ArtsDesignTechnology

Design Table Podcast

Nick Groeneveld, Tyler White

Get a seat at the table and build the design career you want. This podcast is for designers looking to break in, level up, and take control of their careers—whether you're freelancing, climbing the corporate ladder, or just trying to get noticed. Every two weeks, we dive into career fundamentals, design best practices, and the hottest topics in the design community.

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#64
Yesterday · 33 min
Your Product Design Setup - How To Go From Idea To Live Prototype In Just a Few Clicks
Imagine you found a bug on your client's website. Back in the day, you'd have to get that issue on the agenda and agreed on before even starting to work on it. Today, Nick's website fix went live twelve seconds after he clicked 'sync', and the whole setup costs about twenty-five dollars a month. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick kick off a ten-episode series on how to become a modern, in-demand product designer. They start with the foundation: setting up an environment that helps you get an idea off the ground and into a working prototype fast. It is a modern product designer's way of doing things now. Tyler explains how connecting analytics tools through MCPs gets you a project baseline the same day, and Nick shares why faster data still means you have to think about whether it's the right data. They also break down how designers can capture and act on ideas, from Nick's Granola and Zapier pipeline that scores every meeting red, orange, or green to Tyler's scheduled Claude recaps that catch what he missed in Slack and Jira. Nick closes out with the exact hosting, GitHub, and Claude setup he uses to push changes live. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why connecting analytics through MCPs cuts your baseline research from weeks to a single day 🔸 Why faster access to data doesn't help if you're filtering it wrong 🔸 What a funnel actually is and how it overlaps with a customer journey 🔸 How to match your design to a buyer's mindset so you don't spook them or oversell 🔸 How Nick vibe coded a baby tracker for his newborn twins, and why every designer needs a setup that turns an idea into a link in minutes 🔸 How to capture ideas automatically with Granola, Zapier, and Slack 🔸 How Tyler uses scheduled Claude runs for a daily catch-up, a weekly recap, and one-click vibe coding prompts for open design tasks 🔸 The exact stack Nick runs: hosting, GitHub, VS Code, and Claude, plus why Claude Pro is enough to start 🔸 Why you still need to learn the rules of design before you can break them Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#63
September 16 · 24 min
The Business Side Of Freelancing - How Nick Prices, Gets Paid, and Builds A Buffer
Nick's first freelance invoice was for six hundred euros, quoted with a straight face, even though he half expected the client to talk him down. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick dedicate the full conversation to the business side of freelancing, the part that never makes it into a portfolio case study. Nick walks through how he landed his first clients without ever doing cold outreach, why he said yes to everything for two years before niching down, and the pricing structures he actually uses: fifty-fifty splits, milestone billing, and prepaid hour packages. They also get into the financial mechanics most new freelancers never think about, like paying yourself a fixed monthly salary regardless of what comes in, setting aside fifty percent for taxes, and building a six-to-eight-month buffer before you can call yourself safe. Nick closes out with the exact tech stack he runs his business on, and why he's kept it deliberately boring. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 How Nick landed his first freelance clients without ever doing cold outreach 🔸 Why he said yes to everything for two years before niching down to SMBs and early-stage startups 🔸 The pricing structures that actually work: fifty-fifty splits, milestones, and prepaid hour packages 🔸 How to quote your first project when you have zero pricing reference point 🔸 Why Nick pays himself a fixed monthly salary and sets aside fifty percent for taxes 🔸 How big your buffer should really be before you can call yourself a safe freelancer 🔸 The exact, deliberately boring tech stack Nick runs his freelance business on Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#62
September 9 · 24 min
Design Quick Fire Round - Job Titles, Email Design, and Why AI Made Us Less Proud Of Our Work
Nick's biggest newsletter open rate was fifty percent when his list was small. Now that it's grown, he's happy with thirty, and neither of them can fully explain why. In this quick-fire episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick answer a stack of rapid questions on product design and careers, each in under five minutes. They cover why email and newsletter design remains such an underrated skill, why designers keep leaving the field entirely to open restaurants and ninja warrior gyms, and how AI has shifted the job from pushing pixels to writing planning documents and doing discovery work. They also debate the statement "AI has made me faster but less proud of what I create," argue over whether job titles actually matter, and swap their favorite misconceptions people have about product design, before Tyler explains why he's stopped justifying his design decisions to stakeholders altogether. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why email design is underrated, and how newsletter design differs for personal brands versus enterprise brands 🔸 What it means when your open rate drops as your list grows, and why click-through rate might matter more 🔸 Why some designers are leaving tech entirely to open restaurants and gyms, and what carries over with them 🔸 How AI has shifted design work from pushing pixels to planning and discovery 🔸 Whether "AI made me faster but less proud of what I create" is a fair trade 🔸 Why job titles matter more for a freelancer's SEO than for an in-house designer's ego 🔸 Why Tyler doesn't explain his design decisions unless he's pushed on it, and why that works Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#61
September 2 · 24 min
Product Design Money Talk - How To Go From $50 To $95 An Hour Doing The Same Work
