Episode 12: Jason Mesut - Shaping designers

Today we’re talking Jason Mesut, a London-based design consultant, one of the early members of the Group of Humans, and the head of the London chapter of the IxDA. Jason’s also got a particular knack for assembling design teams, for both internal and agency work, and it’s something he’s done successfully for over a decade. So much of the focus of today’s conversation is on what makes a good team, why it’s so hard to get it right, and the challenge of identifying capabilities and working styles in creative professionals. To that end, Jason’s also been working for the last several years on a side project called Shaping Design, which provides tools and platforms that help creative professionals identify their own strengths, and where they fit in a team setting. It’s a bit of a labor of love, and something Jason’s presented and led discussions on many times. It’s also the focus of the first half of today’s conversation.The second half is on how to run a successful remote conference, something that’s uniquely relevant as we move into our eighth month of a pandemic that’s moved most group events online. Jason was recently co-chair of the 2020 EuroIA conference, which took some atypical approaches to remote gathering, and earned overwhelmingly positive reviews. So if you’re curious how they pulled that off, or if you’re organizing your own remote event and want to take some notes, this one’s definitely worth a listen.