Explore every episode of the podcast World Class Design Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "It's Not Taste, It's Discipline" — A Paris Design Partner's 80/20 Rule | Maxime Frere | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:53:06 | |
Maxime Frere is Partner and Principal Designer at Source Paris and leads a design team at Bpifrance. He has changed companies seven times, run a team of 25 as Head of Design at BPCE, worked at frog and Capgemini, and gone back to craft on purpose.In this episode he says the things most hiring managers only say in private:→ Why "taste" is the wrong word, and the 80/20 rule he uses instead→ Why he forced his whole team to go full AI, and what he now refuses to let them use it for→ Why designers who don't understand code are "trapped inside the tool"→ The one thing he looks at before hiring anyone (it's not the portfolio)→ Why "a lot of designers are lazy", and what he means by it→ The Capgemini feedback culture that made him ("it's not a line")→ The advice he'd give his younger self: take the risk, follow the manager, not the company nameWhat you'll steal: the 80/20 rule for every design decision, the "know when to stop AI" workflow, the schema habit that gets executives to say "I see what you mean", and the reason to build something this month even if the only user is your grandmother.Chapters00:00 Trailer01:10 Seven companies, one rule03:30 Kindness is not enough. Discipline.05:30 From IC to Head of Design: what actually gets you picked10:30 The schema trick: make people see, not imagine15:30 Follow the manager, not the company18:00 "We forced everyone to go full AI"19:00 Taste is the wrong word. The 80/20 rule.22:30 Prototypes between two user tests. And the slop risk.26:30 Trapped in the tool: why designers must understand code30:00 "A lot of designers are lazy"32:00 "It's not a line": the feedback that made him33:30 Don't design to make everyone happy35:00 Read the job description (Guidione's 80%)37:30 How they judge your AI use when hiring39:30 Know how to stop AI. Grab a pen.41:30 Advice to his younger self: take the risk48:30 "The chance is not for the shy"Guest: Maxime Frère — Partner & Principal Designer, Source Paris. Design lead, Bpifrance.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximefrere/Host: Guidione Machava, founder of World Class Design.world-class.design | |||
| "AI Is Confident When It's Wrong" | NYU Professor Regine Gilbert on Who Design Leaves Out | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:42:24 | |
AI as Designer? Regine Gilbert on Inclusive Design, Bias, and Ethical UX in a Faster Workflow | |||
| A Larger Role for Product Design by Marty Cagan | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:59:59 | |
Marty Cagan explores a broader role for product designers in empowered teams. The session examines the difference between delivering requested features and helping discover solutions to customer and business problems. | |||
| Introduction to the WCD Initiative and Keynote by Randy J hunt | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:58:34 | |
Randy J. Hunt reflects on expanding his design practice from individual touchpoints to whole businesses and complex marketplaces. Drawing on experiences including Supermarket, Etsy and Grab, the keynote explores design at different scales. | |||
| Disambiguating Design by Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:35:50 | |
Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan explores the changing shape of design roles and the skills designers can develop. The session moves from specialist and broader skill profiles to reflection on career direction and design’s wider impact. | |||
| Don t think like a designer by Jamie Lee Easton | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:26:32 | |
Jamie-Lee Easton challenges designers to look beyond copying established products and processes. The talk explores how to understand real user needs, use familiar patterns thoughtfully and adapt the design process to the situation. | |||
| Hacking Your Design Career by Christian San Jose | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:35:43 | |
Christian San Jose reflects on a design career that moved through illustration, freelance work, agencies and business ownership. The session explores experimentation, relationships and the freedom to change direction. | |||
| How to Build a Career in Design with Side Projects by Darshan Gajara | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:41:34 | |
Darshan Gajara shares how Product Disrupt began as a side project and created unexpected career opportunities. The talk explores starting with a useful problem, sharing what you make and learning through the process. | |||
| Vacuums, Gasses, and the Road to UX Management by Jack Moffett | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:37:13 | |
Jack Moffett reflects on moving from an individual contributor role into UX management. The talk explores learning to support other designers, letting go of hands-on work and finding satisfaction in a team’s growth. | |||
| Design into Strategy and Innovation - RoI by Sanmitra Chitte | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:31:20 | |
Sanmitra Chitte explores how design management connects creative work with business strategy. The session focuses on explaining design’s value through the language of business and identifying direct and indirect impact. | |||
| Death of a UX Salesman or UX is Dead, Long Live UX by Lola Oyelayo Pearson | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:28:57 | |
Lola Oyelayo Pearson challenges narrow ideas of UX and asks how designers can remain useful as business and technology change. The talk connects user-centered practice with commercial understanding and opportunities beyond familiar interfaces. | |||
| Designing for Trust by Katja Forbes | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:29:35 | |
Katja Forbes examines how design decisions can earn or undermine trust, especially when technology makes decisions people cannot see. The session offers ways to think about trustworthiness in products and services. | |||
| Design Products for Happiness by Alipta Ballav | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:37:11 | |
Alipta Ballav explores how products can support pleasure, meaning and a sense of accomplishment. The session introduces positive-design ideas and the PERMA model as ways to think beyond basic functionality. | |||
| Transformation through Design by Jane Vita | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:30:46 | |
Jane Vita explores how design can help organizations move through uncertainty and build a shared direction. The talk connects dialogue, collaboration and service planning with the practical work of testing assumptions. | |||
| Output vs Outcome Why Your Best Design is Invisible by Lily Konings | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:28:10 | |
Visible design work is only part of the value a designer creates. Lily Konings explores the decisions, trade-offs and understanding behind effective products, and why beautiful output needs a clear purpose. | |||
| Uprooting Stereotypes through Research and Allyship by Brenda Laurel | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:29:21 | |
Brenda Laurel revisits the research behind Purple Moon to show how better questions can challenge stereotypes. The session connects research methods with self-inquiry and the responsibilities of allyship. | |||
| Design Professionalism, Innovation, and Being Human by Jonathan Strebly | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:29:56 | |
What responsibilities come with being a design professional? Johnathon Strebly connects the history of designing to the standards, collective action and public obligations that can shape the profession’s future. | |||
| “Have you eaten_”_ Mindsets to thrive in teams without borders by Zoey Nguyen | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:34:24 | |
Working across cultures starts with recognizing that your own assumptions are not universal. Zoey Nguyen shares mindsets for building respectful, inclusive relationships in teams without borders. | |||
| Scaling Innovation by Sam Yen and Janaki Kumar | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:28:50 | |
Innovation needs both creativity and execution. Sam Yen and Janaki Kumar explore why finding the right problem matters as much as solving it, and how design thinking can spread beyond a small design team. | |||
| How to influence product decisions by leveraging design debt by Susan Park and Sahana Kumar | 06 Sep 2026 | 00:30:56 | |
Design debt builds up when teams ship decisions without clear user needs, shared product goals or a plan to learn after launch. Susan Park and Sahana Kumar explain how to spot those warning signs and bring design into product decisions earlier. | |||
| How a Design System Helped Change My Career | Hannah Dreher | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:30:58 | |
A project that improves everyone’s work can also change the direction of your career. For Hannah Dreher, building a modular email design system was part of the journey from graphic design into product management. Hannah shares how she developed digital skills, earned the trust of developers and learned from mentors who helped her move into a new role. We also explore why listening, relationships and openness to feedback matter as much as the work itself. In this conversation:
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| Why I Design Things You Can’t See | Juliana Proserpio | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:42:21 | |
Some of the most important things we design never appear on a screen. Juliana Proserpio explores the systems, services, strategies and business models that shape how people live and work. Drawing on her experience building Echos and moving between Brazil and Australia, Juliana discusses how different cultures challenge a designer’s assumptions. It’s a conversation about connecting ideas, looking beyond familiar environments and understanding what design contributes beyond the software used to produce it. In this conversation:
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| What I Found Missing in Western Design Education | Sarah El Khamsa | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:25:52 | |
Whose knowledge gets treated as universal in design education? Sarah El Khamsa reflects on studying European design traditions while seeing a different creative heritage around her in Tunisia. We discuss what designers miss when they overlook local craft, culture and lived experience. Sarah shares an approach grounded in understanding context, learning with communities and recognizing the knowledge other people bring. She also describes introducing children to design as a way of thinking. In this conversation:
Design research: http://metabolisme.design/ | |||
| Why I Design for Users and the Business | Renato Paixão | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:37:00 | |
A design can look good and still miss the point. Renato Paixão explains why designers need to understand how their work helps users achieve their goals and contributes to the business. We discuss finding the problem beneath the symptoms, resisting the urge to jump straight into solutions and connecting creative decisions to meaningful results. Renato also reflects on rejection, persistence and the opportunities that can change the direction of a design career. In this conversation:
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| Why I Left Google to Prototype a Different Life | Jonah Goldsaito | 22 Sep 2021 | 01:07:33 | |
What happens when the career you’ve built no longer fits the life you want? Jonah Goldsaito shares why he left Google and began experimenting with different ways of living with his family. Our conversation follows the varied projects and skills that shaped his path as a design generalist. We also discuss making presentations people can connect with, collaborating across disciplines and bringing more intention to the experiences we create, both in products and in our own lives. In this conversation:
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| How I Bring My Team Into User Research | Patricia Machado | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:21:34 | |
Understanding users is only part of the job. Your research also needs people inside the organization who understand it, care about it and can act on it. Patricia Machado shares how she approaches the relationships behind effective user research. We discuss engaging stakeholders, speaking up before you feel completely comfortable and taking the initiative to connect with customers. Patricia also reflects on the value of a background that doesn’t follow a conventional design path. In this conversation:
