A vs. B: The Ultimate Showdown of Choices
Introduction: The Dilemma
Imagine standing at a metaphorical crossroads, where you must choose between two paths: A or B. You might think, “How different can they be?” Ah, dear reader, that’s where the plot thickens! Let’s boldly stride into the contrasting worlds of A and B, both promising similar outcomes, yet oh-so-different in their nuances.
A: The Classic Choice
Option A is like your trusty old friend who shows up to the party with your favorite snacks. It’s reliable, somewhat predictable, yet there’s comfort in the familiarity. Choosing A means you’re opting for a tried and true method that leaves little to chance. Sure, you may not win any awards for originality, but sometimes, sticking with the classics is the way to go. Plus, who doesn’t appreciate a good nostalgia trip?
B: The Wild Card
Now, let’s swing over to Option B—the enigmatic option that dances on the edge of spontaneity. This choice is the mysterious stranger at the party, making you wonder what delightful chaos you could unleash. While B may promise exciting twists and turns, it comes with its fair share of unpredictability. Sure, you might walk away with a story worthy of a bestseller, or you could end up with an unforgettable (and not in a good way) experience.
Conclusion: A Deliberate Decision
So, which would you pick: A or B? Both choices offer similar outcomes, but their journeys are starkly different. Whether you embrace the comfort of A or the intrigue of B, remember: it’s all about finding the path that resonates with you. Choose wisely, and happy adventuring!
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User Research Is Storytelling
Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated with movies. I loved the characters and the excitement—but most of all the stories. I wanted to be an actor. And I believed that I’d get to do the things that Indiana Jones did and go on exciting adventures. I even dreamed up ideas for movies that my friends and I could make and star in. But they never went any further. I did, however, end up working in user experience (UX). Now, I realize that there’s an element of theater to UX—I hadn’t really considered it before, but user research is storytelling. And to get the most out of user research, you need to tell a good story where you bring stakeholders—the product team and decision makers—along and get them interested in learning more.
Think of your favorite movie. More than likely it follows a three-act structure that’s commonly seen in storytelling: the setup, the conflict, and the resolution. The first act shows what exists today, and it helps you get to know the characters and the challenges and problems that they face. Act two introduces the conflict, where the action is. Here, problems grow or get worse. And the third and final act is the resolution. This is where the issues are resolved and the characters learn and change. I believe that this structure is also a great way to think about user research, and I think that it can be especially helpful in explaining user research to others.
Use storytelling as a structure to do research
It’s sad to say, but many have come to see research as being expendable. If budgets or timelines are tight, research tends to be one of the first things to go. Instead of investing in research, some product managers rely on designers or—worse—their own opinion to make the “right” choices for users based on their experience or accepted best practices. That may get teams some of the way, but that approach can so easily miss out on solving users’ real problems. To remain user-centered, this is something we should avoid. User research elevates design. It keeps it on track, pointing to problems and opportunities. Being aware of the issues with your product and reacting to them can help you stay ahead of your competitors.
In the three-act structure, each act corresponds to a part of the process, and each part is critical to telling the whole story. Let’s look at the different acts and how they align with user research.
Act one: setup
The setup is all about understanding the background, and that’s where foundational research comes in. Foundational research (also called generative, discovery, or initial research) helps you understand users and identify their problems. You’re learning about what exists today, the challenges users have, and how the challenges affect them—just like in the movies. To do foundational research, you can conduct contextual inquiries or diary studies (or both!), which can help you start to identify problems as well as opportunities. It doesn’t need to be a huge investment in time or money.
Erika Hall writes about minimum viable ethnography, which can be as simple as spending 15 minutes with a user and asking them one thing: “‘Walk me through your day yesterday.’ That’s it. Present that one request. Shut up and listen to them for 15 minutes. Do your damndest to keep yourself and your interests out of it. Bam, you’re doing ethnography.” According to Hall, “[This] will probably prove quite illuminating. In the highly unlikely case that you didn’t learn anything new or useful, carry on with enhanced confidence in your direction.”
This makes total sense to me. And I love that this makes user research so accessible. You don’t need to prepare a lot of documentation; you can just recruit participants and do it! This can yield a wealth of information about your users, and it’ll help you better understand them and what’s going on in their lives. That’s really what act one is all about: understanding where users are coming from.
Jared Spool talks about the importance of foundational research and how it should form the bulk of your research. If you can draw from any additional user data that you can get your hands on, such as surveys or analytics, that can supplement what you’ve heard in the foundational studies or even point to areas that need further investigation. Together, all this data paints a clearer picture of the state of things and all its shortcomings. And that’s the beginning of a compelling story. It’s the point in the plot where you realize that the main characters—or the users in this case—are facing challenges that they need to overcome. Like in the movies, this is where you start to build empathy for the characters and root for them to succeed. And hopefully stakeholders are now doing the same. Their sympathy may be with their business, which could be losing money because users can’t complete certain tasks. Or maybe they do empathize with users’ struggles. Either way, act one is your initial hook to get the stakeholders interested and invested.
Once stakeholders begin to understand the value of foundational research, that can open doors to more opportunities that involve users in the decision-making process. And that can guide product teams toward being more user-centered. This benefits everyone—users, the product, and stakeholders. It’s like winning an Oscar in movie terms—it often leads to your product being well received and successful. And this can be an incentive for stakeholders to repeat this process with other products. Storytelling is the key to this process, and knowing how to tell a good story is the only way to get stakeholders to really care about doing more research.
This brings us to act two, where you iteratively evaluate a design or concept to see whether it addresses the issues.
Act two: conflict
Act two is all about digging deeper into the problems that you identified in act one. This usually involves directional research, such as usability tests, where you assess a potential solution (such as a design) to see whether it addresses the issues that you found. The issues could include unmet needs or problems with a flow or process that’s tripping users up. Like act two in a movie, more issues will crop up along the way. It’s here that you learn more about the characters as they grow and develop through this act.
Usability tests should typically include around five participants according to Jakob Nielsen, who found that that number of users can usually identify most of the problems: “As you add more and more users, you learn less and less because you will keep seeing the same things again and again… After the fifth user, you are wasting your time by observing the same findings repeatedly but not learning much new.”
There are parallels with storytelling here too; if you try to tell a story with too many characters, the plot may get lost. Having fewer participants means that each user’s struggles will be more memorable and easier to relay to other stakeholders when talking about the research. This can help convey the issues that need to be addressed while also highlighting the value of doing the research in the first place.
Researchers have run usability tests in person for decades, but you can also conduct usability tests remotely using tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other teleconferencing software. This approach has become increasingly popular since the beginning of the pandemic, and it works well. You can think of in-person usability tests like going to a play and remote sessions as more like watching a movie. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. In-person usability research is a much richer experience. Stakeholders can experience the sessions with other stakeholders. You also get real-time reactions—including surprise, agreement, disagreement, and discussions about what they’re seeing. Much like going to a play, where audiences get to take in the stage, the costumes, the lighting, and the actors’ interactions, in-person research lets you see users up close, including their body language, how they interact with the moderator, and how the scene is set up.
If in-person usability testing is like watching a play—staged and controlled—then conducting usability testing in the field is like immersive theater where any two sessions might be very different from one another. You can take usability testing into the field by creating a replica of the space where users interact with the product and then conduct your research there. Or you can go out to meet users at their location to do your research. With either option, you get to see how things work in context, things come up that wouldn’t have in a lab environment—and conversion can shift in entirely different directions. As researchers, you have less control over how these sessions go, but this can sometimes help you understand users even better. Meeting users where they are can provide clues to the external forces that could be affecting how they use your product. In-person usability tests provide another level of detail that’s often missing from remote usability tests.
That’s not to say that the “movies”—remote sessions—aren’t a good option. Remote sessions can reach a wider audience. They allow a lot more stakeholders to be involved in the research and to see what’s going on. And they open the doors to a much wider geographical pool of users. But with any remote session there is the potential of time wasted if participants can’t log in or get their microphone working.
The benefit of usability testing, whether remote or in person, is that you get to see real users interact with the designs in real time, and you can ask them questions to understand their thought processes and grasp of the solution. This can help you not only identify problems but also glean why they’re problems in the first place. Furthermore, you can test hypotheses and gauge whether your thinking is correct. By the end of the sessions, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how usable the designs are and whether they work for their intended purposes. Act two is the heart of the story—where the excitement is—but there can be surprises too. This is equally true of usability tests. Often, participants will say unexpected things, which change the way that you look at things—and these twists in the story can move things in new directions.
Unfortunately, user research is sometimes seen as expendable. And too often usability testing is the only research process that some stakeholders think that they ever need. In fact, if the designs that you’re evaluating in the usability test aren’t grounded in a solid understanding of your users (foundational research), there’s not much to be gained by doing usability testing in the first place. That’s because you’re narrowing the focus of what you’re getting feedback on, without understanding the users’ needs. As a result, there’s no way of knowing whether the designs might solve a problem that users have. It’s only feedback on a particular design in the context of a usability test.
On the other hand, if you only do foundational research, while you might have set out to solve the right problem, you won’t know whether the thing that you’re building will actually solve that. This illustrates the importance of doing both foundational and directional research.
In act two, stakeholders will—hopefully—get to watch the story unfold in the user sessions, which creates the conflict and tension in the current design by surfacing their highs and lows. And in turn, this can help motivate stakeholders to address the issues that come up.
Act three: resolution
While the first two acts are about understanding the background and the tensions that can propel stakeholders into action, the third part is about resolving the problems from the first two acts. While it’s important to have an audience for the first two acts, it’s crucial that they stick around for the final act. That means the whole product team, including developers, UX practitioners, business analysts, delivery managers, product managers, and any other stakeholders that have a say in the next steps. It allows the whole team to hear users’ feedback together, ask questions, and discuss what’s possible within the project’s constraints. And it lets the UX research and design teams clarify, suggest alternatives, or give more context behind their decisions. So you can get everyone on the same page and get agreement on the way forward.
This act is mostly told in voiceover with some audience participation. The researcher is the narrator, who paints a picture of the issues and what the future of the product could look like given the things that the team has learned. They give the stakeholders their recommendations and their guidance on creating this vision.
Nancy Duarte in the Harvard Business Review offers an approach to structuring presentations that follow a persuasive story. “The most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved,” writes Duarte. “That tension helps them persuade the audience to adopt a new mindset or behave differently.”
This type of structure aligns well with research results, and particularly results from usability tests. It provides evidence for “what is”—the problems that you’ve identified. And “what could be”—your recommendations on how to address them. And so on and so forth.
You can reinforce your recommendations with examples of things that competitors are doing that could address these issues or with examples where competitors are gaining an edge. Or they can be visual, like quick mockups of how a new design could look that solves a problem. These can help generate conversation and momentum. And this continues until the end of the session when you’ve wrapped everything up in the conclusion by summarizing the main issues and suggesting a way forward. This is the part where you reiterate the main themes or problems and what they mean for the product—the denouement of the story. This stage gives stakeholders the next steps and hopefully the momentum to take those steps!
While we are nearly at the end of this story, let’s reflect on the idea that user research is storytelling. All the elements of a good story are there in the three-act structure of user research:
- Act one: You meet the protagonists (the users) and the antagonists (the problems affecting users). This is the beginning of the plot. In act one, researchers might use methods including contextual inquiry, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, and analytics. The output of these methods can include personas, empathy maps, user journeys, and analytics dashboards.
- Act two: Next, there’s character development. There’s conflict and tension as the protagonists encounter problems and challenges, which they must overcome. In act two, researchers might use methods including usability testing, competitive benchmarking, and heuristics evaluation. The output of these can include usability findings reports, UX strategy documents, usability guidelines, and best practices.
- Act three: The protagonists triumph and you see what a better future looks like. In act three, researchers may use methods including presentation decks, storytelling, and digital media. The output of these can be: presentation decks, video clips, audio clips, and pictures.
The researcher has multiple roles: they’re the storyteller, the director, and the producer. The participants have a small role, but they are significant characters (in the research). And the stakeholders are the audience. But the most important thing is to get the story right and to use storytelling to tell users’ stories through research. By the end, the stakeholders should walk away with a purpose and an eagerness to resolve the product’s ills.
So the next time that you’re planning research with clients or you’re speaking to stakeholders about research that you’ve done, think about how you can weave in some storytelling. Ultimately, user research is a win-win for everyone, and you just need to get stakeholders interested in how the story ends.
From Beta to Bedrock: Build Products that Stick.
As a product builder over too many years to mention, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen promising ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months.
Financial products, which is the field I work in, are no exception. With people’s real hard-earned money on the line, user expectations running high, and a crowded market, it’s tempting to throw as many features at the wall as possible and hope something sticks. But this approach is a recipe for disaster. Here’s why:
The pitfalls of feature-first development
When you start building a financial product from the ground up, or are migrating existing customer journeys from paper or telephony channels onto online banking or mobile apps, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of creating new features. You might think, “If I can just add one more thing that solves this particular user problem, they’ll love me!” But what happens when you inevitably hit a roadblock because the narcs (your security team!) don’t like it? When a hard-fought feature isn’t as popular as you thought, or it breaks due to unforeseen complexity?
This is where the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) comes in. Jason Fried’s book Getting Real and his podcast Rework often touch on this idea, even if he doesn’t always call it that. An MVP is a product that provides just enough value to your users to keep them engaged, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming or difficult to maintain. It sounds like an easy concept but it requires a razor sharp eye, a ruthless edge and having the courage to stick by your opinion because it is easy to be seduced by “the Columbo Effect”… when there’s always “just one more thing…” that someone wants to add.
The problem with most finance apps, however, is that they often become a reflection of the internal politics of the business rather than an experience solely designed around the customer. This means that the focus is on delivering as many features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the needs and desires of competing internal departments, rather than providing a clear value proposition that is focused on what the people out there in the real world want. As a result, these products can very easily bloat to become a mixed bag of confusing, unrelated and ultimately unlovable customer experiences—a feature salad, you might say.
The importance of bedrock
So what’s a better approach? How can we build products that are stable, user-friendly, and—most importantly—stick?
That’s where the concept of “bedrock” comes in. Bedrock is the core element of your product that truly matters to users. It’s the fundamental building block that provides value and stays relevant over time.
In the world of retail banking, which is where I work, the bedrock has got to be in and around the regular servicing journeys. People open their current account once in a blue moon but they look at it every day. They sign up for a credit card every year or two, but they check their balance and pay their bill at least once a month.
Identifying the core tasks that people want to do and then relentlessly striving to make them easy to do, dependable, and trustworthy is where the gravy’s at.
But how do you get to bedrock? By focusing on the “MVP” approach, prioritizing simplicity, and iterating towards a clear value proposition. This means cutting out unnecessary features and focusing on delivering real value to your users.
It also means having some guts, because your colleagues might not always instantly share your vision to start with. And controversially, sometimes it can even mean making it clear to customers that you’re not going to come to their house and make their dinner. The occasional “opinionated user interface design” (i.e. clunky workaround for edge cases) might sometimes be what you need to use to test a concept or buy you space to work on something more important.
Practical strategies for building financial products that stick
So what are the key strategies I’ve learned from my own experience and research?
- Start with a clear “why”: What problem are you trying to solve? For whom? Make sure your mission is crystal clear before building anything. Make sure it aligns with your company’s objectives, too.
- Focus on a single, core feature and obsess on getting that right before moving on to something else: Resist the temptation to add too many features at once. Instead, choose one that delivers real value and iterate from there.
- Prioritize simplicity over complexity: Less is often more when it comes to financial products. Cut out unnecessary bells and whistles and keep the focus on what matters most.
- Embrace continuous iteration: Bedrock isn’t a fixed destination—it’s a dynamic process. Continuously gather user feedback, refine your product, and iterate towards that bedrock state.
- Stop, look and listen: Don’t just test your product as part of your delivery process—test it repeatedly in the field. Use it yourself. Run A/B tests. Gather user feedback. Talk to people who use it, and refine accordingly.
The bedrock paradox
There’s an interesting paradox at play here: building towards bedrock means sacrificing some short-term growth potential in favour of long-term stability. But the payoff is worth it—products built with a focus on bedrock will outlast and outperform their competitors, and deliver sustained value to users over time.
So, how do you start your journey towards bedrock? Take it one step at a time. Start by identifying those core elements that truly matter to your users. Focus on building and refining a single, powerful feature that delivers real value. And above all, test obsessively—for, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker (whomever you believe!!), “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
An Holistic Framework for Shared Design Leadership
Picture this: You’re in a meeting room at your tech company, and two people are having what looks like the same conversation about the same design problem. One is talking about whether the team has the right skills to tackle it. The other is diving deep into whether the solution actually solves the user’s problem. Same room, same problem, completely different lenses.
This is the beautiful, sometimes messy reality of having both a Design Manager and a Lead Designer on the same team. And if you’re wondering how to make this work without creating confusion, overlap, or the dreaded “too many cooks” scenario, you’re asking the right question.
The traditional answer has been to draw clean lines on an org chart. The Design Manager handles people, the Lead Designer handles craft. Problem solved, right? Except clean org charts are fantasy. In reality, both roles care deeply about team health, design quality, and shipping great work.
The magic happens when you embrace the overlap instead of fighting it—when you start thinking of your design org as a design organism.
The Anatomy of a Healthy Design Team
Here’s what I’ve learned from years of being on both sides of this equation: think of your design team as a living organism. The Design Manager tends to the mind (the psychological safety, the career growth, the team dynamics). The Lead Designer tends to the body (the craft skills, the design standards, the hands-on work that ships to users).
But just like mind and body aren’t completely separate systems, so, too, do these roles overlap in important ways. You can’t have a healthy person without both working in harmony. The trick is knowing where those overlaps are and how to navigate them gracefully.
When we look at how healthy teams actually function, three critical systems emerge. Each requires both roles to work together, but with one taking primary responsibility for keeping that system strong.
The Nervous System: People & Psychology
Primary caretaker: Design Manager
Supporting role: Lead Designer
The nervous system is all about signals, feedback, and psychological safety. When this system is healthy, information flows freely, people feel safe to take risks, and the team can adapt quickly to new challenges.
The Design Manager is the primary caretaker here. They’re monitoring the team’s psychological pulse, ensuring feedback loops are healthy, and creating the conditions for people to grow. They’re hosting career conversations, managing workload, and making sure no one burns out.
But the Lead Designer plays a crucial supporting role. They’re providing sensory input about craft development needs, spotting when someone’s design skills are stagnating, and helping identify growth opportunities that the Design Manager might miss.
Design Manager tends to:
- Career conversations and growth planning
- Team psychological safety and dynamics
- Workload management and resource allocation
- Performance reviews and feedback systems
- Creating learning opportunities
Lead Designer supports by:
- Providing craft-specific feedback on team member development
- Identifying design skill gaps and growth opportunities
- Offering design mentorship and guidance
- Signaling when team members are ready for more complex challenges
The Muscular System: Craft & Execution
Primary caretaker: Lead Designer
Supporting role: Design Manager
The muscular system is about strength, coordination, and skill development. When this system is healthy, the team can execute complex design work with precision, maintain consistent quality, and adapt their craft to new challenges.
