d.MBA

Everybody thinks they know what matters to them. Then you ask them, and they can't tell you.
Daniel Burka has stood at more career crossroads than most: Digg, Glitch (which became Slack), a company sold to Google, five years at Google Ventures, then eight years in global public health. Every time the stakes got high, he reached for the same thing: Job Rank, a weighted-scoring spreadsheet for choosing your next role. In this episode he opens the real template on screen and walks through exactly how it works, for designers, product people, and anyone in tech staring at a hard career decision.
We get into:
Why the spreadsheet isn't really the tool: 90% of the value is being forced to write down what you value and rank it

If everything's important, nothing's important: how the weighting forces the trade-offs a pros and cons list politely avoids

The moment the sheet told Daniel something his ego didn't want to hear about a big role at Google

How the tool travels with you: same values, different weights, as your life changes

Where AI fits into a decision that should stay human

GET THE TEMPLATE
Free to copy, in Daniel's full write-up: https://www.hardproblems.com/articles...
LINKS
Hard Problems, helping designers and people in tech find work that matters: https://www.hardproblems.com
d.MBA, business education for designers: https://d.mba
00:15 – What this episode is about
02:10 – Daniel's career crossroads
04:15 – Job Rank: it's just a spreadsheet
04:40 – Writing down what matters to you
06:25 – Weighting each value (and why not everything's a 5)
09:50 – Scoring the jobs you're considering
11:20 – Scoring jobs that don't exist yet
13:10 – How to make your own job
16:50 – The Google role his ego wanted
19:10 – Why 90% of the value is just writing it down
21:10 – Hard Problems: work that actually matters
25:05 – Jobs that matte

Avi Ashkenazi, Senior Director of Product Design at Deel (Shopify and iwoca before that), walks through the Shredder: the framework he built for reverse-engineering any company's strategy from the outside, using nothing but public information.
It's the skill that moves designers from executing the brief to shaping it.
We get into:
Why studying competitors through their screens is the most superficial read there is

The tree metaphor: products are the fruit, strategy is the hidden trunk, and everything around it talks

How to read org charts, careers pages, investors and partners as leading indicators of a company's next move

Why companies ship their org chart, and how to spot the seams in the product

How AI has changed the way Avi runs the framework since he built it at iwoca

Using the Shredder on your own company, to find out what your strategy actually is

Ever thought about the ingenious business and design strategies that turned an everyday gadget into an adventurer's (and content creator's) best friend?
Our latest Business Design Teardown dives into the thrilling business and design strategies behind the iconic action camera brand GoPro, revealing the creative and strategic decisions that shaped GoPro's journey to becoming a market leader. 
Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore the trails and navigate the rapids of GoPro's fascinating journey. They'll zoom in on...
How a founder's passion for surfing and desire to capture his adventures identified a gap in the market for him to explore
The role of prototyping and rapid iteration that led to GoPro's innovation breakthroughs
Why user-generated content was a critical marketing flywheel driving GoPro's early successes
How arrogance and a focus on iteration over innovation may have stifled GoPro's journey to the top of the action camera mountain...
Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a design lover, or someone who loves a good adventure tale, this episode has twists and turns that will elevate your perspective on GoPro's fascinating story.

When you want to learn about the intersection of business and design, you can turn to d.MBA Business Design Teardowns.
But for everything else? It has to be Wikipedia.
 
In this podcast episode, we're tearing down one of the most significant sources of knowledge on the internet and uncovering how it isn't just a website—it's a worldwide wonder.
We'll delve into why Wikipedia is a fascinating case study for designers, discovering the clever design and organizational strategies that make it user-friendly, universally engaging, and completely ubiquitous.
Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore…
The critical shift from scholar-led to community-led content creation that revolutionized Wikipedia's output and productivity
Why a commitment to form over function has led to a design language which prioritises readability, accessibility, and performance
The thousands of stakeholders - and novel-length conversations! - that Wikipedia's design team has to manage when shipping updates
How Wikipedia manages to stay informative and reliable without resorting to paid advertising
So tune in to hear how design and strategy converge to keep this information titan thriving. 
You'll never look at Wikipedia the same way again…

Ready for a business adventure?

For our latest Teardown, we're exploring the terrain of a brand that has revolutionized business and ethical standards. Yes, we're unearthing the tale of Patagonia, a brand that's more than just outdoor apparel. It's a testament to sustainability, innovation, and an unwavering love for the great outdoors.

Patagonia is an icon of ethical business and thoughtful design. It's a brand that has masterfully woven the threads of environmental activism with cutting-edge business strategies. In this episode, Alen, Franz, and Tom will unravel how Patagonia has managed to design not just clothes but also a culture of sustainability and product innovation that other brands are dying to replicate.

Join us as we explore...
The relatable conflicts of Patagonia's founder, a craftsperson at heart who remains reluctant to call himself a businessman
Why Yvon Chouinard committed early business self-sabotage in the interests of the environment he loved… and set the standard for the business's future decision-making.
How Patagonia weaves philosophy into its culture, always prioritizing its most important stakeholder: our planet
The role of activism in its brand ethos and the marketing side-effects that this fosters
So, lace up your hiking boots, and let's hit the trail together in this latest Business Design Teardown. It will be one wild ride through Patagonia's business peaks and design valleys.