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Design Office Hours

On Design Office Hours, we explore how we create, how we lead, and how we navigate creative work in this place we call work. We dive into real questions about real problems and talk to guests who speak from experience, on the job, and off the cuff.

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Latest Episode
S02 E20 Sean Duffy
S02 E20 · March 2026

Leaving Design, Sean Duffy

A former Intuitive UX designer left a successful career and left the field altogether. A conversation on passion-fatigue, reinvention, slower thinking, and why starting over never means starting empty.

52 min Career · Identity All levels

Key Takeaways

  • Passion-fatigue is a real professional condition, and ignoring it compounds it.
  • Reinvention is not erasure. What you build carries forward.
  • Slower thinking is not less thinking. It's more intentional thinking.
  • Starting over at any stage is always starting with context.
DOH Off Script

Live Sessions.
Unscripted.
Free. Limited Seats.

Off Script is a monthly live Q&A session without scripts or polished answers.

What to expect
Free Always free to attend
Live Real-time, unscripted conversation
Seats Limited. Sign up to reserve yours
Frequently on DOH

01

Craft & Practice

How to think through design problems when the constraints are real, the timelines are short, and the team isn't aligned.

02

Career Navigation

Portfolio construction, job transitions, seniority, leadership, and what to do when the path isn't obvious.

03

Working With Others

Stakeholder dynamics, cross-functional tension, design advocacy, and operating inside imperfect organizations.

04

Future of Design

Free · Live

Off Script Sessions

Unscripted conversations with limited seats. Show up with a question. Leave with clarity.

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Free · Weekly

The Newsletter

Receive updates on new podcast episodes and get notified ahead of time about upcoming Off Script sessions.

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What people say
"Finally a podcast that treats designers as professionals, not an audience to inspire."
Listener, Apple Podcasts
"I sent the networking episode to my entire team. Practical. No fluff."
Design Lead, listener
"The cheat sheets from Season 1 are pinned above my desk."
Junior designer, listener
Episode Library

Every conversation.
Every season.

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DOH Reading List

Books, links & resources from every episode.

Every recommendation mentioned across all DOH episodes, collected in one place.

DOH Reading List

Books, links, and
resources from every episode.

Every recommendation, reference, and resource mentioned across all DOH episodes, collected in one place.

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Off Script
Live sessions · Free · Limited seats

Off Script is a monthly live Q&A where real design and career questions are explored openly, without scripts or polished answers. A small, focused space to think out loud, challenge assumptions, and find direction through honest conversation.

How it works
Step 01

Claim a seat

Sessions are limited to keep conversations real. Sign up below and you'll get the session link.

Step 02

Bring your question

Step 03

Work it through

What to expect

Session format
0:00 Open: context-setting, who's in the room
0:10 Questions surface, 2-3 chosen live
0:15 Unscripted, direct dialogue
0:55 Close: what to carry forward
EDGE: Premium Program

For designers who want to go further than the podcast.

EDGE is a deeper layer of Design Office Hours. A structured program for designers who are serious about their thinking, their practice, and their trajectory.

Launching soon. Founding cohort forming now.

What EDGE includes

◷

Monthly Live Calls

Small group sessions with Peter. Direct, structured, focused on what you're working through right now.

▦

Thinking Tools

Frameworks and exercises built from the podcast, made practical for your actual work. Not theory. Working tools.

≡

Content Library

Curated episode collections, cheat sheets, and member-only materials organized by theme and challenge.

⌕

Off Script Archive Access

Every Off Script session, timestamped and searchable. Learn from conversations you weren't in the room for.

Who EDGE is built for

EDGE is not for everyone. It's for designers at a real inflection point, who have momentum and want to think more deliberately about where it goes.

Mid-career designers

You're past entry-level. The basic advice doesn't apply anymore. You need sharper thinking for harder problems.

Designers moving into leadership

The shift from doing to directing is not natural. EDGE gives you a framework for the transition before it's urgent.

Designers at a fork

New role, new company, new direction. You need a thinking partner, not more information.

Serious practitioners

You use the podcast as a resource, not entertainment. You want more depth, more structure, and more accountability.

About

Over the years, I have worked with designers across very different contexts. From global companies to early-stage teams to startups of all kinds. From Europe to Asia to the US. From building products to shaping organizations and innovation spaces.

I have spent the last 15+ years working across cultures and industries, leading design work in environments where the answers were not obvious. I have launched products, built teams, and helped shape innovation programs and strategy, working closely across functions with engineering, business, and leadership to move things forward.

DOH comes from practice, observed and lived over many years, in different setups and under different constraints, always alongside other talented humans.

Peter Boeckel

Across all of it, the same pattern kept showing up. The real questions were rarely asked in public. Not the polished ones. The actual ones.

  • How do you up-level your portfolio, find a job, and navigate a transition?
  • How do you navigate stakeholders, ambiguity, and responsibility?
  • How do we avoid burnout, stay balanced, and still be successful?
  • How do you manage a career and talk to your manager about it?
  • How do you establish yourself in leadership?
  • And what might be the future of all of this?
Design Office Hours brings those conversations into the open. As Q&A, as advice, as perspective. To provoke your thinking, help you form your point of view, and support you in up-leveling your career and yourself. Out loud, in real time, with people who are in it.

DOH is not about tools or trends. It is about learning to think clearly about the work and the self who is doing the work.

Who this is for

Students & early career

The things no one tells you clearly, and the framing to make sense of a confusing entry into the field.

Working designers

Real constraints, real organizations, real frustrations. Practical thinking for the work you're actually doing.

Design leads & managers

The shift in perspective that leadership requires, and how to think about your team the way you think about your craft.

Anyone who makes things

The questions on DOH are about creative work broadly. Design is the lens, not the limit.

Submit a Question

What makes a good question?

You don't need to have the question fully formed. Submit where you are.

How questions are used
01
Submitted questions are reviewed by Peter personally. Every submission is read.
02
Your details, name, workplace, will not be disclosed on episodes.
03
You don't need to have the question fully formed. Submit where you are. Open ended is fine.
Your question

Submitting also signs you up for the DOH newsletter. You can opt out anytime.

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