Jaclyn plans an intimate design sprint exercise for developers as well as a large design-thinking workshop, discusses why you can't just start ideating, and getting a large group to converge on a problem-statement.

Jaclyn plans an intimate design sprint exercise for developers as well as a large design-thinking workshop, discusses why you can't just start ideating, and getting a large group to converge on a problem-statement. 3-12-3 Brainstorming Royal Tenenbaums Tracksuits (and other styling tips from Wes Anderson) See open positions at thoughtbot! Become a Sponsor of Tentative!

Happy new year! We welcome back Jaclyn, refreshed after her break, and discuss burn-out, task prioritization, MVP-ing your mental load, and setting goals & themes for the new year.

Miles Johnson, designer at thoughtbot London, joins Kyle to discuss leveling-up sales skills, when to introduce clients to your process, maintaining the focus of development & design as a cohesive unit, and the joy of being a 'generalist'.

Elaina Natario enlightens Kyle on all things jazz hands, as well as discusses Storybook, documenting design, working effectively alongside development, and how to use emoji.

Chris Schnaars joins Kyle to discuss computational design, creative control, design vs art, and the nature of design tooling.

Skipper Chong Warson, Design Director of thoughtbot San Francisco, joins Kyle to discuss the psychology of podcast recording, overcoming awkwardness in communication & public speaking, and avoiding proxies when engaging with clients.

Live from New York, it's Keiran King & Tyson Gach! They join Kyle to discuss designing apples, comparing and contrasting jobs-to-be-done to other frameworks, and defining 'customer success'.

Jaclyn is taking a break for a little bit and Kyle sets a course for happiness. We talk about embracing change as an opportunity to define yourself, and having a similar mindset to build good habits between projects. Also, experimenting with and evolving process, and reflecting on the importance of collaboration.

Kyle has fun with a hiring-promo read, while Jaclyn dislikes the polling system in Slack. Also, presenting visual design to clients for feedback, frameworks for critique, and fostering creativity through constraints.

While Jaclyn gives interview tips (both user and hiring), Kyle does his best Michael Keaton impression. Also, active listening, pizza facts, trying to keep a work / home balance when working remotely, and interview horror stories.

Jaclyn puts together a role-playing workshop for consulting your way through difficult conversations, and building empathy for the other parties. Kyle discusses conducting team 1>1's all on one day vs spreading them throughout the week. Plus, some techniques for dealing with context switching, blocking off time, and calendar hacks.

Jaclyn designs wristbands for a 5k, fiddles around with CSS Grid, and kicks off a new project. Meanwhile, Kyle attends many serious meetings. We discuss up-front user-research, timeline interviews, and pacing interviews for sustainability.

This week Kyle follows his calendar, while Jaclyn wraps up a research project and celebrates a fruitful sales-call, and we discuss trying to focus on positive reinforcement, the importance of being able to communicate your design work, and 'clicking' with the sales process.

Jaclyn is frustrated with calendars, and Kyle continues work on the thoughtbot.com redesign. Also skills evaluations, and lots of interviews.

Kyle deals with a "dentist situation" and writes a blog post, while both he & Jaclyn return to IC design work. Also, manager training, partnering with an offshore development team while on a tight deadline, and the "good problems" of a large design sprint.

Jaclyn goes on a ski trip, Kyle eats cake on the microphone (sorry). Also, de-stressing techniques, Austin weather (surprise), daylight savings time, the UI of car clocks, making the most of small gaps in your schedule, enriching collaboration with developers, clarifying the title of "designer", and iterating on podcast recording. Plus, the introduction of a new segment "good, bad, and ugly".

Jaclyn hosts a cooking show while Kyle does what his calendar tells him to. Also, being excited by invalidating ideas, devoting more time to synthesizing, taking TL;DR level sprint-notes, how switch interviews can influence your design sprint, and end of week recuperation strategies.

Jaclyn starts a new Meetup and wonders about ice-breaking activities & community building. Kyle tries his hand at video editing after filming a skill interview, and starts work planning a thoughtbot.com redesign. Also, stress around social media email / notifications and why we should design them more humanely.

Jaclyn and Kyle discuss remote interview methodology, skillset tracking, Design Sprint 101™️, and Kyle's skills as a Beer Ninja.

Jaclyn & Kyle wish you a (very belated) Happy New Year, and discuss the shortcomings of video-chat during interviews, using GitHub as a project management tool for company policy, the weirdnesses of user-interviews, and de-jargoning the term "prototype".

Jaclyn sells some art, kicks off a giant design sprint, and prepares a presentation on how to co-facilitate a design sprint. Kyle deals with new-office echoes & internet woes. We share the projects that we worked on for this year's Ralphapalooza; plus, reactions on designing for React Native.

Jaclyn & Kyle discuss the value of in-person meetings, the philosophy of Trello backgrounds, nostalgia for antiquated recording mediums, refining thoughtbot's designer hiring process, and design implementation.

Jaclyn & Kyle chat about the new thoughtbot Austin office, designing for Android, feelings on maintaining Sketch file tidiness, trying to make tabular data exciting to present, and commiserate over call-center software workflows.

Jaclyn wraps up a project to hand off to a client's design team, Kyle looses his voice after giving a design sprint presentation, plus personal habits to pursue before speaking engagements or while in Product Design Sprints, design patterns in children's apps, and screen-time controls in iOS.