Power of Ten with Andy Polaine

My guest in this episode is Martin Dowson, a design and transformation leader who’s passionate about elevating the role of design as a strategic force for business growth.
With over two decades of experience across Financial Services, Telcos, Media, and more. He’s built and led design teams, established Centres of Excellence, and guided organisations through complex transformations that align design with commercial outcomes.
Martin went from reading our service design book hoping to solve a logistics problem (you couldn’t order lobsters on a Wednesday at Sainsbury’s) to spending six years leading design strategy at Lloyd's Banking Group.
We talk about what happens when consultants go in-house, why experienced internal voices often get heard less than external ones saying the same thing, and whether AI has the same fundamental scaling problem as the car.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro — Martin's background across financial services, telecoms and media
01:00 How Martin and Andy first met at RBS in 2015, and reading Service Design to solve a lobster logistics problem at Sainsbury's
04:30 Going in-house after consulting — why your voice gets heard less the moment you cross the threshold
07:30 The question organisations never ask: why isn't this happening spontaneously already?
14:00 What it actually takes to embed design capability in a large organisation versus leaving behind blueprints and concepts
28:00 Measuring design's contribution to business outcomes — the gap between outputs and impact
45:00 Design leadership in the AI era — what changes and what doesn't
55:00 Why organisations mistake motion for progress, and how incentive structures block transformation
01:05:50 AI has the same fundamental problem as the car — it doesn't scale cleanly, and success makes the resource problem worse not better
01:10:30 The one small thing with outsized impact: our definition of success in education

Show Links

Martin
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/designled
- Web: https://liminaldesignoffice.com
- Podcast https://beingliminal.com
Andy
- Website: https://www.polaine.com
- Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
- Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
- Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
- Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
- Bluesky: https://andypolaine.bsky.social
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

My guest in this episode is Joel Bailey, product and service director at Arwen.ai, a four-year-old marketing technology startup that uses AI to help brands to manage and moderate their social media comments at scale.
Joel brings 25 years of experience working in service design roles, leading change and building new stuff for a diverse range of organisations. We talked about his journey into Service Design, Service Design and AI, navigating AI and social media, the future of design and much more.
Note: Given the fast pace of developments in AI, I should point out that we recorded this in June 2025. I had a big backlog...

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Service Design and AI  
04:50 The Journey to Service Design  
10:00 Understanding Service as an Outcome  
15:08 The Role of AI in Social Media Management  
20:11 Challenges of Moderation on Social Media  
25:32 The Evolution of Business Models  
26:36 The Role of AI in Startups  
29:13 Navigating AI and Content Moderation  
30:20 Understanding AI Bias and Ethics  
31:43 Engaging with AI in Social Media  
35:11 The Future of Design and AI  
40:21 Creativity in a Fast-Paced Environment  
44:56 The Importance of Service in Design

Links

Joel
====
- Arwen: https://arwen.ai
- Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelbaileyuk/

Andy
====
- Website: https://www.polaine.com
- Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
- Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
- Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
- Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
- Bluesky: https://andypolaine.bsky.social
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.
In this episode Andy Polaine speaks to design leader, Alan Colville, exploring the nuances of design leadership, the importance of embracing conflict, the dynamics of communication, and how small changes in how we communicate can lead to significant positive outcomes.
Links
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Alan
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- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alancolville/
Andy
====
- Website: https://www.polaine.com
- Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
- Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
- Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
- Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
- Bluesky: https://andypolaine.bsky.social
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.

In this episode Andy speaks with Dr. Chui Chui Tan a specialist in culturalisation strategies tailored for international growth. She leverages cultural insights to craft winning global business strategies, guiding clients to navigate international markets successfully. She is also the author of a new book, "Research for Global Growth: Strategies And Guidance For Cross-Cultural Insights".

Links
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Chui Chui
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- Website: https://beyo.global
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuichuitan/
- Book: https://beyo.global/books

Andy
====
- Website: https://www.polaine.com
- Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
- Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
- Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
- Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
- Bluesky: https://andypolaine.bsky.social
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine.

In this episode Andy speaks to Carissa Carter, a designer, geoscientist, and the academic director at the Stanford d.school. She is the author of The Secret Language of Maps: How to Tell Visual Stories with Data, and the co-author of Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future. Carissa teaches design courses on emerging technologies, climate change, and data visualization. Her work on designing with machine learning and blockchain has earned multiple design awards.

Links

Carissa
===
- Assembling Tomorrow book site: https://dschool.stanford.edu/book-collections/assembling-tomorrow
- Carissa Carter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissalcarter/
- Scott Doorley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdoorley/
- Armando Veve online: https://levineleavitt.com/artist/armando-veve/

Andy
====
- Website: https://www.polaine.com
- Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws
- Podcast: https://pln.me/p10
- Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching
- Courses: https://courses.polaine.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/
- Bluesky: https://andypolaine.bsky.social
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine