Guest

April Dunford

Author 

Obviously Awesome - How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy it, Love it.

Summary

April Dunford, product positioning leader and author of the book Obviously Awesome - How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy it, Love it, joins Designing Next to share her insights and methodology around product positioning. In this episode, April shares why traditional positioning statements are not useful, how she now approaches positioning with her five components of effective positioning, and how she has seen the COVID-19 pandemic affect how companies approach their positioning. 

Show Details

This episode’s guest is April Dunford, product positioning leader and author of the book Obviously Awesome - How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy it, Love it. Unsurprisingly, April has a tremendous amount of product positioning experience. She spent the first 25 years of her career as a start-up executive, leading marketing, product and sales teams. Six of her seven startups were acquired by brands including IBM, SAP, and Siebel. Through it all, she positioned, re-positioned and launched 16 products. Today she is an author and consultant. 

Of course, we’re thrilled that she decided to share her knowledge and wisdom through the book Obviously Awesome, which captures her ideas about positioning and a methodology for doing it that anyone can follow. As she says, positioning is the foundation of everything we do in marketing and sales -- and we would say it is a key part of everything we do in innovation and design as well. 

In this episode, Chad and Steve dig into all things positioning with April. Look forward to learning:

• How April approached the development and writing of her book as if she was developing a new product. 
• Why April feels traditional positioning statements are not useful, and how she now approaches positioning as a result - including her five components of effective positioning. 
• How April has seen the COVID-19 pandemic affect how companies approach their positioning. 

Visit April’s personal website: https://www.aprildunford.com/

Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers/dp/1999023005/

Guest

Tonya Browning

Vice President, Dell Digital Design 

Dell Technologies

Summary

Tonya Browning, Vice President, Dell Digital Design at Dell Technologies, joins Designing Next to share her learnings and perspective from leading design at organizations large and small. Tonya covers a wide variety of subjects with Steve and Chad, including her three key waypoints around design leadership at large companies, why failing fast is so important in design - and how to fail fast the right way, and her diverse sources of design inspiration - from Cyberpunk to palimpsests to Picasso.

Show Details

This episode’s guest is Tonya Browning, Vice President, Dell Digital Design at Dell Technologies. As the first Vice President of Design in Dell’s IT organization, Dell Digital, Tonya is building a modern design practice as the organization transforms and adopts modern methodologies as well as new technologies. She oversees digital design, analytics, generative content, UX engineering, research and customer satisfaction measures.

As we’ll hear in our conversation, she is an expert in and passionate about design, software engineering, usability, content and accessibility. She has many varied experiences, implementing enterprise level applications and digital experiences for PayPal, Express Scripts/Cigna, Magento, Visa, as well as a number of startups (including one she founded).  

There is so much to talk about with Tonya, she has a unique passion and a really interesting perspective across a number of subjects. Look forward to learning: 

• What she has learned about design from her experience at organizations of all sizes, from start-ups to large enterprise organizations.
• Tonya’s three key waypoints around design leadership at large companies. 
• Why failing fast is important from a design perspective, how it works best and why it sometimes doesn’t work. 
• The advice that Tonya has for those who want to bring more of a design focus and mindset to their organizations. 
  

Visit Tonya’s personal website: tonyabrowning.com.

Guest

Elena Zloteanu

International Design Thinking Program Manager 

Hochland

Summary

Elena Zloteanu, International Design Thinking Program Manager at Hochland, joins Designing Next to share insights from Hochland’s journey of scaling design thinking across their organization. In this episode, Elena covers a number of topics with Steve and Chad, including how she learns from failures and how a past “successful failure” in design thinking helped lead her to where she is today, how she integrates Hochland’s mission to excite consumers about cheese into all of her design thinking challenges, and how she continued innovation and design thinking efforts through COVID - creating what she calls an innovation bubble. 

Show Details

This episode’s guest is Elena Zloteanu, International Design Thinking Program Manager at Hochland. Hochland is a cheese and dairy manufacturer based in Germany, with distribution across Europe and the United States. Elena has been with Hochland for 18 years and held many positions across marketing and innovation. Today, her role focuses on implementing Design Thinking at Hochland. Her mission is to scale adoption of Design Thinking across the organization as both a toolbox and mindset, with the goal of contributing to the organization's innovation effort and speeding up the time to market of new products.. 

Years ago, Elena made it her mission to bring Design Thinking into Hochland, and make it a core element of their business. In this episode, she is going to share a lot about that journey with us. Look forward to learning: 

• Elena’s perspective on why innovation is important in the food category - and for cheese specifically for her
• How Elena learns from failures and how a past “successful failure” in design thinking helped lead her to where she is today
• How she continued innovation and design thinking efforts through COVID - creating what is called an innovation bubble. 

Guest

Joe Smiley

Group Design Manager 

Blizzard Entertainment

Summary

Joe Smiley, Group Design Manager at Blizzard Entertainment, joins Designing Next to talk about a topic that Chad and Steve are passionate about - design thinking, and how it is utilized in business.  In this episode, Joe speaks with Chad & Steve about how he has seen the role of the designer evolve in the last 20 years, what it means to be a design driven company, and the advice Joe would give leaders who want to integrate design further into their organization.

Show Details

In this episode of the Designing Next Podcast, we’re joined by Joe Smiley, Group Design Manager at Blizzard Entertainment. Joe’s passion is designing + developing extraordinary digital products via Human-Centered Design to explore consumers’ motivations & needs. Then utilizing those deep insights to design products that solve their challenges and fulfill unmet needs. His career has spanned 20 years, utilizing his design experience with firms ranging from AOL to PwC to Marriot to eTrade and now Blizzard Entertainment. 

Joe is passionate about the role design can play in organizations large and small. You’ll hear that passion throughout this episode’s conversation. Look forward to learning: 

• How Joe has seen the role of the designer evolve over the last 20 years. 
• What it means to be a design-driven company. 
• The advice Joe would give leaders who want to integrate design further into their organization
• Why Joe wants to focus on the role of education in design thinking and why he believes we should change STEM to STEAM - adding art to science, technology, engineering and math 
  

Joe’s web site/blog: https://dsruptr.com/

Guest

Danielle Cohn

Vice-President of Business Development and Startup Engagement 

Comcast NBCUniversal

Summary

Danielle Cohn, Vice-President of Business Development and Startup Engagement at Comcast NBCUniversal, joins Designing Next to share her unique insights around innovation and the startup world.  In this episode, Danielle speaks with Chad & Steve about why a large company like Comcast NBCUniversal has such a focus on startups, how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the environment for startups, and how Danielle’s personal experiences led her into the startup world herself and ignited a passion around care. 

Show Details

In this episode of the Designing Next Podcast, we’re joined by Danielle Cohn, Vice-President of Business Development and Startup Engagement at Comcast NBCUniversal.This conversation will really get into that intersection of large enterprise organizations and startups. Danielle has a presence in both worlds, so her perspective on innovation, startups and the world of entrepreneurship today will be very interesting. 

Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs helps talented startups create rapid breakthroughs in connectivity, media, with access to their renowned network of partners, brands, and mentors. Danielle has been with Comcast NBCUniversal for 7 years and prior to joining the organization, she spent 15 years at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors bureau. 

In this episode, Danielle shares her passion and perspective about the startup world, innovation and many other topics. Look forward to learning: 

• Why a large company like Comcast NBCUniversal has a focus on startups
• How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the environment for startups
• How Danielle’s personal experiences led her into the startup world herself and ignited a passion around care 

Guest

Paul Puopolo

Executive Vice-President of Innovation

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

Summary

Paul Puopolo, Executive Vice-President of Innovation at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, joins Designing Next to share his experience and learnings from a career leading innovation across several large organizations. In this episode, Paul speaks with Chad & Steve about the commonalities he has seen in the successful innovation projects he has been a part of, advice he would give to those building a career in innovation, and his four P’s - the four key elements Paul believes are crucial to the success of any innovation initiative. 

Show Details

In our first episode of the Fall season, we are talking innovation with Paul Puopolo, Executive Vice-President of Innovation at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Not only is it interesting to explore innovation in the aviation and airport industry, but Paul brings the podcast an incredible depth of knowledge and experience in innovation as a whole. 

Paul has had an interesting path to his role today leading innovation for one of the busiest airports in the United States. He served over 12 years in the U.S. Navy and then entered the corporate world in the health insurance space, holding several roles at Humana, leaving after 9 years as their Director of Consumer Innovation. He then moved onto Highmark, holding the role of Vice President of Business Innovation, before spending two years at MetLife as Vice-President of Innovation. He’s been in his current role at DFW for three years. 

In this episode, Paul shares a lot of interesting insights and learnings around innovation. Look forward to learning:

• The commonalities has seen in the successful innovation projects he has been a part of
• What he wished he knew “then” - the advice he would give to those building a career in innovation
• How Paul sees the differences between being an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur
• Paul Puopolo’s four P’s - the four key elements Paul believes are crucial to the success of any innovation initiative 

Guest

Jennifer Zamora

Senior Global Director Customer Experience & Employee Experience

Dow

Summary

Jennifer Zamora, Senior Global Director Customer Experience & Employee Experience at Dow, joins Designing Next to talk about building a customer experience capability in a complex B2B environment. In this episode, she speaks with Chad & Steve about how customer-centricity moved from being an abstract concept to a key strategic initiative at Dow, why humility is so important when you are listening to your customers and how Dow developed a metrics framework around CX that all levels of the organization could buy into. 

Show Details

This episode’s guest is Jennifer Zamora, Senior Global Director Customer Experience & Employee Experience at Dow. You’ve likely heard of Dow - the materials science company was founded in 1897 and has over 37,000 employees. 

Jen has been with Dow for over 20 years, holding positions across marketing, customer service, and financial areas. For the last several years, her focus has been on deploying the long-term CX strategy and discipline, which includes implementing the customer listening process, institutionalizing a customer-centric culture across Dow and defining and implementing Dow’s transformative customer distinction model and journey mapping practices. 

