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PODCAST

This Is A Prototype

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 territory,

arts design

All Episodes

57:16

S3•E4 Ashleigh Axios

This Is A Prototype ·

2025/10/30

The practice of civic design is increasingly in the spotlight in the U.S. as dramatic cuts to federal agency staffing and funding resulted in the abrupt elimination of thousands of design jobs earlier this year. My guest this episode is Ashleigh Axios, one of the top leaders in the global civic design community. Ashleigh is the founder of Public Servants, a consultancy that partners with government and civic organizations across the US to design equitable, effective, and human-centered experiences

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56:16

S3•E3 Sara Cantor + George Aye

This Is A Prototype ·

2025/10/06

On this episode, host Doug Powell is joined by Sara Cantor and George Aye, co-founders of Chicago-based Greater Good Studio, a design firm dedicated to the public sector, taking a people-centered approach to their work with non-profits, philanthropic foundations, and municipal and government agencies. Earlier this year, Greater Good Studio launched Angry Hour, the "happy hour for pissed off optimists," as a way to bring designers together with community members and activists around local issues and

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43:12

Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 2

This Is A Prototype ·

2025/09/25

On August 28, I hosted a webinar on Building Diverse Design Teams in which I spoke to some of the top leaders in design about the importance of building a more diverse, equitable and representative profession—and what we as individual leaders can do to make that happen. The event was also a fundraiser for an organization called Diversify by Design, and their program DESIGN=, which provides design curriculum kits, teacher training, mentorship, and career guidance to middle- and high-school classrooms

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45:03

Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 1

This Is A Prototype ·

2025/09/18

On August 28, I hosted a webinar on Building Diverse Design Teams in which I spoke to some of the top leaders in design about the importance of building a more diverse, equitable and representative profession—and what we as individual leaders can do to make that happen. The event was also a fundraiser for an organization called Diversify by Design, and their program DESIGN=, which provides design curriculum kits, teacher training, mentorship, and career guidance to middle- and high-school classrooms

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37:19

Special Episode: 2025 State of Black Design Conference

This Is A Prototype ·

2025/05/20

The State of Black Design conference was launched as a virtual event in 2020 during the wake of the murder of George Floyd at a time when our country, and the design industry were confronting the sobering reality of racial inequity. Since 2020, the State of Black Design has grown into a vibrant and thriving community of design leaders, practitioners, educators, and students. On Juneteenth that community will come together in Minneapolis for State of Black Design conference, We On Point: A

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44:19

S2•E10 Kevin Bethune

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/10/08

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 Trustee for

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44:46

S2•E9 Jenna Date

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/09/10

“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, educator,

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44:23

S2•E8 Richard Hollant

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/08/20

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, engaging with

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48:08

S2•E7 Daniela Marzavan

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/08/06

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 world

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41:56

S2•E6 Vivek Rao

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/07/23

“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 the

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40:39

S2•E5 Jonathan Hanahan

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/07/09

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 by the

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51:50

S2•E4 Bill Grant

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/06/18

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 design firm

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51:49

S2•E3 Kaleena Sales & Sadie Red Wing

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/06/04

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

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31:50

S2 • E2 Kate Aronowitz + Robert Fabricant (part two)

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/05/21

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.

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37:36

S2 • E1 Kate Aronowitz + Robert Fabricant (part one)

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/05/14

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 Company

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2:45

Season 2: Coming Soon!

This Is A Prototype ·

2024/04/30

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 to explore

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60:37

ThIs A Prototype: S1•E10 Doreen Lorenzo & Mbiyimoh...

This Is A Prototype ·

2023/12/05

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 profiling

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54:41

This Is A Prototype: S1•E9 Ann Willoughby & Mauro...

This Is A Prototype ·

2023/11/20

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 Officer of

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35:14

This Is A Prototype: S1•E8 Tom Scott

This Is A Prototype ·

2023/11/07

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 scoping of

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50:11

This Is A Prototype: S1•E7 Rama Gheerawo

This Is A Prototype ·

2023/10/24

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 questions I’ve

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