Design Life

Femke and Charli outline their goals for 2026 and the strategies they plan to implement to achieve them. Femke shares an update about her upcoming baby and how she plans to balance it with her business, while Charli discusses her approach to the book writing process.
Timestamps: 
01:11 Episode introduction
01:59 Life updates
04:05 Goal setting for 2026: Does Femke set combined business and parenting goals? How does she plan to approach balancing them?
13:32 Femke and Charli’s plans for their business and projects this year
21:57 How can AI help manage your workload and make tasks more efficient and achievable?
23:23 Does Charli feel she has achieved work-life balance?
24:52 Working with a remote team: how do different time zones impact Charli? Managing slack updates and staying in the loop
Links: 
Femke's community
Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”
Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Femke and Charli discuss how to collaborate effectively with other design creators on side projects. Femke shares her experience working with five other designers on the Design Creator's Bundle, including how the collaboration went, how they divided the revenue, and how audience size influenced their choice of collaborators and how Claud helped shape the overall strategy of the product.
Timestamps:
00:46 Episode start
01:50 Catch-up
06:33 Design Creator’s Bundle
08:41 Why did Femke decide to do it?
11:17 How does it feel to work on something like this with a group of people?
14:34 Charli shares a story about her experience being part of a bundle
15:50 How was the revenue split approached?
17:37 Did you know the people involved in the bundle beforehand?
20:01 How do you approach collaborations in terms of effort and contribution?
23:49 How did audience size factor into the collaboration?
28:11 Do you think you'll pursue more similar collaborations in the future?
29:22 What about collaborating with design creators in other ways, such as creating a product together?
 
Links: 
Design Creator's Bundle
Femke's community
Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”
Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Charli and Femke discuss the common challenges people face when pursuing promotions, share strategies to prepare for performance reviews, and explore options for those who perform well but are unable to get promoted.
Timestamps:
0:57 Episode start
01:50 Catch up
07:25 What are the main challenged people that you mentored were having around promotions?
10:37 Thinking about promotions as a manager
16:01 Advice to people to whom it is not clear what needs to be done in order to get promoted
22:17 How to set yourself up for success l for the performance review time
28:32 What if you do a good job but you cannot get a promotion?
Links:
Femke's community
Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”
Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Charli and Femke discuss their evolving perspectives on side projects, preferred platforms and content formats, and how these have changed throughout their careers, while also sharing their current goals—Charli opening up about her book writing journey and Femke explaining how her approach to her course is continuously evolving.
Timestamps: 
01:26 - Episode start
03:11 - How are you currently thinking about side projects? How do you describe what you do on the side when meeting new people?
05:23 - Perspectives on different platforms and content formats
08:38 - Charli’s main side project at the moment: writing a book
09:42 - Updates on Charli’s YouTube channel
16:00 - How Charli incorporates Claude into her creative process
17:00 - Strategies behind choosing and developing content formats
25:25 - Femke shares her vision for her business
 
Links: 
Femke's community
Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”
Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Femke and Charli discuss how to foster a culture of knowledge sharing at a workplace. They explore how to structure language-sharing sessions, whether these should focus on work-related topics or personal expertise, how to encourage team members to participate, and what roles leaders and team members play in sharing knowledge.
Timestamps:
01:25 Episode start
02:27 Catch up
06:52 How did educational 'Lunch and Learn' sessions come about at Femke’s work?
08:06 Are these sessions about work topics or personal expertise?
11:26 Does Kit have a format for ICs to sign up or volunteer to share with the team? How is knowledge sharing structured at Charli’s and Femke’s jobs?
21:03 Does sharing come from anyone on the team or mainly leaders? How much do leaders set an example, and how did you get that started?
21:47 How do you protect team members’ time and set expectations for knowledge sharing beyond their regular responsibilities? Do you expect everyone to share knowledge at a certain level, and how much of it is built into their responsibilities?
26:32 How often do you do knowledge sharing?
26:52 Do you encourage your team to consume any of your content?
Links: 
Femke's community
Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”
Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm