

This is HCD – Human-Centered Design, UX & Service Design Thinking Podcast
Gerry Scullion
Welcome to This is HCD – Human-Centered Design, UX & Service Design Thinking Podcast, the global show for designers, innovators, and changemakers who want to create better products, services, and experiences.
Hosted by Gerry Scullion, with over 1-million downloads worldwide.
Each episode dives into conversations with leading voices in service design, UX design, interaction design, customer experience, and design strategy. Together, we explore the methods, mindsets, and real-world stories that bring human-centered design and design thinking to life.
Whether you’re a UX researcher, service design practitioner, product manager, or design leader, you’ll find actionable insights, practical tools, and inspiration to elevate your practice and drive meaningful change.
Tune in and join the global human-centered design community — learn how to design with purpose, create inclusive solutions, and shape a more thoughtful future.
Hosted by Gerry Scullion, with over 1-million downloads worldwide.
Each episode dives into conversations with leading voices in service design, UX design, interaction design, customer experience, and design strategy. Together, we explore the methods, mindsets, and real-world stories that bring human-centered design and design thinking to life.
Whether you’re a UX researcher, service design practitioner, product manager, or design leader, you’ll find actionable insights, practical tools, and inspiration to elevate your practice and drive meaningful change.
Tune in and join the global human-centered design community — learn how to design with purpose, create inclusive solutions, and shape a more thoughtful future.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 9, 2023 • 28min
Emma Carpenter 'Exploring the craft of Service Design within South Africa'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with Emma Carpenter, Head of Design Experience and previously Group Director Fjord Johannesburg, Associate Director atAccenture Song. Emma had been introduced to me several months ago, as I was keen to speak to someone in consulting space inAfrica, to get a better understanding of the social and technical implications for designing services.I am aware the blind spot in this conversation of two white practitioners of Anglo origins talking about Design in Africa, but nevertheless, I found speaking to Emma to be absolutely brilliant.They cover off some of the cultural implications around phone data, and how this perceived restriction drives potentially a more inclusive service. We chat about how western mindsets and tech organisations design for western behaviours and how this may inadvertently result in global information exclusion to African natives who favour less data intense services, which are more likely to be localised. I know you’re going to enjoy this episode...Connect with Emma https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacarpenter/Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Feb 7, 2023 • 31min
Rohan Walsh 'Making and breaking into UX & Service Design'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementThe Getting Started in Design podcasts are created for people looking to break into Design. We shine a light on that transitionary period between education and employment and try and understand what that experience is like for people trying to break into the industry. In my opinion it is every Designers responsibility to be that person we wished we could have met when we were looking for our first break.I caught up Rohan Walsh, a UX designer from Port Macquarie in Australia but now based in the Lebanon. We speak about Rohan’s journey to get where he is currently - including internships atAustralia Post amongst others. Rohan is an awesome designer, filled with so much potential and quality in all areas of his lifehttps://www.rohanwalsh.design/bioCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Feb 1, 2023 • 48min
Amy Hupe ‘Design System Evolution’
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with Amy Hupe, a content designer and design system consultant based in the UK.In this conversation we drill into what a Design System is and is not, and talk about the governance processes around managing Design Systems - leaning on Amy’s 7year experience whilst working at GDS in the UK and more. Amy is a total rockstar and I know you are going to love listening to herCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Jan 17, 2023 • 1h 6min
Dr. Melvin Vopson 'The environmental weight of data'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementDr Melvin Vopson is a truly fascinating character and deep thinker. A physicist, he is the proposer of the mass-energy-information equivalence principle, has identified a technological singularity called the Information Catastrophe and has discovered the second law of information dynamics. Melvin is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the world's first Information Physics Institute. His current scientific interests revolve around theoretical and experimental studies involving all aspects of information physics. I started by asking Melvin about his theory that information has its own weight, a weight independent of the device it is stored on.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Jan 16, 2023 • 46min