Nick's first freelance client paid him fifty dollars an hour. He said 'yes' before he knew what the market rate was, and it turned out to be exactly the right way to find out. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick spend the whole episode on money, salaries, hourly rates, and how you should ask for more. Tyler walks through the salary research tool that showed him his entire possible career path and the forty thousand dollar salary he thought he would happily live on forever. Nick breaks down the raise that took him from 2500 EUR/month to 4000 EUR/month, and the freelance pricing strategy that pushed his average hourly rate from 50 USD up past 95 USD just by raising the number with every new client until the rejections started piling up. They also get into the LinkedIn open to work banner and why neither of them will turn it on, the case for and against salary transparency laws, and the three times revenue framework Tyler uses to justify asking for a raise with actual numbers instead of a feeling. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 The salary research tool that mapped out an entire career path before Tyler ever got a job 🔸 Why having a job already makes salary negotiation dramatically easier 🔸 The real reason job hoppers usually out earn people who stay in one role 🔸 Why neither host will turn on the LinkedIn open to work banner 🔸 The three times revenue framework for justifying a raise with numbers, not feelings 🔸 How Nick raised his freelance hourly rate from fifty dollars to ninety five using rejection rate as a signal 🔸 What actually happens once salary transparency becomes required by law Chapters: 0:00 Deciding to make an entire episode about money 1:18 What this episode will cover, salary and hourly rate negotiation 1:40 Tylers early mindset, just wanting to make forty thousand a year doing art 2:48 The salary tool that mapped out an entire career path 4:04 Whether the tool actually matched reality 4:44 The three times revenue framework for what an employee should be worth 5:15 Why it depends factors make salary numbers online unreliable 6:30 Why job hoppers usually out earn people who stay put 7:24 Why having a job already makes negotiating easier 8:00 The LinkedIn open to work banner and why neither host uses it 9:26 Saying you have other interviews lined up, even when you do not 10:21 Nicks raise from a hundred euros a month to eight hundred 11:43 Going from twenty five hundred to four thousand euros a month 12:58 Using Glassdoor to benchmark a salary band before applying 13:26 The new salary transparency law and whether it helps employees 14:46 Why recruiters get more cautious once salaries are public 16:14 A friend who threatened to quit over a pay gap and won 17:16 The three times revenue framework for asking for a raise 18:33 The one caveat before you push for more money 19:06 How Nick started freelancing at fifty dollars an hour 20:27 Raising the rate with every new client until rejections start 21:41 Using rejection rate as the signal that you found your ceiling 22:08 Saying yes to everything at first, then learning to say no 23:59 Final thoughts on treating money like part of the craft Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#60
August 26 · 28 min
I Got Fired Over Christmas And Nobody Told Me - Product Design Horror Stories
In 2015, Nick drove to an interview in his moms car. Three minutes in, the hiring manager told him he would never make it as a designer. 10 Years later, he loses his product design job over Christmas. And that's just the start... In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick share the worst moments of their careers so far. Nick gets torn apart in his first ever interview, prints a batch of flyers that come back the wrong color (because nobody told him about RGB and CMYK), and takes on a small favor for a client that turns into a project so big it costs him two clients. In the meantime, Tyler gets thrown into a print job with zero training, discovers his own company was quietly interviewing outside UX agencies behind his back, and gets let go about a month later. Nick turns down a request to fly to Asia for work, gets let go over the Christmas break, and finds out because nobody bothered to tell him. They weren't bad at their job (is what they're telling each other). Sometimes it is just not the right fit, for either side, and the only way to find that out is to live through it. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why RGB and CMYK color spaces catch almost every designer off guard the first time they print something 🔸 The scope creep mistake that can cost a freelancer a client, or two 🔸 How to notice the warning signs that a company is quietly replacing you 🔸 Why a job can end without anyone telling you directly 🔸 The real lesson buried in every one of these stories, that not being a fit is not the same as not being good Chapters: 0:00 Setting up the horror stories episode 0:39 Nicks first ever interview goes wrong in three minutes 3:01 The shock of an early career rejection 4:01 Tyler gets thrown into a print job with zero training 5:52 Tyler admits he still cant do print design today 6:46 Why the founders had no budget for a second designer 7:00 The flyers that printed orange instead of pink 9:28 The lesson that stuck for over ten years 9:51 Tylers packaging design job with no test prints allowed 11:20 Judging a print run from a blurry iPhone photo 12:06 Why print has no undo button 13:16 A small client favor that turns into a scope creep disaster 15:09 Losing two clients over one miscommunication 16:02 The lesson on asking more questions before agreeing to scope 17:01 Why the client relationship has to go both ways 18:37 Tyler discovers his company is secretly interviewing outside UX agencies 19:35 Finding out through a leaked calendar 21:44 Confronting his manager about it directly 22:55 Being let go about a month later 23:21 Layoffs lining up with review and budget season 24:39 Nicks story, turning down a work trip to Asia 26:26 Coming back from Christmas break to total silence 26:52 Finding out he was let go through a different manager entirely 28:18 The real takeaway, horror stories are what build great designers 29:29 Final takeaway, not being a fit goes both ways Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#59
August 19 · 33 min
The 4 Skills Every Product Designer Needs Right Now (Figma isn't One of Them)
You can master every product design AI tool that exists and still get overruled in the meeting that matters most. That's because tools matter way less than what you read online. There are way more important things to learn if you want to make it as a modern-day product designer. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick lay out the four skills they think actually separate strong product designers from everyone else. It's inspired partly by Josh Puckett's Interface Craft course, and partly by more than a decade of getting these wrong themselves. Conceptual range. Conceptual depth. Tool mastery. And selling your ideas to people who did not ask for them. They dig into why going wide before going narrow is the step most designers skip, how competitive research outside your own niche unlocks better ideas, and why Nick refuses to send client work the same day he finishes it. They also get into knowing when to kill a direction instead of pushing it further, a $300K AI experiment that should have been an $11K hire, and why does this solve the problem beats what do you think every time you present. Then they each rank the four skills, and they land on different answers. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 The four skills Tyler and Nick think will still matter in ten years 🔸 How to go wide before you go narrow, and why most designers skip it 🔸 The competitive research trick for finding inspiration outside your industry 🔸 Why sleeping on your work is a real strategy, not procrastination 🔸 How to know when to reset a direction instead of pushing it further 🔸 The real ROI test for deciding when AI is actually worth the spend 🔸 Why does this solve the problem beats what do you think in every review 🔸 How to avoid getting turned into a design by committee circus act 🔸 Which of the four skills Tyler and Nick each rank as most important, and why they disagree Chapters: 0:00 Naming the four skills every strong product designer needs 1:10 Skill 1, conceptual range, why going wide comes first 2:51 The trap of jumping straight to the obvious solution 4:51 Using competitive research to break out of the happy path 6:10 Going wide across industries, not just design patterns 7:36 The monthly brainstorm exercise that surfaces better ideas 9:35 Why Nick never sends client work the same day he finishes it 11:23 Skill 2, conceptual depth, narrowing 20 ideas into one 14:45 Loom recordings as a feedback safety net 16:25 The mobile use case Nick almost designed his way around 16:57 Knowing when to reset a direction instead of pushing through 18:00 The baby analogy, staying detached until it ships 19:35 Are your deadlines actually real? 22:46 The $300K AI experiment that should have been an $11K hire 26:30 Skill 3, tool mastery, why principles matter more than the tool 29:35 Skill 4, selling your ideas to stakeholders 30:26 The worst question you can ask in a feedback meeting 33:49 Avoiding design by committee 34:11 Which skill Tyler and Nick each rank as most important Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#58
August 12 · 33 min
Is AI replacing designers? Not Really. There's A Bigger Danger
Someone on your team just built a landing page with Claude and skipped you entirely. It used to be a product designer's nightmare, but now... it is called 'Tuesday'. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick get into the question lots of product designers are asking right now. Is AI actually coming for your job? Or is that all social media nonsense? They map out why the risk of losing your job has nothing to do with AI itself. Instead, it comes down to company size and UX maturity, and where you land on that grid decides whether you're a strategic partner or the first person cut when a non-designer thinks they can just 'do the UX in Claude.' They break down why junior designers need political skills that senior designers take for granted, why showing messy work early gets you better feedback than a polished reveal, and why an unmonitored session recording can prove design's value faster than a giant slide deck. Then they answer a listener's question from a medtech intern who was told to use AI to improve his workflow. They unpack what that feedback is really saying, and what it isn't. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why should I even go into design is the wrong question to be asking right now 🔸 The two part test for reading how seriously your company actually takes design 🔸 How junior and senior designers should handle pushback differently 🔸 Why showing your messy, unfinished work gets better feedback than the polished version 🔸 How session recordings can prove design's value faster than any deck 🔸 What use more AI to improve your workflow really means when a manager says it 🔸 Why design is still the moat, and why the craft can't be outsourced Chapters: 0:00 Is design still a safe career? Setting up the real question 2:16 The two lines that determine how seriously your company takes design 3:49 Junior vs senior designers, handling pushback and politics 6:45 Why showing messy work early gets you better feedback 9:20 The dangerous game of skipping design due diligence 14:18 Why world changing features usually belong in a dropdown 16:21 Why companies that ignore designer judgment are setting themselves up to fail 18:37 Session recordings, the fastest way to prove design work matters 19:57 A bank's accessibility wake up call, caught on video 23:12 Listener question, use more AI, a medtech intern's performance review 26:06 Why shadowing a senior designer beats guessing on your own 29:40 Doing manual design work on purpose to build real craft 34:17 Closing thoughts, design is still the moat Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#57
August 5 · 31 min
10 Things Companies Hiring Product Designers Want From You Right Now
Zero to one product design work. That's the main skill companies are hiring designers for right now. You'd expect Figma knowledge or being 'native' with the latest AI tools to be the main thing, but that's not the case. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick react point-by-point to a breakdown of what companies currently want from product designers according to Tom Scott, recruiter and owner at Verified. The list includes communication skills for designers, ownership, design systems, AI-native skills, and why both the take-home task and the old-school work trial are creeping back into the product design hiring process. They also discuss why the "builder" mindset is better than pure execution as teams get leaner, why design systems are becoming a full-time discipline of their own, and why an app store flooded with AI-generated products is making branding and UI craft more and more important. Finally, Tyler and Nick cover the AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers, why fractional and freelance design work is booming, and close on the reminder that your career is a vehicle for your life, not the whole thing. Tom Scott on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomscottt/ Tom Scott's newsletter - https://verifiedinsider.substack.com/p/design-hiring-observations In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why communication matters more than craft when presenting your work 🔸 The "builder" mindset companies are hiring for over pure execution 🔸 Why design systems are becoming a full-time discipline again 🔸 How the flood of AI-generated apps is making branding the real differentiator 🔸 Why take-home tasks and work trials are both making a comeback 🔸 The AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers 🔸 Why fractional and freelance design work is booming 🔸 The closing reminder: your career is a vehicle, not your identity Chapters: 0:00 - What companies are actually looking for right now 2:24 - The "builder" mindset beating pure execution 4:54 - Design systems becoming a full-time discipline 9:17 - How vibe coding is reshaping the design process 12:43 - What junior portfolios need now vs. shipped work 15:47 - Why branding is the differentiator in an AI-flooded app store 20:54 - Interview processes changing: tasks and work trials return 24:11 - The AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers 26:12 - The rise of fractional and freelance design work 30:52 - Closing reminder: your career is a vehicle, not your identity Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#56
July 29 · 33 min
Live Portfolio Review - Your Hero Section Is Costing You The Interview
Two seconds. That's how long you have before a hiring manager bounces off your portfolio. Most product design hero sections that time. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick roast real, anonymized hero sections pulled straight from product design portfolios. Examples include the generic portfolio, one that looks like a resume-dump, and the rare ones that work. They break down why "I deliver thoughtful designs, seamless solutions, and creative experiences built for impact" tells a recruiter nothing, why your name doesn't need to be the headline, and how to turn a degree, a hobby, or even a personal reason into the differentiator that makes someone stop scrolling. They also get into productized service messaging, why "curious about X" reads weaker than "expert in X," and the two-line hero Tyler thinks is more than perfect. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why generic hero copy makes you disappear into the pile 🔸 The "dream job" exercise that instantly sharpens a vague hero section 🔸 How to turn your background, education, or a personal story into a real differentiator 🔸 Why "curious about X" is weaker than "I'm an expert in X" 🔸 How to signal scarcity without lying about your availability 🔸 The two-line hero Tyler said needed zero notes 🔸 Why a specific niche beats a generic "design partner" tagline Chapters: 0:00 - Roasting a generic hero section opener 2:00 - Why "thoughtful, seamless, creative" says nothing 3:39 - The dream-job exercise for sharpening your positioning 5:45 - Nick's pivot into music tech through a personal hook 9:31 - Communicating scarcity without overselling 12:20 - Why unlimited-design subscriptions can feel like a factory 14:11 - The hero section that read like an entire resume 15:18 - Turning a Master's in AI into a differentiator 21:54 - "Curious about X" vs. "I'm an expert in X" 25:19 - Cutting AI-sounding buzzwords like "facilitating transparent communication" 27:42 - The two-line hero that nailed it 29:43 - Roasting a personal brand hero section 33:36 - "Design partner for non-technical SMEs" — niching done right 35:52 - Why the hero section is still your most important real estate Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#55
July 22 · 36 min
The take-home design challenge is broken. Here's how to survive it anyway.
Four hours of unpaid work. Seven rounds of interviews. And then a generic rejection email that reads like it was written by a robot. If you're hunting product design jobs right now, none of the above is news to you. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick have their opinions on the modern design hiring process; take-home challenges, endless interview rounds, and the red and green flags you should keep in mind to figure out if a company is worth your time. They get into why take-home tests rarely test what companies think they're testing, why a whiteboarding challenge is the better alternative, and why paying candidates for their time is the bare minimum. Nick shares his own experience walking away from an unpaid "trial day." Tyler mentions the exact questions he asks recruiters to flush out red flags before he wastes his time on a dead-end process. They also get tactical. How to actually win a take-home challenge if you have to do one. Why a Loom walkthrough can be the difference-maker over a stack of Figma files. And what interviewers are testing when they ask you to present your work. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why take-home design challenges rarely test the right thing 🔸 The one alternative Tyler would actually agree to 🔸 Red flags that should be an instant no 🔸 Green flags that mean a company is worth your time 🔸 How to actually win a take-home challenge, step by step 🔸 Why a Loom walkthrough can outperform your entire portfolio 🔸 What interviewers are really testing when they watch you present Chapters: 0:00 - Is the take-home design challenge broken? 1:29 - Horror stories: stolen work and wasted hours 2:01 - Why Tyler refuses to do take-home tests 5:37 - The better alternative: a whiteboarding challenge 7:39 - Interview rounds are spiraling out of control 9:52 - Just pay people for their time 12:23 - Take-home test vs. portfolio review: what's actually different? 18:06 - The rejection email that annoys us most 21:56 - Red and green flags every candidate should watch for 25:18 - Green flag: pay transparency and salary bands 28:13 - Red flag: AI-generated, outdated job descriptions 31:14 - How to actually win a take-home challenge 33:32 - The Loom walkthrough that ranks S-tier 34:21 - What interviewers are really testing for 35:34 - The "if we could dream" trick that makes you stand out 37:05 - A disclaimer: we can afford to say no. You might not be able to. 39:02 - It's a two-way street. Look for green flags too. Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#54
July 15 · 27 min
Do you have to use AI to get a design job? (our listener asks)
One of our listeners wrote us while being stuck between two things: loving the product design craft and needing a job badly. He likes doing the actual product design work by hand, because that's how he learns and how he gets better. That's how he finds solutions. Yet, every job posting wants you to be "AI native" with a ton of "AI experience." So what do you do? Fake it? Give in? Hold the line and risk staying unemployed? Or something in between? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick answer a real question from a listener: a recent grad, currently out of work, torn between using AI because "everyone else is" and sticking to the hands-on process he actually loves. They dig into where AI helps, where it doesn't, and why using it doesn't have to mean losing your craft. They talk through the difference between using AI in a way that touches your pixels and AI that just clears the annoying stuff out of the way. You know, things like meeting notes, research, and transcripts. Tyler shares how he feeds meeting transcripts straight into Claude to turn messy feedback into a task list. Nick shares how a Figma plugin took a redraw job from hours to minutes, while every design decision stayed within his control. The conversation gets personal, too. Both tell stories on early day jobs they had to do just to get started and why the early, unglamorous grind is not something to skip. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Where AI actually helps your job search, and where it doesn't 🔸 How to use AI without losing your craft or your taste 🔸 Why chasing every LinkedIn hot take wastes your time 🔸 How to turn meeting transcripts into a real task list with AI 🔸 Why the "grind" phase of your career isn't optional 🔸 How to find your own path instead of copying someone else's Chapters: 0:00 - A listener's dilemma: love the craft, need a job 1:07 - AI is a tool, not a threat to your craft 3:31 - LinkedIn isn't the job — stop treating it like gospel 6:44 - Why a minimum level of AI use is non-negotiable now 8:02 - Use AI for the boring stuff, not the pixels 8:48 - How a Figma plugin turned hours into seconds 14:05 - Feeding meeting transcripts into Claude for real output 15:44 - Are you actually having fun as a designer? 18:24 - Stop copying someone else's playbook 20:04 - Learn to eat shit for a while (Pepsi factory & mail route stories) 25:14 - The Darwin trick: fit in first, be yourself later 28:37 - Bottom line: use it. It's fine. Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#53
July 8 · 37 min
Is Everything You Design Already Copied?
