Last week in the Rosenverse: UX in healthcare & measuring success
Last week in the Rosenverse, we hosted two events, including an Ask Me Anything (AMA) about a designer working in healthcare, and a session about team psychology and measuring success.
Log into the Rosenverse to watch these recordings.
See what you missed below.
An AMA on UX’s Role in Healthcare
“Healthcare is not just a user journey, it’s an interdependent journey of layers and phases.”
April 22: Watch Eric Shumake’s rapid-fire AMA following his recent Rosenverse Live session. We dove deep into the practical strategies designers use to build influence, navigate regulated spaces, and drive UX investment within healthcare organizations. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Eric Shumake
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: What is the biggest challenge in healthcare UX today?
A: The hardest part is not designing screens; it’s getting enough influence to change how healthcare organizations make decisions. In healthcare, stakeholders care first about clinical outcomes, safety, compliance, and cost, so UX teams have to connect their work directly to those priorities.
Q: Why does UX matter so much in healthcare?
A: UX matters because healthcare is full of high-stakes workflows where confusion can lead to errors, delays, and bad outcomes. Good UX helps patients, clinicians, and administrators move through complex systems with less friction and more confidence.
Q: How can designers build credibility inside healthcare organizations?
A: Start by translating UX findings into the language leadership already uses: risk reduction, operational efficiency, adoption, and patient safety. Small wins build trust, and trust opens the door to bigger influence over time.
Q: Why is interoperability still such a pain point in healthcare?
Q: How is AI changing healthcare UX?
A: AI is already showing up in documentation, decision support, and administrative workflows, but the real opportunity is in helping people understand and act on information. One especially important use case is patient education, where AI can translate medical jargon into plain language from admission through discharge.
Measure Behaviors, Not Results
“Effort doesn’t mean progress, hard work doesn’t guarantee a harvest.”
April 23: How can design operations professionals measure success when we can’t always measure or control the results? Sometimes, even our best efforts don’t lead to the outcome we expected, but that doesn’t mean the work wasn’t valuable. I believe positive feedback from stakeholders always outweighs vanity metrics. In this talk, Johnny Michaelsen shares the core behaviors the Design & Research Operations team at Wise uses as the foundation for how their team operates. These behaviors focus on how to show up for the people being served, for each other, and importantly, for ourselves. They ultimately determine their focus and help build trust while delivering a positive change for the Design & Research environment across Wise. Finally, hear what was learned from a three-month experiment where the team at Wise aimed to measure themselves against these behaviors, rather than just measuring the results of their efforts. Dive into team psychology and explore why the right behaviors might actually matter more than metrics from final outcomes. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Johnny Michaelsen
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: Why should teams measure behaviors instead of results?
A: Results can hide the real story, while behaviors show how a team actually works and whether it is building trust, clarity, and impact. Measuring behaviors gives us a better way to understand team health and to improve the things that lead to strong outcomes.
Q: What behaviors matter most in design and research operations?
A: Three behaviors matter most for our team: delivering value now, being observant and of service, and creating visibility with clarity. Those behaviors keep the work practical, people-centered, and aligned to the needs of the organization.
Q: How does this approach help with prioritization?
A: Clear problem framing and sponsor alignment make prioritization much easier. When the team understands the real problem and the people behind the request, it can focus on work that creates the most value.
Q: How do you build trust through operations work?
A: Trust comes from relationships, not just process. If you take time to understand what people actually need beneath their complaints or requests, you can create support that feels useful instead of procedural.
Q: Where does AI fit into this way of working?
A: AI can speed up delivery and help with impact reporting, but it still needs clear direction. Used well, it helps teams move faster without losing focus on the behaviors that create real value.
Catch up on last week’s recordings, and mark your calendar for upcoming events.
See you in the Rosenverse!
Designing for privacy in a surveillance age with Robert Stribley
Privacy concerns didn’t appear overnight—they’ve been building quietly alongside the technologies we rely on every day. Lou and Robert Stribley, author of Design for Privacy, explore how digital tracking, AI, and data sharing have reshaped the way personal information moves through the modern web.
Robert traces the growing privacy challenge from early internet tracking to today’s complex ecosystem of smartphones, online services, and AI systems. While many users understand that they’re trading data for convenience, few grasp how widely their information is distributed—or how easily supposedly anonymous data can be re-identified. As AI accelerates the ability to combine and analyze datasets, those risks are growing quickly.
Then the conversation turns to what designers can do about it. Robert outlines practical ways UX professionals can improve privacy outcomes, from collecting less data and avoiding deceptive patterns to improving language transparency and giving users meaningful control over their information. Despite the scale of the problem, Robert argues that designers have more agency and influence than they realize. Thoughtful design decisions can help protect users while also strengthening trust and long-term business success.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- Why privacy concerns have intensified with smartphones, AI, and online tracking
- How “anonymous” data can often be re-identified through data aggregation
- Why users have conflicting attitudes about personalization and data tracking
- The role UX designers can play in improving privacy protections
- How deceptive design patterns (including cookie banners) manipulate user consent
- Why clearer language and better privacy tools can give users meaningful control over their data
Q&A with Robert Stribley
This Q&A is drawn from the podcast episode.
Q: How did we get here? Privacy concerns feel urgent right now, but they didn’t appear overnight.
A: That’s exactly right — they didn’t appear overnight. The privacy challenges we face today have been building quietly alongside the technologies we’ve relied on every day. It starts with early internet tracking, the rise of smartphones, the explosion of online services, and now AI layered on top of all of that. Each wave added new ways for personal information to move through the world, often without users fully understanding what was happening.
Most people have some awareness that they’re trading data for convenience. What they rarely grasp is how widely their information is actually distributed once they’ve handed it over — or how many parties end up with access to it. I’ve looked at the cookie behavior on a single UK news site and found that it shared user data with over 600 third parties. Most visitors to that site have no idea.
Q: You talk about the problem of “re-identification.” Can you explain what that means and why it matters?
A: Re-identification is one of the most underappreciated privacy risks out there. The common assumption is that if you strip personally identifiable information — your name, email address, phone number — from a dataset, the data becomes safe and anonymous. That’s simply not true.
One study found that 87 percent of the U.S. population could be uniquely identified using just three data points: zip code, birth date, and gender. That’s it. So when companies claim their data is “anonymized,” that word is doing a lot of work it often can’t support. And now AI is accelerating this problem considerably — the ability to combine and analyze datasets has grown dramatically, and that makes re-identification faster and easier than ever.
Q: How does AI specifically change the privacy landscape for designers?
A: AI introduces risks at several levels simultaneously. At a data level, AI systems are trained on enormous datasets, and that data has often been collected in ways users weren’t fully aware of or didn’t meaningfully consent to. The FTC has been clear that quietly updating a privacy policy to collect data for AI training is deceptive and illegal — but it still happens.
At a design level, there’s a real risk that AI-generated interfaces will suggest or implement deceptive patterns simply because those patterns perform well. If you ask a generative AI tool to optimize a sign-up flow, it might recommend a pre-checked consent box or obscure opt-out language because historically those patterns increase conversions. Without a designer in the room who actively questions those recommendations from an ethical standpoint, those patterns can get shipped without scrutiny.
The pace of change is genuinely hard to keep up with. But that’s an argument for designers being more engaged in these conversations, not less.
Q: What are some of the concrete things UX designers can actually do to improve privacy outcomes?
A: There are several meaningful levers designers have — more than most realize. The first is data minimization: simply collecting less. Every piece of data you don’t collect is a piece of data that can’t be misused, breached, or re-identified. That sounds obvious, but in practice, the default in many organizations is to collect everything and figure out the use later. Designers can push back on that.
The second is transparency — not just in the legal, terms-of-service sense, but genuinely clear language that explains what data is being collected, why, who it’s shared with, and what users can do about it. Most privacy disclosures fail this test completely.
Third, avoiding deceptive patterns. Dark patterns in privacy contexts — pre-ticked checkboxes, buried opt-outs, confusing toggle labels — are unfortunately common. Designers who can identify those patterns have a responsibility to name them and advocate for something better.
And fourth, giving users meaningful control over their information. Not a control panel buried five levels deep, but genuine, accessible choices that people can actually find and use.
Q: The problem is so large — surveillance capitalism, AI, data brokers. Can individual designers really make a difference?
A: I understand why the scale of the problem can feel paralyzing. But I genuinely believe designers have more agency than they typically give themselves credit for. You’re often sitting in the room when the decision gets made. You’re the one who draws the form, writes the microcopy on the consent screen, decides where the privacy settings live in the navigation.
Those are not small decisions. They affect millions of people. And because designers tend to be the people in an organization who are most attuned to the user’s perspective and experience, they’re often uniquely positioned to raise the question: what does this design decision mean for the people who are going to use this?
That’s not a guarantee of success — organizational cultures vary enormously. But choosing to notice, and choosing to speak up, is the starting point for anything changing.
Q: You make the case that privacy is also good for business. What’s the argument there?
A: The business case is real and it’s growing stronger. The risks of data misuse or accidental exposure — reputationally, legally, and financially — are enormous. We’ve watched major companies face regulatory fines and public backlash over privacy failures that, in hindsight, could have been avoided with better design decisions earlier in the process.
But beyond risk mitigation, there’s a positive case: trust. Users who feel confident that a product handles their data responsibly are more likely to engage with it, stay with it, and recommend it. Privacy-respecting design builds the kind of long-term relationship with users that superficially convenient but privacy-compromising products can’t sustain. It’s not a constraint on good design — it’s a competitive advantage if you’re willing to treat it that way.
Q: What do you hope designers take away from this conversation?
A: I hope they come away with a sense that this is their problem to engage with — not just legal’s problem, or the security team’s problem, or something that gets sorted out in compliance. Designers shape the experiences through which people interact with technology and hand over their personal information. That’s a real responsibility.
Privacy is ultimately about consent and control — allowing people meaningful say over what happens to their own information. That’s a fundamentally human-centered value, and human-centered design is supposed to be what we do. The two things are not in conflict. Once you see it that way, it becomes hard not to care.
About our guest
Robert Stribley is a user experience design professional with some 25 years of experience. He works with brands both big and small across diverse sectors to provide thoughtful user experience solutions. He worked for many years at both Razorfish and Publicis Sapient, and recently started his own UX consulting company, Technique. Although he has particular experience designing for automotive and financial services, Robert has worked with companies as diverse as the American Red Cross, FreshDirect, JP Morgan, Mercedes-Benz, Travel Channel, and Women’s Wear Daily. He teaches user experience design at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. A chronic student himself, Robert earned degrees in journalism and English education and certificates in political journalism, privacy and data security, and global affairs. Read more »
Quick Reference Guide:
0:15 – Meet Robert, Lou’s neighbor
1:51 – How Robert got into the privacy field
5:06 – Perceptions of privacy and the concessions we make
8:01 – Terms of Service – we accept them blindly – and why that can be risky
15:54 – 5 Reasons to use the Rosenverse
18:39 – What designers can do about data privacy
28:08 – Privacy tools and potential tools for users
32:38 – Robert’s gift for listeners
Resources and Links from Today’s Episode:
The reviews are in: Designing Assistant Technology is the future of AI design
Have you read the book that Kirkus Reviews calls “a smart, warmly encouraging look at the future of AI design” and “a multi-pronged analysis of the ways in which artificial intelligence can be harnessed for good”?
Christopher Noessel’s Designing Assistant Technology: AI That Makes People Smarter is a framework for designers looking to invest in the future of their careers.
When artificial intelligence is designed poorly, it diminishes people’s skills rather than enhancing them. It can even make users less capable and more dependent on AI. In Designing Assistant Technology, Christopher Noessel provides a framework for how to use AI to assist users, as well as mitigating the risks of de-skilling and overreliance on AI.
If you’re…
- A product or tech person looking to ensure your software is doing everything it can for its users
- A designer who builds and informs direct experiences with AI systems
- A futurist that understands that AI is only as dark as they let it become
- Anyone else—because it is our responsibility to build literacy in the major forces at play and combat the negative effects
…this is the book for you.
Last week in the Rosenverse: Systems thinking and the heart of design
Last week in the Rosenverse, we hosted two events focusing on building credibility and influence for designers in healthcare, and a story of a UXer leaving corporate tech for greener pastures.
