Episodes

  • After a 2 month break, we are back! We are not just back, we are arguing that everyone is a designer!

    If you are told that you gotta have a design degree or proper design education to become a designer, you can find some good tips on why we think otherwise. Maybe you would be able to find better ways to become a better designer and perhaps slap 'em back with "I AM A DESIGNER" with some solid arguments!

    Resources:

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • In this video, we are sharing our journey of how we got ourselves into careers in product design and product management.

    If you are feeling doubtful and lost about a career change into Design or Product Management after establishing yourself in your current career, this video is for you! If you are wondering if you have the right qualifications to land a design job, you must watch this video!

    Harsha had been a software engineer for many years before he decided to make the switch and Ganji is designing while being a Product Owner by profession! Each journey is unique and that is why we decided to talk about it openly with you.

    Resources: 

    Some YouTube channels that we have been following to learn design: 

    AJ&Smart: https://www.youtube.com/c/AJSmart/featured

    NNgroup: https://www.youtube.com/c/NNgroup/featured

    Some books that we recommend for anyone who wants to learn design: 

    SPRINT by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky  The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman  Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley  

    An online course that we recommend for anyone who wants to learn design: Product Design: The Delft Design Approach - https://www.edx.org/course/product-design-the-delft-design-approach

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

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  • Psst! Have you been a victim of the IKEA effect?

    In this episode, we explain how to use the IKEA effect to design better. Most importantly we will tell you when to avoid the IKEA effect when you design!

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • Ever wondered why your work always fits the deadline at the last moment?

    In this episode, we talk about Parkinson's Law which says "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".

    Cyril Northcote Parkinson first wrote about it in 1955 and if you understand how this law works, you can change how you work and have better outcomes.

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • You're asking how to brainstorm without having thousands of unproductive discussions and meetings? 

    If you need to have a productive brainstorming session with your team, you need to do these things: 

    Go for quantity over quality.  Treat any idea as a good idea.  Do it together but individually.

    When brainstorming, let's try to maintain a diverging mindset focusing on creating options. When we brainstorm in a team, we judge ourselves and filter out our ideas in our heads until we come up with the best idea we can think of. This is a myth and you will NOT generate great ideas by doing so. One simple exercise to practice going for quantity over quality is to timebox the idea generation session to a couple of minutes and set a goal for the number of ideas that each individual should generate.

    When generating ideas, dare to go wild! If you are a facilitator, set the stage for it. Announce openly that everyone can go wild in this brainstorming session with the ideas. Treat all the ideas as good ideas but do not appreciate or turn down any of the ideas that are generated. Criticizing can be done in a later step when we are converging our options down.

    However, most of the brainstorming sessions end up being unproductive due to noise and power. That is why we encourage the brainstorming to be done individually, anonymously, and silently even if everyone is gathered in the same room. If the CEO is a part of your brainstormer, if her idea was exposed, everyone will like the idea just because she is the CEO! If someone looks at the other's idea on paper and says "What a cool idea!", the rest of the team will feel reluctant to go against it as it is already perceived as a good idea by one of the participants.

    Try these tips and methods in your next brainstormer and let us know how it went! Happy Brainstorming!

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • Still struggling to find the formula that clicks for your team to do great design?

    Do you think that you are a great designer and you deserve to be in a greater team? Why not make your team a great team instead?

    In this episode, we give you 3 tips to design like a champion team player.

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • Tired of decisions dragging for ages? Stuck with your design as a design decision is not being made fast?

    In this episode, we will tell you about a simple framework that you can adapt in your work to make design decision making faster and easier.

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

    #design #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • As the world of design is evolving, the speed of designing is playing a crucial role. Most designers are now practising design in iterations and value the short and fast feedback loops over aiming for perfection.  In this episode, we give you 3 simple tips for you to speed up your design process.  

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

    #design #speedup #productdesign #designinspiration #designsprints #uxdesign #uxdesignprocess #uxcareers #uxdesigner #designduo #designduovlog

  • We the designers know that Collaborative Design can be challenging!🧐 

    So, for our very first episode, we decided to speak about how you can excel in Collaborative Design.  This is a must-watch for all designers who are part of a team. 

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

    #designteam #productdesign #designtalks #vlog #productmanagement #designsprintmaster #designer #designadvice #designlovers #designstrategy #productstrategy #uxdesign #aidesigner #ML #AI #userexperience

  • As we got bored of talking to each other, we invited the Master Facilitator and Author Douglas Ferguson to our show! In this episode, he enlightens us with Magical Meetings and tips on being good a facilitator.

    Douglas Ferguson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasferguson

    Voltage Control: https://voltagecontrol.com/

    Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Control-The-Room/

    Magical Meetings: https://www.amazon.com/Non-Obvious-Guide-Magical-Meetings-Guides/dp/1646870263/

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • In this episode, we talk about a much-hyped, trendy 📈 thing in the space of design, (hashtag) DesignOps! 👩‍🔧 Know all the wrong reasons to be a Design Manager! and...we predict the future! 🧙🏽‍♀️ We have become quite a bunch of fortune-tellers!

    02:00 What is DesignOps?

    04:00 Do you enjoy operating tasks in Design?

    10:25 Product of the week: Google Tables

    14:00 Google moved April 1st to September

    14:40 A DesignOps story from Figma

    18:55 Design Manager vs Manager of Designers

    19:30 How to be a DesignOps person or a manager?

    23:50 Book review: Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

    31:45 What makes you hate your job?

    36:20 Predicting the future of DesignOps

    Products and services:

    Google Tables: https://tables.area120.google.com/u/0/about#/

    Books:

    Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Growth-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Breakout/dp/045149721X

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • 14 episodes in 100 days! 🚩 Not a bad ride, eh? To celebrate this, we will tell you how design-matured you are 🧙 followed by a sensitive book review on Rework by Jason Fried 📖

    01:23 What does it mean to be a design-driven team?

    11:44 Product of the week: Chuck!

    16:40 InVision Design Maturity Model

    26:45 Book review: Rework by Jason Fried

    36:22 How to measure the impact of Design

    43:10 The worst way to end an episode

    Products and services:

    Chuck: https://chuck.email/

    Books:

    Rework by Jason Fried: https://basecamp.com/books/rework

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • In this episode, we ramble on the evolution of Design Sprints 🐒 ! What pitfalls you may avoid and you may fall into anyway! Also we love Jake Knapp! Buy the Sprint book! 😜

    05:10 Can Design Sprints solve all the problems in the world?

    10:21 Product of the week: Magic Email

    15:15 What not to do when running a Design Sprint

    26:26 Book review: Change by Design

    35:20 How to be a good facilitator?

    51:30 We are the noise in your ears!

    Products and services:

    Magic email: https://magicemail.io/

    Books:

    Change by Design: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Design-Revised-Updated-Organizations/dp/0062856626

    Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287

    Sprint by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky: https://www.thesprintbook.com/

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • Are designers born or made? In this episode, we decided to tell you our own story! (Probably we will bore you to death! If you survive, you will never listen to us again).

    01:32 Jake Knapp convinced me to be a designer
    09:35 Why I was fighting to be a spec writer
    13:04 I was, really, really, really good at maths
    17:06 Product of the week: Walling
    22:26 Ken Robinson and Rebel in no-chaos is a terrorist
    26:21 Is Youtube reliable to learn?
    27:49 Book Review: Leadership and Self-Deception
    34:27 Make people great again, and Harsha's love for solving problem
    36:58 What's Ganji's end game

    Products and services:

    Walling: https://walling.app/
    Ideo Designkit: https://www.designkit.org/

    Books:

    Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40510378-leadership-and-self-deception

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • In this episode, we ramble on how designers can fit into Agile Sprints? We think David Kelley is more creative than you. Also, we are so kind to give you some career advice. 

    01:34 How does the Product Designer role fit into a Scrum Team?
    06:30 When should design happen in Scrum?
    07:00 Dual and Tri track Agile
    11:23 Product of the Episode: Canva
    15:37 Speed first, Aesthetics second?
    19:22 Google is not afraid to fail
    21:40 Design is experimenting
    23:42 Book review: Creative Confidence by David Kelley and Tom Kelley
    29:50 Organizational Culture and the Role of Design
    31:44 Feature teams vs Product teams 

    Products and services: 

    Canva https://www.canva.com/ 

    Books: 

    Creative Confidence: https://www.creativeconfidence.com/book/ 

    Design by 3 Hosts 

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/ 

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/ 

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • Have you ever heard of AI Design Sprint™ 🤖? Why does @Ganji think AI cannot replace designers and why the other 2 disagree 😡? Are you ready to disagree to agree in this episode?

