I have to say, I’m pretty darned pleased with the results. It was equal parts fun and hard work.
Episode One
Design Systems. This was a deliberately brief episode that just skims the surface of all that design systems have to offer. It is almost certainly a theme that I’ll revisit in a later episode, or even a whole season.
The main goal of this episode was to get some answers to the questions:
- What is a design system exactly? and
- What’s a design system good for?
I’m not sure if I got answers or just more questions, but that’s no bad thing.
Episode Two
Service Design. This is the classic topic for this season—an investigation into a phrase that you’ve almost certainly heard of, but might not understand completely. Or maybe that’s just me. In any case, I think that coming at this topic from a viewpoint of relative ignorance is quite a benefit: I have no fear of looking stupid for asking basic questions.
Episode Three
Wildlife Photographer Of The Year. A case study. This one was a lot of fun to put together.
It also really drove home to just how talented and hard-working my colleagues at Clearleft are. I just kept thinking, “Damn! This is some great work!”
Episode Four
Design Ops. Again, a classic example of me asking the dumb questions. What is this “design ops” thing I’ve heard of? Where’d it come from?
My favourite bit of feedback was “Thanks to the podcast, I now know what DesignOps is. I now also hate DesignOps”
I couldn’t resist upping the ante into a bit of a meta-discussion about whether we benefit or not from the introduction of new phrases like this into our work.
Episode Five
Design Maturity. This could’ve been quite a dry topic but I think that Aarron made it really engaging. Maybe the samples from Bladerunner and Thunderbirds helped too.
This episode finished with a call to action ...with the wrong URL. Doh! It should’ve been surveymonkey.co.uk/r/designmaturity
Episode Six
Design Sprints. I like how the structure of this one turned out. I felt like we tackled quite a few angles in less than 25 minutes.
That’s a good one to wrap up this season, I reckon.
If you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes work that went into each episode, I’ve been blogging about each one:
- Design Systems
- Service Design
- Wildlife Photographer Of The Year
- Design Ops
- Design Maturity
- Design Sprints
I’m already excited about doing a second season ...though I’m going to enjoy a little break from podcasting for a little bit.
As I say at the end of most episodes, if you’ve got any feedback to offer on the podcast, send me an email at jeremy@clearleft.com
And if you’ve enjoyed the Clearleft podcast—or a particular episode—please share it far and wide.
This was originally published on my own site.