The Lead Designer is the primary caretaker here. They’re setting design standards, providing craft coaching, and ensuring that shipping work meets the quality bar. They’re the ones who can tell you if a design decision is sound or if we’re solving the right problem.
But the Design Manager plays a crucial supporting role. They’re ensuring the team has the resources and support to do their best craft work, like proper nutrition and recovery time for an athlete.
Lead Designer tends to:
- Definition of design standards and system usage
- Feedback on what design work meets the standard
- Experience direction for the product
- Design decisions and product-wide alignment
- Innovation and craft advancement
Design Manager supports by:
- Ensuring design standards are understood and adopted across the team
- Confirming experience direction is being followed
- Supporting practices and systems that scale without bottlenecking
- Facilitating design alignment across teams
- Providing resources and removing obstacles to great craft work
The Circulatory System: Strategy & Flow
Shared caretakers: Both Design Manager and Lead Designer
The circulatory system is about how information, decisions, and energy flow through the team. When this system is healthy, strategic direction is clear, priorities are aligned, and the team can respond quickly to new opportunities or challenges.
This is where true partnership happens. Both roles are responsible for keeping the circulation strong, but they’re bringing different perspectives to the table.
Lead Designer contributes:
- User needs are met by the product
- Overall product quality and experience
- Strategic design initiatives
- Research-based user needs for each initiative
Design Manager contributes:
- Communication to team and stakeholders
- Stakeholder management and alignment
- Cross-functional team accountability
- Strategic business initiatives
Both collaborate on:
- Co-creation of strategy with leadership
- Team goals and prioritization approach
- Organizational structure decisions
- Success measures and frameworks
Keeping the Organism Healthy
The key to making this partnership sing is understanding that all three systems need to work together. A team with great craft skills but poor psychological safety will burn out. A team with great culture but weak craft execution will ship mediocre work. A team with both but poor strategic circulation will work hard on the wrong things.
Be Explicit About Which System You’re Tending
When you’re in a meeting about a design problem, it helps to acknowledge which system you’re primarily focused on. “I’m thinking about this from a team capacity perspective” (nervous system) or “I’m looking at this through the lens of user needs” (muscular system) gives everyone context for your input.
This isn’t about staying in your lane. It’s about being transparent as to which lens you’re using, so the other person knows how to best add their perspective.
Create Healthy Feedback Loops
The most successful partnerships I’ve seen establish clear feedback loops between the systems:
Nervous system signals to muscular system: “The team is struggling with confidence in their design skills” → Lead Designer provides more craft coaching and clearer standards.
Muscular system signals to nervous system: “The team’s craft skills are advancing faster than their project complexity” → Design Manager finds more challenging growth opportunities.
Both systems signal to circulatory system: “We’re seeing patterns in team health and craft development that suggest we need to adjust our strategic priorities.”
Handle Handoffs Gracefully
The most critical moments in this partnership are when something moves from one system to another. This might be when a design standard (muscular system) needs to be rolled out across the team (nervous system), or when a strategic initiative (circulatory system) needs specific craft execution (muscular system).
Make these transitions explicit. “I’ve defined the new component standards. Can you help me think through how to get the team up to speed?” or “We’ve agreed on this strategic direction. I’m going to focus on the specific user experience approach from here.”
Stay Curious, Not Territorial
The Design Manager who never thinks about craft, or the Lead Designer who never considers team dynamics, is like a doctor who only looks at one body system. Great design leadership requires both people to care about the whole organism, even when they’re not the primary caretaker.
This means asking questions rather than making assumptions. “What do you think about the team’s craft development in this area?” or “How do you see this impacting team morale and workload?” keeps both perspectives active in every decision.
When the Organism Gets Sick
Even with clear roles, this partnership can go sideways. Here are the most common failure modes I’ve seen:
System Isolation
The Design Manager focuses only on the nervous system and ignores craft development. The Lead Designer focuses only on the muscular system and ignores team dynamics. Both people retreat to their comfort zones and stop collaborating.
The symptoms: Team members get mixed messages, work quality suffers, morale drops.
The treatment: Reconnect around shared outcomes. What are you both trying to achieve? Usually it’s great design work that ships on time from a healthy team. Figure out how both systems serve that goal.
Poor Circulation
Strategic direction is unclear, priorities keep shifting, and neither role is taking responsibility for keeping information flowing.
The symptoms: Team members are confused about priorities, work gets duplicated or dropped, deadlines are missed.
The treatment: Explicitly assign responsibility for circulation. Who’s communicating what to whom? How often? What’s the feedback loop?
Autoimmune Response
One person feels threatened by the other’s expertise. The Design Manager thinks the Lead Designer is undermining their authority. The Lead Designer thinks the Design Manager doesn’t understand craft.
The symptoms: Defensive behavior, territorial disputes, team members caught in the middle.
The treatment: Remember that you’re both caretakers of the same organism. When one system fails, the whole team suffers. When both systems are healthy, the team thrives.
The Payoff
Yes, this model requires more communication. Yes, it requires both people to be secure enough to share responsibility for team health. But the payoff is worth it: better decisions, stronger teams, and design work that’s both excellent and sustainable.
When both roles are healthy and working well together, you get the best of both worlds: deep craft expertise and strong people leadership. When one person is out sick, on vacation, or overwhelmed, the other can help maintain the team’s health. When a decision requires both the people perspective and the craft perspective, you’ve got both right there in the room.
Most importantly, the framework scales. As your team grows, you can apply the same system thinking to new challenges. Need to launch a design system? Lead Designer tends to the muscular system (standards and implementation), Design Manager tends to the nervous system (team adoption and change management), and both tend to circulation (communication and stakeholder alignment).
The Bottom Line
The relationship between a Design Manager and Lead Designer isn’t about dividing territories. It’s about multiplying impact. When both roles understand they’re tending to different aspects of the same healthy organism, magic happens.
The mind and body work together. The team gets both the strategic thinking and the craft excellence they need. And most importantly, the work that ships to users benefits from both perspectives.
So the next time you’re in that meeting room, wondering why two people are talking about the same problem from different angles, remember: you’re watching shared leadership in action. And if it’s working well, both the mind and body of your design team are getting stronger.
Design Dialects: Breaking the Rules, Not the System
“Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior.” — Kenneth L. Pike
The web has accents. So should our design systems.
Design Systems as Living Languages
Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell.
But here’s what we’ve forgotten: the more fluently a language is spoken, the more accents it can support without losing meaning. English in Scotland differs from English in Sydney, yet both are unmistakably English. The language adapts to context while preserving core meaning. This couldn’t be more obvious to me, a Brazilian Portuguese speaker, who learned English with an American accent, and lives in Sydney.
Our design systems must work the same way. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking.
Consistency becomes a prison
The promise of design systems was simple: consistent components would accelerate development and unify experiences. But as systems matured and products grew more complex, that promise has become a prison. Teams file “exception” requests by the hundreds. Products launch with workarounds instead of system components. Designers spend more time defending consistency than solving user problems.
Our design systems must learn to speak dialects.
A design dialect is a systematic adaptation of a design system that maintains core principles while developing new patterns for specific contexts. Unlike one-off customizations or brand themes, dialects preserve the system’s essential grammar while expanding its vocabulary to serve different users, environments, or constraints.
When Perfect Consistency Fails
At Booking.com, I learned this lesson the hard way. We A/B-tested everything—color, copy, button shapes, even logo colors. As a professional with a graphic design education and experience building brand style guides, I found this shocking. While everyone fell in love with Airbnb’s pristine design system, Booking grew into a giant without ever considering visual consistency.
The chaos taught me something profound: consistency isn’t ROI; solved problems are.
At Shopify. Polaris () was our crown jewel—a mature design language perfect for merchants on laptops. As a product team, we were expected to adopt Polaris as-is. Then my fulfillment team hit an “Oh, Ship!” moment, as we faced the challenge of building an app for warehouse pickers using our interface on shared, battered Android scanners in dim aisles, wearing thick gloves, scanning dozens of items per minute, many with limited levels of English understanding.
Task completion with standard Polaris: 0%.
Every component that worked beautifully for merchants failed completely for pickers. White backgrounds created glare. 44px tap targets were invisible to gloved fingers. Sentence-case labels took too long to parse. Multi-step flows confused non-native speakers.
We faced a choice: abandon Polaris entirely, or teach it to speak warehouse.
The Birth of a Dialect
We chose evolution over revolution. Working within Polaris’s core principles—clarity, efficiency, consistency—we developed what we now call a design dialect:
| Constraint | Fluent Move | Rationale |
| Glare & low light | Dark surfaces + light text | Reduce glare on low-DPI screens |
| Gloves & haste | 90px tap targets (~2cm) | Accommodate thick gloves |
| Multilingual | Single-task screens, plain language | Reduce cognitive load |
Result: Task completion jumped from 0% to 100%. Onboarding time dropped from three weeks to one shift.
This wasn’t customization or theming—this was a dialect: a systematic adaptation that maintained Polaris’s core grammar while developing new vocabulary for a specific context. Polaris hadn’t failed; it had learned to speak warehouse.
The Flexibility Framework
At Atlassian, working on the Jira platform—itself a system within the larger Atlassian system—I pushed for formalizing this insight. With dozens of products sharing a design language across different codebases, we needed systematic flexibility so we built directly into our ways of working. The old model—exception requests and special approvals—was failing at scale.
We developed the Flexibility Framework to help designers define how flexible they wanted their components to be:
| Tier | Action | Ownership |
| Consistent | Adopt unchanged | Platform locks design + code |
| Opinionated | Adapt within bounds | Platform provides smart defaults, products customize |
| Flexible | Extend freely | Platform defines behavior, products own presentation |
During a navigation redesign, we tiered every element. Logo and global search stayed Consistent. Breadcrumbs and contextual actions became Flexible. Product teams could immediately see where innovation was welcome and where consistency mattered.
The Decision Ladder
Flexibility needs boundaries. We created a simple ladder for evaluating when rules should bend:
Good: Ship with existing system components. Fast, consistent, proven.
Better: Stretch a component slightly. Document the change. Contribute improvements back to the system for all to use.
Best: Prototype the ideal experience first. If user testing validates the benefit, update the system to support it.
The key question: “Which option lets users succeed fastest?”
Rules are tools, not relics.
Unity Beats Uniformity
Gmail, Drive, and Maps are unmistakably Google—yet each speaks with its own accent. They achieve unity through shared principles, not cloned components. One extra week of debate over button color costs roughly $30K in engineer time.
Unity is a brand outcome; fluency is a user outcome. When the two clash, side with the user.
Governance Without Gates
How do you maintain coherence while enabling dialects? Treat your system like a living vocabulary:
Document every deviation – e.g., dialects/warehouse.md with before/after screenshots and rationale.
Promote shared patterns – when three teams adopt a dialect independently, review it for core inclusion.
Deprecate with context – retire old idioms via flags and migration notes, never a big-bang purge.
A living dictionary scales better than a frozen rulebook.
Start Small: Your First Dialect
Ready to introduce dialects? Start with one broken experience:
This week: Find one user flow where perfect consistency blocks task completion. Could be mobile users struggling with desktop-sized components, or accessibility needs your standard patterns don’t address.
Document the context: What makes standard patterns fail here? Environmental constraints? User capabilities? Task urgency?
Design one systematic change: Focus on behavior over aesthetics. If gloves are the problem, bigger targets aren’t “”breaking the system””—they’re serving the user. Earn the variations and make them intentional.
Test and measure: Does the change improve task completion? Time to productivity? User satisfaction?
Show the savings: If that dialect frees even half a sprint, fluency has paid for itself.
Beyond the Component Library
We’re not managing design systems anymore—we’re cultivating design languages. Languages that grow with their speakers. Languages that develop accents without losing meaning. Languages that serve human needs over aesthetic ideals.
The warehouse workers who went from 0% to 100% task completion didn’t care that our buttons broke the style guide. They cared that the buttons finally worked.
Your users feel the same way. Give your system permission to speak their language.
From SEO to AEO: Todd Sawicki Reveals How AI Is Transforming Search
From SEO to AEO: Todd Sawicki Reveals How AI Is Transforming Search written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
Listen to the full episode: Overview On this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, John Jantsch interviews Todd Sawicki, founder and CEO of Gumshoe AI, a cutting-edge platform helping marketers navigate the rapidly evolving world of AI-driven search and discovery. Todd breaks down what AIO, AEO, and AI search really mean for marketers, why […]
From SEO to AEO: Todd Sawicki Reveals How AI Is Transforming Search written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
![Todd Sawicki (1)]()
Overview
On this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, John Jantsch interviews Todd Sawicki, founder and CEO of Gumshoe AI, a cutting-edge platform helping marketers navigate the rapidly evolving world of AI-driven search and discovery. Todd breaks down what AIO, AEO, and AI search really mean for marketers, why buyer behavior is shifting, and how brands can optimize for the new era where large language models (LLMs) drive discovery, answers, and conversions. If you’re looking for practical ways to future-proof your SEO and content marketing, this episode is packed with actionable insights and big-picture context.
About the Guest
Todd Sawicki is the founder and CEO of Gumshoe AI, a platform at the forefront of AI-driven search and discovery solutions. With a deep background in digital media, marketing technology, and scaling startups, Todd is a sought-after voice on the future of search, LLM optimization, and how marketers can adapt as buyer behavior and search platforms are transformed by AI.
- Website & Free Report: gumshoe.ai
Actionable Insights
- AI-driven search (AIO, AEO) is fundamentally changing how buyers search, what they expect, and how marketers must optimize—think “training the AI salesperson” rather than just ranking on Google.
- LLMs (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews) are increasingly personalizing answers, using your site’s content, FAQs, product detail pages, and structured data to deliver tailored recommendations.
- AI search users are high-intent and convert at dramatically higher rates—often 2–20x higher than traditional organic or paid search—because they are pre-qualified and further down the funnel.
- Content quality, structure, and freshness matter more than ever; LLMs reward authoritative, updated, and well-organized information, not just what’s most popular or backlinked.
- Updating and repurposing existing content (especially with FAQs, schema, and summaries) is critical—LLMs cite content that has been updated within the last 90 days.
- Competitive insights and personas are key: Tools like Gumshoe can reveal what LLMs say about you, your competitors, and which personas they surface—providing messaging ideas and identifying areas to improve.
- Focus on high-intent, conversion-focused queries (not just top-of-funnel trends) and use AI insights to build better ad campaigns, content, and product positioning.
- Track, measure, and iterate: AI traffic is growing fast—use analytics to see where it’s coming from, how it performs, and how your optimizations are working.
Great Moments (with Timestamps)
- 01:31 – The Rise of AI Search and Zero-Click Experiences
How AI-driven search is changing user expectations, buyer behavior, and marketing priorities. - 03:21 – Why Buyer Behavior Matters More Than Technology
Users are asking longer, more complex, and more high-intent questions, and expect personalized answers. - 05:18 – The Value of AI Traffic
Why visitors from AI answers convert at much higher rates—and what marketers should do about it. - 06:49 – Training the AI Salesperson
How to “teach” LLMs about your product, and why product marketing and messaging matter more than old-school SEO tactics. - 08:30 – What Content Do LLMs Prefer?
Brand websites, FAQs, knowledge bases, and structured content are the top sources cited by AI. - 09:52 – Why Doing Content Right Pays Off
How years of quality content and structure are finally being rewarded by AI-driven platforms. - 12:26 – Content Freshness, Updates, and Repurposing
The average AI-cited content is only 86 days old—updating and repurposing is critical for ongoing visibility. - 14:42 – How Gumshoe AI Works
Using personas, synthetic users, and competitive insights to see what LLMs are saying about your business—and what to do next. - 20:38 – The Future of High-Intent Search
Marketers must focus on conversion-ready, long-tail queries and position for the new funnel managed by AI.
Insights
“AI-driven search means you have to train the AI like you’d train a salesperson—answer objections, provide detailed info, and position your product for each persona.”
“Content quality, structure, and freshness are the new currency—LLMs reward the right answers, not just the most popular ones.”
“Focus on high-intent, conversion-ready queries—AI search gets users further down the funnel, and marketers need to adapt their messaging and content to win.”
“Analytics prove it: AI-driven visitors stay longer and convert more. Optimize now and track what’s working as AI’s role in discovery grows.”
“Competitive intelligence and persona insights are critical—know what LLMs say about you and your competitors to improve your messaging and positioning.”
John Jantsch (00:02.52)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Todd Sawicki. He’s the founder and CEO of Gum Shoe AI, an innovative platform at the forefront of AI-driven search and discovery solutions. With a background in digital media marketing technology and leading high-growth startups, Todd is known for his deep insight into changing landscape of search. We’re going to talk about SEO, we’re going to talk about AIO, AEO, all the
Other rows that are out there.
Todd Sawicki (00:33.81)
As long as we don’t call it GEO, what, you can tell the person who came up with that had no background in marketing because I’m sorry, the minute I’ve been in the paid landscape, the minute you see the letters GEO, you instantly think of geo targeting, hello people, the last thing we wanna do is make anything more confusing than it might otherwise be. So, my little soapbox for today.
John Jantsch (00:48.622)
Sure,
John Jantsch (00:54.86)
And so with that, with that Todd’s on the show. So welcome Todd. So let’s, mean, I kind of laid that out a little bit. You know, you’ve created a tool that is really taking advantage of some of the changes that are going on in marketing today, especially around search. So maybe give a high level kind of in your view, let’s start with the basics. All this stuff we’re hearing about.
Todd Sawicki (01:10.609)
Yes.
John Jantsch (01:21.41)
GEO for one, AIO, AIO, know, all those kinds of things. I mean, what does it all really boil down to for the typical marketer or typical business?
Todd Sawicki (01:31.374)
It is a it is a good question. So I think we all woke up a year ago. And with the rise of zero click searches with AI mode in Google search taking off, and we began to see Google traffic starting to decline. And at the same time, if anyone was sort of looking at their, like GA four analytics or whatever they’re using, they started to see, look, I’m getting this new basket of traffic from chat, tbt and others. And so AI
John Jantsch (01:50.478)
Mm-hmm.
Todd Sawicki (01:58.706)
and sort of looking at that. so the AI search is taking off. And so as a marketer, suddenly you had to start paying to this attention, this new thing called AI search. And so fundamentally, we look at it as, you know, marketers want to understand what the hell are LMS saying about me. And then from a product standpoint, we like to say yes, we help marketers understand what LMS think about them and their brands, and ultimately what to do about it. And I think that’s one of the interesting things is there’s a lot more you can do about it, because AI search is a
fundamentally different platform and approach than traditional search and really in many ways I think a search is solving a lot of the problems we’ve been complaints as end users we’ve had about traditional search and then there’s downstream applications for marketers and how to think about how you work with those platforms as a result.
