{"podcast":{"title":"ScaleX™ Insider Podcast","slug":"scalex-insider-podcast-5948037","podcast_index_feed_id":5948037,"rss_url":"https://scalexinsiderpodcast.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://simplescaling.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/e/9/0/1/e901047d1ad6d32316c3140a3186d450/1346_Brendan_McGurgan_Podcast_Cover_V1_0_1400px.jpg","author":"Brendan McGurgan","episode_count":337,"summary":"My name is Brendan McGurgan and I am immersed in the world of scaleup businesses. In 2020, myself and business partner Claire Colvin co-founded Simple Scaling with the sole purpose of inspiring and enabling millions of ambitious leaders to scale with purpose. Over the past two years we have researched and examined our success and the success of those who have 'been there and done it' to create the 10 Principles of Scaling which is enshrined in our ScaleX™ Framework. As an extension of this we have created the ScaleX™ Insider Podcast. Every week I will be having fascinating conversations with authors, change makers and business leaders on one or more of the ScaleX™ Principles to support you on your journey to success. I believe passionately in business scaleup and most importantly the wellbeing of you - the aspirational scaleup leader. New episodes on Wednesdays. Listen anywhere you get your podcasts, and please rate, review and share the podcast if you enjoy it. For more information go to: www.simplescaling.com.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T12:18:05.228501+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scalex-insider-podcast-5948037"},"episode":{"title":"Employee Experience Design: The Secret to Scaling SMEs With Purpose with Dean Carter","slug":"employee-experience-design-the-secret-to-scaling-smes-with-purpose-with-dean-carter","published_at":"2026-05-20T03:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scalex-insider-podcast-5948037/employee-experience-design-the-secret-to-scaling-smes-with-purpose-with-dean-carter","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scalex-insider-podcast-5948037","url":"https://simplescaling.com/podcast","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scalexinsiderpodcast/SXP2003-dean-carter.mp3?dest-id=2822267","summary":"Employee Experience Design is the core framework Dean Carter uses to help SMEs and scaling organisations build workplace culture , employee engagement, and leadership systems that actually drive performance. In this episode, we explore employee experience design, workplace culture transformation, and how SME leaders can scale without losing purpose or people. Dean Carter, former Chief People & Culture Officer at Patagonia and senior HR leader at Guild and Sears, breaks down how employee experience design becomes the foundation for scaling organisations. Instead of focusing only on growth or traditional employee engagement, Dean explains how SMEs can intentionally design employee experience to create stronger culture, better performance, and sustainable scale. For SME leaders, this conversation reframes how to think about workplace culture, employee engagement strategy, and scaling leadership systems in a way that doesn't rely on expensive perks, but on listening, designing, and responding to employee needs in real time. At Patagonia, Dean shares how a four-day work week experiment emerged from listening to employees — and how it improved retention, productivity, and work-life balance without increasing costs. At Guild, he shows how simple pulse checks revealed frontline employee friction that leadership had completely missed. At Sears, during a time of decline and layoffs, Dean demonstrates how even in difficult environments, employee experience design can still be used to protect culture, create meaning, and develop future leaders — even in a \"Titanic\" scenario. This episode is essential for SME founders, CEOs, and HR leaders who want to understand: How employee experience design drives SME scaling success Why workplace culture breaks during growth — and how to fix it…","meta_description":"Employee Experience Design is the core framework Dean Carter uses to help SMEs and scaling organisations build workplace culture , employee engagement, an…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3131,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scalex-insider-podcast-5948037/episodes/employee-experience-design-the-secret-to-scaling-smes-with-purpose-with-dean-carter/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scalex-insider-podcast-5948037/employee-experience-design-the-secret-to-scaling-smes-with-purpose-with-dean-carter.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}