Andy Budd is the founder of one of the UK's best-known design agencies, Clearleft, and the Adobe Design Circle community, a venture partner in the Seedcamp fund, an author and, last but not least, a design leader. In November, he visited Prague for a 2FRESH Talk organised by 2FRESH. Before his actual presentation, Andy was interviewed by our User Experience Lead Designer, Jakub Karlec.  The interviewer was clear in advance. Andy Budd is especially important to Jakub, who calls him his "childhood hero". It was Andy's blog that was one of the resources that steered him from a career as a front end developer into the world of UX design. However, in the interview, James doesn't ask so much about Andy Budd's past, but rather his present and his experience as a mentor for startups and lead designers. They talk about AI and design, proper design process, the relationship between product management and designers, as well as the differences in the importance of design for established companies and startups Don't forget to check out Andy Budd's talk at 2FRESH Talk. 👉 Watch it here http://bit.ly/3j1WZ4z ▬ Contents of this interview ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 00:10 What keeps AB busy right now 03:24 UX design success story in startup world 06:14 Design methods for startups and in Clearleft 11:05 Difference in how AB approach startups and larger companies when explaining why they should invest in the design process 17:16 Examples of startups overinvesting in design 21:53 The importance of design in validation of a product 26:45 How AB starts a conversation with a company where he sees a need for a design leadership. 29:34 You are a design leader, how do you convince your company to invest in design? 33:46 Relationship between product managers and designers 38:34 A product manager is a bad job title 40:45 Role of design in upcoming economic crisis 47:10 Cost effectiveness of design ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Video recording of this interview can be found at our YouTube channel. You can find it at https://bit.ly/_2F_YT_channel