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What if design could move at the speed of AI without losing its soul? We sit down with two veteran leaders, Martin and Jose, to explore how teams can stay relevant when the pendulum swings from hype to hard results. From early usability labs to enterprise-scale delivery, they unpack how human-centred practice earns trust when it aligns with strategy, operations, and measurable business outcomes.
The conversation hits the big levers.
We dig into AI fluency as a new material of production and how Agentic workflows turn a design brief into a working, branded prototype in an hour—connected to code and ready for stakeholder review. That speed matters if it creates space to think ahead, so we draw a sharp line between continuous improvement and bigger bets that demand deeper qualification. Ethics isn’t a slide at the end; it’s part of the operating model. We talk outcomes-based regulation in Europe, human responsibility for agents, and why “move fast” must come with transparent decisions, harm awareness, and consequence management.
We also get practical about enablement. Jose breaks down design ops as a context-driven function: securing compliant tools, fixing onboarding and engagement, standing up QBRs that show impact, and making portfolio health visible.
Martin challenges leaders to spread core design skills beyond the team—journey thinking, customer exposure, and light research—so capability survives market cycles. Together they argue for blending product and design ops around discovery and delivery, and for investing in apprenticeships and entry-level growth so the next generation builds judgment, not just outputs.
If you’re a design, product, or engineering leader navigating AI, regulation, and quarterly pressure, this conversation offers a clear path: experiment with new materials, protect human values, and use the time saved by automation to design the future, not just ship the next ticket. Enjoy the episode, then subscribe, share with a peer, and drop us a note with your biggest leadership challenge—we’ll tackle it next.
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