Log into the Rosenverse to watch these recordings.
See what you missed below.
If design had a heart
“For every business metric, there is always a companion human-centric metric.”
April 16: Design is not just about screens and flows. It is about relationships. And love is the ultimate bond between users and products, moving users from mere engagement to a deep emotional connection.
Although love sounds soft and abstract, it drives practical outcomes like retention, trust, and advocacy, and can be a competitive edge. Love scales deeply, and is measurable not as a single number, but as a pattern when people return, forgive mistakes, and recommend the product. Usability makes products usable, joy makes them pleasant, and love makes them meaningful. Furthermore, love makes experiences ethical because it is earned, not extracted.
So how can we intentionally design systems that speak to the very core of human emotions? How should we prioritize emotional attachment and a sense of belonging over basic user liking? Today, we have many functional and forgettable products that feel ‘cold’. This talk with Himanshu Bharadwaj looks at design through the lens of ‘warmth’. Through real UX examples, learn how to design experiences people don’t just enjoy but trust and return to them. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Himanshu Bharadwaj
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: Why is emotional connection such an important part of product design?
A: Because people don’t just remember what a product does; they remember how it made them feel. When an experience feels respectful, caring, and human, it becomes easier to trust and easier to return to.
Q: What is the biggest mistake teams make when designing digital products?
A: They focus too much on efficiency and not enough on emotional resonance. A product can be technically strong and still feel cold if it doesn’t acknowledge the human being on the other side of the screen.
Q: How should designers think about warmth in practice?
A: Warmth starts with intention. It shows up in the language you use, the moments of friction you remove, and the small cues that help people feel understood rather than processed.
Q: How can design go beyond “user satisfaction”?
A: Satisfaction is a good start, but I think the real goal is emotional attachment and belonging. When design creates a deeper connection, it becomes memorable and meaningful instead of just acceptable.
Q: What should teams prioritize if they want to build more human-centered products?
A: They should prioritize empathy, clarity, and consistency. Those qualities help turn a product from something people simply use into something they genuinely feel connected to.
Systems Thinking and Design Innovation: Working with Leverage Points in Rural Maternal Health Systems
“Systems that can self-organize are the strongest form of resilience.”
April 17: Are some problems too wicked, complex, and systemic for designers to solve?
The United States is experiencing a maternal health crisis—with the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations globally and an expanding number of counties being deemed “maternity care deserts” or areas without obstetrical services. These failures are disproportionately impacting Black and Indigenous communities, especially in rural areas.
In this presentation, Meghan Bausone shared research that applies systems thinking to first-hand accounts from maternal health stakeholders to identify leverage points for design innovation. Meghan broke down leverage points using Donella Meadows’ framework and discuss the power of her ultimate leverage point — paradigm shifts. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Meghan Bausone
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: What was the focus of your session on rural maternal health?
A: My session looked at rural maternal health as a systems problem, not just an access problem. The goal was to identify where design innovation can have the greatest impact in improving maternal care in rural communities.
Q: Why is systems thinking important for rural maternal health care?
A: Because the challenges are interconnected. Access to care, workforce shortages, travel distance, funding, and outcomes all affect one another, so a systems thinking approach helps reveal how the whole maternal health system works.
Q: Why is rural maternal health such an urgent issue right now?
A: Many rural communities face maternity care deserts, hospital closures, and long travel distances for prenatal and delivery care. Those barriers can make it harder for pregnant people to get timely, safe, and consistent support.
Q: How can design support maternal health innovation?
A: Design can help translate complexity into action. It can improve care experiences, make systems easier to navigate, and support more human-centered solutions for rural maternal health access.
Q: What is the main takeaway from your talk?
A: The biggest opportunity is to understand the system well enough to act at the right points. When we do that, design can help create more resilient, equitable, and effective maternal health care for rural communities.
Catch up on last week’s recordings, and mark your calendar for upcoming events.
See you in the Rosenverse!
Designers, this is your guide to creating AI-powered products
One of Rosenfeld Media’s most timely books, Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI by Josh Clark & Veronika Kindred is officially on pre-order! But what exactly does this book have to offer that countless other books, articles, and courses don’t?
