From “Us vs. Them” to “We Got This” With Guy Segal

What if the biggest reason your designs aren’t making it to production has nothing to do with design?

You know your work is solid. You’ve put in the hours, iterated on the flow, and covered every edge case. But when it comes time to hand it off or get sign-off, something breaks. It stalls, gets picked apart, or falls flat. Sound familiar?

In this episode, I sit down with Guy Segal, design leader and host of Design Downtime, to talk about why “soft skills” are the most challenging part of UX, and how improving them can be the difference between your designs shipping or collecting dust. We cover how to give better feedback, how to handle misalignment without blowing things up, and what it actually means to be someone your team wants to work with.

This conversation is a must-listen if you’ve ever felt like good design work wasn’t enough. Because it isn’t. The way you show up—how you talk to people, how you build trust, how you respond to tension—is what moves the work forward.

Topics
• 02:31 – The Importance of Relationships in Software
• 02:57 – Interview with Guy Siegel: Building Great Relationships
• 04:09 – Challenges in Team Dynamics
• 05:26 – Empathy and Communication in Teams
• 13:00 – Feedback Framework for Better Team Collaboration
• 28:58 – Aligning Team Goals and Values
• 32:45 – Establishing Team Values and Hiring Practices
• 33:27 – Importance of 1:1s and Setting Expectations
• 35:06 – Empathy and Communication in Design
• 36:08 – Feedback and Continuous Improvement
• 37:09 – Challenges in Designer-Engineer Collaboration
• 38:21 – Managerial Insights and Team Dynamics
• 43:09 – Building Strong Work Relationships

Helpful Links:
• Design Downtime
• Connect with Guy on LinkedIn

Guy Segal
Building and scaling design teams and practices

About Guy

Guy Segal is a design leader with over 25 years of experience in the tech industry, with a specialization in UX, product design, and DesignOps. Leveraging his passion for design leadership and people management, Guy has a proven track record of fostering innovation and collaboration within design teams, establishing and nurturing design practices, and leading teams to success. Guy’s expertise extends to various domains, including product, UX, and service design, as well as a strong web and UI development background. In recent years, Guy has focused extensively on design systems, establishing and growing teams around the practice, and launching systems that optimize efficiency and enhance user experiences.

Connect with Guy on LinkedIn

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