39. Stephen Gates from WW: Culture, design methodology, and design system ROI

Send us feedback or episode suggestions.

Sit tight—this is a long one! Stephen Gates and Chris discuss the real value of design systems, what designers and football players have in common, and how to apply design methodology to day-to-day work.

Guest: Stephen Gates is Senior Vice President of Omni-channel Product Design for WW. In this role, he is responsible for the design of WW’s end-to-end member experience across all digital, virtual, and physical touchpoints, to create a cohesive wellness experience and help unify members’ needs across channels.

With over 20 years of experience, Stephen is a global design leader who has built world-class teams at organizations that integrate research and data with human-centered design methods to drive business impact. Prior to joining WW in February 2021, Stephen was the Head Design Evangelist at InVision, where he developed award-winning global advertising campaigns and innovative digital experiences for clients such as American Airlines, W Hotels, Disney, ExxonMobil, Acura, Old Navy, Nationwide Insurance, Verizon, Subaru, and many more. He has also held key design leadership roles at Citi, Starwood Hotels, and McCann Erickson. Stephen’s work has received recognition at over 150 international award shows including honors for Cannes Cyber Lions, Webby Awards, and the Web Awards. His work has also been featured in 10 Apple keynotes.

Stephen is also the host of the award-winning podcast, The Crazy One, which features in-depth explorations of issues that matter to creatives, including leadership, creativity, and career development and innovation. He has also been named one of the most talented and influential creatives working today by HOW Magazine.

Host: Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.

Sponsor: Knapsack is a design system platform rooted in code for shipping consistent apps in half the time. Design once, build once, use everywhere. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

View the transcript for this episode.

Check out Stephen’s first episode on the Design System Podcast.