The groundbreaking nature of Sentient Design
This book is for designers who want to create entirely new categories of experiences with artificial intelligence (AI).
We’ve entered a revolutionary era of technology and innovation. And AI has only magnified that boom.
Now that this tech is here, how should designers adapt? What is possible in the realm of AI-powered products?
Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred are so glad you’ve asked, because that’s exactly what they intend to answer in Sentient Design. They’re delivering a practical framework and imaginative perspective to deliver extraordinary new products using AI as a design material that will change the game for anyone who picks up this book.
But don’t just take their word for it. Industry veterans can’t get enough of this read, either.
What is sentient design, anyway?
Sentient Design is the practice of crafting intelligent interfaces: dashboards that design themselves, apps that manifest on demand, agents that just get it done, and much more.
Who are Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred?
Josh Clark is principal of Big Medium, a digital agency that helps complex organizations design for what’s next. Josh has over 30 years of experience in emerging technology, user experience, and design innovation. His projects include future-friendly interfaces for AI, connected devices, and websites for many of the world’s biggest companies.
Veronika Kindred
is designer and researcher at Big Medium, where she defines and solves design problems alongside some of the world’s biggest companies. She travels internationally to lead Sentient Design workshops and speak to teams at startups and Fortune 100 companies alike.
When does Sentient Design come out?
Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI will be released on June 9, 2026. Through June 8, you can pre-order the book at 15% off.
Where else can I learn about AI?
Coinciding with the launch of Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred’s book is the third annual Designing with AI conference. Join us virtually June 9-10 for case studies, panels, and expert speakers diving into AI-augmented product design work and processes.
You can also view other talks by the authors in the Rosenverse.
How is AI reshaping product design? Find out at Designing with AI 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shifting design work in unprecedented ways.
As leaders of user experience (UX), how are we supposed to create clarity?
That’s exactly what we’ll be discussing on day 1 of Designing with AI 2026, a virtual conference by Rosenfeld Media taking place on June 9-10, 2026.
What is Designing with AI?
Designing with AI is a multi-day virtual conference experience created by Rosenfeld Media. Designing with AI, also referred to as #DwAI, brings together leading and emerging voices in the UX and design fields to answer one of the most critical questions of modern designers: How can I responsibly harness the power of this innovative technology in my work?
Over the course of two days, speakers from all across the globe present case studies of their own implementations of AI in their work, celebrating the good, warning of the bad, and exploring the endless possibilities that come with an innovation like this one. Each day ends in a panel discussing the prior case studies, reflecting on lessons learned and takeaways for designers.
The conference is curated by Dr. Llewyn Paine. Llewyn is a strategy consultant with nearly two decades of experience in emerging technologies, including HoloLens and AI at Microsoft, and experimental media for Disney. She currently supports teams across the innovation lifecycle at Llewyn Paine Consulting.
Llewyn and the Rosenfeld Media team designed a conference that resonated with people so deeply, that this is our third year hosting it!
Who will be speaking at Designing with AI 2026?
Our expert speakers, hailing from companies such as Dalberg Design, JPMorgan Chase, Philips, and more, have been selected by our all-star conference team. Their hard-hitting case studies demonstrate the ups and downs of AI and how this constantly-changing innovation can be used by UXers and designers all around the globe in a way that helps, rather than harms, our industry.
The Designing with AI Program
Dr. Llewyn Paine and the rest of the Designing with AI curation team has been carefully crafting the 2026 program since we wrapped up Designing with AI 2025!
This year, we have two themes:
- Managing AI-augmented product design work
- The new AI-augmented design process
Let’s dive into the full program below!
How can product designers manage the implementation AI into their work?
Deciding how to align people, process, and AI infrastructure requires both strategy and empathy.
Day 1’s case studies demonstrate how leaders are balancing conflicting AI pressures and justifying their teams’ value, even amid constant change.
