technical architect for enterprise design systems for Transamerica, Charter Spectrum, and GE Renewable Energy as well as helping teams deliver the complex technology ecosystems that surround them. He built Crux Digital around an amazingly talented group of design-minded engineers who have collectively been responsible for world-class digital product delivery for the Fortune 1000 for the past four years. You can find him on LinkedIn.

Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.

Sponsor: Knapsack is a design system platform rooted in code for shipping consistent apps in half the time. Design once, build once, use everywhere. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

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Informatica's design and AI director, Ranjeet Tayi doing us on the Design Systems Podcast to discuss AI's transformative impact on design systems, elucidating the shift from static products to dynamic, personalized AI-driven experiences. Chris and Ranjeet navigate through the intricacies of AI's influence on crafting hyper-personalized interfaces, the burgeoning role of predictive analytics in UIs, and the ascendance of voice and text as forefronts of design. The discussion extends to the integration of AI in chatbots, the pivotal role of open-source tools, and the breakthroughs in creativity AI has facilitated in areas like movie and music production. Furthermore, we probe into the indispensable role of design systems in fostering cohesive components, enhancing personalized branding, and amplifying user engagement through continuous learning. Our conversation culminates by highlighting the convergence of AI and design, underlining the significance of structured data, ethical considerations, and AI's capability to redefine the software development lifecycle.

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Guest
Ranjeet Tayi, Director of AI Experience at Informatica, brings 18+ years of UX and AI leadership, advocating GOOD DATA & GOOD DESIGN. Worked at SumTotal, PURE IT Usability Research, and co-founding Mind Visions, he holds 5 patents and is an extraordinary recipient, with a background in Philosophy in Mass Communication & Design Management. Recognized as a speaker, author, and design awards judge, Ranjeet actively serves on non-profit boards & design councils.

Host
Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsor
Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

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On today's episode of the Design Systems Podcast, we hear from Catalina Manea, Senior Designer at Spelunk, about the crucial intersection of design and development. Catalina shares her journey from graphic design to product and systems design, providing insights into the importance of reusability, cross-functional collaboration, and empathy in building scalable and adaptable design systems. Catalina emphasizes that design systems go beyond UI and consistency—they are powerful tools for enhancing teamwork and agility in fast-paced environments.

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Guest
Catalina Manea has been a system designer since the early stages of her career as a product designer, working with both emerging and established design systems. She has collaborated with cross-functional teams to launch new systems from scratch and has contributed to refining and evolving well-established ones across multiple industries. Throughout Catalina’s career, she has enjoyed mentoring junior designers and sharing insights at industry conferences.

Host
Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsor
Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.