Femke and Charli discuss how to collaborate effectively with other design creators on side projects. Femke shares her experience working with five other designers on the Design Creator's Bundle, including how the collaboration went, how they divided the revenue, and how audience size influenced their choice of collaborators and how Claud helped shape the overall strategy of the product.

Timestamps:

00:46 Episode start

01:50 Catch-up

06:33 Design Creator’s Bundle

08:41 Why did Femke decide to do it?

11:17 How does it feel to work on something like this with a group of people?

14:34 Charli shares a story about her experience being part of a bundle

15:50 How was the revenue split approached?

17:37 Did you know the people involved in the bundle beforehand?

20:01 How do you approach collaborations in terms of effort and contribution?

23:49 How did audience size factor into the collaboration?

28:11 Do you think you'll pursue more similar collaborations in the future?

29:22 What about collaborating with design creators in other ways, such as creating a product together?

Links:

Design Creator's Bundle

Femke's community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Charli and Femke discuss the common challenges people face when pursuing promotions, share strategies to prepare for performance reviews, and explore options for those who perform well but are unable to get promoted.

Timestamps:

0:57 Episode start

01:50 Catch up

07:25 What are the main challenged people that you mentored were having around promotions?

10:37 Thinking about promotions as a manager

16:01 Advice to people to whom it is not clear what needs to be done in order to get promoted

22:17 How to set yourself up for success l for the performance review time

28:32 What if you do a good job but you cannot get a promotion?

Links:

Femke's community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Charli and Femke discuss their evolving perspectives on side projects, preferred platforms and content formats, and how these have changed throughout their careers, while also sharing their current goals—Charli opening up about her book writing journey and Femke explaining how her approach to her course is continuously evolving.

Timestamps:

01:26 - Episode start

03:11 - How are you currently thinking about side projects? How do you describe what you do on the side when meeting new people?

05:23 - Perspectives on different platforms and content formats

08:38 - Charli’s main side project at the moment: writing a book

09:42 - Updates on Charli’s YouTube channel

16:00 - How Charli incorporates Claude into her creative process

17:00 - Strategies behind choosing and developing content formats

25:25 - Femke shares her vision for her business

Links:

Femke's community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Femke and Charli discuss how to foster a culture of knowledge sharing at a workplace. They explore how to structure language-sharing sessions, whether these should focus on work-related topics or personal expertise, how to encourage team members to participate, and what roles leaders and team members play in sharing knowledge.

Timestamps:

01:25 Episode start

02:27 Catch up

06:52 How did educational 'Lunch and Learn' sessions come about at Femke’s work?

08:06 Are these sessions about work topics or personal expertise?

11:26 Does Kit have a format for ICs to sign up or volunteer to share with the team? How is knowledge sharing structured at Charli’s and Femke’s jobs?

21:03 Does sharing come from anyone on the team or mainly leaders? How much do leaders set an example, and how did you get that started?

21:47 How do you protect team members’ time and set expectations for knowledge sharing beyond their regular responsibilities? Do you expect everyone to share knowledge at a certain level, and how much of it is built into their responsibilities?

26:32 How often do you do knowledge sharing?

26:52 Do you encourage your team to consume any of your content?

Links:

Femke's community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Femke and Charli discuss the challenges of staying up-to-date with AI tools, the importance of developing horizontal skills rather than just tool-specific knowledge, integrating AI into your workflow, the financial and environmental impacts of AI and strategies for keeping up with rapid advancements in the tech field.

01:11 Episode introduction

01:53 Catch-up

05:16 How the episode came about: Charli shares a story from her workplace about integrating AI into their processes

10:17 Challenges in staying up-to-date with AI and design tools

14:01 Is tool-specific knowledge important? The value of learning horizontal skills versus tool-specific skills

16:00 Building AI workflows and exploring what’s possible with AI

17:51 Financial costs of using AI

23:23 Environmental impact of AI

24:58 Goals for keeping up with the rapid pace of AI development

Links:

Femke's community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Femke and Charli discuss how to balance product quality with commitments, deadlines, and the pressure to ship quickly. They explore the best approaches to building MVPs and new features, and consider whether AI is influencing the expected pace of work in design.

Timestamps:

01:14 Episode start

02:25 Catch up

07:56 The background of the issue at Femke’s work

10:42 Did Charli experience anything similar?

12:56 Has the rebrand and the new systems in place helped your team unlock more velocity, allowing you to work more quickly?

17:19 What does your team think about MVP?

24:45 As a design manager, what’s your role in solving this?

26:07 Any ideas of solutions Femke can share?

32:15 Is AI influencing leadership’s push for speed? Do you think it’s making teams move faster?

Links:

Femke's new community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Thank you to our sponsor, Framer. Ready to build a site that looks hand-coded—without hiring a developer? Start free today at framer.link/femke

Charli and Femke talk about the challenges of discussing performance reviews and share the actual feedback they received. They discuss how performance reviews work at their companies, including how often they occur, the structure, and the tools used. They also share how AI tools are integrated into the process, explain how promotions are linked to reviews, and highlight key points to keep in mind for the next review cycle.

Timestamps:

0:51 Episode start.

01:39 Framer sponsorship.

03:14 What is the structure of the performance review at Femke’s company?

06:39 What tools are used during the performance review? How are performance reviews conducted at Charli’s company?

09:25 How long is your review period?

11:56 How have you incorporated AI into the review process?

14:58 Charli and Femke share the feedback they received during their performance reviews.

18:20 Femke and Charli go into more detail about their feedback.

21:08 How detailed do you prefer your feedback to be?

25:29 Charli and Femke share the feedback they received as managers from direct reports.

29:28 How does your company handle promotions? Are performance reviews and promotions separate processes?

32:20 What key points are you keeping in mind for the next review cycle??

Links:

A huge shoutout to our sponsor for this episode, Framer. Make sure to check them out

Femke's new community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Thank you to our sponsor, Framer. Ready to build a site that looks hand-coded—without hiring a developer? Start free today at framer.link/femke

Femke and Charli discuss various aspects of hackathons, including team organization and timelines, the motivations behind creating dedicated create weeks, whether projects should go live afterward, the competitive dynamics of hackathons, and provide valuable advice for companies interested in hosting their own hackathons.

Timestamps:

0:47 Episode start

01:27 Framer Sponsorship

02:43 Have you been part of hackathons before?

07:38 How can non-technical team members add value during a hackathon?

10:11 Are hackathons competitive?

11:10 Do hackathon projects typically go live? What are the next steps afterward?

12:03 Do teams intentionally save work for hackathons? Is it part of your roadmap process?

15:17 Have you seen projects die after a hackathon?

18:12 What motivated you to start these hackathons?

22:18 What advice would you give to those wanting to organise a hackathon at their company?

Links:

A huge shoutout to our sponsor for this episode, Framer. Make sure to check them out

Femke's new community

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm