d.MBA – Details, episodes & analysis

Ever thought about the ingenious business and design strategies that turned an everyday gadget into an adventurer's (and content creator's) best friend?

Our latest Business Design Teardown dives into the thrilling business and design strategies behind the iconic action camera brand GoPro, revealing the creative and strategic decisions that shaped GoPro's journey to becoming a market leader. 

Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore the trails and navigate the rapids of GoPro's fascinating journey. They'll zoom in on...

• How a founder's passion for surfing and desire to capture his adventures identified a gap in the market for him to explore
• The role of prototyping and rapid iteration that led to GoPro's innovation breakthroughs
• Why user-generated content was a critical marketing flywheel driving GoPro's early successes
• How arrogance and a focus on iteration over innovation may have stifled GoPro's journey to the top of the action camera mountain...

Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a design lover, or someone who loves a good adventure tale, this episode has twists and turns that will elevate your perspective on GoPro's fascinating story.

When you want to learn about the intersection of business and design, you can turn to d.MBA Business Design Teardowns.

But for everything else? It has to be Wikipedia.

In this podcast episode, we're tearing down one of the most significant sources of knowledge on the internet and uncovering how it isn't just a website—it's a worldwide wonder.

We'll delve into why Wikipedia is a fascinating case study for designers, discovering the clever design and organizational strategies that make it user-friendly, universally engaging, and completely ubiquitous.

Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore…

• The critical shift from scholar-led to community-led content creation that revolutionized Wikipedia's output and productivity
• Why a commitment to form over function has led to a design language which prioritises readability, accessibility, and performance
• The thousands of stakeholders - and novel-length conversations! - that Wikipedia's design team has to manage when shipping updates
• How Wikipedia manages to stay informative and reliable without resorting to paid advertising

So tune in to hear how design and strategy converge to keep this information titan thriving. 

You'll never look at Wikipedia the same way again…

Marvel Studios isn't just about capes, hammers, and infinity stones. It's an unparalleled tapestry of storytelling, business acumen, and creative brilliance. But how did a comic book company evolve into a cinematic juggernaut?

In our latest Business Design Teardown, we delve deep into the very core of Marvel Studios' business strategy.

Have you ever wondered why the narrative of this multi-billion dollar franchise is so intricately woven? Or how creative and character choices have impacted the financial success of a cinematic universe? A world of business decisions goes into every scene.

In this episode, Alen, Franz, and Tom discuss...

• The hero's journey that enabled Marvel's creative leaders to unlock their unique angle on superhero storytelling
• How IP and distribution reinvention were critical elements in setting Marvel Studios up for success
• Why viewing habit trends and new technologies could start another wave of dominance for Marvel and its vast cast of superheroes! 

Join us as we decode the Marvel magic and uncover why every designer should read the pages from the Marvel Comics playbook.

Designers.... assemble!

www.d.mba

Steve Vassallo is a general partner at Foundation Capital (VC firm that invested in Pocket, Netflix, Uber etc.). Prior to that, he worked as a lead designer at IDEO where he worked on a famous Cisco's 7900 series VoIP phone. He recently published a book "The Way to Design", which helps designers become entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs adopt best design practices. You can read the book for free online.

In the episode we talked about:

• why will the 21st century be the decade of design,
• why empathy has become a buzzword and what empathy really is,
• common struggles of designers who want to become entrepreneurs.

Sudy Majd is a customer experience research lead at Candid Co. In the fifth episode, I spoke with Bobby, a colleague of Sudy, and we talked a lot about the way they do user research at Candid Co so it only made sense to dive deeper into these topics with Sudy. She has a PhD specialized in consumer behavior and behavioral economics. 

In the episode we spoke about:

• doing proactive user research that anticipates rather than reacts to business challenges,
• how to mix qualitative and quantitative research methods,
• and how to find the right profiles for your research questions. 