Here’s a sneak preview at some of what day 1 of #DwAI2026, June 9, has to offer:
- [Featured speaker] New Work, New Words: A Glossary for AI with Paul Ford, Co-Founder, Aboard
- Reimagining the creative process: Orchestrating intelligent systems for business impact with Shambhavi Gupta, Director AI Product Design, System Thinking, Service Design, Design Strategy and Innovation, Incedoinc
- Coordinating chaos: Preventing workflow fragmentation when everyone accelerates with AI with Claire Dhoosche, Senior DesignOps Manager, Criteo
- Leading through ambiguity: Supporting a design team relearning their craft with Beth Chappell, Senior Manager, Product Design (AI & Creator Tools), Articulate
- Deciding when to automate: Integrating AI in high-stakes systems with Joy KendiMwiti, Senior Creative Lead, Dalberg Design
- [Panel] From prototype to production: Vibe coding design for real engineering systems
What does the design process look like when reshaped by AI?
AI is reshaping the traditional design process. There are new steps to adopt and new skills to learn–all while navigating increasingly blurred boundaries across design, research, product, and engineering.
Day 2’s case studies demonstrate how UX practitioners are seizing new AI opportunities, while preserving the focus on the human user.
Join us on June 10 for these case studies:
- Rehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping with Allan Lowson, Head of Experience Design and Research, Arity
- Designing for trust: Preventing hallucinations in last-mile maternal care AI systems with Vaidehi Supatkar, Design Researcher, Philips
- Conducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows with Snehal Pendharkar, Vice President Experience Research, JPMorgan Chase & Co
- Moving AI offscreen: Exploring failures, constraints, and recovery in physical game design with Kritika Sony, UX Designer, PromptPath AI
- [Panel] From tools to staff: What the next generation of agents means for the future of design
- [Featured speaker] Designing with Power in the Age of AI with Anil Dash, Principal and Co-Founder, antitech
The conference is shaping up to be one of our biggest yet! And that’s not all #DwAI2026 has to offer, either…
What else does Rosenfeld Media offer at its conferences?
- Networking: Hundreds of designers from all over the world come together at Rosenfeld Media conferences. Designing with AI is no different. Be a part of something bigger and connect with like-minded UX and design professionals in real time.
- Cohorts: Rosenfeld Media offers exclusive conference cohorts! Join a small randomly-assigned group of about 10 virtual conference attendees to interact with during the conference. Facilitators will bring you together and collaboratively set an agenda to discuss throughout the event. Enjoy the benefits of small-scale interaction embedded in a large conference!
- Recordings: Rewatch the conference any time you like! All conference attendees get access to 90 days of all conference content. That includes video recordings, transcripts, session notes, and resource lists.
What does a bundle conference + workshop ticket include?
Designing with AI isn’t exclusive to June 9-10—you can also learn from experts hands-on during our virtual workshops! Purchase a bundle conference + workshop ticket, or a workshop only ticket to RSVP.
Service Designers as AI-Readiness Leaders: Orchestrating Change Across the Organization with Erika Flowers
8 hours over 2 days: June 22-23, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
In this interactive workshop, NASA Digital Service alum Erika Flowers shows how service designers can lead their organizations through AI readiness: the process of aligning people, processes, and systems before technology enters the scene. Drawing from Erika’s AI-Readiness in a Box framework, participants will leave with a practical toolkit, facilitation materials, and the confidence to position service design as the engine of organizational AI transformation. Learn more »
AI for UX Researchers with Llewyn Paine
8 hours over 2 days: June 23-24, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
UX researchers are experiencing increasing pressure to use generative AI in their workflows. But while commercial tool vendors champion AI as a cure-all for research woes, the academic literature–and in-depth, real-world evaluation–tell a more nuanced story. In this workshop, you’ll learn a framework for vetting AI capabilities, practice it with cutting-edge AI tools, and discover opportunities to evolve the role of research in this new world. Learn more »
Designing for AI: New Techniques with Dan Saffer
8 hours over 2 days: June 30 – July 1, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
This workshop will be teaching a handful of new techniques that designers, product managers, and researchers can take back and start using immediately. The workshop will be short lectures to introduce a technique, then exercises working with the method hands-on. Learn more »
Designing AI to Make Users Smarter with Chris Noessel
8 hours over 2 days: June 30 – July 1, 2026, 1:00-5:00pm PT
AI is full of promise for users, but it introduces risk as well. The two we’ll talk about in this session are over-reliance and deskilling. Over-reliance is when users trust an AI’s output too much. Deskilling is when users lose skills they previously had, but handed off to the AI; with implications not just for users but for labor relations as well. The good news is that you as a designer can do something about each of these. Come hear Christopher Noessel introduce the problems, share examples, and walk us through the patterns we can implement to help take some of the sting out of AI. Learn more »
Why should I attend Designing with AI?
