85. Goodbye Meetings. Hello, Design Time!

Are you drowning in a sea of endless meetings with no time for actual work?

Caden Damiano, Product Designer and host of The Way of Product Design Podcast had enough of meetings. And he’s done something about it.

This week Caden joins the show to share some insights on how he’s taken his time back.

We dive into a problem that frustrates a lot of designers: too many meetings!

Caden explains why this happens and why it’s keeping you from getting work done and shares some ideas on how to take control of your time. Things like building trust with the people you work with through 1:1 chats, and showing how valuable your work is. He’s got some tricks up his sleeve, like mini-workshops and using tools that let people give feedback without needing a meeting.

If you’re a designer who feels swamped by meetings and wants to get back to designing, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode!

Topics:
• 08:47 – Why do we have so many meetings
• 12:59 – Are designers enabling too many meetings? We want a seat at the table
• 17:12 – There’s an opportunity cost to having a seat at the table
• 21:38 – Are we going to meetings to show off work?
• 29:01 – You have to be good at your craft first before
• 30:08 – Tips on taking your time back
• 33:40 – Figure out what the team is concerned about or what pressures they’re under.
• 42:30 – It’s not about removing meetings it’s about making your meetings more impactful
• 56:51 – Build an audience at work to help find allies and sponsors willing to go to bat for you

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Caden on LinkedIn
• The Way of Product Podcast

Caden Damiano
Product & Design @ ProducePay || Host of “The Way of Product” Podcast

About Caden

Caden is an interaction designer and podcast host from Utah.  He currently works as a Research and Design Lead at Producepay, which is the world’s fastest-growing ag tech company providing a predictable commerce platform for produce businesses to reliably buy and sell produce as well as get farmer-friendly financial products to grow their operations. For the past six years, Caden has been running a podcast called “The Way of Product”. On the podcast, he invites guests to discuss various topics related to creating products that people would want to share with their friends and colleagues. Caden believes you can tell a product is “great” if it has free word-of-mouth marketing. 

Connect with Caden on LinkedIn

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