Design Fuel Podcast, Episode 2: "Brand + Experience" with McDonald’s Erin Williams
May 7, 2025
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The second episode of the Design Fuel Podcast is now live, and it’s an enlightening conversation with Erin Williams, Senior Director of Global Experience Design at McDonald’s.
In this episode, Erin shares how she built McDonald’s experience design team from the ground up, a team grounded in empathy, research and a deep understanding of both customers and crew. She and host David Polzin discuss the powerful connection between brand and experience, and how McDonald’s navigates that across cultures while staying true to its identity. They also touch on the relationship between physical and digital experiences, and reflect on their shared work shaping CannonDesign’s Living-Centered Design ethos — an approach Erin helped craft during her time at IA Collaborative, before joining McDonald’s.
About Design Fuel
Hosted by our executive director of design, David Polzin, and rooted in our Living-Centered Design ethos, the Design Fuel Podcast features thought-provoking and necessary conversations around the ideas and forces driving innovation in the built environment and beyond. It amplifies the role design can play in shaping a more equitable, healthy, sustainable and beautiful world.