Designing with AI is tailored for conscientious product designers and UX professionals—whether writers, researchers, or designers—eager to harness the potential of AI in their professional endeavors.
If that sounds like you, be sure to join us on June 9-10 to explore the responsible and innovative application of AI in UX.
Last week in the Rosenverse: Healthcare design & leaving corporate tech
Last week in the Rosenverse, we hosted two events focusing on building credibility and influence for designers in healthcare, and a story of a UXer leaving corporate tech for greener pastures.
Log into the Rosenverse to watch these recordings.
See what you missed below.
Diagnosis UX: Building Influence in Healthcare Design
“Find the people who already care about what we care about, even if they don’t call it UX.”
April 9: Watch Eric Shumake address a question that never goes away: how designers and researchers build credibility and influence in environments where design doesn’t always have a seat at the table.
We walked through:
- Making the case for UX investment when stakeholders focus on clinical outcomes and operational costs
- Navigating regulated environments without losing your design instincts
- How AI is reshaping clinical workflows and what that means for UX teams
Learn to grow your influence—whether you’re early in your healthcare career or looking to have more impact in your current role. Watch the recording »
Exit Interview: 20 Years of Tech, One Very Big Bet, and a Lot of Heat Pumps
“The title is becoming less important. Focus on the outcome you want to create and whether it feels meaningful.”
April 10: What do you do when you decide your skills deserve better problems?
Sara spent 20 years doing UX work she was genuinely good at with people she truly liked. And somehow still went home empty most days. The problems felt too small. Worse, some felt like they were pointing in the wrong direction entirely. So she made a bet on herself.
She walked away from a senior UX career in corporate tech and spent 18 months building something new from scratch. She journeyed through certifications, new knowledge, trial and error, and eventually a new career in residential electrification.
Now, instead of maximizing clicks and driving consumption, she helps people feel more comfortable in their homes while reducing their bills and their climate impact. These days she sizes HVAC equipment, pulls permits, coordinates subcontractors, and gets fossil fuels out of people’s homes. She also opportunistically uses her UX background to make the whole operation run better.
This is a story about reinvention, risk-taking, and landing somewhere you’d never have predicted you’d find meaning. Watch the recording »
Catch up on last week’s recordings, and mark your calendar for upcoming events.
See you in the Rosenverse!
Why OKRs, agile, and their ilk fail with Jeff Gothelf
AI is reshaping product development faster than most organizations can even rethink how they work—and that gap sits at the heart of this conversation with product design guru Jeff Gothelf. Lou and Jeff explore why proven methods like Agile and OKRs so often become “process theater” instead of real change, and what it actually takes to shift organizations from output-driven cultures to outcome-driven ones.
Jeff explains that most transformations fail because incentives still reward shipping outputs, not creating real value. Meaningful change tends to emerge only in pockets led by leaders willing to experiment and treat ways of working as something to test and evolve.
They also explore how AI is shifting risk upstream—from engineering to vision, validation, and decision-making—making design and research more critical than ever. Along the way, they reflect on consulting as organizational therapy, the need to prove design’s value in the AI era, and why companies that relentlessly embrace new technology are best positioned to endure.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- Why Agile, OKRs, and similar frameworks often fail to create real change
- The critical shift from measuring output to measuring outcomes
- The two traits shared by successful pockets of transformation in large companies
- How to run small, time-boxed experiments to change ways of working at scale
- Why AI makes design, research, and product thinking more valuable
- How to explain and prove the value of “thinking before the prompt” in AI-driven organizations
Q&A with Jeff Gothelf
This Q&A is drawn from this podcast episode.
Q: Why is this shift from outputs to outcomes so important?
A: Because outputs can look productive without actually solving the right problem. Outcomes force teams to ask whether their work is making a real difference.