Every product. designer has had this thought at some point: "Someone's already built this. Am I even doing anything original?" It creeps in during a login screen, an onboarding flow, a pricing page, and it makes you second guess whether you're actually adding value or just repeating and copying something else. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick tackle a listener question: is it a problem if your designs look like things that already exist? They dig into why copying isn't the same as stealing, why juniors should absolutely study and replicate great work before they try to reinvent it, and why chasing "never been done before" is a fantasy that doesn't hold up in practice. From there the conversation gets very practical. Nick is deep in pricing page work for multiple clients right now, and the two of them break down the psychology behind free trials, forced plan selection, upsells, and smart business strategy becomes a dark pattern. They also get into why product design best practices exist for a reason, why users don't like unfamiliar patterns even when they're technically better, and how uniqueness in product design shows up underneath the surface, in the business logic, the user base, and the tiny decisions you can't see on a screenshot. The episode also covers Dribbble and pattern recognition, why copying UI without understanding UX gets you in trouble with engineers fast, and how prototyping is changing the feedback loop between designers and developers, including a story about a "faster horse" redesign that only became a real breakthrough once a developer challenged the whole premise. Tyler closes it out with a surprising story about connecting Claude, GitHub, and a Mixpanel AI agent to diagnose a UX problem in an afternoon instead of a multi sprint investigation, and how it completely changed the scope of what needed to be fixed. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why copying is a normal and healthy part of learning design 🔸 Why "nothing new" isn't actually a problem worth panicking over 🔸 The psychology behind pricing pages, free trials, and forced choice 🔸 Where the line sits between a smart upsell and a dark pattern 🔸 Why best practices exist and when it's actually safe to break them 🔸 How to use Dribbble for inspiration without copying blind 🔸 Why prototyping is closing the gap between designers and developers 🔸 How connecting AI tools to real product data can shrink weeks of work into hours 🔸 Why the real uniqueness in design lives beneath the surface Chapters: 0:00 - Is it bad if your design looks like something else? 1:06 - Building a better mousetrap 2:47 - Does this apply to designers at every level? 4:02 - Why juniors should copy to learn 5:48 - Real example: designing pricing pages right now 8:00 - One button vs. forcing a plan choice 9:59 - Using forced choice to measure intent 11:34 - Giving full access during a free trial as an upsell 14:02 - Dark pattern or just smart business? 15:30 - Full circle: why pricing pages all look the same 16:55 - The iceberg model of design 17:50 - Why "200 high-converting templates" packs don't actually work 20:47 - A quick word from the Design Table community 21:39 - Explaining what you do for a living to non-designers 24:06 - Using Dribbble for pattern recognition, not one-to-one copying 25:33 - Prototyping and the designer-developer feedback loop 26:50 - The faster horse problem and the developer's breakthrough idea 28:53 - Killing main character syndrome in collaboration 31:16 - AI win of the week: Claude, GitHub, and Mixpanel solving a UX mystery 36:04 - Wrap up Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#52
July 1 · 30 min
You Are Not Behind: A Mental Health Check for Product Designers in 2026
Every new product design AI tool feels like a deadline. You have to use it or you're left behind. That's what you read on social media at least. In this episode, Tyler and Nick have perhaps their most important talk of the Design Table Podcast so far: the anxiety of constant updates, managers demanding you become a '10x product designer', and how the product design community's mental health under a lot of pressure. They discuss what's causing burnout for product designers on the job hunt, comparison culture, the disappearing joy of problem-solving, and why "you're not behind" might be the most important sentence a designer hears all year. What we cover in this episode: 🔸 Why chasing every AI update is partly self-inflicted (and social media's role in it) 🔸 How to reset your baseline instead of just shipping faster 🔸 Why constant context-switching between AI tasks is spiking anxiety 🔸 What gets lost when problem-solving disappears from the job 🔸 Why "just prompt it" misunderstands what AI can actually replace 🔸 How to say 'no' to unrealistic AI mandates without losing your job 🔸 The catch-22 of job hunting as an "AI-first" designer 🔸 Why 'build it and they will come' fails regardless of how you use AI 🔸 A real message of hope if you're burned out or stuck right now You don't have to master every tool the moment it drops. You have to solve the right problem, ship something people actually use, and give yourself permission to take a break. That's the product design job. Always has been. SUBSCRIBE TO THE DESIGN TABLE https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe LEVEL UP YOUR DESIGN CAREER Get your portfolio and career reviewed: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Join our UX and product design community: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community Download the Product Design Blueprint: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint All resources in one place: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn MORE ABOUT TYLER AND NICK Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#51
June 24 · 36 min
"Go Fix It Yourself" (The Best Thing A Senior Developer Told Me)
