Joel Gill Podcast.
DHABA
Stories that matter
Robert Powell 'Grand PooBah of UX' landed at our DHABA. Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish, and what happens when it’s ignored. His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design, challenging leaders to move beyond surface-level practices and embrace design as a driver of real change in the age of AI.
Joel Gill Podcast.
DHABA
Stories that matter
Robert Powell 'Grand PooBah of UX' landed at our DHABA. Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish, and what happens when it’s ignored. His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design, challenging leaders to move beyond surface-level practices and embrace design as a driver of real change in the age of AI.
Joel Gill Podcast.
DHABA
Stories that matter
Robert Powell 'Grand PooBah of UX' landed at our DHABA. Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish, and what happens when it’s ignored. His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design, challenging leaders to move beyond surface-level practices and embrace design as a driver of real change in the age of AI.
Episode 4
Sep 9th, 2025
Season 1 Episode 4 - Robert Powell
Dhaba's forth episode has 'Grand PooBah of UX' Robert Powell chatting with Joel Gill FRSA creator of Dhaba
Summary
Robert gives a frank insight that after 40 years in Design, he no longer has anything to prove to himself. He just wants to make a difference and give back; which includes mentoring the next generation.
Takeaways
Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish when nurtured, and what happens when it’s dismantled by short-term thinking.
He exposes the organisational blind spots that often undermine creative cultures, showing how accountants and operational priorities can quietly erode even the most successful design environments.
His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design—built on four decades of experience spanning gaming, television, corporate strategy, and user-centred innovation.
Powell underscores the importance of community over hierarchy, revealing how empowering designers to push back, teach, and experiment creates stronger outcomes than rigid departmental silos.
He challenges leaders to move beyond surface-level practices, tool fetishism, and sector-specific gatekeeping, reframing design as a universal problem-solving process that transcends context.
In the age of AI, he cautions against using technology merely to maintain the status quo “cheaper,” instead urging leaders to harness AI’s potential to relieve mental heavy lifting and unlock deeper human creativity.
For those willing to listen, his perspective becomes both a warning and a guide—pointing to what good design leadership looks like, and how it can be rebuilt even after cultural dismantling.
Chapters
Keywords
Authentic design leadership, resilience and creativity, integrity in design, organisational blind spots, cultural dismantling, community over hierarchy, design as process not aesthetics, universal problem-solving, tool fetishism, sector gatekeeping, human–AI collaboration, failing cheaper, empowered design culture, multidisciplinary foundation, design as driver of change.
Episode 4
Sep 9th, 2025
Season 1 Episode 4 - Robert Powell
Dhaba's forth episode has 'Grand PooBah of UX' Robert Powell chatting with Joel Gill FRSA creator of Dhaba
Summary
Robert gives a frank insight that after 40 years in Design, he no longer has anything to prove to himself. He just wants to make a difference and give back; which includes mentoring the next generation.
Takeaways
Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish when nurtured, and what happens when it’s dismantled by short-term thinking.
He exposes the organisational blind spots that often undermine creative cultures, showing how accountants and operational priorities can quietly erode even the most successful design environments.
His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design—built on four decades of experience spanning gaming, television, corporate strategy, and user-centred innovation.
Powell underscores the importance of community over hierarchy, revealing how empowering designers to push back, teach, and experiment creates stronger outcomes than rigid departmental silos.
He challenges leaders to move beyond surface-level practices, tool fetishism, and sector-specific gatekeeping, reframing design as a universal problem-solving process that transcends context.
In the age of AI, he cautions against using technology merely to maintain the status quo “cheaper,” instead urging leaders to harness AI’s potential to relieve mental heavy lifting and unlock deeper human creativity.
For those willing to listen, his perspective becomes both a warning and a guide—pointing to what good design leadership looks like, and how it can be rebuilt even after cultural dismantling.
Chapters
Keywords
Authentic design leadership, resilience and creativity, integrity in design, organisational blind spots, cultural dismantling, community over hierarchy, design as process not aesthetics, universal problem-solving, tool fetishism, sector gatekeeping, human–AI collaboration, failing cheaper, empowered design culture, multidisciplinary foundation, design as driver of change.
Episode 4
Sep 9th, 2025
Season 1 Episode 4 - Robert Powell
Dhaba's forth episode has 'Grand PooBah of UX' Robert Powell chatting with Joel Gill FRSA creator of Dhaba
Summary
Robert gives a frank insight that after 40 years in Design, he no longer has anything to prove to himself. He just wants to make a difference and give back; which includes mentoring the next generation.
Takeaways
Powell’s story is more than a career retrospective. It’s a rare inside view of how authentic design leadership can flourish when nurtured, and what happens when it’s dismantled by short-term thinking.
He exposes the organisational blind spots that often undermine creative cultures, showing how accountants and operational priorities can quietly erode even the most successful design environments.
His reflections offer a blueprint for resilience, creativity, and integrity in design—built on four decades of experience spanning gaming, television, corporate strategy, and user-centred innovation.
Powell underscores the importance of community over hierarchy, revealing how empowering designers to push back, teach, and experiment creates stronger outcomes than rigid departmental silos.
He challenges leaders to move beyond surface-level practices, tool fetishism, and sector-specific gatekeeping, reframing design as a universal problem-solving process that transcends context.
In the age of AI, he cautions against using technology merely to maintain the status quo “cheaper,” instead urging leaders to harness AI’s potential to relieve mental heavy lifting and unlock deeper human creativity.
For those willing to listen, his perspective becomes both a warning and a guide—pointing to what good design leadership looks like, and how it can be rebuilt even after cultural dismantling.
Chapters
Keywords
Authentic design leadership, resilience and creativity, integrity in design, organisational blind spots, cultural dismantling, community over hierarchy, design as process not aesthetics, universal problem-solving, tool fetishism, sector gatekeeping, human–AI collaboration, failing cheaper, empowered design culture, multidisciplinary foundation, design as driver of change.