This is HCD: Human-Centred Design, UX & Service Design

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In this conversation we talk about the remarkable journey Mark has been on over the last 2-decades that has seen him play all over the world. 
Mark doesn’t play music to be adored, he plays to exist - it’s part of who he is. It’s part of his fabric. He constantly tours around the world, often with Glen Hansard, another phenomenally talented Irish musician. 
We speak about his roots in Sin-E in New York, a place where he cut his teeth - a free flowing cafe that many music lovers will automatically connect with Jeff Buckley, but this was a community of like minded people, that cheered and nurtured their own. A community, much like our own within This is HCD, that is trying to figure it all out and get ahead.
There are points in this conversation where we chat about Mark’s environment, and how having the space set up and ready to channel whatever it is that we call ‘it’ - how this affects the process. Mark’s guitars are all around the place, and he’s constantly playing, experimenting, trying and testing out ideas. He’s a master crafts person.
We even talk how this environment is shaping his music, or maybe his music is shaping his environment. How living within a forest is permeating into his latest release, with his latest single being called The Forest.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Gerry Scullion
Gerry Scullion is an Irish-born, globally recognised service designer, educator, podcaster, coach, and founder based in Dublin. With 22+ years in design, his career spans roles in interaction design, UX, and leadership positions—most notably as Head of Design at Myspace Australia/NZ and later serving clients like Cochlear, Microsoft, Aer Lingus, and government bodies  . He’s the Founder & CEO of The Human‑Centered Design Network and the voice behind This is HCD, a popular podcast and design community with over one million downloads . A committed educator, he has developed several online courses—spanning UX fundamentals, journey mapping, stakeholder mapping, prototyping, and service blueprints—as well as authoring “Service Design for Executives” on Pluralsight . A passionate keynote speaker at events like UX Scotland and Service Design Days, he shares his insights on resilience in design, ethical frameworks (“do no harm”), and embedding design within tech-led environments . Gerry is also Co‑founder and Director at Humana Design, a Dublin-based agency focusing on design research, consultancy, and enabling design transformation . Beyond design, he’s a coach and mentor to designers worldwide, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a former Councillor for Ireland . In his personal time, Gerry is a musician, barista-in-training, gardener, and family man living by the sea in Clontarf, Dublin
SM
Producer
Stef Murphy
Stef Murphy, is a Dublin based podcast producer.

What is This is HCD: Human-Centred Design, UX & Service Design?

Practical conversations about human-centred design, service design, and UX for designers who want to do meaningful work inside real organisations.

Gerry Scullion talks with leading practitioners, design leaders, and strategists about what actually works: building design maturity, getting buy-in from leadership, running better research, improving customer experience, and growing design teams that deliver lasting impact.

With over 1 million downloads worldwide, This is HCD is the go-to podcast for UX designers, service designers, UX researchers, product managers, and anyone working to embed design thinking into how their organisation operates.

Every episode gives you methods, mindsets, and real stories you can put to work straight away. Subscribe to the Design Compass newsletter at thisishcd.com for weekly insights that go deeper.