Taking Notes and Nurturing Your Knowledge Garden with Jorge Arango
Jorge Arango is an Information architect, author, and educator, and he’s written a new book, Duly Noted, about the age-old practice of notetaking.
If you’re like me, you’ve been taking notes since your school days. Back then, we used notebooks, a Trapper Keeper, and sticky notes – anything that could help us ace a test, remember important tidbits, and consolidate ideas. Notes are an extension of the mind. But it was always a headache to organize them, synthesize them, and recall them at the right time.
Enter the digital age – which tried to improve on the humble art of notetaking, but apps like Notes and Stickies tried to replicate digitally what we were using in the real world. Newer apps like Obsidian let go of real-world metaphors by utilizing three principles: shorter notes, connecting your notes, and nurturing your notes to build a knowledge garden that will serve you for the rest of your life.
If you bring value to the world through your thinking, you have the responsibility to look after your thinking apparatus. Duly Noted will augment, magnify, and extend your capacity to think well. Externalizing your mental processes is one of the most powerful means we have to think better. If used well, the humble note will help you be a better thinker and a more effective human.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
– A history of notetaking tools
– Why notetaking is a personal endeavor
– How digital notetaking tools have evolved
– About Jorge’s new book and how, upon reading it, you just might become a better thinker and increase your effectiveness
Quick Reference Guide
[0:00:12] Introduction of Jorge and his books
[0:01:18] Introduction of Jorge’s new book on taking notes and creating a knowledge garden, Duly Noted
[0:09:47] Books that will make you a better knowledge worker
[0:14:14] Design in Product Conference
[0:15:35] Managing knowledge with computers
[0:26:03] Knowledge as a garden
[0:28:09] On tools for nurturing a knowledge garden
[0:33:08] How Jorge uses AI with Obsidian
[0:36:37] Jorge’s gift for listeners
Advocating for UX in the Enterprise: How GM’s User Experience Team Builds Buy-In Across Business Units for User-First Design
Most UX designers have experienced that finding strong insights to take to product teams is just the start of their job. From there, they must advocate for their research and build a business case for integrating their findings into products. Unfortunately, in some businesses, it’s difficult to be heard.
At GM’s First Mile incubator, UX designer Jerra Murphy uses visual storytelling to help data scientists and business leaders synthesize her findings and understand the opportunities she’s uncovered for additional revenue through improved experience. By doing so, she helps align teams on the value of user experience, and ensure that her research is put into action in products.
In this talk, Jerra will share her approach to advocating for UX research in the enterprise, and attendees will leave with new strategies for putting user experience in the front of mind for leaders.
What Digital Leaders Need to Know: a Chat with Tony Byrne
Throwing money at technology won’t automatically make your company more innovative or productive. So how do you pick the right tools for your organization? In this episode, Real Story Group founder Tony Byrne talks about what digital leaders need to do to make tech buying decisions that drive success.
Traction Heroes with Harry Max and Jorge Arango
Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts!
Apple podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
What happens when two brilliant minds from the world of information architecture team up to create a podcast that’s part leadership playbook, part intellectual high-wire act? That’s exactly what Harry Max and Jorge Arango set out to explore with their new podcast, Traction Heroes. Lou Rosenfeld chats with two and learns how they envision their project and how their podcast differs from traditional interview formats.
Instead of scripted discussions, Traction Heroes features Harry and Jorge reading thought-provoking passages from books to each other—without prior preparation—sparking impromptu, insightful conversations. The goal? To decode complex ideas and turn them into actionable advice for leaders and decision-makers. The pair leverage their complementary strengths: Harry’s applied, results-driven approach, and Jorge’s deep, theoretical mindset. Together, they aim to help listeners gain traction in their careers and lives, all while keeping the dialogue engaging and accessible.
Launched in January 2025, the podcast avoids technical or siloed jargon, and focuses on practical tools for structuring decisions and creating meaningful outcomes. Available on major platforms and at TractionHeroes.com, the show promises a fresh take on leadership and decision-making.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- The story behind Jorge and Harry’s collaboration and how Traction Heroes came to life
- How their unique podcast format fosters unscripted, thought-provoking conversations
- Why they’ve chosen to avoid technical or industry-specific jargon to reach a broader audience
- What inspired their focus on leadership, decision-making, and practical insights
- How they plan to make complex ideas accessible and actionable for listeners
Quick Reference Guide:
0:00 – Meet Jorge and Harry
2:35 – Introducing Jorge and Harry’s podcast
6:20 – How this podcast will be different
11:03 – The broadness of information architecture
15:25 – 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse
18:18 – The format of the podcast
26:46 – Traction Heroes
28:38 – Gifts for listeners
Better Together: Partnering with Others to Transform Enterprise
Best Buy’s Jamie Kaspszak and USAA’s Frank Duran join Lou and Bob Baxley to discuss how UX plays a critical role in bridging their organizations’ silos and disciplines. It’s a preview of what they’ll cover at this year’s Enterprise Experience conference, where they’ll be joined by four other speakers, all who are wrestling with the team sport of organizational transformation. Learn more about these sessions, which take place virtually on September 3.
How Technology Can Empower Marketing: a Chat with Theresa Regli
Does your company struggle to find and use video, audio, and image assets after you’ve created them? Do they disappear into a dark netherworld on your server? In this episode, Theresa Regli, author of Digital and Marketing Asset Management, breaks down what to ask before buying kludgy and expensive software. And which vendors rank highest on her list of otherwise lackluster DAM vendors.
