Tentative

Episode Archive

Episode Archive

98 episodes of Tentative since the first episode, which aired on March 19th, 2015.

  • 82: Fruit by the Foot, Twix by the Yard, Jerky by the Inch

    January 3rd, 2020  |  27 mins 53 secs

    Happy new year! We welcome back Jaclyn, refreshed after her break, and discuss burn-out, task prioritization, MVP-ing your mental load, and setting goals & themes for the new year.

  • 81: Selling Design (Miles Johnson)

    December 6th, 2019  |  28 mins 10 secs

    Miles Johnson, designer at thoughtbot London, joins Kyle to discuss leveling-up sales skills, when to introduce clients to your process, maintaining the focus of development & design as a cohesive unit, and the joy of being a 'generalist'.

  • 80: Sparkle Makes Everything Magical (Elaina Natario)

    November 22nd, 2019  |  30 mins 11 secs

    Elaina Natario enlightens Kyle on all things jazz hands, as well as discusses Storybook, documenting design, working effectively alongside development, and how to use emoji.

  • 79: The User, the Code, and Me (Chris Schnaars)

    November 8th, 2019  |  36 mins 16 secs

    Chris Schnaars joins Kyle to discuss computational design, creative control, design vs art, and the nature of design tooling.

  • 78: Everyone Can Draw (Skipper Chong Warson)

    October 25th, 2019  |  28 mins 59 secs

    Skipper Chong Warson, Design Director of thoughtbot San Francisco, joins Kyle to discuss the psychology of podcast recording, overcoming awkwardness in communication & public speaking, and avoiding proxies when engaging with clients.

  • 77: A Hop of Faith (Keiran King & Tyson Gach)

    October 4th, 2019  |  31 mins 28 secs

    Live from New York, it's Keiran King & Tyson Gach! They join Kyle to discuss designing apples, comparing and contrasting jobs-to-be-done to other frameworks, and defining 'customer success'.

  • 76: I Can Wait!

    September 20th, 2019  |  32 mins 50 secs

    Jaclyn is taking a break for a little bit and Kyle sets a course for happiness. We talk about embracing change as an opportunity to define yourself, and having a similar mindset to build good habits between projects. Also, experimenting with and evolving process, and reflecting on the importance of collaboration.

  • 75: Make It Pretty

    August 14th, 2019  |  24 mins 6 secs

    Kyle has fun with a hiring-promo read, while Jaclyn dislikes the polling system in Slack. Also, presenting visual design to clients for feedback, frameworks for critique, and fostering creativity through constraints.

  • 74: Commute to the Basement

    July 31st, 2019  |  25 mins 23 secs

    While Jaclyn gives interview tips (both user and hiring), Kyle does his best Michael Keaton impression. Also, active listening, pizza facts, trying to keep a work / home balance when working remotely, and interview horror stories.

  • 73: 11:15 is a Time, Too

    July 17th, 2019  |  27 mins 31 secs

    Jaclyn puts together a role-playing workshop for consulting your way through difficult conversations, and building empathy for the other parties. Kyle discusses conducting team 1<>1's all on one day vs spreading them throughout the week. Plus, some techniques for dealing with context switching, blocking off time, and calendar hacks.

  • 72: Good Crafternoon

    June 20th, 2019  |  22 mins 55 secs

    Jaclyn designs wristbands for a 5k, fiddles around with CSS Grid, and kicks off a new project. Meanwhile, Kyle attends many serious meetings. We discuss up-front user-research, timeline interviews, and pacing interviews for sustainability.

  • 71: Get Back Up Again

    June 6th, 2019  |  16 mins 27 secs

    This week Kyle follows his calendar, while Jaclyn wraps up a research project and celebrates a fruitful sales-call, and we discuss trying to focus on positive reinforcement, the importance of being able to communicate your design work, and 'clicking' with the sales process.

  • 70: Down the Doughnut Hole

    May 8th, 2019  |  24 mins 12 secs

    Jaclyn is frustrated with calendars, and Kyle continues work on the thoughtbot.com redesign. Also skills evaluations, and lots of interviews.

  • 69: Stand in Your Emotion

    April 18th, 2019  |  19 mins 34 secs

    Kyle deals with a "dentist situation" and writes a blog post, while both he & Jaclyn return to IC design work. Also, manager training, partnering with an offshore development team while on a tight deadline, and the "good problems" of a large design sprint.

  • 68: iPod + a Case of Beer

    March 28th, 2019  |  35 mins 34 secs

    Jaclyn goes on a ski trip, Kyle eats cake on the microphone (sorry). Also, de-stressing techniques, Austin weather (surprise), daylight savings time, the UI of car clocks, making the most of small gaps in your schedule, enriching collaboration with developers, clarifying the title of "designer", and iterating on podcast recording. Plus, the introduction of a new segment "good, bad, and ugly".

  • 67: In This Kitchen, We Iterate

    March 14th, 2019  |  28 mins 50 secs

    Jaclyn hosts a cooking show while Kyle does what his calendar tells him to. Also, being excited by invalidating ideas, devoting more time to synthesizing, taking TL;DR level sprint-notes, how switch interviews can influence your design sprint, and end of week recuperation strategies.