Video Rewind: Cassie McDaniel: How Medium eliminated its PM function and started moving faster

Video Rewind: Cassie McDaniel: How Medium eliminated its PM function and started moving faster

Author: The Curiosity Department, sponsored by Wix Studio December 24, 2025 Duration: 27:00
We’re taking a holiday break, so we’re rewinding to one of our favorite episodes this year with Cassie McDaniel, Medium’s head of design. We’re also including video from the episode, which you can watch here or on our YouTube channel at dbtr.co/youtube. We hope you have a lovely holiday season with your family, friends, and loved ones. —Eli & Aarron *** Cassie McDaniel, Medium’s head of design, is someone with a clear vision for how a design team should work. She believes team members should have a breadth of skills, craft should be the foundation of product design, and experimentation is important in both work and workflow. To that end, Cassie and the leadership team at Medium recently made what some might see as a controversial decision: They eliminated product management. The result? They are moving faster than ever. We chat with Cassie about what led to this decision—and why it might not work for all teams, how she thinks about balancing Medium’s legacy of thoughtful design while moving the product forward, and how writing can help you advance your design career. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This ad-supported episode is available to everyone. If you’d like to hear it ad-free, upgrade to our premium subscription, where you’ll get an additional 2 ad-free episodes per month (4 total). Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books: You’ll also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. And subscribers at the annual level now get access to the Design Better Toolkit, which gets you major discounts and free access to tools and courses that will help you unlock new skills, make your workflow more efficient, and take your creativity further. Upgrade to paid

Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter host Design Better, a podcast from The Curiosity Department, sponsored by Wix Studio, that lives in the rich space where design, business, and technology meet. Their conversations move beyond simple tips to explore the entire creative process with guests from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Each episode feels like a deep, practical discussion aimed at refining your skills, sparking new ideas, and mastering the nuanced art of working with others. You’ll hear from leaders and practitioners who share not just what they do, but how they think, tackling the real challenges and breakthroughs that define modern creative work. This isn't just for seasoned professionals; if you have any interest in how things are made and why they work, this podcast offers valuable perspective. It’s that consistent depth that earned praise from outlets like Vanity Fair, which noted the show's sharp and substantive focus. Tuning in provides a regular dose of inspiration and actionable insight, whether you're looking to elevate your craft or simply understand the forces shaping the products and experiences around us.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Design Better
Podcast Episodes
Mattias Hollwich: AI & Architecture [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Skye Waterson: Creative work and ADHD [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Enrique Allen: Design and entrepreneurship at Designer Fund [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:53
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Design Better Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:18
Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with inspiring guests across diverse creative fields, to help you hone y…
Brendan Boyle: Toy design, play, and the creative process [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:39
Eli first met Brendan Boyle when Brendan was his instructor in the undergraduate Product Design program at Stanford, where Brendan has taught for many years. Brendan is also a toy inventor, and one of the assignments in…
Rewind: Vicki Tan: Learning from new voices [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:38
This week, we’re rewinding to one of our favorite episodes from our 6th season, with Vicki Tan. Vicki is a designer and author, who is now a staff product designer at Pinterest. When we spoke with her, Vicki was an assoc…
Connor Moore: Sound design for Tesla, Uber, Peloton and more [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:06
Sound is the unsung hero of interaction design. The iconic chorus you hear as you boot up your Mac, the double knock of an arriving Slack message, and the ascending notes Airpods make as they connect to a device all prov…
Matt Abrahams: Think Faster, Talk Smarter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:02
Becoming a better communicator is one of the best ways to level up your career. Being able to think on your feet and communicate ideas effectively is critical, no matter what role you have right now, or where you’d like…