On building respect for designers in an organization, with our guest Scott Zimmer.In part 2 of this guest episode, Juli and Scott continued their hike on the Buda Hills, discussing hiring designers, giving them a seat at the table, and building a culture that respects design.The path we took:Treating designers as a partner, not a resource;The risks of hiring external design help;Explaining and selling the idea of iteration;Why the first impression is important, and how a bad experience with a designer can feed bad stereotypes;The dangers of the agency model, and a better alternative for dedicated persistent internal design teams;Pleasing versus challenging the client;Hiring for aptitude and interest, and filling the rest with mentorship;And finding upsides for AI, supercharging human connections.Further reading:https://www.tmpt.me/https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/this-is-why-i-dont-call-myself-a-service-designer-any-more-5dcf639bebe0https://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design-dp-0321683684/dp/0321683684/ref=dp_ob_title_bkGrab your headphones, and come walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us, comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On building respect for designers in an organization, with our guest Scott Zimmer.In this guest episode, Juli and Scott hiked the Buda Hills and talked about hiring designers, giving them a seat at the table, and building a culture that respects design.The path we took:Making connections over a Medium article;Building design teams and the dangers of naive hiring;Entrepreneurship as a creative output;How a culture that respects design can look like;Designers getting a seat at the table, and going from receivers to influencers of decisions;The importance of apprenticeship and mentorship in designer careers;And treating designers as a partner, not a resource.Further reading:https://www.tmpt.me/https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/this-is-why-i-dont-call-myself-a-service-designer-any-more-5dcf639bebe0https://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design-dp-0321683684/dp/0321683684/ref=dp_ob_title_bkhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/adaptive-path/about/Grab your headphones, and come walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us, comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On Service design as mediation, on the borders of organizational development, with guest Morten Pedersten.In this guest episode, Juli, Morten, and guest dog Max hiked around the Hålandsvatnet lake near Stavanger and talked about Scandinavian design and business culture.The path we took:A brief intro to Morten, and the step to leave a management role to build something new;How a background in psychology and organizational development can merge with service design;A dream Scandinavian company: transparency, open salaries, sharing burdens and ownership at Canoe;The Scandinavian design world, with a history of collaboration, flat hierarchies, and government support for design;Designers who help and serve vs designers who want to impress;Changing definitions and expectations around design work;And a brief glimpse into AI, as a mediator between people, not a shortcut to cheaper work.Further reading:https://servicedesignnext.comhttps://www.canoe.no/https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/bld/nedsatt-funksjonsevne/norway-universally-designed-by-2025-web.pdfMauricio Manhaes' article in Touchpoint Magazine about Design as Female Characteristics can be downloaded here. Ongoing conversation on the subject on Linkedin can be followed here.Grab your headphones, and head to the nearest lake to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål. The second part of a two-part episode.In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.The path we took:Thought leaders who can expand our understanding of tech possibilitiesHumans changing the job landscape with AI, or AI taking our jobsHow AI is about predicting the future, and how that can go very wrongThe agency of designers on a strategic level, design maturity in an organizationThe way forward is education - different education paths leading to responsible service designWorries about the dilution of the service design professionHow interaction design can finally be about designing interactions, not just screensAnd advice for mindful design in the age of AIFurther reading:https://warnestal.com/https://drpontus.medium.com/ai-will-not-take-any-jobs-cdea12d86d2chttps://www.predictionmachines.ai/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40102.Blinkhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-paradigm/https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-agentive-technology/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63631742-frankensteinGrab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål.In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.The path we took:The importance of having a critical eye toward AI, and why it is no longer optional to be interested in AIDefining AI and ML among fluffy terms, stochastic parrots, and semantic dragonsThe five pillars of service design, and the necessity of focusing on backstage operationsLegal implications, and the current state of tech based on data theftBreaking things fast vs the ethics of business decisionsAnd a brief history lesson with Ada Lovelace, envisioning a machine capable of composing musicGrab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!Further reading:https://warnestal.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pontuswarnestalhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62588814-designing-ai-powered-serviceshttps://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_ithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_LovelacePs. At some point in our lives, we all were tech bros. Sorry for all the tech bro-bashing that’s about to happen in this episode.Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On AI, with its threats and hopes, history and religion.We are back! In the last season, we mostly focused on our past: where we came from, and how our history affected the value we seek to create in our career. This season, we are looking towards the future. This time we recorded among the mushrooms of the autumn forest. While the dogs ran around sniffing the wind, we discussed what we hope from AI, and what we fear the most.The path we took:Science fiction's AI promises, teaching us to fear the robots early on.The promise of growth and prosperity, and the last time we heard those promises: in the mobile revolution.Machines doing stupid human stuff much more efficiently than humans.The brief history of AI, or all the different things we called AI at some point.Regulation, legislation, and setting rules for something we don't fully understand.Surpassing human intelligence being a thread in itself or a way to salvation.Robot gods, robots with emotions.And for a more grounded ending: AI tools we use now, in our daily work, and why we're not worried about robots taking our jobs just yet.Further reading:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398163-the-orchid-cagehttps://www.fastcompany.com/90942310/ai-napster-who-going-to-own-it-nexthttps://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/12/30/a-very-short-history-of-artificial-intelligence-ai/https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebookhttps://ourworldindata.org/artificial-intelligencehttps://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/04/28/yuval-noah-harari-argues-that-ai-has-hacked-the-operating-system-of-human-civilisationhttps://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/artificial-intelligence/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40947778-the-outsideSpoiler warning: This episode contains major plot spoilers for the following sci-fi movies or books: The Matrix franchise, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator, The Orchid Cage by Herbert W. Franke, and The Outside series by Ada Hoffman. Grab your headphones, and walk with us! We have some sparkly winter sunshine, just ideal for a one-episode-long walk.Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On the topic we have been avoiding this whole time: the rise and fall of our co-owned company.In the last episode of this season, we took the dogs to the Buda Hills to have a surprisingly chill conversation about the emotionally loaded subject of our experience with co-ownership, distributed decision-making, and trust.The path we took:A journey back in time to 2015: the pitch to join a co-owned company, and what made us say yes.The era of building end-to-end product agency / venture builder hybrids.The beanbags and foosball tables of every 2010s office, aka hiring developers before the bootcamp boom.The motivational powers, technicalities, and challenges of co-ownership.Experiments with flat organizations and distributed decision-making, and the ups and downs of our implementation of holacracy.And the downfall: why we left, and what we are taking with us - about PLCs, amazingly productive meetings, and contract-backed trust.Further reading:https://www.lab.coop/https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NVNYM4Chttps://www.holacracy.org/https://blog.crisp.se/2015/06/07/henrikkniberg/no-i-didnt-invent-the-spotify-modelhttps://blog.lab.coop/holacracy-from-scratch-40e1f01e9030https://blog.lab.coop/share-more-to-have-more-why-lab-coop-is-an-employee-owned-holacracy-governed-company-c85915ae3168Ps. We are going on a little summer break now and will be back with our next season in September. We're experimenting with some shorter outtakes and thought-nuggets on Instagram until then. Also, we are all ears - if you want to chime in, have some feedback, or have a topic in mind that you would love to hear about next, hit us up at @paths.puddles.products! ★ Support this podcast ★

On learning models, DnD, and dressage.This time we grabbed a light topic with roleplaying games, horse riding, and arts, and gathered around an unlit campfire with the dogs for what turned out to be a deep dive into our learning and teaching experiences. The path we took:Our most recent learning choices, favoring tabletop roleplaying and literary writing over tools of the trade.How learning things unrelated to our profession helps build context for our work.Teaching university classes, bootcamps, nights and weekends, designers, coders, and horse riders.The unseen work of mentoring or explicit teaching responsibilities.Learning models and pedagogical approaches, black boxes and cognitive apprenticeship.Gatekeeping by degrees versus the democratization of education.And a question for you, while we run from the boars: what is your favorite unexpected skill or piece of knowledge that you could use in your work?Further reading:https://learningjournals.co.uk/what-are-the-different-pedagogical-approaches-to-learning/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_apprenticeshiphttps://www.simplypsychology.org/zone-of-proximal-development.htmlhttps://www.storytellingcollective.com/pages/rpg-writer-workshophttp://kunstfuck.tilda.ws/Ken Robinson on How schools kill creativity on TEDGrab your headphones, and head to the nearest forest to walk with us! - Just beware of the boars  🐗Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On working towards social and environmental impact as an entrepreneur.For this guest episode, angel investor turned social impact entrepreneur Antal Károlyi joined Juli and the dogs for a walk on Margaret Island.The path we took:Steps from being an investment banker to being a good person, through startup investments and impact projects.The limits of the angel investor role and the missing "why" of startup pitches.Impact investing and social enterprises, and why making money and having a purpose should not be contradictory.If you should start your career by working for your passion or for money.How finding an issue close to you can maximize your impact and can fuel your passion.The triple bottom line of B-Corps and a new definition of success.And if you can still have a life with the responsibility of a social impact