Design Driven Innovation: The Power of Design Thinking Podcasts

The world of business is changing, and so are the needs of customers across the globe. As more and more clients demand products and services that are not only functional but also beautiful, businesses are finding themselves in need of a new skill set to meet those demands and stay relevant in the marketplace. That’s where design thinking comes in – it’s an approach to problem-solving that encourages designers to put themselves in the shoes of the end user, rather than looking at things from their own perspective alone, enabling them to produce innovative solutions to some of the most complex problems we are facing face today.

What many people don’t realize, however, is that design thinking has its roots in the user experience design industry, and it’s important to bring that aspect of it into focus if you want to truly make your business successful.

Learning about design thinking can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t know where to begin. There are so many amazing podcasts on the subject, and with each one boasting its own set of unique perspectives, it can be difficult to determine which ones are worth your time. Experts from our product design studio have done all the research for you, with this list of our 30 favorite design thinking podcasts that will help you explore all the possibilities inherent in design-driven innovation.

So, if you’re looking to hear design practitioners' stories and find solutions to the most common problems, such as the lack of inspiration, failure to come up with alternative options for attracting new clients, procrastination, and poor storytelling skills, read on.

Technology has shaped many aspects of our lives, from creating personalized virtual realities to wristwatches and health tech apps. Its role in society has been shaping up quickly, and it has left us with thought-provoking questions dwelling at the heart of design technology.

On TED tech, you'll hear about everything from technology's impact on web design, to human-centered design and the development of successful startups. You'll also hear from leading user research consultancy firms and industrial designers. If you're looking for an informative and inspirational podcast about creativity in the world of product development or business strategy, then it would be worth checking out this podcast - though not everyone will find it entertaining because of its high level of detail.

The Inside Outside Innovation podcast features guests who share insights on industrial design, creative approaches, and innovation skills. Through discussions with designers, entrepreneurs, and educators, the podcast explores how human-centered design can be used to proper meaningful change. On the show, guests share insights on everything from practical advice, and creative thinking, to human-centered and web design.

In the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, industrial designers and leading user research consultants insights from amazing companies including Nike, Cisco, ExxonMobil, Gatorade, Orlando Magic, GE, Samsung, and others. They discuss how they apply human-centered design to create value and deliver innovative solutions. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in developing their innovation skills.

The host Brian Ardinger has gathered insights from big names including Cisco, Nike, ExxonMobil, GE, Samsung, and many others. Guests share their company’s journey of designing value and delivering innovative solutions. From developing alternative design options to manufacturing at scale or from protecting big data to addressing the needs of future generations – this podcast is aimed at creating experiences that touch all aspects of our lives.

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in designing value and delivering innovative solutions.

With hosts Dr. Ben Weitzeil and journalist Andy Wibbels, The Informed Life podcast gives listeners tools they can use to find the most suitable design solutions to make well-informed decisions. You’ll hear from industrial and product designers, architects, graphic designers, UX designers, and more.

These conversations are packed with insights into the design process and solutions to the most common problems.

The podcast takes a human-centered approach to design, and future thinking providing strategic foresight to design-driven solutions in various fields. In each episode, guests provide listeners with strategic tips on enhancing their research skills and applying future thinking into practice. By the end of the episode, the listener will have a new tool or technique that they can use in their own design work.

If you’re interested in exploring alternative design thinking approaches, this is a great place to start.

Design Feeling is a podcast that educates designers about cultivating understanding and empathy through personal development. Each episode features a discussion between host Nirish Shakya and special guests across the globe exploring how we can use our emotions to craft beautiful experiences for people today.

Listeners are introduced to tools such as spontaneity, imagination, desire, or even whimsy in order to help them bring more emotion into their design thinking processes. Whether the objective is designing technology or learning how to tackle projects on work assignments, the podcasts provide valuable insights into the creative process. In each episode, guests ‌get fresh prototyping ideas from the industry, aimed at creating a culture rooted in empathy rather than superiority or profits.

Plus, it’s just fun to hear stories about how some of the world’s most iconic products and brands were designed.

Design Thinking 101 highlights the importance of design-driven innovation, and strategic foresight, connecting design thinking to strategy and action. It’s all about gaining valuable lessons from challenges overcame while applying design thinking and other innovative approaches.

The podcast explains why organizations should incorporate strategic foresight into their daily planning routine, and why focusing on the future is more important In service design thinking than getting immediate results.

In each designer episode, you'll hear design practitioners' stories, design thinking ideas, and tips and get practical examples and resources for doing your own design thinking research.

Guests will share insights on how to get results with design thinking in various fields by promoting social innovation and creativity.

Faster Horses is a user experience, product design, and technology podcast. It takes on different topics, such as UI in video games, design inclusion, color palettes, and stock photography. It has an entertaining chat going off on unexpected tangents about life, everyday pain points, and innovative solutions. The podcast has guests from various design backgrounds, making each session unique and unforgettable. Here you can learn from industry leaders about their experiences on how to effectively apply your design thinking skills across a wide range of contexts.

Design Mind frogcast is an alternative design podcast that you can find on Apple, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by creative thoughts or lacking inspiration without knowing where to start - the host Elizabeth Wood and her guests are always there to assist you in your endeavors.

On the Design Mind frogcast, Elizabeth invites listeners to meet the experts who are literally designing the future. From industry leaders to designers and professionals from different fields, such as strategy or art; our guests have one thing in common - they're all passionate about creating change within their own field while also finding solutions to problems that affect people, business, and society alike.

The show covers several topics ranging from designing new objects for the metaverse, and cutting-edge blockchain technology to the science behind behavior change so that you'll learn more about customer personas before presenting your projects to them.

High Resolution is a limited series on product design and design thinking. Every week, hosts Bobby Ghoshal and Jared Erondu invite an influencer or a product designer to come onto the show to talk about how the best companies approach, communicate, and deploy design thinking.

The podcast aims to provide clarity around what this process entails while spurring innovation in your own company through small experiments that drive results; but it also has the power to generate confidence in you and your team as they engage in solving complex problems using this method.

As we're nearing the Web 3.0 era of decentralized technology, blockchain, and token-based economics that focuses on enabling individual users instead of big tech companies, The Decentralized Design Thinking Podcast aims to explore this changing landscape for businesses and individuals alike.

The podcast hosts Jason Goodman and Teija Bean interview individuals from all over the world who are striving to bring design-driven innovation into the Web3.

As well as being informative, every episode will provide guidance for businesses looking to dip their toes into this fast-growing market sector - it's never too early or late!

Product Startup is a podcast that provides insight into how inventors, product startups, and industrial designers build physical product enterprises based on the customer-centered approach. You'll learn about industrial design, prototyping, 3D printing, and scaling from the renowned leaders in the startup product development business; The host of the podcast is Kevin Mako, an industrial designer and founder of Mako Design + Invent. You’ll have a chance to listen to Kevin asking challenging questions to entrepreneurs with extensive experience in tackling big projects.

The B-side with James Barrow is a podcast that seeks to encourage innovation through systems thinking by exploring diverse fields such as engineering, 3D modeling, and robotics. It provides an eclectic mix of creative ideas from all around the world, giving listeners access to workspaces specializing in commercial applications, industrial production, architecture, or even fashion. This podcast reveals insights into what motivates them to push boundaries without fear by overcoming convention.

Listening to these unique stories will inspire you to think outside of the box and give you new perspectives on other ways you could approach problems using different techniques used by experts—all while getting hints and tips about ways they've done this themselves!

Remake is a podcast hosted by a product designer Eran Dror called Remake, where he interviews designers, entrepreneurs, creators and anyone that strives to change society for the better. He discusses each person's story, technique, and legacy in order to inspire listeners. According to Eran, designing value goes hand-in-hand with the human-centered approach aimed at creating emotional experiences for customers, which will eventually convert them into clients. The conversation typically begins with a discussion of values in terms of success before touching upon such topics as integral branding, service design principles, or sociotechnical systems analysis methodology.

This podcast gathers many innovators in one place so you can hear their stories firsthand, from thought-leaders taking us behind the scenes of iconic film productions, to CEOs explaining life hacks that have helped them grow multimillion dollar enterprises.

Resourceful Designer is a podcast for graphic designers who want to start their own business or attract new clients to the existing one. The Founder and Host Mark Des Cotes has many years of experience in ‌Graphic Design and provides valuable insights on launching a graphic design business from the owner's perspective. He often tells stories about his experiences working with clients so that we can learn what is really important for clients without having to make the same mistakes repeatedly.

Every week, Mike offers handy tips on building a brand that communicates clear business ideas to your customers each week, teaching how to write client-oriented marketing messages, express your brand identity through logos, colors that evoke certain emotions, and many more, as well as the best graphic design tools out there.

In Think Like a Game Designer podcast, Stone Blade Entertainment CEO Justin Gary interviews some of the world's most famous game designers to demystify the step-by-step process of game development. Insightful episodes will unravel what it takes to create a successful game step-by-step, providing listeners with practical knowledge for both professionals and beginners alike. From understanding how to work with 3D data to developing augmented reality applications - this show provides informative, educational, and invaluable tools for working with 3D data while giving designers an opportunity to gain insight into their favorite games and developers.

Design Driven is a podcast series by Nine Labs that tackles design-related topics. The show will help listeners find elegant solutions to complex problems and provide actionable next steps they can take tomorrow. It is focuses on eliminating difficulties when designing high-quality digital products by reducing struggles and helping people do it more efficiently. Design Driven also helps listeners eliminate old methods of thinking or management practices that may block them from being productive or producing great work, providing guidance on how to overcome the emotional challenges companies typically face when developing a new product. The podcast features guests from different industries who'll help you understand your customers, and develop products of real value.

LeanCast is a hand-picked source of knowledge stemming from dealing with large-scale innovation projects, going through all UX design, tuning into designer mindset, and most recent problems of product development. The host is Behrad Mirafshar is a highly accomplished UX designer and an active voice in the domains of sustainability, innovation, and design thinking.

Behrad has over ten years of experience designing products for many industries, including automotive, digital health care, finance, Fintech (financial technology), Internet of Things (IoT), and human resources (HR). He shares his expertise through lectures or workshops on topics such as scaling a product management team or UX design strategy during product development.

Liftoff is an exhilarating new podcast from Bottle Rocket— a team of experts who've been at the forefront of transforming businesses from start to finish since 2008. They offer end-to-end transformation services that create unshakeable value for some of the most successful brands in the world and have profoundly shifted how these companies do business.

By focusing on customer centricity, Bottle Rocket helps increase customer retention rates and profitability by developing meaningful relationships between brand and consumer through Experience Design Services (EDS).

In this podcast, Hosts Tony Daussat and Peter Klayman discuss business transformation, product growth, and design innovation. All this translates into timely discussions about what it takes to make your brand shine while also highlighting common challenges faced by today's business professionals.

A Sherpa's Guide to Innovation is a podcast about how to apply innovative strategies, methods, and tools in order to build and define your design strategy. Guests include people from all walks of life who want to make changes within their own industry, from musicians to CEOs and tech entrepreneurs. The focus lies on finding out what you need for innovation through identifying customer-based problems.

Each episode delves into different facets of innovation, including creating empathy with your customers through design or learning how to use visual leadership in meetings.

The Experience Designers podcast hosted by Steve Usher and Shani Persson is for those who are interested in designing products that attract users' attention. It touches upon such topics as design thinking, human resource management, and employee experience.

Every other week, participants from diverse backgrounds provide commentary on issues related to this business industry plus share insights about strategic forecasts and systems thinking—all stemming from one primary goal: to give listeners new insights about the future of design thinking through a wide range of content.

The Hybrid Intelligence podcast brings together intriguing people doing unique things exploring topics such as business evolution, design innovation, AI trends, emotional intelligence, and much more. The podcast touches upon tracking every solution's transformation story by using new technological developments in the field of machine learning and AI that enable companies to make smarter decisions for themselves by automating and augmenting their decision-making processes without sacrificing quality or creativity.

Your customers’ impressions and experiences are pivotal to your organization's success. Designing for the wellness of those people should be coordinated carefully in order to reap all benefits. Smaply Podcast provides tips on designing services by considering diversity - which can make all the difference for providing a positive customer experience. Through interviews with industry professionals, you'll find out how they've overcome various challenges while also outlining best practices that have been put into place through designing omnichannel customer journeys‌.

The Design Review is a bi-weekly podcast analyzing user experiences and design from various angles. Recently it's been all about UX design geekery. Every other week, well-known designers Chris Liu and Jonathan Shariat discuss a certain design thinking principle and link it back to their own experience in the field.

From app development to arranging your private workspace, this show has something for everyone - no matter what they do or don't do in the industry. In each episode, Chris and Jonathan discuss important design thinking principles ‌you can apply in your service design studio. This podcast is insightful, enjoyable, and above all else inspirational for those looking to enhance their UX design skills. So, it's an excellent resource for anyone seeking to up their game in this highly competitive field.

Status GO is a series of podcasts about design thinking by Intervision, a leading strategic service provider in the IT industry.

In this day and age, where everything needs to be faster than ever before and consumer requirements are at the top of any company's priority list, innovation has become both essential and luxurious.

Jeff Tonn and his guests take us through the history of design over the last 36 years, discussing what makes for exceptional quality in product design execution - those that generate substantial distinctions for customers, frequently increasing their likelihood of purchasing from you. They examine the fundamentals of effective design in IT and the level of cooperation required among teams and related sectors to launch a game-changing product or service.

Tired of feeling stuck in your career? Constantly feeling lost when it comes to ideas? Looking for advice on how to improve your life and create a better future? If you answered yes, then The Crazy One Podcast is perfect for you!

The podcast is hosted by a world famous designer Stephen Gates, providing honest and relevant information gleaned from his experience as an industrial and product designer. In recent years, Stephen has been leading global in-house and agency creative teams, building multiple Fortune 100 brands, and working with a variety of companies ranging from small start-ups to some of the world's biggest brands.

Featuring an extensive library full of insightful episodes, each one provides life-changing advice that can really make a difference. Whether it's designing products or managing a company, Stephen Gates shares his own personal stories through captivating storytelling and interviews with other experts. There are also extensive discussions on how to conquer the cognitive bias that holds us back, advice on innovative marketing ideas, and other ways to improve creativity without being afraid of failure.

With over 100 episodes spanning conversations about everything from customer relationships to networking, this podcast will offer something new every time you tune in!

Creative Confidence is a podcast by IDEO U, an online training platform for designers and digital marketing professionals. With design director Coe Leta Stafford and creator Suzanne Gibbs Howard, the podcast helps to establish a path for building effective workplace practices.

Guests discuss their approaches to leadership, creativity, innovation, and growth design thinking, as well as overcoming strategic hurdles using the mix of data and narrative and creating future-forward goods and experiences.

Episodes cover topics such as marketing communication, strategic planning, improving creativity, and customer retention. The episodes last around 30 minutes and are available on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, and other podcasting apps.

If you're searching for a blended mixture of both pragmatic and creative design advice, The Honest Designers Show will cover all your needs. Started when Tom Ross, the owner of the digital asset platform Design Cuts, often found himself exchanging tips with fellow designers Ian Barnard, Lisa Glanz, and Dustin Lee over weekly calls. It suddenly occurred to him that publishing their talks would be a wonderful way to keep track of their dialogues and share ideas with others.

Nowadays, every week, the show provides listeners an inside view of the unsexy side of the design industry in a straightforward speech style. Episodes vary from interviews with designers like Chris Do to exciting discussions about getting out of one's comfort zone - lasting anywhere between 45 minutes up to an hour long each time. The show is fascinating and dynamic with hosts keeping everything on point without ever becoming preachy or boring.

Valtech is a podcast by Valtech, a multinational digital agency specializing in corporate transformation. Valtech has worked with many big names, including brands like L'Oreal, MAC Cosmetics, or Levi's; if you fly with EasyJet or Lufthansa, Volkswagen, Audi and many others. The seies cover the 6 stages of becoming a design-thinking organization and ensuring success when embarking on a design-thinking journey.

And for those who are interested but not yet convinced about the power of design thinking for businesses, there are many inspiring case studies along the way!

Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney is a popular radio show that explores the technologies that are altering our lives and gives examples of applying design thinking skills to overcome obstacles and make innovative breakthroughs.

Every Sunday Phil McKinney hosts a new guest who covers vital topics, such as enhancing the effectiveness of a design process by improving coordination and decision-making, monetizing creativity, connecting with customers on an emotional level, or even overcoming procrastination. This podcast will be beneficial for designers from many industries - whether you're a graphic designer, web developer, or industrial designer looking for solutions to your problems.

Innovation doesn’t come easy, especially when you’re working in the design world, which is constantly evolving and demanding novel approaches to problem-solving. Designers often end up spending many days or even months struggling to find an optimal solution to a pressing issue. However, instead of wasting your time struggling with a lack of inspiration, you can look for advice from others. That’s where design thinking podcasts come into play.

Podcasts are group discussions that give you an opportunity to look at the design from a broader perspective, providing various case studies and examples of companies’ best practices.

To sum up, design thinking podcasts will not only teach you how to be a more effective designer, but they’ll also inspire you to find new ways to challenge yourself and push your creative boundaries even further.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out as an independent designer, design thinking podcasts will bring you innovative solutions and give you practical tips on how to apply them to your own business.