Let's Fix Things

Guest Adriana Chiaia joins Guus and Joe to discuss leveraging the Socratic method to have stronger conversations, dismiss bias, and engage those around you in deeper discussions. The group discuss this method focused on questioning and breaking down assumptions as a way to engage conversations over other methods (such as "5 why's"), and how this can both disarm and engage to have a conversation focused on exploration over "winning". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guest Lily Kolle joins Guus and Joe to discuss a new design toolkit she developed at Raft called Kaleidoscope. A set of questions across the product lifecycle meant to re-frame conversations and solutions. She discusses how to use the cards within conversations and meetings to unstick viewpoints, uncover biases, and develop new ideas. Get the Kaleidoscope deck here: https://raftcollective.com/thinking/kaleidoscope/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

This week Guus and Joe welcome Simply Secure's Designer Director Ame Elliot as a guest podcasting live from ThingsCon in Amsterdam. The three discuss the importance for designers to think about security as a design task and design competency. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

After several days of communication training, Guus and Joe share some of their favorite lessons on presenting content. They discuss starting with what's important to your audience.Many design presentations start with "what we did, what we heard", which may form barriers between you and your audience. Instead, start with why you did something for the company, and how it benefits them (Simon Sinek plug). In short, it's never about you, it's always about them, and how the work you're sharing advances their goals. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Put your ego aside, have a piece of humble pie, and enjoy this episode as Guus and Joe explain why designers should listen much more than talk. Using multiple examples from past teams (Microsoft, IKEA, and several un-named clients), the duo share examples of how designers have hindered projects by wanting to put “their stamp” on work instead of better address project, team, and specifically customer needs. They review the ease at which designers can think they are doing the right thing, while accidentally reversing progress or creating work that isn’t needed for a product or business launch. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

We've hit episode 50! Guus and Joe re- live their first podcast memories of trying to do three episodes in 1 day. This week they discuss the importance of story for designers.The idea that story is not simply for marketing, but a crucial element of how features and the users experience of a product come together to form something users can fall in love with. The utilize the recent Google and Apple events, as well as past work on IKEA to explain how story impacts products. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe review the recent Apple event and announcements. They look at the wireless future Apple is pushing consumers towards with wireless charging, wireless headphones, and the new SIM in the Apple watch. Joe has a moment of quite reflection on designers who complain about Apple's innovation while ignoring the technology interiors and broader business plays. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Juicero, a connected IoT cold press juicer, is closing its doors and offering refunds. As a frequent topic early on the podcast, Guus and Joe reflect on Juicero, its supply chain, dreams, and contribution to IoT. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

In todays episodes, we skim the surface of design research, specifically ethnographic research. We discuss common problems we've seem, how to avoid these, and why a lot of design research fails to lead to quality insights. We focus on design research being a separate discipline from design itself and why "immersion", or understanding an industry, is not the same as research itself. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

In todays episode we explore the bespoke nature of design consulting and what design managers, teams, and consultancies can learn from larger business consultancies in how they approach programs, clients, and services. We cover a little in our approach at Raft and how we've built our culture of close client partnerships while streamlining programs. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe look at how designers must start to analyze components, primitives, and utilize design research to create a vision for new customer journeys. The duo use the recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods as an example showcasing 3 steps for focus.1. Drivers of latent needs – use a customer journey as a foundation for design research to uncover latent needs and drivers for users.2. Develop a vision – leveraging trends from business, economics, technology, and more, designers must have a vision for where a product or service can go.3. Breaking down primitives – Break down products and services into primitives to understand the building blocks to be leveraged. Then use those to build new customer journeys and create new product offerings. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

The guys return with a view on two of the critical announcements from WWDC. The AR Tookit and the Homepod. They discuss four critical points stemming from these announcements.1. All hardware is a commodity, Services are now the differentiator2. Designers need to think about reversing the paradigm of the hub and spoke device model3. The Service is now the hub and hardware is endpoints4. Designers should see Service Design as the design of the service and not the abstraction or pure coordination of the service. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