In this episode, we speak to Jen about what it is like to stand up a new CX initiative in a complex organization like Dow, and what has been key to their success thus far. Look forward to learning:

• How customer centricity moved from an abstract concept at Dow to becoming a true asset and one of the organization's four key ambitions.  
• Why humility is so important when you are listening to your customers to truly understand their experiences. 
• How Jen and her team developed a measurement framework that resonated across the organization.

Guest

Jody Allison

Vice President, Transformation

Algonquin Power & Utilities

Summary

Jody Allison, Vice President, Transformation at Algonquin Power & Utilities, joins Designing Next to talk about driving transformation in the utilities and renewable industry. In this episode, she speaks with Chad & Steve about her journey from accounting and risk management to leading transformation at a large utilities organization, what transformation looks like in the utilities industry and how it compares to other industries, and how Jody and the team at Algonquin have successfully continued their transformation efforts even as the COVID-19 pandemic changed so many aspects of their business.

Show Details

This episode’s guest is Jody Allison, Vice President, Transformation at Algonquin Power & Utilities. Algonquin operates a number of renewable energy and regulated utility services across the United States and Canada. 

Jody has been with Algonquin for almost 18 months, so as you might imagine, she has had an interesting experience with COVID-19 changing everything just a few months into her tenure. Jody’s path to leading transformation has come through the finance world, she started as an accountant and spent almost 20 years at Paychex, working in risk management and service strategy before transitioning into the utility industry, first with National Grid and now with Algonquin. 

Many of us may not always think about the utilities industry first when it comes to transformation, but as Jody will share with us, it is a space that is ripe for innovation in a number of areas. Look forward to learning:

• About Jody’s journey from accounting and risk management to leading transformation at a large utilities organization
• What transformation looks like in the utilities industry and how it compares to other industries
• How Jody and the team at Algonquin have successfully continued their transformation efforts even as the COVID-19 pandemic changed so many aspects of their business.

Guest

Alan Moore

Author

Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs

Summary

Alan Moore, author, designer, and innovator, joins Designing Next to talk about helping businesses discover their own unique beauty. Alan’s new book is called Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs and in this episode, he speaks with Chad & Steve about what led him to his mission of creating beautiful businesses, why he believes we need to shift from what he calls an extractive economy to a regenerative economy, and he shares the questions he believes leaders must ask themselves if they want to create beautiful businesses.

Show Details

This episode’s guest is Alan Moore, designer, business innovator and author. His new book is called Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs. The book is an extension of his life’s mission, which is to help businesses discover their own unique beauty. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about what a beautiful business is and why Alan is on this mission to transform business through beauty. Alan believes that the world of business is changing and that the single pursuit of ‘profit at any cost’ has been replaced by a desire to build companies that create a better future — and enjoy commercial success.

In Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs, Alan Moore draws on his years of research into some of the most pioneering and progressive businesses on the planet. By speaking to their purpose-driven founders,
 he discovers that it is possible to lead with generosity, have a transparent supply chain, design products and services that are considered and joyful, and create a company culture where individuals flourish.

Alan brings a refreshing perspective, and he’ll share several interesting insights in this episode. Look forward to learning:

• About the “Road to Damascus” experience that led Alan to his mission of creating beautiful businesses and what it means to him to have a return to beauty within the context of business.
• Why Alan believes we have to shift from what he calls an extractive economy to a regenerative economy and what that means. 
• Questions that Alan believes leaders should ask themselves if they want to create a beautiful business.

We appreciate Alan sharing his work and insights with us on this episode. We hope you are inspired by it as much as we were. 

Alan’s website

https://beautiful.business/

Guest

Torben Nielsen

CEO

ZOOM+Care

Summary

Torben Nielsen, CEO of ZOOM+Care, joins Designing Next to talk about innovation and driving growth. In this episode, Torben speaks with Chad & Steve about how working for Lego taught him to observe and listen to the needs of his audience, the steps Torben took to turnaround ZOOM+Care and how it doubled in size in less than two years, and he shares advice he would give to leaders who are on a journey to create transformative and differentiating experiences.

Show Details

In this episode, the topic is growth and innovative transformation. Our guest is Torben Nielsen, who is the CEO of ZOOM+Care®, an innovator of on-demand retail and virtual healthcare. Torben has 20+ years of broad business experience, ranging from nimble start-ups to household brand names such as LEGO, XEROX, and BlueCross BlueShield. He is also a co-founder of HealthSparq—the second-fastest-growing digital health company in the U.S. in 2016—and has shepherded innovative, digital healthcare solutions over the past fifteen years.

Torben has been the CEO of ZoomCare+ for just under two years, and in that time they have almost doubled in size to 60 locations - which is very impressive considering that over half of that time has been during the COVID-19 pandemic. His leadership landed ZOOM+Care among the ten most admired healthcare companies in Oregon and SW Washington in 2020, and he was recently recognized by the Portland Business Journal as a 2021 "Executive of the Year.” Through it’s neighborhood clinics and telehealth offering, ZoomCare offers same-day primary care, urgent care, speciality care and emergency care to over 300,000 patients a year. However their approach is a bit different than the healthcare experiences that many of us are accustomed to. The ZOOM+Care experience is all about focused, compassionate care delivered quickly. This approach has not only led to rapid growth, but the company has 19k reviews on Google with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Torben has experienced quite a bit over his career, especially in the last two years at ZOOM+Care, and he’ll share several interesting insights in this episode. Look forward to learning:

• How working for Lego taught him to observe and listen to the needs of his audience.
• How ZoomCare+ differentiates itself from the traditional healthcare experience. 
• The steps Torben took to turnaround ZoomCare+ and how it doubled in size in less than two years.
• What they learned as they quickly pivoted their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What advice he would give to leaders who are on a journey to create transformative and differentiating experiences. 
  

We appreciate Torben sharing his wisdom and experience with us on this episode. We’re sure you’ll enjoy it. 

Guest

Patrice Martin

Cofounder + CEO

The Holding Co.

Summary

Patrice Martin, Cofounder + CEO of The Holding Co., joins Designing Next to speak about applying human-centered design to complex societal challenges. In this episode, Patrice speaks with Chad & Steve about how her experience as a designer at firms like IDEO and SonicRim has prepared her for the work she is doing today, how the Holding Co. is working to redesign how we care for each other in the 21st century, and how Patrice and the team at the Holding Co. bring together multiple perspectives and disciplines to help solve the challenges they’ve uncovered around care. 

Show Details

We spend a lot of time on Designing Next talking about experience and innovation for business and organizations. However, in this episode, we are shifting gears a bit  and speaking about applying design principles to challenges that all of use will face at some point in our lives - challenges around care. This episode’s guest is Patrice Martin, Cofounder and CEO of The Holding Co., a lab focused on redesigning on how we care for each other in the 21st century. 

Patrice brings quite a bit of design experience to her role. She spent several years at the design firms Sonic Rim and IDEO before co-founding IDEO.org in 2011. IDEO.org focuses on bringing design thinking to the social sector. Recently, a collaboration between IDEO and Pivotal Ventures, the investment and incubation company by Melinda Gates, led to the creation of the Holding Co. The Holding Co. partners with innovators--for-profit, nonprofit, and government, alike--to build systemic solutions to care and make women and family's lives more functional and joyful. 

The work that Patrice and The Holding Co. does is important and impactful. As Patrice notes in the episode, care is often invisible. We ignore it, we’re used to it and we undervalue it. As a result, we often miss many of the challenges associated with care. Patrice is working to change that. As she shares her journey and work with us, look forward to learning:

• Why human centered design such a powerful tool as Patrice and the Holding Co. set out to redesign how we care for each other in the 21st century. 
• How Patrice and the Holding Co. bring together multiple perspectives and disciplines to help solve the challenges they’ve uncovered around care. 
• How Patrice and her team are working to market-size the care economy and what they are doing to build the systems, tools and structures to make that possible. 
  

We were certainly inspired by our conversation with Patrice. We hope you are as well. 

Guest

Nate Rogers

Vice President, Transformation Acceleration

OhioHealth

Summary

Nate Rogers, Vice President of Transformation Acceleration at OhioHealth, joins Designing Next to speak about his journey, which has taken him from guiding marketing strategy for a top retailer to leading innovation in healthcare. In this episode, Nate speaks with Chad & Steve about healthcare’s transition from being provider-centric to consumer-centric, what he has learned in his two years leading innovation at OhioHealth, how his innovation team engages associates across the organization to be part of their problem-solving and design thinking process, and why Nate believes that healthcare could soon leapfrog other industries in terms of leading with consumer-centricity. 

Show Details

In our first episode of 2021, we focus on transformation and innovation with Nate Rogers, who is Vice-President of Transformation Acceleration at OhioHealth, a large hospital and health system based in Columbus, OH with 35,000 employees serving 47 Ohio counties. Nate has had an interesting journey to his current role leading innovation and transformation at OhioHealth. Before joining OhioHealth, Nate had spent the majority of his career working in retail - specifically leading marketing strategy and innovation at Victoria’s Secret. He was recruited to OhioHealth for a leadership role in digital marketing - specifically to bring a consumer-centric approach to the organization. Since then, Nate has ascended into a new role, leading the innovation team at OhioHealth - a team that truly acts as an internal innovation consultancy across the organization. 

Nate has learned a lot in his time leading innovation at OhioHealth, and in this episode, he shares insights and practices that are valuable to all leaders in innovation and beyond. Look forward to hearing:

• How OhioHealth and healthcare as a whole have evolved from being provider-centric to consumer-centric
• How the OhioHealth innovation team operates - from how they prioritize initiatives to the design-thinking approach they bring to their initiatives. 
• How Nate and his team apply a design-thinking mindset and empathetic approach to both internal and external audiences at OhioHealth. 

We’re grateful to Nate for sharing his experience and knowledge with us. It’s a great episode.

Guest

Michael Hoffman

Author

Customer Worthy, Why and how everyone in your organization must Think Like a Customer

Summary

Michael Hoffman, author of the book Customer Worthy, joins Designing Next to talk about how organizations should approach thinking like a customer in 2021. In this episode, Michael speaks with Chad and Steve about developing a holistic definition of your customers across divisions and silos, the most significant ways he has seen COVID-19 impact customer experience, and how Michael sees the customer experience space evolving in the next 3-5 years.

Show Details

We can all agree that 2020 has been a year unlike any other. Currently (in December 2020), we’re looking at two divergent situations. On one hand, it’s concerning that COVID cases are currently spiking in many places across the country. But, as we recorded this episode, the first vaccine doses were being shipped and administered, bringing hope that we could be on a path that returns us to some sort of normalcy in 2021. Of course, none of us know what that might be and how it will affect our organizations, or how it will affect the customer experience we provide and the experiences we will be designing. In spite of these many unknowns, customer experience, experience design and innovation leaders need to forge on. 

This episode's guest will share valuable insight around how leaders can approach 2021. Chad and Steve speak with Michael Hoffman, author, customer experience guru and customer technology futurist, and founder of the customer strategy and customer value firm ClientxClient. His book, Customer Worthy, Why and how everyone in your organization must Think Like a Customer, is the synthesis of his work with major brands, executive teams, and innovators where he honed the elements of the CxC Customer Experience Matrix presented in the book. That matrix provides companies with a converged strategic, financial and technologic framework centered on the customer. We’re going to talk a lot today about what CX framework and thinking like a customer will mean in 2021 and beyond.

In this episode, Michael provides us all with a lot to consider moving into 2021. Look forward to hearing:

• How Michael’s CX matrix works across divisions and silos to develop a holistic view of the customer.  
• The most important Customer Experience impacts Michael has seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• How Michael sees the customer experience space evolving over the next 3-5 years.

It’s a great episode! Check it out.

Note

Link to download Michaels book, Customer Worthy, Why and how everyone in your organization must Think Like a Customer, and CX matrix: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ab103d3f79392e40afeab79/t/5d44a49b9b602f000121fc2e/1564779679788/Customer+Worthy+by+MR+Hoffman.pdf

Guest

B. Joseph Pine II

Author

The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money

Summary

B. Joseph Pine II, co-author of the pioneering book The Experience Economy, joins Designing Next to talk about what the experience economy means in these unique times. In this episode, Joe speaks with Chad & Steve about how organizations have adapted their experiences during the pandemic era, what hybrid digital and physical experiences could look like in the post-pandemic future, and why Joe believes that the transformation economy could eclipse the experience economy in the not-so-distant future. 

Show Details

The term “Experience Economy” entered the lexicon for many in 1998 when B. Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore wrote the article “Welcome to the Experience Economy” in the Harvard Business Review. They followed that up in 1999 with the book that many in the experience design world are familiar with - The Experience Economy: Work is a Theatre & Every Business a Stage. While over 20 years have passed since the publication of the book, it’s core tenants remain strong and continue to inspire and guide leaders across industries. In this episode of Designing Next, B. Joseph Pine II joins us to discuss what the experience economy means in these unique times. 

In addition to The Experience Economy, Joe has co-authored three other books and is also a renowned speaker and consultant to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. He has addressed the World Economic Forum, the original TED conference, and the Consumer Electronics Show. He has been a Visiting Scholar with the MIT Design Lab and a Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He has also taught at Penn State, Duke Corporate Education, the University of Minnesota, and UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, and today is a Lecturer in Columbia University’s Master’s Program in Technology Management in the School of Professional Studies.

Last year, Joe and James Gilmore re-released The Experience Economy with a brand-new preface, in which they make an even stronger case for experiences as the critical link between a company and its customers in an increasingly distractible and time-starved world. 

In this episode, Joe shares thoughts and insights about the experience economy that are more relevant than ever. Look forward to hearing:

• Why experiences as an economic offering are not a fad, but a fundamental change in the fabric of the economy.
• Real-world examples of how some organizations have adapted their experience for the pandemic era. 
• What hybrid digital and physical experiences might look like in a post-pandemic future. 

• The important role that employee experience plays in the experience economy. 
  

We’re thrilled that B. Joseph Pine II joined us on this episode to share his unique perspective. We’re sure you will enjoy it as well. 

Guest

Bill Staikos

Head of Customer Experience

Freddie Mac

Summary

Bill Staikos, Head of Customer Experience at Freddie Mac, joins Designing Next to talk to us about the relationship between customer and employee experience. In this episode, Bill speaks with Chad & Steve about the importance of breaking down silos to bring employee experience and customer experience leaders together, the most important CX and EX metrics that every experience leader should be monitoring, and how he ties CX and EX data to business and financial metrics in a meaningful way.   

Show Details

The idea of aligning customer experience and employee experience has been a topic that has been discussed quite a bit over the last few years. But, what does it really mean to align the employee and customer experience? We all inherently know that if we have a superior employee experience, we’re much more likely to have a superior customer experience. After all, companies that lead in customer experience have 60% more engaged employees, and study after study has shown that investing in employee experience impacts the customer experience and can generate a high ROI for the company. We can all agree that sounds great, but for many the question is how do you operationalize it? 

We try to answer that question in this episode. We’re joined by Bill Staikos, Head of Customer Experience at Freddie Mac and the host of the podcast Be Customer Led. Not only will we compare notes on hosting podcasts, but Bill is also going to share his knowledge and experience about aligning customer and employee experiences at large organizations.  Bill’s background has taken him to organizations such as Chase, Credit Suisse, and American Express and his experience includes research & insights, data & analytics, leading UX/Design, transformation, and developing products for operational leaders to help them make the right decision on how to improve the customer experience. He has a lot of insight to share. As you listen to this episode, look forward to learning:

• The importance of breaking down silos to bring employee experience and customer experience leaders together.
• The most important CX and EX metrics that every experience leader should be monitoring.
• How Bill ties CX and EX data to business and financial metrics in a meaningful way.
  

Bill’s experience and strategic insights are incredibly valuable for all of us. We hope you enjoy the episode. 

Guest

Colin Crowley

VP, Customer Experience

Freshley

Summary

Colin Crowley, VP, Customer Experience at Freshly, joins Designing Next to talk to us about his experience building a customer experience infrastructure. In this episode, Colin speaks with Chad & Steve about the process he used to build a customer experience infrastructure within a start-up environment, the steps he and his team took to build and operationalize the five pillars of Freshly’s customer experience, and his approach to finding the right balance between AI, automation, and humanness in customer experience.

Show Details

When Colin Crowley joined Freshly as the VP of Customer Experience five years ago, he inherited a team of one. His first job was to build the infrastructure of Freshly’s customer experience capability. This job was not without its challenges - creating processes, procedures and a culture from scratch is never easy, and is even more difficult in a start-up environment. However, his effort has proven successful as Colin now leads a CX team of over 200. And Colin joins this episode of Designing Next to share his wisdom. 

Colin’s path to Freshly has been a bit non-traditional. Before starting at Freshly, Colin started in the world of national security, serving as a researcher and editor at prestigious think-tanks in Washington D.C. He then transitioned to CX, spending six years working at the e-commerce giant TicketNetwork and finishing his time there as AVP of Consumer Transactions. Beyond that, Colin is also a produced playwright who has been recognized in over 50 national and international playwriting contests and whose plays have been performed/produced across the United States. 

As you might imagine, we could speak to Colin about a multitude of subjects, but of course, we chose to really focus on his CX expertise in this episode. When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• How Colin approached building the infrastructure of Freshly’s CX effort in a start-up environment.
• How Colin and his team brought operations and customer experience together - so both groups could better serve their customers. 
• How Colin starts with the customer when he integrates AI and automation into the customer experience. 
  

Colin shares a lot of great ideas and insights in this episode. We hope you enjoy it. 

Guest

Anastasia Zdoroviak

Director of Customer Experience

DoorDash

Summary

Anastasia Zdoroviak, Director of Customer Experience at DoorDash, joins Designing Next to talk with us about DoorDash’s approach to developing and continuously improving a differentiated experience. In this episode, Anastasia speaks with Chad & Steve about how DoorDash manages the distinct experiences of its three key audiences (consumers, dashers, and merchants), how they measure the consumer journey and prioritize pain points, and how cross-functional teams design and implement solutions at a rapid pace.

Show Details

On-demand meal delivery is a relatively young concept. It has grown consistently in the last few years, but its growth has been tremendous in the last six months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The category has become a very competitive space, and as a result, customer experience is a very important differentiating factor. In this episode, we learn how DoorDash is approaching customer experience with their Director of Customer Experience, Anastasia Zdoroviak.

Although many of us are consumers of on-demand delivery services like DoorDash, we may not stop to think about how the experience goes beyond customers like ourselves. The Dashers and merchants that DoorDash serves are key audiences as well, and as Anastasia shares with us, a change to one audience's journey often impacts every audience they serve. Anastasia also shares how DoorDash built their customer experience team, and how they work to understand and improve the journeys all of their audiences take. 

When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• How DoorDash combines quantitative, qualitative, and behavioral data to better understand audience journeys.
• How DoorDash customer experience teams use human-centered design practices to rapidly innovate, design, test and roll out new experiences.
• How cross-functional teams across DoorDash collaborate as they continuously work to evolve the experience of all their audiences.

Anastasia provides a lot of interesting insights throughout this episode. We hope you enjoy it. 

Guest

Jim Kalbach

Head of Customer Experience

Mural

Summary

Jim Kalbach, Head of Customer Experience at Mural, joins Designing Next to talk with us about developing and maintaining a culture with remote and distributed teams. In this episode, Jim speaks with Chad & Steve about what the pandemic taught him and the team at Mural as their business grew quickly over the last six months, what organizations need to do to establish and maintain a culture in a remote work environment, and why remote teams can be just as effective - or even more effective - than in-person teams. 

Show Details

There has been a common theme in almost all of our episodes as we’ve discussed experience design, innovation and transformation - and that theme has been the importance of culture. As a lot of work has become remote as a result of the pandemic, building and maintaining culture has become an entirely new type of challenge for many of us - especially since it is so key to successful innovation and transformation efforts. 

