Angela Arnold has built her career by listening deeply. To herself, to others, and to the quiet signals that tell you when something feels right… or when it doesn’t.

As Head of Product Design at Genomics England, her work sits at the intersection of craft, care, and impact, shaping experiences that matter in some of the most sensitive and complex human contexts.

In this episode, Angela joins Adam for a thoughtful, warm, and deeply reflective conversation about creative leadership, instinct, and trust. She shares how curiosity and gut feeling have guided her decisions, from navigating uncertainty in design work to knowing when it’s time to pause, reframe, or take a leap into something new.

Angela talks openly about losing confidence early in her career, finding her way back through learning-by-doing, and becoming a self-taught product designer through making, coding, and hands-on experimentation. She reflects on the mentors who believed in her, the environments that shaped her, and how working across agencies, finance, and not-for-profits eventually led her toward healthcare, where her work could have a more profound human impact.

This is a conversation about grace under pressure. About patience, self-care, and staying true to yourself in an industry that constantly shifts. Angela’s clarity is calm and powerful. Her leadership is rooted in empathy. And her belief in thoughtful, human-centred design comes through in every story she shares.

In this episode, we cover:

* Trusting instinct and knowing when something doesn’t work

* Losing confidence early on and rebuilding it through making and learning

* Becoming a self-taught product designer through code, prototypes, and practice

* The importance of asking “who is this really for?” in design critiques and leadership

* Why alignment on outcomes matters more than perfect solutions

* Understanding your strongest creative rhythms and working with them, not against them

* Learning when to pause, reframe, or let go of an idea that isn’t serving you

* Moving across industries and what each environment teaches you

* Why healthcare design became a calling, not just a career move

* Designing the spaces between decisions, where real change actually happens

* Self-care, simplicity, and creating a joyful life outside of work

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This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.

Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.© Cordial Fox Limited, 2025.

Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?

Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.

✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)

✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort

✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community

✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.

Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.

🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com

Joel Gill has lived several creative lives in one. Musician, engineer, global design leader, single father, mentor, and now Chief Experience and AI Officer at Experience Artisan. His story stretches from hiding in a school music room and becoming a session synth player & pianist in 1980s London, to shaping early digital at British Airways, to leading design inside megacorps like Shell, HSBC and S&P Platts—while also contributing his craft to teams across Barclays, WPP, Santander, Hyatt, Sapient, Hogarth Worldwide, Vodafone and many others. Through it all runs a single thread. Integrity. Show up. Experiment. Tell the truth. Look after people.

In this episode, Joel joins Adam for a rich, funny, emotional and very human conversation about the real work of creative leadership. He talks about discovering design through music studios, building clickable prototypes in PowerPoint before UX existed, and being part of the early BA dot com team in the days before digital design really had a name. He shares how contracting across agencies, banks and tech companies gave him the scar tissue he now teaches his teams to embrace.

Joel speaks openly about walking away when a place no longer aligns with your values, the difference between delivery and maturity, and why introducing Design Ops at scale became both a battle and a breakthrough. He also reflects on raising two boys alone while travelling the world for work, the people who shaped him, and the moment his son unknowingly reminded him what matters more than any job title.

This is an episode full of integrity, humour, scar tissue, and heart. Joel’s stories are defining. His clarity is unmistakable. And his love for people, culture and craft comes through in every minute.

In this episode, we cover:

* How Joel went from session musician to early digital pioneer

* As part of the early BA dot com team, he learned UX by hacking together prototypes in the days before the discipline really existed

* Contracting across agencies and banks, collecting the scar tissue that shaped his leadership

* Why he left HSBC and how he recognises when it’s time to walk away

* Building design capability at Standard & Poor’s and later at Shell

* Introducing Design Ops and why resistance taught him hard lessons

* How to observe people, question everything and tell better stories

* Why every job needs an exit strategy as much as an entry one

* Raising two boys while leading global teams and what they taught him about presence

* Visibility as accountability and why smiling is a leader’s most powerful currency

* The three helium balloons he uses to measure his own growth: experience, expertise, enthusiasm

===This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.© Cordial Fox Limited, 2026.Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com

Venessa Bennett has built a career that mirrors the evolution of digital itself. She is now Global Director of UX at Dye & Durham, but her journey began in graphic information design, moved through early digital agencies, transport consultancies, comparison sites, and eventually into design leadership, where she found her true sweet spot. Her story is one of intentional growth, constant reinvention and learning how to listen to her instinct.

In this episode, Venessa joins Adam for an honest, energetic conversation about the path from junior designer to global design leader. She shares how she first stepped into digital by accident, why she later circled back to it with clarity, and how she reshaped her skills every time the industry shifted. Along the way, she talks openly about the moment she realised she loved people leadership more than pure craft, and how her work in management has become a place of purpose, legacy and joy.

Venessa also discusses the challenges that shaped her as a leader. She reflects on the painful lesson of a mis-hire, why understanding yourself is the foundation of any good career decision, and how empathy can be both a strength and a stumbling block. She and Adam explore the unpredictability of people, the changing expectations of design in an AI-driven world, and why designers today need product sense, business awareness and sharper soft skills than ever before.

This is a wide-ranging episode full of clarity, growth and grounded wisdom. Venessa’s perspective is generous, practical and deeply human.

In this episode, we cover:

* Moving from graphic design into early digital work and rediscovering her passion for UX

* Cutting her teeth in comparison sites and fast-paced in-house product teams

* Shaping her skills around industry shifts from visual design to UX to design leadership

* Why she thrives in the nurturing side of leadership and the legacy it creates

* The difference between agency unpredictability and in-house depth

* How knowing yourself early changes the trajectory of your career

* The painful impact of a mis-hire and what she learned from it

* Advice for juniors entering the industry and for designers out of work

* The future of UX design in a leaner, AI-driven landscape

* Why end-to-end thinking, service design and ethics will matter more than ever

===

This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.

Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.

Hosted by Adam Jennings.

Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.

© Cordial Fox Limited, 2026.

Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?

Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.

✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)

✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort

✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community

✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.

Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.

🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com