This week Paul Skinner, Creative Director at Tellart, joins the show to discuss designing experiences in the future based on global macro-trends. Paul gives his view on designing experiences for the future and shares perspectives from his work with the Government of Dubai. The group discuss design in the broader context of climate change, government policy, and challenge designers to creates events that can generate a positive future. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe discuss designers ability to construct effective arguments and how design should be embedded with discussions on regulation, terms of service, and policy. They go through how designing scenarios is not always what it appears and context matters more than people realize. They then break down topics from Facebook policies, to emojis, to Twitter on how context, point of view, and diversity make a huge difference in create successful outcomes.Facebook policies - https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed-facebook-internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-violenceLawsuit over emojis - https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/21/israeli-court-emojis/Minecraft and birds - https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/minecraft-parrots-patchTwitter, ugh - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/technology/evan-williams-medium-twitter-internet.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

For two years Joe led the digital efforts on the IKEA TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting product recently released world-wide. Guus and Joe look at IKEA's new smart lighting product from the view of selling stories, difficult problems in connected devices, and technology shifts. The opening features a quick overview and thoughts on the new Microsoft Fluid Design SystemIKEA TRÅDFRI - www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/27/15071562/ikea-tradfri-smart-lights-gateway-ethernet-cheap-dimmer-remoteMicrosofthttps://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15615812/microsoft-fluent-design-system-project-neon-featureshttps://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15625970/microsoft-fluent-design-desktop-email-app-ui --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

After a short hiatus Guus and Joe return to discuss Juicero, a connected juicer recently in global news, giving perspectives from multiple design angles explaining why news headlines don't always do the company justice. The duo cover how the changing nature of design is reflected in the product, looking at the beautiful physical design followed by the slightly lackluster service and business design aspects.Starting the show off, is a point / counterpoint session about the Twitter and Bloomberg partnership, explaining why it's a great experience design idea, but perhaps a lousy business idea.Juicero - https://www.juicero.comBloomberg on Juicero - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeezeTwitter and news - "Twitter says it wants to be "what's happening in the world and what people are talking about right now."" - https://www.wsj.com/articles/snapchat-leaves-it-to-rivals-to-connect-the-developing-world-1494257835 --- Send in a voice message: http

Dave Benach joins the podcast to discuss what happens when the worst ethics results in the best user experience. Using Uber as an example, the group explore what's good for the user, good for the industry, and good for company cultures. They share insights on why designers should pay attention and address conversations on these topics. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Podcasting "live" from the aftermath at the ThingsCon Salon in Amsterdam, Joe and Guus welcome Marcel Schouwenaar, one of the partners at The Incredible Machine. The trio discuss IoT ethics, persuasive design, utopian to dystopian futures, and the IoT community in Netherlands. They also look into autonomy in the connected world and how connected data is being used to make a better future.https://www.the-incredible-machine.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Hans Gerwitz again joins Joe and Guus on the podcast to dive into the philosophical side and fixation of designing for convenience. Through better usability, connectivity, and desirability, we are creating a world where people can't simply "opt out". They no longer need to leave their homes to socialize, work, or get food. Everything is a service, everything is delivered. The trio set out to discuss the implications of this on designers and society. What does this mean as designers if we aid this transformation toward the Matrix, and is it utopian or dystopian. Do we as designers have an ethical responsibility to let people know where they are going, and offer an opt out? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Hans Gerwitz, founder of the Artificial, an Amsterdam based boutique design consultancy, joins the show. With his background in technology and strategy he joins to re-discuss designers responsibility on user privacy and security when designing products.This week has no news or follow up, instead heading immediately into the main topic. The trio reflect upon major company hacks over the last several years (Yahoo, Target, Sony), looking at the impact it made to users perception. They discuss how major companies can handle hacks much better than smaller companies who may not have the assets to survive the post-hacking storm. They discuss designers need to understand what information products are collecting, why, and how that is made clear the users. The discussion looks at how government regulation impacts how users may need to protect their privacy more, and what they can do to assist with that. Finally they discuss the idea of personalization of experience versus the information that is needed from users to ma