This episode’s guest, Jim Kalbach, brings a wealth of experience and expertise in managing remote teams to Designing Next. Jim is Head of Customer Experience for Mural, a cloud-based digital workspace for visual collaboration. Before Mural, Jim worked in various design-related consulting roles for large companies, such as eBay, Audi, SONY, Elsevier Science, LexisNexis, and Citrix. He is also an accomplished author of three books on topics ranging from web design to journey mapping, with a fourth to be published soon.

We could likely speak with Jim for hours across a range of subjects, but in this episode we focused on something that is relevant to so many of us during these times - building and maintaining a strong culture in remote environments. Jim started building and leading remote teams long before COVID-19 came along, so he has a lot of wisdom he can share with us. 

When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• What the pandemic taught Jim and the team at Mural about their business as they grew so fast over the last six months.
• What organizations need to do to establish and maintain a culture in a remote or distributed work environment. 
• Why Jim believes remote or distributed work can be just as effective or even more effective than in-person work.
• Why Jim doesn’t like the term “human resources.”
  

Jim shared a lot of interesting thoughts and concepts in this episode. We hope you enjoy it. 

Links

Jim’s TEDX talk: Jazz improvisation for radical collaboration

Jim’s books: 

Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience

Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams

The Jobs To Be Done Playbook: Align Your Markets, Organization, and Strategy Around Customer Needs

Guest

Jennifer Ishiguro

Vice President of Research, Experience Design and Service Excellence

ATB Financial

Summary

Jennifer Ishiguro, Vice President of Research, Experience Design and Service Excellence at ATB Financial, joins Designing Next to talk with us about the role of humanness in digital transformation efforts. In this episode, Jennifer speaks to us about why most current approaches to transformation do more damage than good, the importance of understanding how motivations drive people and drive change in transformational efforts,  and why she believes we should eliminate the term “change management” from our vocabulary. 

Show Details

There are very few organizations in the world that have not attempted some form of digital transformation - it is an initiative that most of us have experience with. Yet, after 20+ years of digital transformation, many efforts still fail. Why is that? We explore that question in this episode of Designing Next with Jennifer Ishiguro, Vice President of Research, Experience Design and Service Excellence at ATB Financial.

Jennifer’s background has been at the intersection of Digital, Design and Business for her entire career. As her graduate studies have added behavioural science to her expertise, her perspective on digital transformation has evolved. She has become even more focused on understanding how human-focused, behavioral approaches can not only help to drive business results, but connect with customers and team members alike. In this episode, we speak to Jen about her role at ATB Financial, and how she brings a human perspective to their transformation efforts. 

When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• Why current approaches to transformation do more damage than good
• The importance of understanding how motivation drives people and drives change in transformational efforts
• Why Jen believes we that the term “change management” doesn’t set the right tone for the humans who are part of transformation efforts
• Why Jen prefers to use the term humility instead of empathy 
  

Chad and Steve learned so much from Jennifer during this episode, and we know our listeners will as well. 

Guest

Rick Evans

Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer

NewYork-Presbyterian

Summary

The Designing Next podcast is taking some time off to start the year, so we’re sharing one of our favorite episodes from 2020. We’ll be back with new episodes soon! Please enjoy! Rick Evans, Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian, joins Designing Next for the conclusion of a two-part interview. In this episode, we shift our focus to the effect of consumerism on the patient experience. Look forward to hearing Rick discuss what he sees as the most important attributes of the modern healthcare CXO, the importance of the access to the patient experience and why delivering a strong patient experience requires organizations to break down silos to work together to deliver on patient and consumer needs. 

Show Details

The Designing Next podcast is taking some time off to start the year, so we’re sharing one of our favorite episodes from 2020. We’ll be back with new episodes soon! Please enjoy!- Steve & Chad In our last episode, we had a wide-ranging discussion with Rick Evans, Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian. We covered quite a bit of territory in that conversation, including building better cultures, scaling culture in large organizations and how Rick and the team at NewYork-Presbyterian navigated the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. 

In this episode, we dig into patient experience in the age of healthcare consumerism. As Rick was truly one of the first Chief Experience Officers in healthcare, he has a lot of perspective on the subject. As Rick shares with us, the patient experience extends far beyond the exam room or waiting room. From what it’s like to make an appointment at most hospital systems to understanding needs throughout the journey, we look at what makes up today’s patient experience from a holistic viewpoint. 

We really enjoyed our time with Rick over these two episodes. In the second part of our interview, you can look forward to hearing: 

• How Rick sees consumer expectations evolving in healthcare
• The role that access plays in customer and patient experience design
• What Rick believes are the most important attributes of the modern healthcare CXO
  

We hope you enjoy this episode of Designing Next, and learn a bit too!

Guest

Rick Evans

Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer

NewYork-Presbyterian

Summary

Rick Evans, Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian, joins Designing Next for the first part of a two-part interview. In this episode, our focus will be on the role of culture in delivering employee, patient, and consumer experience. Look forward to hearing Rick discuss building and scaling out experience-focused cultures at large, multi-location organizations like NewYork-Presbyterian, as well as the role culture played as NYP navigated - and continues to navigate - the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19.

