In today’s episode, I speak with Sabrina Hall. Sabrina is a creative leader, product design manager, professor, and writer living in NYC. Currently, she is a Senior Product Design Manager at Etsy. With a career spanning over 14 years, she has collaborated with companies of all sizes. Sabrina is an activist, caring deeply about people and how design impacts others. She is a Board Member for the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and previously served as co-chair of AIGA NY’s Mentoring program. She is also an Adjunct Professor at CUNY where she teaches design. Sabrina is passionate about accessibility in design, creating opportunities for emerging designers and advocating for equity within the field of design.We dive into the impact and nuances of giving and receiving feedback: the role of power dynamics, the vulnerability that’s required in learning, the value of specificity, and how to navigate, call out, and clarify assumptions.

We’re excited to be back after a few months' break. We have many inspiring guests in store for you this time around. We’ll be diving into their insightful stories and sharing their actionable advice, so you can invest in your emotional intelligence to become more impactful in your career. In today’s episode, I speak with Terrence Williams. Terrence is a designer, illustrator, and storyteller located in San Francisco, CA. By producing work that encourages and celebrates an individual's authenticity, he proudly advocates for a more inclusive approach to design. He also strives to connect with audiences through courageous conversation. This has been a critical part of his growth as a voice in this industry, where he elevates designers of color and their intersectional narratives. Terrence hopes to inform, inspire, and empower others to take action and create more inclusive design cultures through the power of compassionate storytelling.We dive into navigating spaces where you are “the only one,” finding authenticity, honoring the story of the community you’re serving, and the four mindsets of Relationship Design: compassion, intention, courage, and reciprocity.

Today’s show marks our 36th and final episode of the Design To Be Conversation podcast before we come back in February 2022. Before we dive into our episode for today, I want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you for listening and supporting Design To Be Conversation and thank you to each of our incredible guests who have made each episode so insightful and impactful. I’m extremely excited for the future of Design To Be Conversation. We have an incredible lineup of guests planned for next year, so be sure to follow us along on social at design_tobe or head to designtobeconversation.com to be the first to know when we return. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.Today, we are wrapping up our show with Raquel Breternitz. Raquel is an award-winning design leader and strategist with a resume spanning years of purpose-driven work experience from serving as Design Director for US Senator Elizabeth Warren to private sector credits at the New York Times, Pivotal Labs, and IBM. Raquel is a public speaker with works and topics connected by a passion for accessibility and inclusion, research-driven design thinking, and a hunger for tackling complex and challenging problems. She has spoken at Lesbians Who Tech, PluralSightLIVE, Wonder Women in Tech, and O'Reilly Design.We dive into what it means to connect with your passions and ideals in design, the importance of prioritizing rest and well-being to manage burnout, and intentional ways to practice self-care that provides purpose and joy.  

In today’s episode, I speak with Bonnie Bakhtiari. Bonnie is a brand designer and strategist for creative entrepreneurs, as well as a coach for fellow graphic, brand, and web designers. She specializes in crafting high converting, strategic brands for her custom design clients. Bonnie currently teaches fellow designers how to generate consistent income and connect with their ideal clients through the Brand Strategy School, her signature program for designers.We dive into learning how you can connect with your ideal clients from a place of ease and intention, how you can turn hustling into building a meaningful relationship with your clients through shared values that are aligned with your client goals, and steps to design effective solutions by understanding your client’s pain points through the lens of self-awareness and collaboration.

In today’s episode, I speak with May-Li Khoe. May-Li is an interdisciplinary, quatricultural, twice-immigrant artist-researcher-designer-inventor who combines invention with cultural practices, bright colors, faces-on-things, and glitter. She brings over 20 years of experience in design, including serving as VP of Design at Khan Academy, co-founding two companies (Scribble Together and Sprout, formerly MakeSpace), and recently creating a music and dance toy-game for the new Playdate game platform. Before that, she worked on new technologies at Apple and other tech organizations ranging from IBM Research, the MIT Media Lab, and Dynamicland, to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Universal Music Group, and Oakland Museum of California. She also DJs, dances, writes, makes art, speaks, teaches, plays music, and cultivates joyful ways to subvert the status quo.We dive into what it means to manage and lead by understanding the emotions that drive people’s behaviors in an organization, the power and responsibility of being a manager versus influencing as an individual contributor, ways to communicate your true authentic voice as a new manager, and how EQ can help you manage more humanely and inclusively in the future. Check out links mentioned in the episode: Catt Small’s article, Should you become a design manager and Kat Vellos’s tweet on the Fast Co. article, The DEI disconnect between tech leaders and their teams.  

In today’s episode, I speak with Priya Anant. Priya is a Senior Director at Google where she has led user-facing teams in fighting spam, abuse and fraud to deliver safe and delightful user experiences.  She leads a multi-disciplinary UX team focused on scaling UX and user-centric product development across Search, Assistant, Shopping, Travel, Maps and Payments. Her expertise is in developing end-to-end connected and inclusive consumer experiences by harnessing the power of design systems, tools and analytics. Prior to Google, Priya spent 10 years in management consulting at Bain where she advised healthcare, technology and consumer goods companies on global growth strategies and operations improvement.We dive into understanding the role of vulnerability in cultivating trusting relationships, how valuing your authentic self allows you to take ownership of your feelings, and how embracing curiosity and a growth mindset can help you overcome imposter syndrome.  

In today’s episode, I speak with Jon Delman. Jon is a Director of Product Design at Twitter in San Francisco. He works within the design and research team focused on internal tools and product solutions. Jon offers tactical advice for young designers on how to approach learning by embracing the courage to fail through his article, Let it be a lesson to you, on Medium. He has over 20 years of professional design experience in both agency and in-house environments, working with brands such as Google, Apple, Splunk, and Samsung. Previously, he worked as Executive Creative Director at ueno, Group Creative Director at Beyond, and a Creative Director at Huge.  We dive into how to develop the courage to fail while also how to learn through failures to design your success, how you can weave more kindness and curiosity into your work through joyful relationships with others and yourself, as well as actionable ways to pursue greater learning by acknowledging when you fail and how to embrace your most authentic self.    

In today’s episode, I speak with Rebecca Brooker. Rebecca is a queer woman of color born in Trinidad + Tobago and currently based in Buenos Aires. She is the co-founder of Queer Design Club, the global online community for LGBTQ+ designers where she spearheads the Queer Design Count which is the first and only survey of LGBTQ+ people in design. She’s an art director at Ghost Note Agency and designs across branding, print, and digital.We dive into learning and understanding the challenges of queer designers in the industry, how data and research can inform inclusive and equity driven design, what community efforts can foster social awareness and collaboration among LGBTQ+ designers, and tactical ways to spark authentic conversations around inclusivity and creating safe spaces for all.

In today’s episode, I speak with Wendy Johansson. Wendy is the Head of UX Apprentice Program at Amazon. She is a global product experience leader and entrepreneur focused on the intersection of product and user experience to scale high-performing global teams. She started and built her career as a UX leader at successful early-stage startups, co-founded Wizeline, a global product development company, and served as Global VP of Experience at Publicis Sapient. Wendy champions women and people of color in tech, and volunteers with organizations for the humane treatment of animals.We dive into what it means to lead in tech and design as a woman and person of color, how identity plays a role in being a leader, and how intentional leadership can drive cross-functional influence through curiosity, collaboration, and communication.

In today’s episode, I speak with Jonathan Shariat. Jonathan is the co-author of Tragic Design published by O'Reilly. He co-hosts the Design Review podcast, and is currently an Interaction Designer and Accessibility Program Lead at Google.We dive into the importance of communication for designers to convey clarity and solve problems, what communication skills he’s learned from parenting books, tactical ways to build good communication skills by actively listening and asking good questions to get behind the why, and how EQ can lead you to become a more effective communicator.