Show notes:

• 1:50 What did Sudy do before joining Candid Co?
• 6:20 How does academia work translate into Sudy's work at Candid Co?
• 8:20 An example of behavioral economic applied to Candid Co
• 11:00 How to proactively create briefs for user research
• 15:10 Research methods that Sudy uses in her work
• 19:50 What is a suitable sample size for quantitative and qualitative research
• 22:05 How to phrase questions for interviews and questionnaires
• 26:50 How to find the right profiles for user research?
• 35:30 How to bundle different research questions in one study
• 37:20 How does Sudy synthesise learnings? 
• 39:30 What are the common mistakes that beginners make? 
• 42:10 Who is part of the research team at Candid Co?
• 43:20 What one thing about design that surprised Sudy in a positive and one in a negative way? 

Bobby Ghoshal is a co-host of a famous podcast High Resolution and a co-founder of a startup Candid Co. He has more than 15 years of experience in the design world and is a big proponent of bringing design closer to business. 

In this episode we spoke about:

• how to do user research that is rooted in business problems
• how to measure and present results of your design work, 
• and how to hire and train a design team to become more business-savvy.

Show notes:

• 3:55 How did Bobby get into design? 
• 7:45 How 11-year old Bobby sold his art to parents
• 11:20 How Bobby's early sales experience translated into design
• 13:30  How to recognize if a designer is business-savvy?
• 16:40 How to train a designer to become more business-savvy?
• 21:30 How Bobby and his team does user research that is rooted in business challenges?
• 36:45 How does design team at Candid Co track and present results of design work?
• 41:15 Bobby's advice for designers who are just starting
• 46:25 What is one thing Bobby changed his mind about design after recording High Resolution?

Marc Hemeon has a truly impressive CV. He has lead design at YouTube, Google Ventures, Oakley, Digg, Design Inc, Fflick and lately Ease Central. He has been designing since 1996 and is a true veteran in the design community. 

In this episode we spoke about:

• the distinction between art and design,
• how ugly design can beat beautiful design,
• how to explain the value of your work to non-designers by finding the metrics they care about. 

Show notes:

• 2:10 How did Marc get into design in 1996?
• 4:50 How to sell design services?
• 10:20 How to show the value of your work by finding the metrics that organisation cares for
• 16:30 How Marc presents his designs to get buy-in from stakeholders
• 21:30 Asking for information and feedback from stakeholders?
• 25:30 Finding the balance between user goals and business goals (defining your design ethics)
• 29:40 Examples of balancing user and business goals
• 36:05 Marc's biggest design mistake (aka YouTube player disaster)
• 39:00 Design Inc's story (and what clients want from designers)
• 42:40 "Career exercise" that each designer has to do
• 50:00 Why Design Inc did not succeed
• 56:00 Marc explains why "design is not art"
• 1:02:30 Success = 80% Sell, 20% Design
• 1:08:35 What advice would Marc give to young designers?
• 1:12:20 What is one thing about design Marc has changed his mind about? 

Joel Califa is a senior product designer at GitHub. He recently wrote a very interesting and popular blog post Subverted Design, which describes what happens if designers forget that their first responsibility is still the user. You can read the full article on Joel's blog. 

In this episode we spoke about:

• examples of subverted design and how you can fight against it
• why putting users first is designers role even if other departments want us to become business-focused,
• and why you should still learn about business. 

More info on www.beyondusers.com

Joe Gerber is a business designer and a managing director of IDEO CoLAB. After studying biology, taking an MBA, and working as a product manager, he joined IDEO as the first business designer in the New York office. 

In the episode we spoke about:

• how to systematically test your design so that it achieves users and business goals,
• the role of vocabulary in bridging different design disciplines, 
• how do you use design approach to reduce risks in highly risky business situations, 
• and Joe's favourite business design questions that you can use in your project.

Trent Huon is a business design director at IDEO Munich. After finishing his MBA, he first worked as a management consultant.

As he never went through official design training, he had to learn design on the job when he joined IDEO. We talk about his transformation into designer and about the relevance of business in design.

Some of the topics we covered in this episode are:

• how to show non-designers the value of design,
• why spending some time thinking about business is super valuable and,
• how you can start thinking about the business side of design even if you know nothing about it.

If you want to learn more about business, visit beyondusers.com where you can take a 5-day email course - A mini MBA for designers. In these emails, I present five business concepts that are relevant for designers.