Synopsis
Funsize opens its doors and discusses its philosophies around building company culture, doing business, client experience, product design, process and crafting meaningful products.
Episodes
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Not Just Advertising, Building
15/07/2016 Duration: 34minRick & Anthony discuss a recent article entitled State of the Digital Nation 2016 by Jules Ehrhardt. http://blog.marvelapp.com/state-of-the-digital-nation-2016/ Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Empathetic Project Management (feat. Rachel Gertz)
13/05/2016 Duration: 50minRachel Gertz, Partner, Systems Consultant & Trainer at Louder than ten discusses some philosophies around project management. And roles and disciplines as teams grow and projects evolve over time. Discussion points Emotional intelligence: empathy is taught. Be a champion for your team, they are dealing with a lot Should designers PM? Designers need to have empathy too When building teams hire less for fit, and more for the ability to make decisions based on business goals. PM's role needs to be unique because they need to be held accountable for project success/failure. Strategy focus Creative has the load of creativity, is it fair to have the role of asking the hard questions like scope, goals, body language. Links Soap conference (Travis speaks about Design Machines) Collaboration workshop - http://soapconf.com/edu-summit/ (workshop with Travis and Rachel) Design & content conference, Vancouver Fall workshop in Calgary, Canada TBA Article by Mike Davidson, former Design Director at Twitter Visi
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Hiring an Agency (feat. Aaron O'Hearn)
06/05/2016 Duration: 46minCompanies are looking for a partner these days, not just a design agency to throw a marketing budget at. When working with people and trying to establish trust, it takes a little time. There is also another side of the coin, in that It's possible to deteriorate trust. Finding out how to gain trust and not deteriorate it is step one. Listen in as Aaron O'Hearn discusses his path to Funsize, and also the nature of selling design work to product companies. We discuss some philosophies, as well as some practical aspects of business development. Resources mentioned in this episode: Breaking The Time Barrier [Invest in Lines, Not Dots][2] Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram [2]: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/invest-in-lines-not-dots-611f36491d73#.qgppg1l4p
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Engineering is Design (feat. Travis Swicegood)
22/04/2016 Duration: 44minEngineering has made leaps and bounds towards a more efficient process of building software since the early waterfall days. Agile methodologies have helped guide the way. As design has become more important to a product's success, designers have earned a seat at the table. Now design too has adapted to similar approaches to building software. What has helped us get to where we are and how we build? What has taken design so long to catch up with engineering? Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Epicurrence Montues
15/04/2016 Duration: 45minNow that we've had a chance to get back to real life, we are left with a few memories at Epicurrence Montues. There we're some fantastic experiences. In this episode Rick sits down with fellow Funsizers Natalie Armendariz, Phi Hoang and Edgar Briseño to discuss our experience at Epicurrence Montues. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Design Storytelling with Empathy and Personality (feat. Ben Johnson)
08/04/2016 Duration: 45minWe briefly met Ben, Owner and Creative Director of Elegant Seagulls at Epicurrence. These guys do some killer work. We wanted to hear how they were able to inject personality into each and every design they create and keep up with such a high-level of clients and projects. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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New York Agencies and Video Games (feat. Nick Robalik & Johnnie Hamn)
01/04/2016 Duration: 49minWhile in the midst of escaping a the sxsw madness, we set up in Anthony's home to record a couple of episodes! In this one, we are excited to have Nick Robalik, Creative Director and Johnnie Hamn (who recently joined the Funsize team!
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Building Internal Products at an Agency (feat. Steven Ray)
25/03/2016 Duration: 41minSteven Ray and Anthony Armendariz go way back. They had a company together prior to Funsize and in addition to hearing Steve's experience at Dialexa, they also tell the story of starting up a distributed mobile design boutique years ago. Since the Funsize office was taken over by sxsw, we decided to hang out in Anthony's kitchen and lay down some thoughts about our experiences together. Including how Rick first met Anthony which was the same time he met Steven Ray. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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The SXSW Special: 4 Questions For Designers
18/03/2016 Duration: 01h03minWhat do you love about being a designer? How does geography affect your career? What do you want to be doing in 5 years? What's your least-favorite design trend? Interviewees Mae Reed - Freelance @maebees Mike Townson - Project 202 @miketownson Mike Blakesley - Project 202 @mikeblakesley Joshua Bullock - vauto @blisster138 Dan Benjamin - 5by5 @danbenjamin Haddie Cooke - 5by5 @haddiebird Chris Meeks - Hatbox @chrismeeks Clark Wimberly - Invision @clarklab Brian Peterson - Daily Fantasy Sports @ironcobratv Ryan Weaver - Creative Market @ryantheweave Danh Hoang - Adonit @danhhoang Nick Robalik - Creative Director @nickrobalik Jonathan Howell - Microsoft @ItsJonHowell Steven Ray - Dialexa @stevenray Ethan Leon - Thoughtbot @ethangl Amanda Donaldson - Spreadfast @AMDesignlovin Carlos Arellano - vauto @carlosarellano Bryan Smith - vauto Riley Spiller - Atlassian @RileySpiller Jonathan Haver - Rocksauce @jhTHUNDERmaker Jim Jordan - Funsize @JimJJordan Rachael LaCoss - Media General @RachelLaCoss Anthony Sanchez -