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| The Website Mistake That Changed How I Design | Sabeeha Banubhai | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:48:35 | |
The layouts were ready. Then the content arrived, and much of the website needed to change. Sabeeha Banubhai shares a project lesson that reshaped how she thinks about designing content-driven experiences. The developer turned design entrepreneur also explains why a process should serve the product, how running a business changed her advice to clients and why a simple way to test demand can be more useful than an elaborate custom build. We talk about choosing the work and life you want along the way. In this conversation:
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| What I Learned About Leadership Beyond Job Titles | Thaisa Fernandes | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:42:06 | |
You can lead through your expertise before you have a senior title. Thaisa Fernandes reflects on the leadership opportunities she once avoided and what changed her perspective. We follow her move from design into project and program management, exploring the strengths that carried across those roles. Thaisa shares why communication deserves deliberate practice, how personality shapes leadership and what it means to learn from mistakes in an environment that supports experimentation. In this conversation:
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| What I Look for Beyond a Designer’s Portfolio | Koji Pereira | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:42:17 | |
A strong portfolio can get you considered. What helps convince a team that you can do the job? Koji Pereira shares a hiring manager’s perspective on the judgment, collaboration and product thinking behind successful design work. Drawing on his experience working internationally, Koji discusses case presentations, building a support network and communicating what your background adds to a team. We also explore why he considers several employers during a job search and how comparing opportunities can inform negotiation. In this conversation:
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| What Nairobi Taught Me About Design | Adrian Jankowiak | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:41:43 | |
Adrian Jankowiak approached design as a minimalist. Nairobi’s creative community expanded his sense of what good design could look and feel like. Adrian traces a journey through industrial design, travel and community building that helped lead to Nairobi Design Week. We discuss learning from local talent, the possibilities of hands-on making and how African fabrics and maximalism challenged his familiar aesthetic. His story also raises a personal question: what do you want to make non-negotiable in your career? In this conversation:
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| What I Look for in a Design Mentor | Alex Morin | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:31:15 | |
An admired designer’s online work shows only part of the story. Alex Morin explains why learning the job also means seeing difficult conversations, imperfect decisions and what it takes to ship a product. We discuss finding mentors, learning with a community and staying open to the expertise of everyone shaping the work. Alex also shares why he wishes he had studied more mathematics and statistics, and how understanding the ideas behind a tool can matter more than mastering its interface. In this conversation:
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| The Career Opportunity I Didn’t Think I Deserved | Indaiá Militão | 22 Sep 2021 | 00:48:51 | |
Early in her career, Indaiá Militão was offered an opportunity to stay in Europe and move into management. She turned it down. Looking back, she describes how fear and doubt shaped a decision she came to regret. Indaiá shares lessons from a career spanning automotive design, aircraft interiors and management. We discuss building a trusted support network, receiving feedback and recognizing your abilities without making yourself smaller to fit in. Her later choices show a different approach: accepting a challenge and asking for the support to meet it. In this conversation:
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| Why I Stopped Thinking I Had All the Design Answers | Thomas Link | 14 Jun 2020 | 00:34:36 | |
Being the designer doesn’t mean you’re the only person with a useful design idea. Thomas Link reflects on moving beyond an early belief that the designer should have all the answers. We discuss the gap between a convincing concept and an experience people can actually use, and why a new context can change the entire problem. Thomas also explores how making ideas visible helps teams understand one another, and what years of teaching have taught him about his own practice. In this conversation:
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| What Working for Exposure Taught Me | Maria Karnaukhova | 07 Jun 2020 | 00:24:30 | |
An offer to work for exposure can sound like a way into the industry. Maria Karnaukhova explains what it can cost when expectations, boundaries and the value of design are left undefined. Drawing on her own experience, Maria discusses unpaid work for commercial clients and why she distinguishes it from choosing to support a cause. We also explore how journalism became an asset in her design career, and the preparation needed to help people collaborate in remote workshops. In this conversation:
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| How I Went From Back-End Development to UX | Bianca Lima | 31 May 2020 | 00:20:58 | |
Bianca Lima could build the technology, but she wanted to understand the people using it. That curiosity helped take her from back-end development into UX. Bianca shares how independent study, workshops and a career move within her company helped her begin again in a new field. We discuss the insecurity of entering design from a technical background, the questions she wishes she had asked earlier and why solid foundations help you make sense of conflicting advice. In this conversation:
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| Why I Want Design to Serve the Planet Too | Daniela Maldonado | 24 May 2020 | 00:34:41 | |
