In this episode—the finale of Season 2 of the series—I speak with renowned design leader and author Kevin Bethune. Kevin’s remarkably divergent career spans engineering, business and design over more than 25 years. He’s worked as a nuclear engineer at Westinghouse Nuclear, designed sneakers at Nike, and consulted with global enterprises at BCG. Kevin currently leads Dreams • Design + Life, a think tank that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach. A Board...

“We keep thinking that things are supposed to be static, but it’s always changing. It’s about reinvention and seeing the beauty in that.” As we’ve discussed throughout Season 2 of this series, we’re in the midst of a challenging time for the global design industry that is causing many established design leaders to face unexpected change and uncertainty — many for the first time in their career.  My guest for this episode, Jenna Date, is a pioneering design practitioner, entrepreneur,...

Throughout this season of the series I’ve been speaking with leaders who have used their design superpowers in community and civic leadership roles, and in this episode I continue that thread in my conversation with Richard Hollant. In 1988 Richard founded CO:LAB as a design consultancy with a focus on brand design and product launches. Over time the firm moved from its original home in Boston, to Hartford, Connecticut, and has shifted its focus from brand design to social impact work,...

I caught up with my guest for this episode, Daniela Marzavan, in the middle of an 8 week design road trip she is taking through Europe with her partner and 2 children—she’s calling it the Traveling School of Design Thinking. Based in Portugal, Daniela, is a self-described “pracademic”, fluidly straddling the line between design practice and design education. Daniela is fluent in 7 languages, and puts many of those languages to use in a practice that takes her across Europe and around the...

“I think that this idea of cross-functionality may be a legacy framework.” Throughout this season of the series I’ve been looking at the impact of AI and other emerging technology on the future of design and design leadership, and I’ve been particularly interested in examining this through the lens of some of the top academic design programs in the US. I find that looking at how students are learning design in the classroom can be a great predictor for how they will show up in the workplace...

In recent years AI has become the dominant disruptive force for businesses and scaled organizations in every industry and global region, and it’s having a dramatic effect on the profession and practice of design. Over multiple episodes this season, I’ll be examining the impact of AI on design and design leadership from a variety of angles. In this episode I look at how AI is showing up in the academic design environment. How are students responding to the possibilities presented by AI, and...

Any podcast episode that begins with “I was born in Dalton, Georgia, the carpet capital of the world…” must be a good one!  Throughout Season 2 of this series, host Doug Powell is speaking with guests who have established themselves as leaders in design and then have become leaders in a completely different space. Nobody embodies this leadership journey more than Doug's guest for this episode, Bill Grant. Bill is the founder and president of Grant Design Collaborative, the award-winning...

One of the best design books of 2023 was Centered: People and Ideas Diversifying Design, a remarkable collection of essays, interviews, and stories compiled and edited by my guest for this episode Professor Kaleena Sales. This amazing book spans geographical regions and cultures from Alabama to India, and from Kurdistan to Zimbabwe, illuminating designers, techniques, ideas, and artifacts that have previously gotten little or no attention by the established western design community. The book...

Episode 2 of the new season is a continuation of our discussion with Kate Aronowitz of Google Ventures and Robert Fabricant of Dalberg. In part two, we dig deeply into a pair of articles written by Robert for Fast Company about the state of design leadership by examining the wave of contraction that has happened across the tech industry, and the emergence of grass-roots communities of designers seeking connection and guidance. 

Season 2 of This Is A Prototype: The Design Leadership Podcast is underway! This opening episode is a special two-part discussion featuring design leaders Kate Aronowitz of GV (Google Ventures) and Robert Fabricant of Dalberg.  In part 1, we dig into Kate’s and Robert’s design backstories, and discuss the growth and expansion of design as a practice and a profession in the last two decades, including the important issue of leadership succession. We also begin to explore Robert’s recent Fast...

Season 2 of This is a Prototype: The Design Leadership Podcast is coming soon!  The practice and profession of design in scaled companies continues to evolve in unexpected ways, and the role of the design leader in that evolution is more important than ever to the success of our teams and organizations.  In Season 2 of This is a prototype, host Doug Powell continues to speak to the top design leaders in the industry about their life and career journeys into design. And he broadens the scope...