Q: What does customer-centricity mean in practice?
A: It means starting with the customer’s problem, not the team’s solution. When teams stay close to customer needs, they make better decisions about what to build and what to measure.
Q: What is one of the biggest mistakes teams make?
A: Teams often fall in love with a solution too early. They rush to build before they fully understand the problem they are trying to solve.
Q: How do OKRs support this way of working?
A: OKRs are most useful when they help teams define success in terms of outcomes. They become much less effective when they turn into a list of tasks or deliverables.
Q: What is the biggest takeaway from the episode?
A: The takeaway is that strong product work depends on clarity, focus, and learning. Teams need to stay centered on customer value and measure whether their work is actually changing behavior or improving results.
About our guest
Jeff Gothelf is a product and strategy coach who helps organizations build better products, stronger teams and more adaptable cultures. With more than 20 years of experience, he brings deep expertise in product strategy, cross-functional collaboration, agile-friendly product design and experimentation. He has worked with companies like AOL, TheLadders and Neo Innovation to lead customer- centric transformations and deliver measurable business results.
Quick Reference Guide:
0:10 – Meet Jeff Gothelf; Lou and Jeff discuss bridging the gap between ritual and cultural change
7:44 – Good ideas without a clear understanding of why
9:42 – What it takes for organizations to successfully communicate and incentivize
15:21 – 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse
17:37 – Consultants validate insiders; AI shifts risk toward design clarity
24:20 – AI speeds output, but critical thinking, research, and testing prove designers’ value
27:50 – Jeff and Lou speculate on Amazon’s future
30:49 – Jeff’s gift for listeners
Resources and Links from Today’s Episode:
4 Hands-on virtual workshops to level up your AI skills
Is your UX team actually getting value from AI? Whether you’re a designer, UX researcher, or product manager, staying ahead of AI isn’t optional anymore. Throughout 2026, Rosenfeld Media is offering a series of virtual workshops to equip you with the skills and confidence to assess, implement, and design AI-powered experiences.
Our first dates kick off this spring — save your spot before April 15 to lock in early bird pricing.
View the full workshop series »
Service Designers as AI-Readiness Leaders: Orchestrating Change Across the Organization
with Erika Flowers | April 27-28, 2026
In this interactive workshop, NASA Digital Service alum Erika Flowers shows how service designers can lead their organizations through AI readiness: the process of aligning people, processes, and systems before technology enters the scene.
AI for UX Researchers
with Llewyn Paine | April 29-30, 2026
In this workshop, learn a framework for understanding AI’s capabilities within the context of user research and workshop opportunities for AI to evolve the role of research, making the researcher even more valuable in this new world.
Designing for AI: New Techniques
with Dan Saffer | May 4 & 6, 2026
This workshop will teach a handful of new techniques that designers, product managers, and researchers can take back and start using immediately.
Designing AI to Make Users Smarter
with Christopher Noessel | May 6-7, 2026
AI is full of promise for users, but it introduces risk as well: over-reliance and deskilling. The good news is that you as a designer can do something about each of these. And Chris Noessel will show you how.
Announcing the themes for Designing with AI 2026
With the constant influx of new AI models and tools, it can be hard to distinguish hype from true value. Learn from experienced design practitioners where AI delivers on its promises, where it hasn’t, and the processes they’re using to leverage AI to its full potential.
Join leading experts at Designing with AI 2026 as they share firsthand AI case studies and the lessons learned along the way. Our two-day conference is split into two themes:
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Managing AI-augmented product design work
- As AI shifts design work in unprecedented ways, UX leaders are tasked with creating clarity. Deciding how to align people, process, and AI infrastructure requires both strategy and empathy. These case studies demonstrate how leaders are balancing conflicting AI pressures and justifying their teams’ value, even amid constant change.
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The new AI-augmented design process
- AI is reshaping the traditional design process. There are new steps to adopt and new skills to learn–all while navigating increasingly blurred boundaries across design, research, product, and engineering. These case studies demonstrate how UX practitioners are seizing new AI opportunities, while preserving the focus on the human user.
Don’t miss out on our most highly-anticipated event of the year. Join us June 9-10 for this unforgettable online conference.
