Pixels & Priorities

Metsy and J share real “workmares” from their careers and explore what happens when workplace stress follows you home. From psychological safety and leadership behavior to failure, innovation, and AI, they examine how the culture employees actually experience can matter far more than the values a company claims to have.

Anita Barraco, UX Manager at Goosehead Insurance, joins Metsy and J to explore what product and UX teams actually need from their leaders. We discuss impactful mindset shifts to help your people do their best work.

UX manager Anita Barraco joins us to explore the realities of remote work, return-to-office expectations, and hybrid teams. For product and UX professionals navigating distributed teams and meeting-heavy calendars, this is a thoughtful conversation about designing work around how people actually function.

Dana “DeltaDana” Akins-Adeyemi joins us to explore burnout prevention and recovery. We also examine how bias, exclusion, and toxic environments intensify burnout for marginalized professionals, making supportive communities, allies, and workplaces where people genuinely belong even more important.

What happens when you survive a layoff but inherit the work, fear, and emotional fallout left behind? Dana “DeltaDana” Akins-Adeyemi joins us to explore burnout during organizational change, including survivor syndrome, AI-driven job anxiety, the hidden cognitive load carried by marginalized and neurodivergent professionals, and the strain of supporting coworkers while protecting your own health. This candid conversation connects automation and restructuring to the pressures product, design, and technology teams are feeling now.

What happens when every project is priority one, timelines change overnight, and AI is supposed to make everything faster? Metsy Rose and J Schuh unpack the pressures many product managers, UX designers, and creative professionals experience while trying to create thoughtful work inside constantly shifting environments.

Shane Ward, Manager of Product Design at Storable, joins us to explore AI-era hiring, life after a layoff, authentic networking, and why trusted communities can advocate for product and design professionals in ways AI cannot.

Metsy and J sit down with Shane Ward, Manager of Product Design at Storable, to explore the rise of AI builder roles. Who owns quality? How do teams make decisions when everyone can generate more ideas? And what happens if AI becomes a shortcut around experience instead of a support for it? Pull up a chair and join the conversation.

We explore how AI is blurring product and design roles, why trust matters more than ever, and how curiosity, communication, and feedback help teams move faster without losing perspective.

If the thought of networking makes you want to hide behind your laptop, this conversation is for you. Metsy Rose and J Schuh continue their conversation with Brian Sullivan, Executive Director of Big Design, about community building, professional connection, and why product, design, research, and strategy professionals need to get out of their bubbles. Brian shares practical advice for introverts, explains why community should be built before a crisis, and explores how authentic networking creates stronger careers, better problem-solving, and more resilient teams. For anyone navigating modern digital work, this episode is a warm reminder that your network is not just about opportunity. It is about connection. Pull up a chair and join the conversation.