Pixels & Priorities

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.

If you’ve ever wondered why great research still gets ignored, this conversation is for you. Metsy Rose and J Schuh talk with Brian Sullivan, Executive Director of the Big Design Conference, about UX research, stakeholder empathy, product strategy, and how AI is changing the work ahead. Brian shares why “stakeholders make or break every project,” how cognitive, emotional, and compassionate empathy show up in research, and why UX professionals may need to think more like product researchers and product designers. For digital leaders navigating AI-era change, this episode offers a grounded reminder: AI can surface signals, but humans still create meaning. Pull up a chair and join the conversation.

Product and design teams talk a lot about empathy for users, but what about empathy for each other? J and Metsy explore the moments that first taught them empathy mattered more than skill, then connect those lessons to the daily partnership between product and design. They unpack the hidden pressures both roles carry, why playbooks are often “always in progress,” and how curiosity, positive energy, and small systems can build trust. The result: better collaboration, better outcomes, and less burnout.