Unmute - The Podcast from DesignUp Fri, 03 Apr 2026 08:55:06 -0400 https://designup.io en-us © 2026 Unmute - The Podcast from DesignUp yes 9507212c-ae7e-5d0b-804d-5441f5481518 Shiva Viswanathan episodic false Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Design, Tech, User Experience, Product Design, Tech Products, UX Shiva Viswanathan https://storage.buzzsprout.com/6c32emmoacvp3n0kxftgr2ls9wl6?.jpg Unmute - The Podcast from DesignUp https://designup.io 3x3 Three Questions to Three Design Leaders - The Design Career 3x3 Three Questions to Three Design Leaders - The Design Career In our career as a designer we are expected to grow - from a practitioner of design to a collaborator who can seamlessly work with business and technology teams. From a collaborator to a mentor who will guide young designers. From a mentor to a manager who can guide a team to success and growth. If everything goes well we can become a strategist who can contribute to the business or a design leader who has the proverbial seat at the table. This growth demands skills. It also demands smarter and intelligent decisions.

We at DesignUp have launched a school with programs that can super-charge your career. This is a school for design practitioners, managers and aspiring design leaders. As a teaser or a curtain raiser I spoke to three design leaders about careers:

Amy Huang | EVP User Experience Design | Lazada
Navneet Nair | Director of Product Design | PhonePe
Fatema Raja | Group Design Head | Gojek

Do not forget to check the intensive 5-weeks keystone program called Uprise at Designup.school. This program has been curated for designers who have been working in high growth startups, large enterprises or lean teams for three years or more. Your team will benefit from this and you will too.

]]> In our career as a designer we are expected to grow - from a practitioner of design to a collaborator who can seamlessly work with business and technology teams. From a collaborator to a mentor who will guide young designers. From a mentor to a manager who can guide a team to success and growth. If everything goes well we can become a strategist who can contribute to the business or a design leader who has the proverbial seat at the table. This growth demands skills. It also demands smarter and intelligent decisions.

We at DesignUp have launched a school with programs that can super-charge your career. This is a school for design practitioners, managers and aspiring design leaders. As a teaser or a curtain raiser I spoke to three design leaders about careers:

Amy Huang | EVP User Experience Design | Lazada
Navneet Nair | Director of Product Design | PhonePe
Fatema Raja | Group Design Head | Gojek

Do not forget to check the intensive 5-weeks keystone program called Uprise at Designup.school. This program has been curated for designers who have been working in high growth startups, large enterprises or lean teams for three years or more. Your team will benefit from this and you will too.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-9108346 Mon, 30 Aug 2021 04:00:00 -0400 1379 1 10 full false The (not-so) Secret Life of Designers - Drupad Mistry The (not-so) Secret Life of Designers - Drupad Mistry Drupad Mistry is a musician, composer and a designer. He works as a User Experience Design Specialist at McKinsey.

In this episode he guides us through Sarod - his musical instrument, collaborations, inspirations, travel and of course design. There are a few things that he mentions that we should probably know about:

]]> Drupad Mistry is a musician, composer and a designer. He works as a User Experience Design Specialist at McKinsey.

In this episode he guides us through Sarod - his musical instrument, collaborations, inspirations, travel and of course design. There are a few things that he mentions that we should probably know about:

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-9053874 Thu, 19 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0400 2028 1 9 full false 5x5 Five Questions to Five Designers - The Pandemic 5x5 Five Questions to Five Designers - The Pandemic We at DesignUp have been working hard on our Deconstruct Report on the pandemic and how it has affected our design-in-tech industry. This is a long drawn out exercise with loads of data collected, interviews, stories, data visualisations and unending deliberation over how to present things to you. We should announce the launch of this report soon. In the meantime I thought of doing a sampler, like a teaser or a curtain raiser.

We at India are reeling from the second wave that is mightier than the first one. Before this became clear, about a month back, I spoke to 5 designers individually and posed five questions to them.

The designers are:

The concepts, books and shows suggested by these designers are below in no specific order:

]]> We at DesignUp have been working hard on our Deconstruct Report on the pandemic and how it has affected our design-in-tech industry. This is a long drawn out exercise with loads of data collected, interviews, stories, data visualisations and unending deliberation over how to present things to you. We should announce the launch of this report soon. In the meantime I thought of doing a sampler, like a teaser or a curtain raiser.

We at India are reeling from the second wave that is mightier than the first one. Before this became clear, about a month back, I spoke to 5 designers individually and posed five questions to them.

The designers are:

The concepts, books and shows suggested by these designers are below in no specific order:

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-8369224 Tue, 20 Apr 2021 07:00:00 -0400 2156 1 8 full false Make your body learn: A conversation with Simon Roberts Make your body learn: A conversation with Simon Roberts Simon Roberts is a business anthropologist.
 
He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of anthropology in business and the use of ethnography in corporate research, design and innovation. Early in his career Simon established Ideas Bazaar, the UK's first dedicated ethnographic research company and subsequently led a human-centred R&D team at Intel Corporation. He has been actively involved in the EPIC community since its inception in 2005, he chaired the conference in 2012 and 2013 and is currently Board President.
 
 His book The Power of Not Thinking: How Our Bodies Learn and Why We Should Trust Them is to be published by Bonnier in 2020. Simon has written and spoken widely about ethnography, business anthropology, innovation and ageing. His work has been covered by The FT, WSJ, Quartz, Bloomberg and the BBC.

He co-founded Stripe Partners in 2013.

You can read his article on UX-ification of Research here.

]]> Simon Roberts is a business anthropologist.
 
He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of anthropology in business and the use of ethnography in corporate research, design and innovation. Early in his career Simon established Ideas Bazaar, the UK's first dedicated ethnographic research company and subsequently led a human-centred R&D team at Intel Corporation. He has been actively involved in the EPIC community since its inception in 2005, he chaired the conference in 2012 and 2013 and is currently Board President.
 
 His book The Power of Not Thinking: How Our Bodies Learn and Why We Should Trust Them is to be published by Bonnier in 2020. Simon has written and spoken widely about ethnography, business anthropology, innovation and ageing. His work has been covered by The FT, WSJ, Quartz, Bloomberg and the BBC.

He co-founded Stripe Partners in 2013.

You can read his article on UX-ification of Research here.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-8105604 Tue, 09 Mar 2021 03:00:00 -0500 3063 1 7 full false Hack the problem: A conversation with Yonatan Levy Hack the problem: A conversation with Yonatan Levy Yonatan Levy has been building tech products since 2005, some of which are used by millions of people. As a product manager, UX expert, entrepreneur and executive he has led teams in industries ranging from e-commerce and fintech to social platforms and cybersecurity.

He has gathered profound insights on problem-solving and creative thinking, which has led him to become a trainer of executives and professional teams. Yonatan has written a #1 Amazon Bestseller titled The Other Ideas: Art, Digital Products, and the Creative Mind, and founded the Problem Hacking® method for effective problem-solving.

You can follow Yonatan on LinkedIn and Instagram. You can download your free toolkit here: https://www.yonatanlevy.co/designup

To win a free Problem Hacking eBook:

  1. Download the free toolkit from here.
  2. Send Yonatan Levy three challenging questions in a mail to: yonatanlevy1@gmail.com
  3. He will choose the winner and the answer to your question will feature in a later episode of this podcast.
]]> Yonatan Levy has been building tech products since 2005, some of which are used by millions of people. As a product manager, UX expert, entrepreneur and executive he has led teams in industries ranging from e-commerce and fintech to social platforms and cybersecurity.

He has gathered profound insights on problem-solving and creative thinking, which has led him to become a trainer of executives and professional teams. Yonatan has written a #1 Amazon Bestseller titled The Other Ideas: Art, Digital Products, and the Creative Mind, and founded the Problem Hacking® method for effective problem-solving.

You can follow Yonatan on LinkedIn and Instagram. You can download your free toolkit here: https://www.yonatanlevy.co/designup

To win a free Problem Hacking eBook:

  1. Download the free toolkit from here.
  2. Send Yonatan Levy three challenging questions in a mail to: yonatanlevy1@gmail.com
  3. He will choose the winner and the answer to your question will feature in a later episode of this podcast.
]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-7644733 Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:00:00 -0500 2662 1 6 full false Find Simplicity: A conversation with Giles Colborne Find Simplicity: A conversation with Giles Colborne Giles Colborne is the founder of CX Partners and the author of Simple and Usable.

Giles works on digital strategy and organisational design for major brands, worldwide. Currently, he is devising initiatives for senior management in large corporates to measure and manage the customer-centricity of their organisations.

In this episode, we talk about his journey to CX Partners, the urge to write a book, simplicity as a concept, user cohorts, and strategies for designers to design simpler products.

You can read the CX Partners story here, visit the Simple and Usable website here or you can buy the second edition of the book here.

]]> Giles Colborne is the founder of CX Partners and the author of Simple and Usable.

Giles works on digital strategy and organisational design for major brands, worldwide. Currently, he is devising initiatives for senior management in large corporates to measure and manage the customer-centricity of their organisations.

In this episode, we talk about his journey to CX Partners, the urge to write a book, simplicity as a concept, user cohorts, and strategies for designers to design simpler products.

You can read the CX Partners story here, visit the Simple and Usable website here or you can buy the second edition of the book here.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-7122466 Mon, 04 Jan 2021 04:00:00 -0500 2651 full false Stories made with data: A conversation with Gurman Bhatia Stories made with data: A conversation with Gurman Bhatia Data visualizations and creating a narrative for easy consumption are pretty complex skills. If you add the expertise of journalism to this mix you get compelling stories made with data and code. Gurman Bhatia is a data and graphic journalist with experience and competence in this art form. Visit GurmanBhatia.com to know more about her work. Listen to this insightful episode made for user experience designers, graphic designers, journalists, storytellers and more.

Links and resources from Gurman:


]]> Data visualizations and creating a narrative for easy consumption are pretty complex skills. If you add the expertise of journalism to this mix you get compelling stories made with data and code. Gurman Bhatia is a data and graphic journalist with experience and competence in this art form. Visit GurmanBhatia.com to know more about her work. Listen to this insightful episode made for user experience designers, graphic designers, journalists, storytellers and more.

Links and resources from Gurman:


]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-6728740 Mon, 07 Dec 2020 03:00:00 -0500 2526 full false We, The Designers We, The Designers Last year DesignUp initiated a study on the State of Design in Technology in India and South East Asia.  This report was published and unveiled as DesignUp Deconstruct in November 2019 at the DesignUp Conference. In this episode, we talk to the research team that made this report possible.

We have also initiated the survey for the next report that covers the lives of designers during the pandemic. Click here to participate in the next report.

]]> Last year DesignUp initiated a study on the State of Design in Technology in India and South East Asia.  This report was published and unveiled as DesignUp Deconstruct in November 2019 at the DesignUp Conference. In this episode, we talk to the research team that made this report possible.

We have also initiated the survey for the next report that covers the lives of designers during the pandemic. Click here to participate in the next report.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-5956612 Mon, 19 Oct 2020 01:00:00 -0400 1786 1 3 full false The (not-so) Secret Life of Designers - Anurag Arora The (not-so) Secret Life of Designers - Anurag Arora From a May 2020 DesignUp Circuit Webinar we invite designers to talk about their passion point or secret projects that is not necessarily their day job. In this episode, we speak to Anurag Arora, Product Designer at Uber, about his culinary pursuits. His story covers growing up in Punjab, engineering, design education, vacation in Italy, and Le Cordon Bleu, London.

]]> From a May 2020 DesignUp Circuit Webinar we invite designers to talk about their passion point or secret projects that is not necessarily their day job. In this episode, we speak to Anurag Arora, Product Designer at Uber, about his culinary pursuits. His story covers growing up in Punjab, engineering, design education, vacation in Italy, and Le Cordon Bleu, London.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-5496097 Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:00:00 -0400 1961 1 2 full false DesignUp Dispatch One DesignUp Dispatch One This three-part extension of our newsletter covers Jared Spool's account of Hawaii Missile Alert from UX Thailand and how that connects to Jim Carrey's new book. Jay Dutta, Founder, and Curator at DesignUp, explains how the design festival and conference are dealing with 2020. Finally an extract from DesignUp Festival 2019 - the inspiring talk about designing solutions to the world's biggest problems - Jack Morgan, Design Lead at Duolingo.

]]> This three-part extension of our newsletter covers Jared Spool's account of Hawaii Missile Alert from UX Thailand and how that connects to Jim Carrey's new book. Jay Dutta, Founder, and Curator at DesignUp, explains how the design festival and conference are dealing with 2020. Finally an extract from DesignUp Festival 2019 - the inspiring talk about designing solutions to the world's biggest problems - Jack Morgan, Design Lead at Duolingo.

]]> Shiva Viswanathan Buzzsprout-5014214 Sun, 16 Aug 2020 03:00:00 -0400 1483 1 1 full false