project on your shoulders.Further reading:80000hours.orgStudy on nonprofit funding modelsB-CorpsSignCoders development agencyHungarian Business Angel NetworkThe Golden CircleGrab your headphones, and head to your favorite nearby island to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On different attitudes towards work across two generations with our guest Balázs Fejes.This is our second guest episode, recorded between concerts at Primavera Sound Festival, where Anikó and her brother Balázs, who lives on the other side of the globe, reconnect each year. We walked around the parks of Barcelona, discussing the diverse values that drive our two very different careers.The path we took:Getting to know Balázs, who manages product teams across the APAC region from their office in Hong Kong.Why our episodes can sound like two aliens talking to someone in the same field, but in a different generation.The place for pro bono work, social impact projects, and charity.How two people with similar personalities and environments can end up with wildly different value sets and career paths.Productivity metric-driven teams, and high performers taking our jobs.And where to start anew when AI takes over the world.Grab your headphones and a bottle of water, and head to your favorite park to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On how our need for impact and value creation affects our career choices.This time we climbed the hills of Normafa with the dogs, watched out for the boars, and talked about some projects we worked on from the perspective of an impactful career.The path we took:An unexpected career move and how it fits or does not fit in our impact-driven pattern.The triangle of impact, fulfillment, and stress in our work projects.Structure in working environments: the structure of processes and the structure of a well-planned and communicated strategy.Direct and indirect impact: the impact of education or tool development versus projects directly affecting environmental or societal issues.A trip down memory lane with our favorite impact projects.Expectations versus reality - what we wanted to achieve in these projects versus how they turned out.And a look into the crystal ball to see what an impactful career in the future could look like.Grab your headphones, and head to the closest hill to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On how to make a meaningful design-driven change in a product-focused organization.This is our first guest episode. Long-time friend and fellow service design leader Kata Dóczi-Nagy joined Juli and the dogs for a walk on the muddy slopes of Three Border Mountain, where they talked about her approach to service design, and the organizational prototyping project where their paths converged.The path they took:How an industrial design background can lead to service design leadership.The sustainability of manufacturing-focused product design, and climate anxiety.The different approaches to making lasting change - from within an organization and as an outside consultant.How one pioneer can change the design culture in a product company.Working in high-impact domains, namely, in healthcare simulation.The challenges of strategic design in the fuzzy front end.Juli + Kata's appreciation and love for the Netherlands.An organizational prototyping project to surf the waves of remote work, and what the company learned from it.And the impact of pandemics and war on businesses, organizations, and the people we're prototyping on.Grab your headphones, and head to a green spot to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On why we struggle with defining what we do.This time we took the scenic route to Three Border Mountain in the Buda Hills and let the dogs frolic in the wildflower fields, while we fought with job titles and talked about how we work.The path we took:Defining service design, and the difference between a service and a product.Working "in business" and business in a job title.What makes someone an expert in something - with a short rant on the inflation of knowledge.Developers coding in a dark room and other layers of creating value with code.Agile coaches, scrum, and Shape Up; frameworks for working together and decisionmaking.How working on strategy looks like vs how the visionary designer is pictured.How to bring an outside perspective and install lasting changes in an organization.And how our job is sometimes like therapy - people getting all vulnerable and being open to change.Grab your headphones, and head to the nearest lookout to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback! ★ Support this podcast ★

On how we work less to be happier and to make clients happier as well.The weather finally allowed us to venture out into nature: we took the dogs to Óbudai Island, and while they ran around in the grass and took a dip in the Danube, we rambled about our self-management experiences in the freelance world.The path we took:How do we manage our day-to-day work?Our tricks for incentivizing clients and bosses to respect our time. Spoiler: it's just communication.Our addiction to clear roles and responsibilities, and clarity in client relationships in general.Working hours challenges across roles and timezone differences.Our struggles with context switches and some tools we tried to stay sane.The tools we use and don't use for managing our tasks.And all the work we don't do, but should be doing for a successful freelancing business.Grab your headphones, and head to the nearest park to walk with us!Ps. If you want to chime in, send us a DM or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!Quoted Podcast: Focus on this! by Courney Baker, Verbs (Mike) Boyer, Blake Stratton ★ Support this podcast ★

On what drove us to freelancing, how our paths converged as co-owners of a company, and how we both found ourselves in the burnout puddle.The weather was not kind to us this time, so we're recording from our homes - no birds, only crickets. ★ Support this podcast ★

Introducing the Paths, Puddles, Products podcast - a quick hello from the forest. ★ Support this podcast ★