Breaking through the empathy gap: a conversation with Indi Young
Empathy is a hot conversation topic these days but much as we try, we’re not quite using our empathy muscles to their fullest extent when solving design problems for real people. Indi Young, author of Mental Models and Practical Empathy talks about how our assumptions can lead us astray.
Expand—Rethinking Design for Public Challenges (Videoconference)
As the problems facing society are getting thornier by the day, how do we bring design up to speed? Design thinking, as we have come to know it, needs to be rethought and expanded to enable more radical, systemic and long-term solutions. Christian Bason, Ph.D., CEO of the Danish Design Center, shares insights from his new book, “Expand: Stretching the Future by Design”, co-authored with Jens Martin Skibsted, arguing that innovation is in dire need of — innovation.
Advancing Service Design with Ben Reason and Patrick Quattlebaum
Is it time to advance the practice of service design?
Ben Reason and Patrick Quattlebaum think so. They’re veteran service designers and co-authors of a pair of Rosenfeld books—Service Design: From Insight to Implementation and Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity respectively.
Ben, founder of LiveWork Studio, and Patrick, who founded Harmonic Design in Atlanta, join Lou to talk about launching a new Rosenfeld conference—Advancing Service Design—designed to highlight the service design’s potential for a new generation. They see opportunities for service design to go deeper—by integrating with and strengthening existing practices, like product management and agile, and broader—by better connecting systems that span multiple organizations (think healthcare).
Working with the Rosenfeld team, they’re creating a conference program that you can be a part of—they describe the kinds of presentation proposals they’re looking for from prospective speakers. Patrick and Ben hope you’ll join them in advancing service design; the conference will take place virtually December 3-4.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- The real meaning of service design
- How service design is evolving
- Some crucial differences between the work in North America and Europe
- Why communication between organizations is so important
- How the upcoming conference will inspire and support you
- How to contribute and become part of the upcoming case studies
- How the panel discussions at the December conference will be different
Quick Reference Guide:
0:15 – Introduction to Ben and Patrick
1:50 – Being change agents to take Service Design to the next level
5:03 – Announcing a new conference: Advancing Service Design– Looking at Service Design Through Different Lenses
6:05 – Perspectives on different sides of the Atlantic
11:30 – Why service design exists in the first place
12:38 – More about the upcoming December virtual conference
17:40 – Call for proposals for the case studies and what they are looking for
19:00 – Ben’s ideas for the conference: The next iteration of service design going from within an organization to between multiple organizations
21:09 – Patrick’s ideas for the conference: Getting the people who want to transform things to communicate and the complexity of partnering together
23:05 – Bringing success from the inside
24:45 – Commercial break
27:10 – Personal story from Patrick about communication highlighting the broader concept of the case studies for the conference
32:30 – Personal story from Ben about connection across systems
37:16 – A different type of panel discussion to be at the conference
40:15 – Gifts for listeners
Donna Lichaw on Leadership Superpowers and Kryptonite
Not too long ago, Donna Lichaw, author of The User’s Journey, was helping companies solve product problems by organizing the experience of a product or service into a narrative arc where the user is the hero.
Then she ran into a question that she couldn’t shake — a question that, once answered, would morph her business from product development to leadership development. The question unveiled a people problem rather than a product problem.
“We don’t have problems bringing products into the world. We have problems getting along with everyone, feeling good about our work, building team morale, dealing with internal fighting. We’ve been helping our customers be heroes. How can I be a hero?”
Over seven years of researching how to help leaders be heroes, she found inspiration in a variety of places, including Gestalt therapy, narrative therapy, and executive and somatic coaching.
Her conclusion can be found in her new book, The Leaders Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary. Think of the book as a map for people to become the natural leaders they already are and can be through a process of radical acceptance that leads to real, lasting change. People grow into superhero leaders when they fully embrace themselves — strengths and weaknesses.
Donna’s approach to leadership is a refreshing departure from the typical advice of talk louder, take up more space, and listen more. This is a different — a journey that is unique to each individual.
• Discover your superpowers. When you’re not leveraging your superpowers at work, you’re not as powerful as you could be. When you contain your superpowers, you’ll feel sad, depressed, and restricted.
• Know your kryptonite too. When you understand the “why” behind your weaknesses, you’ll often find a superpower underneath. By embracing your quirks and appreciating how they serve you, you’ll open yourself to insights about how to move forward.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
• Why Donna felt compelled to transition her business into leadership coaching
• About the two books Donna has written for Rosenfeld Media
• Why one-size-fits-all leadership programs are a dead end
• How appreciating your weaknesses can lead to self-discovery and growth
Quick Reference Guide
[0:00:51] Introduction of Donna Lichaw and a brief summary of her book The User’s Journey
[0:02:23] About the origins of The Leader’s Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary, Donna’s new book
[0:03:10] Donna recalls leading a workshop that raised an important question
[0:07:44] Looking for inspiration and resources to answer the question, “How can I be a hero?”
[0:11:24] Finding value in everything, yet recognizing what is less helpful
[0:13:57] Dealing with leadership stereotypes and churn
[0:19:10] Enterprise UX 2023
[0:21:15] All leaders have superpowers and kryptonite
[0:26:06] Leaning into your personal kryptonite
[0:30:25] How the adult film industry and literary smut fit into all of this
[0:35:06] Donna’s gift for listeners – access to her work!