John Jantsch (02:45.262)
Well, and I think you’re hitting on one of the things that I try to get people to understand. Everybody always goes, oh, we’ve got these new platforms. Um, but what they fail sometimes to recognize is that the buyer behavior is changing because of these new platforms and how people, what their expectations are, how they now go to, even to Google. mean, I’m seeing people do this. We used to put it in these nice little compact searches. Well, I’m seeing people put in these very long searches now, very high intent, you know, very filtered almost because they know they can get AI overviews and things. And I think that.
Todd Sawicki (02:57.202)
Correct.
Todd Sawicki (03:09.039)
Exactly.
John Jantsch (03:15.222)
change is really what we really need to adjust to, right? It’s not necessarily the technology, is it?
Todd Sawicki (03:21.778)
I agree users have fundamentally changed and you probably hear this even anecdotally amongst your friend sets. Like you start kind of experimenting with chat tpt or perplexity or whatever it is and you’re like you ask it a real deep question that you know is very frustrating to get answered in traditional search and you would have to click through 10 things and it was just a pain in the ass and took a lot of time and where now you get a pretty good answer most of the time right away and it fundamentally changes the experience. I mean we’re seeing dramatic thing changes especially in complex areas like b2b type searches.
It’s a great use case when you’re researching very technical things. You’re researching like more long tail areas for traditional search work wonderfully in the world of AI. And I think the other thing that traditional search really did a poor job of, and it really shows up in AI search is AI search does a phenomenal job of personalizing its answers for you. And that is one of the things that
in even in terms of our own product and platform, but the implications of that are very interesting. And so as an end user rate, would you imagine think of the LM as you walk into a shoe store, and there’s a wall of 500 pairs of shoes behind that salesperson as you walk in, and the LM is the salesperson. And so you’re trying to know what’s the right pair of shoes? Well, Google you do it doesn’t really ever answer I need a new pair of shoes, you would never like Google just would struggle with that. But with
John Jantsch (04:43.488)
Or give you the most popular shoes or whatever.
Todd Sawicki (04:45.488)
Or give you the most popular one. Exactly. Just give you the most popular one. But the LLMs are really trying to understand, are you a runner? Are you a hiker? you have an account, you register, they’re building profiles of you, interestingly enough. Right? The minute you put your email in, it knows where you work. It knows what you’re affiliated with. And so as a result, your users are seeing that there really, there’s a value for that relationship between you and the LLMs. It learns more about who you are. It discovers things. It’s trying to personalize the answers. And so it therefore can give you a better answer and really help you in a way that
Traditional search never quite got to.
John Jantsch (05:18.252)
You know, and one of things that I get business owners pretty excited about, because a lot of them are going, is all hype or like, don’t, you know, do I got to really do this or am I really going to get AI traffic or not get AI traffic? So all these questions and all I do is show them analytics. and I am able to demonstrate that to them, the people who come from AI stay on your site 10 times longer and convert seven times more than your paid ads, more than your organic traffic. And a lot of that, think is just what you talked about because.
Todd Sawicki (05:43.602)
Yup.
John Jantsch (05:47.5)
they are doing the filtering themselves. And if they get to your website, it’s because you had what they wanted. Right.
Todd Sawicki (05:51.258)
Exactly. They’re pre-qualified. Right. No, and we’re seeing stats on the B to C. We typically see a little bit less than seven X, probably more in the range of kind of two to five X increased conversions on the B to B side. We’re seeing increased conversion rates up to like 20 X better. Cause again, they’re down the funnel. Cause right. When I think about, you think of from a marketer standpoint, let’s think about the classic marketing funnel. There’s discovery, then consideration, then conversion.
Google managed discovery and then handed you off to websites to manage consideration like your own website some third-party writer whatever it might be but AI is trying to do not just discovery but manage through the Q &A process consideration as well and then hand that user off for conversion and So that’s why you see these higher conversion rates. They’re further down the funnel AI has managed that now from a marketing standpoint You’re now your challenges. I need to manage AI differently because now suddenly it’s it’s the one selling my product
John Jantsch (06:49.09)
Yeah, yeah.
Todd Sawicki (06:49.35)
And I think that’s the fundamental shift here as a marketer is you have to going back to that, that shoe store analogy, that element as a salesperson means you’re going to have to manage that person, right? That’s not your job. Whereas SEO, and I think this is one of the other big changes. SEO is a very technical thing, like link building. And remember that the just the ridiculous debate we had for years about is it a sub domain or a folder? Right? Is that marketing? No, that’s a very technical thing. And you know, any non technical marketer, whenever that discussion and by the way,
for those who don’t pay attention that went on for years like it was like a red versus blue sort of battle in the online marketing sphere. And but a very technical thing not marketing based at all. And I think the differences for LLMs, it’s much more of a, oh, how do I teach the LLMs what to say about my product, just like I teach, you know, a salesperson at the front of Dick’s Sporting Goods store kind of the same way. And so it’s now it’s much more of a product marketing exercise than it ever was with traditional search. And I think that’s the other thing is
You’re going to have to think about how you talk to the LLMs and how you market to them.
John Jantsch (07:50.35)
Well, and this gets at the crux of, you know, a good salesperson is trained on, know, all the objections of, you know, all the questions they’re going to get. Right. And so now all of a sudden our content has to be answers.
Todd Sawicki (07:57.222)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Todd Sawicki (08:04.722)
Correct? absolutely. So one of the things, so Gumshoo as a platform has been, we publicly launched it about six months ago and we’ve already worked more than 3,500 marketers have signed up. We’ve already generated millions of prompts on behalf of marketers so they understand what elements say in response to these prompts. And as a result, we’re able to analyze those response. think it’s like 10 million answers that we’ve analyzed.
John Jantsch (08:29.112)
Mm-hmm.
Todd Sawicki (08:30.416)
And then you really, you start to see patterns in what they’re doing, but they absolutely want you as marketers to provide them kind of sample question answers back. if you, of the fascinating things about LLMs is they actually link, they prefer the number one source that they link to for product information are brand websites. And then within that, they link to product description pages or PDPs or product detail pages, whatever description you want to use, like the PDPs, FAQs,
John Jantsch (08:50.616)
Mm-hmm.
Todd Sawicki (08:59.896)
knowledge base articles, how to sections, they love that sort of informative how to answer questions for them. And they use that as a guide. Now they process their own way, they kind of regurgitate it in their own way, but they want to use that as a basis. So you’re right, you’re gonna you have to just like you train that salesperson on Rude Q &A, you’re doing the same thing now with the models, which I think is interesting to marketers, when they start kind of like seeing and understanding like it’s not a marketing exercise, and not a weird technical link building sub domain folder esoteric discussion anymore.
John Jantsch (09:04.738)
Yep. Yeah.
John Jantsch (09:25.292)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and one of the things that we have seen, because, know, I’ve always believed that, that you do content, right. You’re going to get rewarded by the search engines. Well, we’ve been doing content, right. In my view, you know, hub pages, structured content, FAQs, table of contents, summaries, schema, you know, we’ve been doing all that stuff because it was good content marketing. well,
Todd Sawicki (09:37.244)
Yes.
John Jantsch (09:52.258)
the LLMs and AI are actually rewarding us for that work right now because we ranked high in Google. We are now ranking higher in AI overviews and in chat GPT. Are you seeing that as well?
Todd Sawicki (10:06.354)
So if you don’t have content online, it is hard for AI to even know you exist. And so that’s sort of step one. You’d be surprised at the lack of content out there. It’s, know, all right, well, you sell it. You sell these programs. But I think it’s because everyone probably thinks they’ve all, everyone’s done content marketing. It’s not always the case.
John Jantsch (10:12.526)
Well, yeah.
Well, no, no, I would not be surprised.
Yeah. Yeah. I always love it. I always love it when we go to work with a new client and they say, yeah, well, our SEO firm is doing this for us. And it’s like, what are they SEOing? Like, there’s no content there.
Todd Sawicki (10:35.83)
There you go. Exactly. There’s no content. There’s nothing else. And so the differences here you mentioned, like you generated content that the difference here though is there’s a subtle, you know, benefit and you kind of address this, I’m gonna call it what you said, which is you’re getting rewarded. But what’s interesting is Google, it was rewarding popularity, not necessarily the best content and the most authoritative content. What LMS are doing is doing a much better job of rewarding the correct content. So
It’s sort of like, and we have a good stator on this, is, we look up the traditional Google rank of all the URLs that are cited by AI and its answer, and its justification for its answers. The traditional Google rank is below 21, 50 to 90 % of the time, meaning page three and beyond. So it’s pulling out these, so it is looking at some of those that traditionally link to content SEO, but it was always these deep links. And the problem with traditional searchers,
John Jantsch (11:18.658)
Well, yes.
Todd Sawicki (11:28.602)
is, you know, we kind of generically use the stat one out of 100 people go to page two on Google, one out of 1000 go to page three, one out of 10,000 go to page four, and no one goes to page five. And that’s very exactly how the dead bodies but AI to my stat 59 % of the links they surface are in that that sort of buried into because they have AI or machines, they have infinite patients. So what they’re good at doing is finding authoritatively correct like we like to see canonical information. And then and so as a brand,
John Jantsch (11:38.734)
Yeah, that’s where you hide the dead bodies, right?
John Jantsch (11:51.15)
Yeah.
Todd Sawicki (11:58.416)
all that work that maybe struggled to get surfaced in Google, because it just wasn’t as popular or using out to people buying links. Now, now they’re really to your point, really rewarding good content, good highly valued structured content. And so it’s sort of like, it’s sort of the it’s paying off 10 years of work, finally. And so the people who may be struggled to get some of that popularity in Google, it is absolutely paying off in AI overview, AI search and AI overviews and things like that in a way that you always prayed and hoped for as a content market, like your day has come.