Product design is becoming more collaborative, more technical, and a lot harder to control. In this episode, Tyler and Nick talk about what happens when your design work stops being “yours” and starts becoming a shared thing across designers, developers, PMs, stakeholders, AI tools, and codebases. We get into the emotional side of design work too. Why product designers get protective, why feedback can feel personal, and why letting go might be one of the most important skills designers need to build. What we cover in this episode: 🔸 Why designers get emotionally attached to their work 🔸 How to collaborate without losing control of the design quality 🔸 Why developer and PM ideas should not automatically feel threatening 🔸 The value of visual QA and why polish is not just “nice to have” 🔸 How design documentation helps protect decisions when teams move fast 🔸 Why designers need to think in skills, not just roles 🔸 What merge conflicts taught Nick about becoming more technical 🔸 How AI helps, but still cannot replace communication and decision-making 🔸 Why over-communicating might be the most underrated design skill right now The big theme: collaboration is not about everyone doing your job. It is about knowing when to let people contribute, when to bring the designer back in, and how to protect quality without protecting your ego. SUBSCRIBE TO THE DESIGN TABLE https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe LEVEL UP YOUR DESIGN CAREER Get your portfolio and career reviewed: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Join our UX and product design community: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community Download the Product Design Blueprint: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint All resources in one place: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn MORE ABOUT TYLER AND NICK Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#50
June 17 · 56 min
Everyone's Switching Design Tools - I'm Not. Here's Why
Product design workflows are changing fast and nobody has a clean answer for what to do about it. In our first ever live episode, Tyler (in-house at a fintech SaaS company) and Nick (freelance product designer working with clients across the world) get honest about what modern design actually looks like right now. Neither of us have touched a wireframe in months. We talked about why. And then we get a comment from a live viewer that made us thinking again about our choices. What we cover in this episode: 🔸 Why wireframing is disappearing and what is replacing it 🔸 The real difference between in-house AI pressure and the freelance reality 🔸 Tool fatigue: when does adding new tools actually make you slower? 🔸 Nick's minimalist stack (Figma + Claude, nothing else) vs Tyler's workflow (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, GitHub) 🔸 How design thinking holds up when clients have no patience for the process 🔸 AI changing the speed of design without changing the hard part 🔸 Whether it is still actually fun to be a designer right now This was our first live episode. Thirty comments, four reposts, and a lot of real questions answered in real time. SUBSCRIBE TO THE DESIGN TABLE https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe LEVEL UP YOUR DESIGN CAREER Get your portfolio and career reviewed: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Join our UX and product design community (use code LIVE20 for 20% off forever): https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community Download the Product Design Blueprint: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint All resources in one place: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn MORE ABOUT TYLER AND NICK Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#49
June 10 · 36 min
I Spent a Month Trying to Quit Figma. It Failed.
Everywhere we look, product designers are sick and tired of AI this, AI that. It feels like every day, there is a new tool, a new workflow, a new “Figma is dead” post, a new vibe coding demo, and another person telling designers they are either 'cooked', obsolete, or about to become '10x'. Reality is completely different. So try and relax! In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick talk about whether AI is making product design more fun, less fun, or just more overwhelming. They get into the current AI chaos around product design, vibe coding, designers touching code, Figma, Claude, Cursor, transcript-driven workflows, AI bloat, and the blurry line between prototypes, production, and things that only look real but secretly are not. Nick shares his first real experiments with vibe coding, including using Claude to make an interactive prototype he could not easily show in Figma. Tyler shares why he has been trying to skip Figma, why that keeps falling apart, and why polished product design still needs taste, craft, spacing, typography, and all the tiny pixel-level decisions AI does not magically understand yet. They also discuss the return of the builder-designer, why more designers may need to understand code again, and how AI is changing expectations around prototyping, collaboration, and product development. The conversation explores the emotional side of AI too. The fear that craft is disappearing. The weirdness of everyone creating prototypes. The source-of-truth problem. The mental load of keeping up. And why the most useful AI workflows might not be flashy demos, but boring things like transcripts, summaries, prompts, and turning messy meeting feedback into actual next steps. This episode is about staying useful in a design world that keeps changing, without losing your taste, your craft, or your mind because someone on LinkedIn discovered a new tool before breakfast. In this episode you’ll learn: 🔸 Why designers should stop chasing every new AI tool 🔸 How to decide whether AI actually helps your workflow 🔸 Why vibe coding can be useful for exploring ideas 🔸 Where AI-generated prototypes create confusion 🔸 Why designers touching code still need to understand developer thinking 🔸 Why Figma is not dead just because someone made a shiny demo 🔸 How transcripts can improve prompts, workflows, and follow-up work 🔸 Why AI bloat can make communication feel less human 🔸 Why product design still needs taste, polish, and craft Chapters: 0:00 - Trying to escape Figma with AI for a month 0:57 - Don't fall for the hype — filter by your own workflow 3:58 - Roles are flattening and the field moves 3x faster 6:12 - Going back to the generalist skillset 7:41 - The hidden gap: designers need a developer's mindset 9:35 - When everyone prototypes, what's a designer worth? 11:17 - Is design still fun in the AI wave? 16:53 - "I vibe coded a thing today" 21:33 - Five terrible AI ideas that led to the right one 23:27 - Transcripts as context: the real AI unlock 30:43 - AI-written messages kill human connection 34:07 - Quick-fire: will AI take your role? 35:25 - Stay positive, think for yourself Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white\ Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#48
June 3 · 32 min
Product Design Perfectionism: Why 97 Out of a 100 Is Not Good Enough