Karel Vredenburg 'The evolution of Design at IBM plus the Future of Design education'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with Karel Vredenburg, Karel is currently IBM Global Vice President, Client Insights and Research and responsible for leading the company’s global team of researchers and the insights they provide to product, services, and executive teams.Karel joined IBM in 1988 after having done graduate studies, research, and teaching at the University of Toronto. He introduced User-Centered Design at IBM in 1993 and assumed a company-wide role in 1995 leading IBM's community of designers, leading the development of design methods, languages, and technologies, and leading the design of the commercialization of the IBM Watson. In 2013, Karel help found a new IBM Design program together with General Manager of Design, Phil Gilbert, and IBM Fellow, Charlie Hill. Karel personally introduced the new design program which included Enterprise Design Thinking to IBM product development laboratories worldwide and introduced a tailored version of it to IBM consulting services and technology services organizations worldwide from 2014 through 2016. He next focused on the development and activation of Enterprise Design Thinking for client facing professionals worldwide and rolled that to IBM’s top client accounts in 2017 and 2018. We chat about lots of amazing areas, such as where Design needs to go in the future to be more affective, Design Coaching, Design Education and cover off some of the key insights from the work that Karel and Don Norman have been working towards with the Future of Design Education project. Karel is awesome and I know you will love this conversation - https://www.futureofdesigneducation.orghttp://karelvredenburg.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karelvredenburg/?originalSubdomain=caKarels podcast https://www.karelvredenburg.com/lifehabitsmentoringCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Jan 6, 2023 • 43min
Sarah Kearns 'Life as a nurse in Ireland - A peek behind the curtain'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with Sarah Kearns, a nurse from Dublin, Ireland. Myself and Sarah connected through a mutual desire to create a service to reward the incredible nurses, alongside the incredibly talented Amy Huberman in Ireland - and the 3 of us are working on a project at the moment called Thank You Nurses. More on that later in this episode.In this episode you will hear the real life stories from Sarah of what life is and was life during the global pandemic, how hard these incredible people work. I wanted to shine a light on this area of society, where the work we do as system and service designers has an direct relationship often with life and death -I don’t say this lightly, but Sarah is one of my heroes. They all are. I know you’re going to love this episode.https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-kearns-5b99361a2/https://handsonhealth.ieCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Dec 20, 2022 • 40min
Jo Szczepanska 'Is it time to refresh, repair or retire your personas?'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with Jo Szczepanska - a phenomenal design talent based out of Melbourne, Australia. Jo sent me an article that they wrote a while ago about persona’s, and it was so good that I thought we should do an episode to dig into it a little deeper. Jo’s one of my favourite people and designers and is a great brain, and heavily involved in the co-design space.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Dec 14, 2022 • 1h 9min
John Booth 'Data centers: Data theatre and the tsunami of frivolous data'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementJohn Booth is a well-known figure in EU data centre circles, primarily for his role as reviewer for the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres and his work with the Certified Energy Efficiency Data Centre Award. I started by asking John if he thinks data centers are doing enough to conserve energy, water and materials in this time of crisis. I gave an example of a 2021 survey which found that 63% of data center managers thought “there is no business justification for collecting water usage data.”Yes, thought there are laws coming from the EU that should change that attitude.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Dec 12, 2022 • 36min
Royce Wong 'Scaling Design at Big Commerce & Building the future of asynchronous collaboration'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up Royce Wong, Co-Founder and CEO of InOrbit and Global Director - Product Design at BigCommerce. Royce is based out of Sydney, Australia and in this conversation we speak about Big Commerce’s growth, a strategic direction and differentiation. We speak about the balancing of two titles with his start up InOrbit, that is setting out to tackle the asynchronous collaboration space. Royce is awesome and I know you’re going to love this episode.Transcript & Shownotes:https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycewong/https://www.inorbit.ioCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________

Dec 8, 2022 • 35min
Amy Bucher 'Applying behavioural science within the healthcare realm'
We are building a global network of people doing human-centred work. Create an account, learn, listen, connect and network - for free → https://www.thisishcd.com/signup________________________Take the FREE Introduction to Journey Management course with Marc Stickdorn & Gerry Scullion → https://www.thisishcd.com/learning/introduction-to-journey-managementI caught up with great friend of the podcast, Amy Bucher. Amy is author of Engaged on Rosenfeld Media and we chat about her role of CBO (chief behavioural officer) at Lirio. On Lirio's website, they state 'Our purpose is to combine the power of behavioural science with artificial intelligence to drive positive behavior change for the betterment of all people'.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
________________________Discover & Connect → https://www.thisishcd.com/directoryTrain my organisation → https://www.thisishcd.com/trainingClaim partner discounts → https://www.thisishcd.com/partnersPublish an Article → https://www.thisishcd.com/blogCourses → https://www.thisishcd.com/courses________________________


