Send us Fan Mail

Pretty screens are easy. Designing for reality is harder. We sit down with Karen to talk about what changes when you stop treating design as decoration and start treating it as the connective tissue of an organisation, especially in financial services where internal processes, regulation, and risk are part of the product whether you like it or not. You’ll hear why partnering with legal, risk, and compliance early can save months of churn, build trust, and create better outcomes for customers and staff.

We also go personal, tracing the roots of great design back to books, libraries, and the craft of writing. Nostalgia turns into something practical: storytelling is how we translate deep user research into decisions that stakeholders can actually act on. Karen shares how art education opened doors, how identity and belonging shaped her path, and why creative work still gets pushed aside when budgets tighten, even though experience design is what people feel every day.

Then we get into the messy present: AI in UX design, the race to shiny tools, and the dangerous comfort of fast answers. We challenge the idea of AI “hallucinations” as a quirky bug and look instead at what they often reveal: poor data quality, duplicated systems, bias, and a lack of critical thinking. If you care about service design, data governance, technical debt, and sustainable product strategy, there are hard truths here, plus practical ways to stay grounded.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe for more, share it with a designer or product leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of modern work do you want us to unpack next?

Support the show

DHABA

Brewed slowly. served warmly. crafted with care