A crucial skill for any content practitioner is the ability to sort out complex work environments and thrive within them. David Connis shows how a systems thinking mindset can help you cope with the upheaval of AI, the messy realities of content work, and other complex design challenges. He teaches a course on systems thinking […]
leadership
Pavel Samsonov: Content-First Product Design Leadership – Episode 190
Pavel Samsonov is a UX product designer with a deep appreciation of content. His content-first approach to design is driven by his observation that navigating digital experiences is about accessing content, not clicking buttons. Pavel has also cultivated a deep awareness of the semantic environments that he and his colleagues navigate and he uses that […]
Michael Haggerty-Villa: Design Systems and Content Strategy
Michael Haggerty-Villa’s work with content and designs systems spans the history of these practices. From his work at eBay on one of the earliest design systems up until today, he has been at the forefront of both content strategy leadership and design system innovation. This conversation focuses on design systems, but it was inevitable that […]
Gladys Diandoki: Content Design Leadership Built on Strategy and Research – Episode 183
Gladys Diandoki brings a strong research mindset and a consistent focus on strategy to her content work. Her approach yields both solid design results and an increased appreciation for content design among her colleagues and clients. It’s not only her clients who benefit from her work. Gladys is also an active leader in the field, […]
Nicole Michaelis: Thoughtful Content Design Leadership – Episode 180
Nicole Michaelis brings a thoughtful leadership style and deep and varied experience to her content design work. Like all of us, she is pondering how to best use AI in her practice and wrestling with the impacts of layoffs and other change in the content and design professions. Despite the current challenging business and labor […]
Peter Compo: The Emergent Approach to Strategy – Episode 174
Peter Compo says that “the number one thing missing in most strategic plans is a strategy.” He’s talking about the tendency of executives and managers to draft plans that present lists of goals and include a bullet point for every possible stakeholder in their purview. Peter points out that true strategy involves tough trade-offs and […]
Relly Annett-Baker: Stalwart Advocate for UX Content – Episode 173
Relly Annett-Baker recently said in a LinkedIn post, “The words are an expression of the solution, the last 20%, but we also need to do the 80% that comes before to know wtf to write. ” UX writers and content designers spend a lot of their time, arguably too much of it, explaining this core […]
Melinda Belcher: Inspirational Design Leadership – Episode 171
As content design becomes entrenched as a UX design practice, leaders from the craft are beginning to move into design leadership positions. Melinda Belcher’s ascent to her current design executive management role is an instructive and inspirational story of professional development, creative team leadership, and community building. We talked about: her path to her current […]
Alli Mooney: Executive-level Content Design Leadership – Episode 160
Content leaders are beginning to ascend the corporate org chart. Alli Mooney is VP of Content Design at Mastercard, where she leads a team of content designers and guides big organization-change initiatives. Like many content professionals, she began her career in publishing and journalism, but her path also included a stint in trend reporting, which […]
Donna Lichaw: The Leader’s Journey – Episode 154
Crafting your identity as a leader is a lot like creating your superhero persona. You need to be able to discover your authentic identity and pursue a clear mission, and to do that you need to understand your unique superpowers. In her new book The Leader’s Journey, Donna Lichaw draws on her experience as an […]