Show Details

Rick Evans started his career in the non-profit world before transitioning into patient and customer experience work - almost before the discipline existed! In his career, he has led patient experience at two of the country’s most recognized hospitals - NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) and Mass General - and is considered one of the most influential and innovative leaders in the patient and staff experience space. 

As you listen to this episode, which is part one of a two-part interview, you will be struck by Rick’s dedication to culture. When he rejoined NYP for the second time a few years ago, one of the first things he did was co-create a Respect Credo with leadership and staff. As you will hear in our interview, that Credo guides much of what Rick and the team at NYP does. It played an essential role as they navigated the unimaginable challenges of COVID-19 this past Spring.

There is a lot we can all learn from Rick, which is why our conversation will last over two episodes. In this first part of our interview, you can look forward to learning: 

• The lessons Rick has learned from building and scaling out an experienced-focused culture at large, multi-location organizations
• How the Respect Credo guides team members of all levels at NewYork-Presbyterian
• The role culture played as NYP navigated the unprecedented experience of COVID-19

We’ve been looking forward to our conversation with Rick since we launched the podcast. We hope you enjoy Rick sharing his experience and approach to culture - and we’re sure you’ll learn a bit too. 

Guest

Brandi Overstreet, CCXP

Sr. Manager and VP

T. Rowe Price Central Services

Summary

Brandi Overstreet, Sr. Manager and VP at T. Rowe Price Central Services, joins Designing Next to discuss her role guiding product leadership initiatives and product development teams as they scale customer-centric and agile delivery practices at T. Rowe Price. In this episode, Brandi shares the learnings from setting up an innovation center separate from their main campus, how they scaled a new approach to innovation, how it has changed the way people work at T. Rowe Price and how being a DJ can prepare you for a career in Customer Experience. 

Show Details

T. Rowe Price is an 83-year old investment management firm based in Baltimore, MD that serves clients in 47 countries around the world.  In 2017, T. Rowe Price launched Innovation Centers in Baltimore, New York, and Maryland. All the Innovation Centers focused on bringing business and technology teams together to develop products in an agile approach, and the Maryland Innovation Center had an emphasis on client experience. Now, T. Rowe Price is working integrate and scale approaches from the Maryland Innovation Center into their full organization, and our guest this week, Brandi Overstreet, is guiding that process. 

Brandi is a senior manager and VP at T. Rowe Price. She has been with the firm since 2007 and currently guides product leadership initiatives and product development teams as they scale customer-centric and agile delivery practices that were born out of the Maryland Innovation Center. Prior to this role, Brandi spent five years focused on defining strategy and executing programs to enhance the workplace retirement plan investor’s experience. We’re excited to speak with her to learn more about the process of integrating T. Rowe Price’s new practices from their off-campus Maryland Innovation Center into the broader organization. 

When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• How T. Rowe Price approached the challenge of rolling out and scaling new approaches innovation at such a large organization
• The importance of bringing together cross-functional teams from the beginning of a project so they collaborate from end to end
• How T. Rowe Price been able to keep the momentum around innovation during the COVID-19 Pandemic 
• How being a DJ can prepare you for a career in Customer Experience
  

We’re excited to share this episode of Designing Next with you. We hope you enjoy Brandi sharing her experience and perspective and that you gain interesting insights and contribute to your knowledge around innovation and experience design. 

Guest

Russ Maloney

Director of Innovation Services

Banner Health

Summary

Russ Maloney, Director of Innovation Services at Banner Health, joins episode one of Designing Next to talk about how he and his team have introduced innovation into Banner Health, a large health system with 28 hospitals and over 50,000 employees. In the episode, he shares the lessons he’s learned over the last few years, how they’ve introduced innovation into the culture, and what they are focusing on moving forward. 

Details

Banner Health is a large non-profit health system, with 28 hospitals and over 50,000 employees. About four years ago, the system amped up its innovation effort, creating several teams called Imaginariums, which were similar to incubators. The Imaginariums drew talent from Banner Health itself as well as the worlds of retail, start-ups, and design agencies. Last year, all of those teams came together to form Banner Innovation Group (BIG). In this episode, we speak with Russ Maloney, Director of Innovation Services at BIG. Russ has been with Banner Health since the launch of the Imaginariums and has a unique perspective on Banner Health’s innovation journey that he will share with us. 

Both Steve and Chad know Russ well, as before he joined Banner Health, Russ was a co-founder of Cast & Hue and worked closely with Chad when he was the Chief Experience Officer at Nebraska Medicine. Russ is fascinated by knotty problems, emphatic ideas, hearty openness, and how they all converge in the healthcare environment. As a culture leader with Banner Innovation Group, Russ develops engagement models and tools from a foundation of empathy. He’s working toward a future healthcare system that is not only simpler, but more intuitively human.

When you listen to this episode, you can look forward to learning: 

• The strategies and tactics that Russ and his team use to integrate innovation into the Banner Health culture
• The importance of listening to and collaborating with the audiences they are creating for
• The role of openness and transparency in innovation

We’re excited to share episode #1 of Designing Next and we hope you enjoy every minute of it!