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Design What You Think Is Right (feat. Dylan Seeger)
04/03/2016 Duration: 45minIt's great to push the boundaries of design to make interesting work, but is it ok to break normal design patterns to do so? How do we convince clients that something outside of the typical design trends is the right choice? Lovably Dylan's latest Album Claye Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Lean on Research
26/02/2016 Duration: 28minHow much research do you need before you can make some design decisions? Surely, this is different for each product, but at what point has their been enough research done for design to get started? Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Design Approach (feat. Sam Kapila)
19/02/2016 Duration: 49minWe invited Sam Kapila, Director of Instruction at The Iron Yard to discuss the approach to the unique challenges involved in her role. The Iron Yard is the world’s largest code school with full-time immersive courses in 20 cities. Taking a non-traditional approach to education on subject matter that is both complex and volatile. Sam has a unique position and perspective on where design solutions are applied to more than just screens. We we're also joined by Jim Jordan, Product Designer at Funsize and one of Sam's former students. Some subjects discussed in this episode: Thoughts on today’s product design processes Design principles, design assumptions, user thinking and design approach instead of "design thinking" When is the right time to get research in? When is it too much? Applying Design to non-design things Learning What doesn’t work "Pixel Perfect Design Thinking" - ha Designing for the imperfect scenario What's behind the design decisions we make? Books mentioned in this episode: A
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Articulating Design Decisions (feat. Tom Greever)
12/02/2016 Duration: 40minDesign often needs a voice to communicate its intention. Tom Greever has recently published a book called "Articulating Design Decisions". Rick and Anthony sit down with Tom to talk through a critical skill that many designers lack. Tom Greever's book, published by O'Reilly: Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Motion Design Thinking (feat. Ben Cline)
22/01/2016 Duration: 37minHow important is motion in a product? At what stage should you start thinking about motion in the design process? Is it better to spend time on the the pixel details or on the subtle motion details? Ben Cline, Founder and designer at renown agency Rally Interactive, talks with Anthony and Rick from Funsize about the importance of motion design in modern digital products and Rally's unique approach to designing meaningful motion. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Risk It For The Biscuit
15/01/2016 Duration: 41minFunsize is growing, and growing up. In this episode are some sincere thoughts around what's been going on in our little agency and what we want to do next. Here's a few topics we chat over: Getting new office space, designing for new platforms and for the input form of voice, interacting with robots, why we want to work with engineers, we want to do some UI for bowling alleys. What does it mean to be a design director? It's important to still design when you're working in a design leadership role. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Offboarding Clients
04/01/2016 Duration: 20minRick and Anthony continue their conversation from the previous episode as the conversation shifts from how we work on projects with our clients to how those projects end. The project is over, but the relationship is not. Funsize has been evolving offboarding and come up with a few ideas that help soften the landing. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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This Is How We Do It
18/12/2015 Duration: 20minRick and Anthony discuss Funsize process. Keep project SOW's broad so it's easy to pivot. Track effort with velocity using pivotal tracker rather than fixed deliverable pricing. Price and design with complete transparency. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Onboarding: Clients and Users
10/12/2015 Duration: 33minFunsize has a unique process and there's no one-size-fits-all. Clients coming in have unique backgrounds and context so there's a lot of custom fitting. Rick and Anthony discuss Funsize's process of onboarding clients and compare it with the experiences we design for onboarding users. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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Epicurrence, Adobe MAX, Rdio, Snapchat
04/12/2015 Duration: 23minHustle is back with season 2. Anthony recaps his experience at Epicurrence, Rick shares about speaking at Adobe MAX. Online streaming music services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music are compared in light of Rdio's recent announcement that they are shutting their service down after being acquired by Pandora. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram
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The Art of Letting Others Have It Your Way (feat. Ryan Rumsey)
31/08/2015 Duration: 32minSo, you’re a great designer - but do you know how to listen, drive a conversation, and build consensus with your clients, company, or teams? Ryan Rumsey, the Director of Experience Design at Electronic Arts IT, hops in the Funsize studio to share his knowledge and experiences in persuasion and building consensus with stakeholders in the enterprise world. 1:00 Ryan discussing his role as Director of Experience Design at Electronic Arts IT and his expertise in Enterprise User Experience Design. He also gives us an overview of some of the things he did in his previous role at Apple. 3:15 Apple’s hush hush culture. It’s easy designing software for Apple employees because everyone at Apple only uses Apple products. 5:40 Rick talks about his experience working on enterprise design projects. Ryan discusses some of the dynamics of working in an enterprise environment and the art of selling your design work to your internal stakeholders. 7:00 We discuss Ryan’s new article “Influence and Design Success - The art of let