My guests for this Season 1 finale episode are Doreen Lorenzo and Mbiyimoh Ghogomu. Doreen Lorenzo is a pioneering design leader who is the Assistant Dean of the School of Design and Creative Technology at University of Texas, a role she started in 2016. Prior to joining UT, Doreen was the longtime President of Frog Design, one of the largest and most established global design consultancies in the world. Doreen is a columnist for Fast Company where she writes the Designing Women column...

My guests in this episode are two legendary design leaders, Ann Willoughby and Mauro Porcini. Ann Willoughby is an AIGA Medalist who has been a leading voice in design for over five decades. In 1978 she founded Willoughby Design, one of the first woman-owned design firms in the US. In addition to her leadership of this award-winning firm, Ann has been an advocate for countless community organizations and academic programs throughout her career. Mauro Porcini is the first-ever Chief Design...

Executive design recruiter Tom Scott is the founder of Verified, the publisher of the weekly newsletter Verified Insights, and the host of the new podcast, Verified Insider. Tom recently interviewed me for a future episode of Verified Insider, and in this episode I combine my interview of Tom for my podcast, with a preview of his interview of me for his podcast. Tom and I discuss the reasons design leadership roles are often not set up for success—from inadequate funding and resources, to...

Rama Gheerawo is the director of the Helen Hamlyn Center for Design at the Royal College of Art in the UK, and the author of a book that should be on all of our reading lists, Creative Leadership, Born from Design. In his book, Rama asks not only whether designers can actually be leaders, but whether we can in fact be better leaders because of our creative capabilities and qualities. If you’ve listened to any previous episodes of this podcast, you know that this is one of the central...

“How is design infiltrating business in a new way? How is it reaching every inch of the of the business?" —Nicole Gull-McElroy What are the central stories in the design industry today, and how is the business media covering them? In this POV Edition, I speak with journalist Nicole Gull-McElroy, who reports on the intersection of business and design for Fortune, Fast Company, and Wired, among other publications. Nicole was the lead editor for Fortune’s “By Design” newsletter, and last...

“Leadership is really a generosity of spirit. When you care about not just yourself but you care about those around you, and you’re willing to go that extra mile to make others around you successful, it becomes clear you are ready for leadership.” —Janaki Kumar Throughout Season 1 of the series, we’ve been digging deeply into the hidden, and often surprising characteristics of leadership. Those leadership qualities—actually those human qualities—that don’t come from a text book or a...

“I’m incredibly appreciative of the people that took a moment and said ‘here’s some things you’re probably gonna want to learn if you want to go farther.’”—Heidi Munc Among the core themes that is emerging in Season 1 is the importance of mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship for design leaders. That’s one of the topics I explore in this wide-ranging discussion with my guests, Heidi Munc and Gus Granger. Heidi Munc is a user experience expert and creative problem solver with over 20 years...

“[Design leadership] requires a level of self-awareness…that is unlike the vast majority of other business functions.” In episode 3 of This is a Prototype, I take a slightly different approach to the format with the first of what I’m calling “POV Editions.” Here I look at design leadership through a more analytical lens with the help of a single guest who has a distinctive…point of view on the field. In this first POV Edition, I speak with design strategist, consultant, and community...

As the early episodes of “This is a Prototype” roll out, some fascinating themes are beginning to emerge, including the surprising power of family in the life and career journeys of design leaders. In the second episode, I speak to Ashleigh Axios, Chief Experience Officer and an owner of Coforma and previous Creative Director and Digital Strategist in the Obama White House, and Chris Hacker, Chief Design Officer of Hacker Design Group, and previous Chief Design Officer at Johnson &...

“Throughout my life here, there have been a lot of people who have created safe passage for me as a professional through my design career.” Ruki Neuhold-Ravakumar In the first episode of This Is A Prototype: The Design Leadership Podcast I speak to Antonio Garcia, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at TXI, and Ruki Neuhold-Ravakumar, president of the Kansas City Art Institute. We cover a wide range of stories about what it takes to be a leader in this new era of design, including those...

We are in the midst of an unprecedented time in the history of the design profession. Businesses are investing in design at rates never before seen—building scaled design teams of hundreds and even thousands of designers, and hiring design leaders into executive roles giving them influence and access at the highest levels. As an executive design leader myself, I’m fascinated by the experience of designers moving into these new leadership roles. For most of us this is completely uncharted...