A product can help its users while creating problems elsewhere. Daniela Maldonado asks what changes when designers consider the planet as a stakeholder too. We discuss her move from engineering into design and her search for work with a social purpose. Daniela reflects on the wider consequences of products and services, teaching design thinking and building experience toward a longer-term ambition. It’s also a candid conversation about accepting a useful next step even when it isn’t the opportunity you originally imagined. In this conversation:
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| What I Wish I’d Known Before Studying Design Abroad | Yohe Wang | 17 May 2020 | 00:21:04 | |
Moving abroad to study design can open your world, and expose gaps you didn’t know you had. Yohe Wang reflects on his experience moving from China to New York for a master’s in interaction design. Yohe shares why he wishes he had gained more work experience and clearer goals before making the move. We discuss learning alongside experienced classmates, adapting to different expectations around personality and critical thinking, and taking responsibility for your own progress. In this conversation:
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| Why I Treat My Stakeholders Like Users | Viviane Tavares | 10 May 2020 | 00:22:02 | |
The people who need your design skills aren’t always outside the company. Viviane Tavares explains how understanding stakeholders as individuals can improve the way a team works together. Vivi reflects on moving from trying to prove her opinions right toward listening, asking for help and understanding what others need. We discuss confidence, collaboration and finding support in the design community when you’re working on your own. Her advice begins with the relationships that make the work possible. In this conversation:
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| How Doing Only What I Was Good At Held Me Back | Megha Damani | 03 May 2020 | 00:24:58 | |
Being good at something can make it tempting to stay there. Megha Damani reflects on how choosing only her existing strengths kept her from exploring other work that interested her. We discuss trying unfamiliar disciplines, learning through small projects and finding people who can help you improve. Megha also challenges the importance placed on job titles and shares why doing the work matters more than waiting for a label. Her own experiments range from design practice to making her home smarter with electronics. In this conversation:
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| Why I’m Willing to Throw Away My First Idea | Abhinav Ramesh | 26 Apr 2020 | 00:31:30 | |
Letting go of an idea is harder when you’ve already invested in it. Abhinav Ramesh shares a lesson from his mentor: be willing to start again, bringing what you learned from the first attempt. The architect turned interaction designer discusses how feedback and iteration can strengthen a concept before the details take over. We also explore the appeal of complexity, the possibilities where physical products meet technology and the pressure designers feel to learn every skill on a job description. In this conversation:
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| Why I Don’t Copy Services Without Understanding the Context | María Isabel Chalco | 19 Apr 2020 | 00:20:27 | |
A service that succeeds in one place may answer a need that doesn’t exist in the same way elsewhere. María Isabel Chalco explains why copying a familiar model is no substitute for understanding its context. We discuss her move from journalism and marketing into service design, and how curiosity became a research practice. Using her work on food waste as an example, María describes moving from broad information to local evidence, observation and conversations. She also shares ways to practice design in the work you already do. In this conversation:
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| How I Learned to Design My Pitch for Its Audience | Pradyumna Surampudi | 12 Apr 2020 | 00:17:15 | |
You’ve designed the product. Have you designed how people will understand it? Pradyumna Surampudi explains why presenting an idea requires the same attention to an audience as the experience itself. We discuss learning to tell a clear story, adapting a pitch to different people and improving through repeated presentations. Pradyumna also shares why attractive portfolio screens need real problems behind them, and how collaborating with fellow students helped him build confidence and learn new ways of working. In this conversation:
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| Why I’m Rethinking How to Find Problems Worth Solving | Mauro Banze | 05 Apr 2020 | 00:32:06 | |
Having a product idea doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve found a problem worth solving. Mauro Banze joins Guidione Machava for a discussion about the needs, habits and barriers behind useful products. Mauro explores an approach that starts with understanding people before searching for solutions. We question assumptions about demand, consider the influence of culture and discuss how voice interfaces change what designers need to pay attention to. This is a conversation about choosing better questions at the beginning of a project. In this conversation:
Guest website: https://maurobanze.com | |||
| Why I Wouldn’t Work for a Social Media Company | Elaine Chu | 01 Oct 2019 | 00:16:28 | |
What kind of work are you willing to put your design skills behind? Elaine Chu explains the values shaping her career choices and, in this conversation, why she would avoid working for a social media company. We also discuss joining an experienced design team at Uber, learning from mistakes and discovering which parts of design suit you best. Elaine reflects on the combination of guidance, opportunity and effort behind professional growth, and why choosing work you believe in matters. In this conversation:
Music: https://www.bensound.com/ | |||
| Why I Ask Designers to Advise Their Younger Selves | Guidione Machava | 15 Sep 2019 | 00:01:00 | |
What would experienced designers tell their younger selves? Host Guidione Machava introduces World Class Design, a podcast about the choices, mistakes and lessons that shape a design career. Each conversation invites a guest to look back and share the advice they wish they had heard earlier. Learn from their experiences, question your own assumptions and find ideas you can bring into your work as you develop your craft. | |||