Two episodes of telling their career stories, and Nick and Tyler kept noticing the same thing: the lessons that actually mattered came from the rejections, the steps backward, and the ego traps nobody warns you about. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Nick and Tyler sit down for a third session to digest their two previous story episodes and pull out what they actually learned. No new hero's journey. Just two designers comparing notes on the messy, non-linear reality of building a career that lasts. They get into luck and whether you can create your own, why eight months of rejection letters might mean it's time to step back instead of sending out 500 more applications, and how Tyler stumbled into web design through a newspaper ad for a trade program he wasn't even looking for. Nick talks through coaching two people at very different stages, and the hard call of telling someone their skills aren't ready yet instead of just fixing their CV. Tyler shares the ADPList portfolio-review strategy, treating mentor feedback like research data, and why comparing yourself to a 20k-follower influencer is the fastest way to feel like you're never good enough. They also dig into the "I'll show them" drive that pushed both of them forward after getting let go, why it's a double-edged sword, and how it shows up as the 97-out-of-100 perfectionism trap (the Loom recorded 25 times, the Lighthouse score that ruined an afternoon). And they close on the mental tax of staying current in an industry that reinvents itself every five minutes, especially now with AI. This episode is about surviving the messy middle of a design career, knowing when to step back to leap forward, and remembering that your only real competition is your past self. In this episode you'll learn: 🔸 Why luck in a design career is mostly preparation meeting opportunity 🔸 When to stop applying and go back to sharpen your craft instead 🔸 How to use free mentor sessions as portfolio research 🔸 Why comparing yourself to influencers quietly wrecks your confidence 🔸 How the "I'll show them" mindset can fuel you and burn you 🔸 The perfectionism trap of chasing 100 when 97 is already done 🔸 Why hating your old work is actually a sign you're improving 🔸 The mental tax of staying current as AI reshapes design ⏱ Chapters 00:00 What's the difference between 97 and 100? 00:43 Why a third recap session 01:32 Is a design career all about luck? 02:09 Creating your own luck after 8 months of rejection 03:12 The hero's journey and the bright-eyed junior myth 03:50 Taking a step back to leap forward 04:38 Handing out demo reels and getting rejected by mail 05:14 When 300 applications get you nowhere 06:10 How Tyler chose what to go back and study 06:44 The trade school stigma and the newspaper ad 08:13 Are they ready, or just presenting it wrong? 08:57 The danger of improving your portfolio forever 09:47 Replicating designers you admire to find your style 10:20 Progress you can't see in the moment 11:26 The day-to-day of a demotivated job hunt 11:36 Using free mentors as portfolio research 12:45 Coaching two people at very different stages 13:59 The hard call: skills first, applications later 14:54 "I'm not good at math" vs "not good yet" 15:28 Compare yourself to your past self, not influencers 17:03 Reopening an old file and cleaning up your own mess 18:15 Hating your old work means you're getting better 18:43 Resilience after being let go early on 19:21 Shame, rent, and the reasons you keep going 20:53 The volatility and thrill of startup design 21:23 Being told you can't build your own thing 22:30 The itch to build your own thing 23:12 The "I'll show them" superpower and its double edge 24:55 The 97-out-of-100 Lighthouse trap 26:53 Recording the same Loom 25 times 28:47 The performance tax of staying up to date 29:49 Why design feels harder than ever with AI 30:18 Everyone's journey is different 30:44 Get all the help you can: reviews, community, mentors Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white\ Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#47
May 27 · 1 hr 3 min
I Got Let Go Twice. Here’s How I Still Built a 16-Year Design Career
Most product designers want to have the clean career story. First, you go to school. You build a portfolio and get hired. Then you get promoted and become a senior product designer. Post something painfully inspirational on LinkedIn about “the journey” and you're there. Cute, but Tyler’s path was not that. It started with trying to get into animation. He soon realised the job market did not care about his art school confidence, so he had to go back to learn graphic design, web design, and coding landing pages. After, he started mailing resumes like it was the stone age and slowly figuring out how to turn all those skills into an actual product design career. So… how do you build a long-term design career when the industry keeps changing every five minutes? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Nick interviews Tyler about his 16-year journey in design, from animation school and trade programs to web design, e-commerce, agency work, AI products, design leadership, layoffs, and eventually becoming a principal product designer. Tyler shares what he learned from being a designer who could code before that was cool, asking for raises, leaving jobs when growth stalled, getting let go twice in one year, spotting red flags in companies, and finding a role where mentorship, product strategy, and modern design work finally came together. We also get into AI, vibe coding, designers opening pull requests, why the builder-designer might be making a comeback, and why the core thinking behind product design still matters even when the tools change. This episode is about surviving the messy middle of a design career, staying useful as the industry shifts, and not letting one bad job, one layoff, or one weird CEO turn your career into a smoking pile of career anxiety. In this episode you’ll learn: 🔸 How Tyler accidentally moved from animation into web design 🔸 Why early career confidence can disappear fast in the real job market 🔸 How coding helped Tyler stand out as a designer 🔸 Why staying current matters more than clinging to one process 🔸 How to ask for raises when you can actually back it up 🔸 What layoffs taught Tyler about career risk 🔸 How to spot red flags before joining a company 🔸 Why AI and code are changing the product design role again ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Why the design industry feels unstable right now 02:00 Tyler’s accidental start in design 04:30 When art school confidence meets the job market 06:20 Learning graphic design, web design, and code 08:00 Why old skills still show up later in your career 10:11 Going into monk mode to get better 12:13 Landing the first internship 14:06 Applying for the first real design job 16:15 Negotiating salary before knowing what you’re worth 19:16 Struggling in the first job 21:14 Becoming the only designer 23:44 Designers who code and the builder-designer comeback 25:39 Leaving a job to keep growing 29:38 Taking a pay cut to learn something new 32:18 Spotting company red flags 34:38 Moving from web designer to UI/UX designer 36:23 Agency work, AI, and design leadership 40:30 Asking for a $15,000 raise 43:03 Fighting for user research 44:21 Becoming a solo product designer 47:00 Building trust with engineering 48:30 Getting let go after four years 51:54 Updating the portfolio after a layoff 54:04 Joining a sinking ship 58:21 Getting let go twice in one year 59:19 Finding green flags in the next role 01:01:05 Why designers may need to touch code again 01:03:59 What designers should do to stay relevant 01:06:23 Why your only real competition is your past self Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#46
May 20 · 45 min
How Nick Became a Freelance Product Designer Making Six Figures
Lots of product designers dream about going freelance. No boss. No performance reviews. And you decide where and when you work. And then reality shows up. No guaranteed paycheck. No HR department. No sales team. No legal department. No one magically handing you clients because you updated your LinkedIn headline to “freelance product designer.” So… how do you actually become a fully booked freelance product designer making six figures without setting your career on fire? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler interviews Nick about his full journey into product design. From discovering UX by accident during an internship, to losing early jobs, to slowly building enough confidence, visibility, and client demand to go freelance full time. Nick shares that he is now a full-time freelance product designer in the Netherlands and has been fully booked with design projects for as long as he can remember. We talk about design education, internships, getting your first job, startup chaos, consultancy life, salary negotiation, writing online, building a network, and the uncomfortable moment when you realize your employer is charging a lot more for your work than you are actually taking home. Nick also shares why freelancing is not just “doing design without a boss.” It is sales, visibility, taxes, client relationships, risk management, delivery, and learning how to stay useful in rooms where your future clients already hang out. This episode is about the messy, non-linear path into product design and what it actually takes to build a freelance design career with more control, more ownership, and slightly fewer surprise layoffs. In this episode you’ll learn: 🔸 How Nick accidentally discovered UX through an internship 🔸 Why real design work moves faster than school projects 🔸 What losing early jobs taught him about control 🔸 Why freelancing started as a small side income 🔸 How writing online helped Nick build visibility 🔸 Why joining non-design communities can help you find clients 🔸 What designers should know before going freelance 🔸 Why luck matters more than most career advice admits ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Nick’s 11-year journey in product design 01:44 Discovering UX by accident 03:13 Landing the first design internship 06:30 Learning more in two weeks than two years of school 08:18 The shock of real-world project timelines 10:43 Design thinking versus real-world design work 12:00 Getting the first in-house design job 16:46 Losing a job and realizing how little control you have 20:02 Joining a startup as the first designer 23:44 Losing confidence after two jobs ended 24:19 Writing online and helping other designers 27:49 Moving into consultancy 32:00 Discovering the business side of design 34:46 Making the jump toward freelance 38:19 Building visibility and finding clients 41:40 The smartest way to get freelance work 46:08 The role of luck in a design career 49:05 Why freelancing worked out for Nick Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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#45
May 13 · 31 min
Why The Best Product Designers SAY LESS In Interviews
Most product designers spend weeks (or even months) polishing their portfolio website. And then they get into the actual interview, open their mouth, and suddenly their clean case study turns into a 14-minute hostage situation. Awkward questions and most likely no follow-up after the interview. Back to square one. So… how do you actually present your design work without rambling, panicking, or over-explaining every single pixel? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, we talk about the portfolio presentation stage of the product design interview process. The part where you’re no longer just showing your work, but proving how you think, communicate, handle questions, and tell a clear story. Nick shares what he teaches product designers he mentors, including why you should say less at the beginning, how to let hiring teams choose the project they care about, and why you should keep a few cards close to your chest instead of explaining every single detail upfront. We also get into slide decks, Loom videos, roleplay interviews, talking about failed launches, what to do when you don’t know the answer, and why portfolio presentations are really a two-way filter. This episode is about helping product designers present their work with more clarity, confidence, and control, without turning the interview into a sweaty design TED Talk nobody asked for. In this episode you’ll learn: 🔸 Why designers talk too much during portfolio presentations 🔸 How to structure your portfolio review like a story 🔸 Why you should let hiring teams choose which project to see 🔸 How to talk about results without killing the curiosity 🔸 What to do when you don’t know the answer to a question 🔸 Why failed projects can make your portfolio stronger 🔸 How to use slide decks and Loom videos to stand out 🔸 Why interviews are a two-way filter, not just a performance ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Why portfolio presentations feel so awkward 01:00 The biggest mistake designers make when presenting 03:00 How to turn interviews into conversations 05:00 Why roleplay interviews help designers improve 07:00 What to do before the portfolio interview 08:45 Let the hiring team choose the project 10:45 Why you should not explain everything upfront 12:00 Where to place results in your case study 14:30 Don’t repeat what is already on your portfolio 17:30 What to do when you don’t know the answer 20:30 Handling weird interview questions 23:00 Why you should talk about what went wrong 25:45 Portfolio presentations are storytelling 28:15 How to use slide decks as visual aids 30:00 Sending Loom videos before interviews 32:30 Interviews are a two-way filter Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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