John Jantsch (12:07.842)
Yeah.
John Jantsch (12:13.964)
Yeah.
John Jantsch (12:26.35)
Yeah
Todd Sawicki (12:26.716)
Producing great content is a payoff and it’s happening. And I think that’s really fascinating here, which is people are like, with the rise of AI Slop, no, the models want good content and they’re good at deducing what is good content. AI Slop will not get ranked and you have to, they want authoritative information. And so that’s content that will get ranked in AI search and then drive traffic today and tomorrow, agentic purchases, right? You’re ultimately trying to drive some of that conversion more and more that AI will be driving that itself. Like Perplexity’s browser will load a cart for you today.
Right, it’s loading products it’s picking on your behalf into that. So that future is coming fast and furiously. And so I think that change is sort of fascinating to see when you look at what’s happening. Now, the other stat about what’s really fascinating here is, okay, what if I don’t have been produced 10 years of content, am I screwed? Well, one of the other facts that we’ve seen is that the average age of a cited piece of content
is only 86 days old in AI search. And that’s falling 10 to 15 % quarter per quarter. Now there’s a caveat there, which is it doesn’t have to be originally published, it just has to be updated. Like the AI will look at content that’s older, but as long as it’s been updated, and you note that that updated date, it will value that as well. And so and that 86 days is falling 10 to 15 % every quarter. So today it’s 86 days, next quarter is gonna be 78, 70 to the quarter after that, and see you get faster and faster.
So you’re gonna have to be doing a lot more work around content, maintaining it, updating it. It’s not a publish once and walk away model anymore. It’s gonna be a constant refresh. And so, the good side of that is you’re just starting out. We’ve definitely seen this with people where you can impact the results well within a 90 day window where traditional search that was almost impossible. And so there’s a definitely, don’t wait, get started. Hire John and his team.
John Jantsch (14:12.504)
But again, yeah, well, but I was also going to say that another best practice for years has been repurpose your content. And so, I mean, I now it’s like repurpose your content in a specific way, you know, add FAQs, you know, to that content, right? But, but I think that’s what you’re saying is should be very helpful for those people that just kind of wrote the hundred one off blog posts. It’s like, no, now go back and make that pay. Let’s talk specifically.
Todd Sawicki (14:28.146)
Correct. Right.
Todd Sawicki (14:39.94)
Exactly, exactly. It’s fascinating to kind of, you know, watch that all happen and come to fruition.
John Jantsch (14:42.742)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s talk specifically about gumshoe. I know that’s what you want to talk about. But first off, I have an account. I’ve played with it and it is in seemingly incredibly complex what you’ve built. And so my first question is, my first question is, where did that come from? Are you a mad scientist or did you hire people or how did you develop that? Because
Todd Sawicki (15:02.844)
Well, thank you.
Todd Sawicki (15:10.77)
So we have a team, right? We have a team. I’ve been in digital marketing tech for 20 years in my career and got involved in, and really the common theme has been around customer acquisition as it turns out. And I even view the purpose, we only care about AI search as marketers, ultimately because it can drive business, right? It’ll drive traffic and revenue, right? So fundamentally it’s a, and so I 20 years ago got involved in toolbars and search. Then I got into the social marketing landscape, just as that was taking off like 2007 to,
John Jantsch (15:28.334)
That’s right. That’s right.
Todd Sawicki (15:39.986)
to 2012 and then got into paid and built a DSP. So in the programmatic space and then was playing in ecommerce and Shopify’s ecosystem, you building customer acquisition apps in there and then ultimately transition here. And it was sort of the space of a year ago was talking to marketers. And again, the beginning of this conversation around AI search and the rise of that. And if you’re a marketer, and suddenly the channel you’re relying on Google search falls off a cliff. for some key keywords, I heard
30 60, even 90 % declines in traffic, even on the paid side. Like it just Google is sacrificing even paid traffic and on some keywords. So that’s an existential change in the landscape. And then as we started thinking about this in terms of working with marketers, you’re like, well, you know, to what I said earlier, gumshoe helps brands understand what elements think about them. And then what to do about it. Well, that where does that come from? Well, if you’re a marketer, you can’t just log into chat tpt and find out what it’s saying to you because
John Jantsch (16:12.813)
Mm.
Todd Sawicki (16:37.508)
as you I don’t know if any everyone should go watch the season premiere this fall’s episode from Boulder natives, you know, the creators of South Park, the first episode this year, the main one of the main characters dads is like falling in love with chat tbt because all it does is flatter him. And it says like every idea he has is wonderful. And it’s a great and he’s got some he’s trying to start a new business. And his wife gets all pissed off because he’s constantly going to ask chat tbt and says see I’m right, you know,
John Jantsch (16:54.285)
Right.
Todd Sawicki (17:05.426)
his wife’s name is Sharon, see I’m white Sharon, chat TBT says I’m right. And he’s like, No, it just says that to everybody. And so as a marketer, you you can’t just log in and ask chat TBT what it thinks about your business, because it’s going to kind of lie, it’s going to flatter you, it’s going to say the most optimal thing it can because it by the way, the minute you put your email in, it looks you up on LinkedIn, it knows it knows where you work, it knows your products, it’s no it knows how to answer things. And so then you realize as a marketer, I don’t care what LM say to me, I say, I care what it says to my target customers.
John Jantsch (17:17.666)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
John Jantsch (17:31.832)
Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Sawicki (17:34.01)
And so the way that we built our product was around how do you help marketers understand what it’s really saying to its customers? And so our point of view as well, how do we get in the shoes of that customer? And so what we do is we build these personas which become synthetic users. right, so those are what are asking prompts in the models. We have a better understanding of how they, how will they talk to, how the models speak to these different, different customers and those insights of like, okay, here’s how it, and by the way, the variety of answers between one type of
persona and another is fascinating. And they’re absolutely customizing their answers. Like, John, you’ve seen this, right? Just one customer will say, like, just imagine you’re a hiker, you’re going to get a different answer for the pair of shoes than if you’re a marathon runner. And so that makes rational sense as a marketer kind of understanding this nuance and how it’s treating different types of end users using AI search is sort of a fascinating insight. And it’s cool just to look at the answers and see what they say to different things. So that’s my point about marketers and the messaging and seeing how it talks to different people.
John Jantsch (18:06.594)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Jantsch (18:31.374)
One of my first observations that kind of blew me away frankly was I just put in a company’s URL, I think is all I did. yeah, and it came up with, I want to say eight, maybe it was a little more than that personas. And they were, we had already done that work, but they were very spot on, maybe even a little better descriptions. And what I found was interesting was it actually,
Todd Sawicki (18:39.324)
Correct, that’s what you start with. You start with the URL, correct.
John Jantsch (19:00.342)
All the analytics and search was great, but we actually got some messaging ideas just from that part of it, and that wasn’t even the intent.
Todd Sawicki (19:10.652)
Well, and that’s what I mean about it. you know, it’s, was talking with a head of product marketing earlier today, and I’m like, this is product marketing’s moment, because AI search is fundamentally a product marketing exercise. And it’s a positioning exercise. And when you read those prompts and answers, we hear that all the time, because what we help you on what we ask questions and basically ask questions around product areas for your business. And those will give you a set of responses like, we recommend these three companies or these eight companies or these five. And then you see the rationale for those
recommendations. And that’s great marketing, right at feedback. It’s it’s what’s our positioning, what’s our competitive positioning, you show this to any product market, like, oh, my god, this is like my competitive messaging framework, which you’d by the way, what you describe john a itself serve, can do this yourself, anyone can enter a URL of a company to get this. And in like 10 to 15 minutes, you’re walking away with a really cool understanding of your products position in the marketplace, at least the marketplace of AI search, which is meant to be a broader perspective of the world, obviously.
But it’s no, hear this all the time. It’s fascinating. Like it is a total rabbit hole for anyone who cares about commutative or comparative messaging.
John Jantsch (20:13.742)
Yeah. So the other observation is that, you know, lot of people that are talking about losing search traffic, it’s for, let’s say I’m a remodeling contractor. It’s they’re losing traffic for trends in kitchens, right? Which was not somebody that was going to buy anything, right? They’re losing a lot of that traffic because they’d written a great trend article for 2025, right?
Todd Sawicki (20:37.138)
Correct.
John Jantsch (20:38.37)
But that was not going to ever convert. But what’s interesting from what you’re unearthing is you’re unearthing all these really high intent searches. I mean, the search string is such that it’s like, yeah, that person’s looking to remodel their kitchen. And I think that that’s what marketers need to really focus on is that, forget about the, I mean, we do still have to do a lot of things to create awareness. But what we really need to focus on is high intent right now and capturing that search.
Todd Sawicki (21:07.138)
That is absolutely, I think a change, which is you’re going to go a little bit more down funnel. And you because you I think you can with AI search problem with Google is all those searches were so high level and so generic. It was hard to, to you’re right, the lack of long detailed searches in Google meant it was hard as a market, you couldn’t really target that sort of bottom of funnel activity. But AI is kind of all about that. And even if you ask a generic question, AI will follow it up with a more specific like they want to, they want to know which direction they need to go. There’s a back and forth that never existed in Google search.
John Jantsch (21:16.962)
Yeah, right.
Todd Sawicki (21:35.878)
that absolutely exists in AI. And you anyone who’s experienced this, when you go to the models, it’ll it’ll ask for follow ups, it’ll clarify things, it’ll make sure it understands what you’re talking about. So that it’s its goal is to give you the very best answer possible.
John Jantsch (21:41.932)
Yeah, yeah.
John Jantsch (21:48.686)
Yeah, it wouldn’t have been great. You go to Google and say, no, that answer was wrong. Fix it, right?
Todd Sawicki (21:52.324)
Exactly, we all wish we could like that search, you’ll get some results. You’re like, that is a terrible right link. And now with all the like the amount of Google searches that are so link baited to death. I love to get the analogy of in a lot, you know, I said earlier, the AI search is fixing a lot of things wrong with traditional search, like how many times in our lives like you bought like a new TV, and I just need to know the damn matter the width of it. So will it fit on my mantle or not? And you do a search and like you get every link is 10 best this or 10 best that or trends of
hot TVs this Christmas like I just need the dang measurement. Come on, Google.
John Jantsch (22:23.854)
or a link to Amazon that’s not even a TV. Those are my favorite. So I’m sorry, we got geeking out here on like all the under the hood stuff. And I’d love it you could just like give us the two minutes feel what is gumshoe? How you know, how does it work? How does somebody try it out?
Todd Sawicki (22:28.187)
Right!
Todd Sawicki (22:42.556)
So at any market, it’s a publicly available and you can try it out for free. It is, you can generate a report about your company. You go to it, as John said, you’re going to enter your company’s URL. And then from there, what we’re gonna do is again, show you what LMS think about your business and product. You’re gonna select a product that’ll generate personas and then we’ll generate the prompts that represent the activity that users are having with AI. And then…
run a series of real-time conversations, we turn those personas effectively into synthetic users. That’s kind of a buzzy word. Synthetic is the ultimate now AI buzzword. It’s a simulated user, it’s a synthetic user. And then that user will, yeah, exactly. It’s better than that. We’ll have a series of conversations with the LLMs. We kind of create those and then we analyze the chat activity and kind of package that up in a way so that you can help identify areas, topics of these types of prompts where you’re doing well or you’re doing poorly.
John Jantsch (23:14.648)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John Jantsch (23:18.83)
It’s better than bot though, isn’t it?
Todd Sawicki (23:38.736)
And then the next step is we also allow you to sort of then generate the content based upon, you know, where your strengths and weaknesses are that through our platform that you can then host on your site. And the way to think of it is, is your personas are your predicted customers, who the elements think are your top customers, and then they want instructions, the content you generate is intended to be or write on your own, is intended to be the instruction set back to the models. Okay, for these customers, here’s the features and benefits that we believe appeal to them and why they want to pick our products.
And ultimately, that’s going to send traffic back to your site. And then can help analyze that to understand was it good traffic, bad traffic, what have you. And so the goal of our point of view is to say, again, how do we help you understand what I’m thinking about you and then what to do about it, right? You’re ultimately how do you capture as much revenue or as much referral traffic as possible from the LLMs. And so that’s the way Gumshoe works. You can go to gumshoe.ai. They said you just start with the URL. And in 10 to 15 minutes, you’re going to walk away with sort of insights about what you can do. there’s, again, you don’t need an inter credit card that’s just freely available. Everyone can create an account. And then
The way we work is it’s not a subscription based a time based. If you want to rerun a report, you want to run it again, like in a weekly or monthly basis, kind of track how you’re doing, you would then sign up to pay an ongoing basis. And so it’s just based upon how often you want to sort of leverage the platform and use it. That’s the model. So feel free once you generate a report, whether it’s a free one or a paid one down the road, it’s available to you for as long as we’re around as a company.
John Jantsch (25:03.266)
Yeah. And one of the things that I failed to mention, you didn’t mention either is I thought does a really good job at, at, identifying competitors, as well. Yeah.
Todd Sawicki (25:12.466)
Correct, because what we’ll do is in those answers, we’re going to get multiple companies products recommendations and we surface that to know your competitive great great point, John, you know, your competitive standing, our competitors doing better or worse than you in AI. And that’s obviously often a key indicator. And then we’ll help you analyze where they did better versus you. So you know, what’s your point about messaging, right? And the product messaging, like what features of a competitor are winning versus ours?
where is their positioning better? Is it something else? Or and that’s sort of a great insight is where all the other companies getting mentioned alongside you, and then we’ll help you identify also, what were the reasons like what led to the models answering the way they did? Like what citations and sources so if you want to do outreach from a PR standpoint, you can we help you identify the places you should be going and talking to, or even read our core threads you should be posting on. We now have a feature where we’ll we’ll give you a draft post for Reddit and Cora.
John Jantsch (25:49.816)
Yeah.
Todd Sawicki (26:05.498)
Again, but it’s based upon, you know, strengths and weaknesses that we identified and said, here’s the things you should be talking about more to help you get more visibility to AI. And so that’s sort of the goal here is how do we help you talk back to AI. So you’re feeding it the features and benefits of your products. So they’ll talk about your products next time instead of someone else’s.
John Jantsch (26:26.878)
I’m sorry to sound like an ad for, for gum shoe, but you know, we actually took a lot of this long tail searches and built some ad campaigns around, around them as well.
Todd Sawicki (26:35.792)
We have heard that because the persona piece is great for that, like audience targeting and things like that. No, no, we’ve absolutely heard that, that there’s some interesting crossovers about this. Once you realize it’s messaging based, there’s a ton of things you can do with this data. It’s really, I’m not kidding about being a rabbit hole. Like you start reading the chats that we generate and surface. just, it becomes, it’s really fascinating to kind of see what’s being said in a way that you only ever got through focus groups or weird surveys before. And now and again, it like.
15 minutes, getting some really interesting insights. can then spend a lot of time diving into and learning from in a way that we just never had access to before.
John Jantsch (27:10.99)
Well, we’ve gone over time. appreciate you. Take it a few moments to stop by the duct tape marketing podcast is gum shoe dot AI and Todd again, appreciate you stopping by and hopefully we’ll run into you one of these days out there on the road.
Todd Sawicki (27:24.914)
Thank you very much. Appreciate the time and attention.
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The Best Level from Every Main Console 2D Mario Game
Nintendo has never forgotten its origins with the Super Mario franchise. Even though there has been a focus on 3D gaming since the turn of the century and plenty of classics in that genre – from the expansive intergalactic platforming of Super Mario Galaxy to the sun-spotted vacation exploits in Super Mario Sunshine – the […]
The post The Best Level from Every Main Console 2D Mario Game appeared first on Den of Geek.
Nintendo has never forgotten its origins with the Super Mario franchise. Even though there has been a focus on 3D gaming since the turn of the century and plenty of classics in that genre – from the expansive intergalactic platforming of Super Mario Galaxy to the sun-spotted vacation exploits in Super Mario Sunshine – the Mario games that take place in one fewer dimension are the heart and soul of the character.
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Each 2D Super Mario effort has a level that defines not only the game but also an entire era of platforming. Not to be overly dramatic, but these are the levels that set a standard for all others and help usher in new ways to run, jump, and stomp Goombas. What is the best from every 2D Mario game? We have the answers! Note that this will be only the mainline console games, so no Super Mario Land sub-franchise here. Also, Yoshi’s Island will be excluded as it’s a spinoff of the Mario franchise.
Super Mario Bros. – World 1-1
A pet peeve of mine is when the pioneer of a category gets brownie points just for being the first to do something, but in the case of World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros., even I have to give it up for the first level in the history of the Super Mario franchise. The simplicity of the level design simultaneously teaching the player how to operate the game while also being fun to play 40 years later is perhaps the most incredible accomplishment of Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s career.
Super Mario Bros. 2 – World 3-1
The second game in the franchise tried to do a lot of unique stuff that wasn’t always appreciated at the time, but has aged beautifully. The first level of the third world takes to the skies and includes clouds, magic carpet rides, and a challenging fight with Birdo. Choose your character wisely; you can’t go wrong with Peach’s flying skills!
Super Mario Bros. 3 – World 7 Airship
The final level of every world in Super Mario Bros. 3 always features some tough-as-a-Koopa shell platforming, but the challenges are fair and the platforming is tight and well-designed. The final airship level in World 7 forces the player to use all of the skills they’ve learned so far, and a diverse array of hazards makes it a fun challenge.
Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels – World 4-3
The Lost Levels didn’t officially release in the United States because Nintendo worried that gamers would be intimidated by the high difficulty of the game, and World 4-3 exemplifies the Kaizo spirit perfectly. The tiny platforms you have to jump from at the end of the level will have you questioning why you even decided to play Mario in the first place!
Super Mario World – Vanilla Dome 3
Super Mario World might be the best 2D platform game ever. Vanilla Dome 3 embodies the creativity embedded in the worlds by the development team, with a sampling of everything that makes the game so much fun. Yoshi, traversing ice sections, soaring over platforms that float on lava, and plenty of other hazards make the level a potpourri of Mario’s platforming qualities.
New Super Mario Bros. – World 1-4
The fourth level of the first world in New Super Mario Bros. encapsulates the reboot of the franchise in the mid-2000s with plenty of new items in use, from the Mini Mushroom to the Mega Mushroom, the latter of which allows Mario to wreak havoc on the stage. Plenty of secrets and graphics that looked great at the time on the Nintendo DS make this game more than just a shiny upgrade of 2D platforming.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 – World Mushroom-1
This title might be the most stale New Super Mario Bros. game in the sub-franchise, but it has to be represented just the same. The first level in the Mushroom World applies the game’s theme of collecting massive amounts of coins against the backdrop of colorful platforms in the sky. It’s a comforting and familiar aesthetic for Mario and his fans.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – World 8-7
This fiery roller coaster ride of platforming at the end of the eighth world in New Super Mario Bros. Wii exemplifies the classic game design spirit of the franchise – just enough obstacles to overcome in the environment, but not too many annoyances as to get in the way of a fun time. The multiplayer aspect of this game was perfect for the Wii’s party mindset.
New Super Mario Bros. U – Soda Jungle – 4 (Painted Swampland)
Nintendo got experimental with some of the world design and graphics in New Super Mario Bros. U, changing up the look of the Mushroom Kingdom (some would say to distract from the fact that the New franchise was running on fumes). The Soda Jungle has some exhilarating levels, and the Painted Swampland with Vincent Van Gogh artwork in the background is a fan favorite.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Downpour Uproar in Petal Isles
This masterclass of ingenuity on the Switch made people remember why Mario is GOAT after so many years of re-tread games in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is filled to the brim with novel concepts that make it hard to pinpoint a best level, but we’re going to go with this cheery trek through the rainclouds in the Petal Isles!
Super Mario Maker 2 – Gotta Walk the Dogs
We can’t make a list of the best Mario levels without adding one fan-created piece from the Super Mario Maker series. This puzzle level in Super Mario Maker 2 shows off the surprising number of genres that Mario can operate within when given the chance, as players guide one of Bowser’s minions to the end goal by turning switches on and off throughout the level.
The post The Best Level from Every Main Console 2D Mario Game appeared first on Den of Geek.
Win a Copy of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei in Our Flatiron Books Giveaway
Den of Geek is thrilled to partner with Flatiron Books to celebrate the release of Saltcrop, the latest novel from acclaimed author Yume Kitasei, known for her sci-fi heist novel The Stardust Grail. Five lucky readers will have the chance to win their very own copy of Kitasei’s sweeping new adventure. Entering is easy: just […]
The post Win a Copy of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei in Our Flatiron Books Giveaway appeared first on Den of Geek.
Nintendo has never forgotten its origins with the Super Mario franchise. Even though there has been a focus on 3D gaming since the turn of the century and plenty of classics in that genre – from the expansive intergalactic platforming of Super Mario Galaxy to the sun-spotted vacation exploits in Super Mario Sunshine – the Mario games that take place in one fewer dimension are the heart and soul of the character.
cnx({
playerId: “106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530”,
}).render(“0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796”);
});
Each 2D Super Mario effort has a level that defines not only the game but also an entire era of platforming. Not to be overly dramatic, but these are the levels that set a standard for all others and help usher in new ways to run, jump, and stomp Goombas. What is the best from every 2D Mario game? We have the answers! Note that this will be only the mainline console games, so no Super Mario Land sub-franchise here. Also, Yoshi’s Island will be excluded as it’s a spinoff of the Mario franchise.
Super Mario Bros. – World 1-1
A pet peeve of mine is when the pioneer of a category gets brownie points just for being the first to do something, but in the case of World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros., even I have to give it up for the first level in the history of the Super Mario franchise. The simplicity of the level design simultaneously teaching the player how to operate the game while also being fun to play 40 years later is perhaps the most incredible accomplishment of Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s career.
Super Mario Bros. 2 – World 3-1
The second game in the franchise tried to do a lot of unique stuff that wasn’t always appreciated at the time, but has aged beautifully. The first level of the third world takes to the skies and includes clouds, magic carpet rides, and a challenging fight with Birdo. Choose your character wisely; you can’t go wrong with Peach’s flying skills!
Super Mario Bros. 3 – World 7 Airship
The final level of every world in Super Mario Bros. 3 always features some tough-as-a-Koopa shell platforming, but the challenges are fair and the platforming is tight and well-designed. The final airship level in World 7 forces the player to use all of the skills they’ve learned so far, and a diverse array of hazards makes it a fun challenge.
Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels – World 4-3
The Lost Levels didn’t officially release in the United States because Nintendo worried that gamers would be intimidated by the high difficulty of the game, and World 4-3 exemplifies the Kaizo spirit perfectly. The tiny platforms you have to jump from at the end of the level will have you questioning why you even decided to play Mario in the first place!
Super Mario World – Vanilla Dome 3
Super Mario World might be the best 2D platform game ever. Vanilla Dome 3 embodies the creativity embedded in the worlds by the development team, with a sampling of everything that makes the game so much fun. Yoshi, traversing ice sections, soaring over platforms that float on lava, and plenty of other hazards make the level a potpourri of Mario’s platforming qualities.
New Super Mario Bros. – World 1-4
The fourth level of the first world in New Super Mario Bros. encapsulates the reboot of the franchise in the mid-2000s with plenty of new items in use, from the Mini Mushroom to the Mega Mushroom, the latter of which allows Mario to wreak havoc on the stage. Plenty of secrets and graphics that looked great at the time on the Nintendo DS make this game more than just a shiny upgrade of 2D platforming.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 – World Mushroom-1
This title might be the most stale New Super Mario Bros. game in the sub-franchise, but it has to be represented just the same. The first level in the Mushroom World applies the game’s theme of collecting massive amounts of coins against the backdrop of colorful platforms in the sky. It’s a comforting and familiar aesthetic for Mario and his fans.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – World 8-7
This fiery roller coaster ride of platforming at the end of the eighth world in New Super Mario Bros. Wii exemplifies the classic game design spirit of the franchise – just enough obstacles to overcome in the environment, but not too many annoyances as to get in the way of a fun time. The multiplayer aspect of this game was perfect for the Wii’s party mindset.
New Super Mario Bros. U – Soda Jungle – 4 (Painted Swampland)
Nintendo got experimental with some of the world design and graphics in New Super Mario Bros. U, changing up the look of the Mushroom Kingdom (some would say to distract from the fact that the New franchise was running on fumes). The Soda Jungle has some exhilarating levels, and the Painted Swampland with Vincent Van Gogh artwork in the background is a fan favorite.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Downpour Uproar in Petal Isles
This masterclass of ingenuity on the Switch made people remember why Mario is GOAT after so many years of re-tread games in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is filled to the brim with novel concepts that make it hard to pinpoint a best level, but we’re going to go with this cheery trek through the rainclouds in the Petal Isles!
Super Mario Maker 2 – Gotta Walk the Dogs
We can’t make a list of the best Mario levels without adding one fan-created piece from the Super Mario Maker series. This puzzle level in Super Mario Maker 2 shows off the surprising number of genres that Mario can operate within when given the chance, as players guide one of Bowser’s minions to the end goal by turning switches on and off throughout the level.
The post The Best Level from Every Main Console 2D Mario Game appeared first on Den of Geek.
This furniture isn’t built, it grows from mushrooms
In Mumbai, architects Bhakti Loonawat and Suyash Sawant are reimagining what furniture can be. Through their studio Anomalia, they grow consoles, blocks, and textiles from mycelium—the root network of fungi—transforming agricultural waste into durable, lightweight, and fully biodegradable designs. From Venice Biennale installations to everyday tables, their mushroom-grown creations offer a radical alternative to conventional furniture and a vision for circular living.
The post This furniture isn’t built, it grows from mushrooms appeared first on Green Prophet.
An Egyptian locust appears in Cornwall
Locust invasions once seemed like a relic of ancient or faraway crises — the stuff of Bible stories or news from Africa and the Middle East. Over the years, we’ve chronicled grim scenes in Yemen and Egypt, and even spotlighted creative survival strategies (like the recipes of chef Moshe Basson) turning locusts from scourge to sustenance. But what was once viewed as someone else’s problem may now creep into British backyards.
In August 2025, a gardener in Cornwall spotted an Egyptian locust (Anacridium aegyptium) in their garden — a rare find in the UK. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust confirmed the sighting, noting that such insects are typically native to the Mediterranean and North Africa according to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
Fried grasshoppers by chef Moshe Basson –- get the recipe here
Experts believe this locust was carried north by the same meteorological system that deposited Saharan dust across Cornwall. While one or two migrant locusts reach Britain each year, climate shifts could make the UK more welcoming to non-native species in the years ahead and this worries ecologists and farmers. The trust said the species were thought to arrive on the strong winds from the south east, adding it was likely the locust arrived on the same wind “that’s dumping Saharan dust on our cars overnight”.
A handful of locusts in Yemen
The Cornwall Trust urges residents to report unusual insect sightings, helping build a picture of new species’ movements and possible ecological impacts.
The idea of locusts sweeping across the region is not hyperbole — history bears it out:
Between 2019 and 2022, enormous swarms of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) devastated parts of East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Middle East, threatening crops and food security across 23 countries.
In Yemen, conflict weakened agricultural monitoring systems, making the country a key breeding ground. Efforts supported by the FAO and other partners managed to control infestations over tens of thousands of hectares according to the World Bank.
These episodes show how quickly locusts can transform from scattered pests into regional plagues, especially when conditions align in their favor — heat, rainfall after drought, and weak surveillance systems.
Chef Moshe Basson makes meals from Egyptian locusts. They are the only insect that can be considered kosher to eat
What This Means for the UK and the world?
So why should a single locust in Cornwall matter? Because it might be a harbinger of climate change and shifting weather patterns. Warmer, drier extremes and stronger winds can help migratory insects push further north. A recent study links increased locust outbreaks to climate anomalies like heavier rainfall and wind patterns.
Locusts are known for their gregarious transformation: under crowded conditions and favorable environments, solitary locusts morph into swarming hordes, dramatically increasing their threat. If the UK becomes more hospitable—warmer summers, longer dry periods—such migrant insects may find it easier to survive and reproduce beyond occasional stragglers.
If locusts concern you, read about the devastating locust plague in Africa in 2020, and tips for getting rid of the plague.
The post Egyptian locust appears at English beach town signaling climate change appeared first on Green Prophet.