Design To Be Conversation

After 65 episodes, today’s show is the last episode of our podcast, Design To Be Conversation. There are big shifts happening behind the scenes with Design To Be and closing the chapter on our podcast will allow us to take the proper next steps to what’s ahead. Thank you all for listening. Now, for our final episode! Jehad Affoneh is a design and product leader who's led design, product, and engineering teams most recently at VMware and Splunk. He is currently Chief Design Officer at Toast, leading the product, customer, and end-to-end experience that empowers tens of thousands of restaurants to delight their guests, do what they love, and thrive. He lives with his wife in Redwood City, California. We chat about why designers struggle to build end-to-end experiences, why many organizations ship their org structure, the ways to avoid this,  and ways you can think this through.

Andy Vitale is a design executive, educator, speaker, and co-host of the Surfacing Podcast. He is currently the Executive Vice President of Design at Rocket Companies, where he leads a team focused on transforming the lending and finance industry, through a human-centered approach, to provide the best experience for millions of people. Throughout his career, he has built, scaled, and led teams that elevate the role of Design as an organizational competence and a competitive advantage. We dive into how his career evolved over time, how you create a space to scale a team and grow their capabilities, how he values teaching online, mentoring often, and how interns have been valuable to the Rocket design team.

Amy Thibodeau is the Chief Design Officer at Gusto, where she empowers designers, researchers, and content strategists who are working on products that connect companies with their employees in a more meaningful way. Previously, Amy was a senior director of UX at Shopify where she led a cross-functional team of over 130 people working on core business products. During her time at Shopify, she also led the launch of the Polaris design system, built the Platform UX team and founded the Design Ops practice. In earlier iterations of her life, she was one of the first members of Facebook’s now gigantic content strategy team, renovated an old house in the south of France, worked in art museums, and traveled around the world for a year. Amy lives in Canada with her husband Dan and small but mighty dogs, Gus and Ella. We dive into the difference between the tension between speed and quality, the importance of creating shared language and goals, as well as the conditions for quality and velocity, and much much more.

Renato Valdés Olmos is an executive, angel investor, and advisor with over two decades of experience serving millions of customers worldwide. He's built products, brands, and organizations in various industries, including artificial intelligence, transportation, healthcare, and productivity tools. Most recently, he served as VP of Product at Pitch, and Head of Design at Grammarly and is currently focusing on being a Dad and investor. We dive into the most important lessons he’s learned throughout his career, how his career has evolved from a designer to an executive, to being involved in the investment space, and even the most transformational experience of his life.