    00:00 Summer stories or stories of the summer
    01:18 Designers in AI-powered world
    04:10 Figma and AI are the same
    11:28 Product of the episode: Jamm
    16:36 Designers! How do you use AI at work?
    20:30 AI-DesignOps
    23:30 Book review: Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager
    28:09 Can AI replace designers?
    37:55 AI-powered beatboxing by Ganji

    Products and services:

    Unscreen: https://www.unscreen.com/
    Clearview: https://clearview.ai/

    Books:

    The Making of a Manager: https://www.juliezhuo.com/book/manager.html

    Everything else:

    A Case for Banning Facial Recognition: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/facial-recognition-software.html
    Deepfake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepfake
    33a: https://www.33a.ai/

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • What is harder, 🏌🏼‍♀️ or 🏏? Is Google's Digital Well-being assessment telling the truth? How many daily phone pick-ups you need, to get labelled as a phone-addict 🚬?

    01:40 Google digital wellbeing self-assessment
    09:43 TikTok falls under the "creativity" category?
    14:13 Product of the episode: TheirTube and Designer Tomo Kihara
    19:47 Designers, how do you stay up to date on trends?
    24:16 Book review: John Doerr's Measure what matters, the OKR book
    29:24 Design for digital wellbeing

    Products and services:

    TheirTube: https://www.their.tube/

    Books:

    John Doerr's Measure what matters: https://www.whatmatters.com/the-book/

    Everything else:

    Google Digital Wellbeing: https://wellbeing.google

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • Did Slack and great Steward Butterfield admit defeat in front of Microsoft Teams? 🏳 Or Are they flighting back with EU competition complaint? ⚔

    In this episode, we discuss what a designer could do if you are in a situation similar to Slack? How can you launch a fightback as a designer?

    00:41 Slack files EU competition complaint against Microsoft
    14:14 Product of the episode: Slite (https://slite.com/)
    19:26 If you are a small fish in a big pond, just switch
    23:45 Book review: Kim Scott's Radical Candor (https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kim-Scott/dp/B01KTIEFEE)
    28:27 Design for product retirement 

    Products and services:

    Slite: https://slite.com/

    Books:

    Radical Candor: https://kimmalonescott.com/

    Everything else:

    Slack tweet: https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/1285927904447275010
    Slack 2016 press release: https://slackhq.com/dear-microsoft
    Design by 3 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDesignBy3

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • This episode gets heated up with a rough battle between UX and UI Design. It is extremely controversial and contagious! Wash your ears for 20 seconds after listening to this episode.

    00:30 Personas are broken, just use JTBD (https://uxdesign.cc/heres-why-you-should-stop-using-personas-63c09a844e67)
    07:00 Designing for accessibility is not that hard
    20:30 UX Design is UI Design bruh!
    31:47 Everything about Smart Facemasks (https://www.donutrobotics.com/c-mask)
    36:50 Product of the Week (https://www.onwatch.app/)
    39:59 Jeff Gothelf Forever Employable - Book Review (https://jeffgothelf.com/foreveremployable/)
    47:55 Have Design Managers forgotten that they are designers too

    Products and services:

    OnWatch: https://www.onwatch.app/

    Books:

    Forever Employable: https://jeffgothelf.com/foreveremployable/

    Everything else:

    Designing for Web Accessibility: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tips/designing/

    --

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/

  • How do we design features that are rarely used? Is there a difference between a Product Designer and a UX Designer? What the hell is the "API-First approach" in developing products?

    In this episode, we are trying our best to find answers! Do you think we succeeded?

    00:10 Understanding the API-First Approach to Building Products: (https://swagger.io/resources/articles/adopting-an-api-first-approach/)

    07:44 Designing for Truth Validation: Case of Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536) 

    17:57 Who will win in a fistfight, UX Designer, or Product Designer?

    31:27 Design inspired by Just In Case minimalism rule

    42:24 Book review: The Obstacle is the Way 

    47:43 Messenger and Whatsapp Integration

    53:08 Mmhmm app is the way

    Products and services:

    mmhmm: https://www.mmhmm.app/about

    Books:

    The Obstacle is the Way: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781251495/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_4dddFbQXA0QR1

    Design by 3 Hosts

    Gayanjith Premalal (Ganji) https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayanjithpremalal/

    Harshadewa Ariyasinghe (Harsha) https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadewa/

    Yasith Abeynayaka (sirStinkySocks) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasithabeynayaka/