Participate in Virtual Design Coffee

Sign up or learn about what the coffees are on our home page.

Instructions for participating

Hello and welcome to your Virtual Design Coffee, thank you for taking part!

The current round runs until the end of November 2026.

Conversation theme for this round

  • What is a service or a product that you find inspiring for your own work? Why?

It’s been increasingly hard to escape the “AI slop” which is polluting our digital – and some physical – spaces. 

However, that is all the more reason to focus on what a good product or a service looks and feels like. Some master a particular touchpoint or a feature, while others are a whole, end-to-end, joy of an experience. 

What have some of those examples been for you? How might you draw inspiration from them for your own work? Do you already do any of that? How?

Let’s inspire each other! 

The theme can be a starting point to your conversation. You do not need to cover this and you will not be asked to report back on your conversation.

Key information for taking part

  • You and your partner for this round have been copied in the email you have received. These are the contact details for you to connect on
  • One of you needs to initiate the conversation, it doesn’t matter who. Use the email as a starting point to arrange a virtual coffee
  • You have until the end of November 2026 to have this coffee (bit longer this time to allow for the holiday packed period)
  • If you’d like to skip the next round starting in December 2026, please let me know in reply to the email by the last week of November

Participation guidelines

We recommend that you aim for a 20-30 minute video chat, and it is usually a good idea to agree in advance on a couple of topics you’d like to cover. The subject(s) of your conversation do not have to be related to design, but sharing some of the things you’ve been working on or are interested in has often been a good starting point. Otherwise, feel free to use the suggested theme above.

You can use any video-conferencing platform of your choice. It is up to you and your partner whether you do cameras on or off, but consider that seeing each other may make for a more convivial atmosphere.

Troubleshooting

If you’ve been paired together before:

  • So sorry! We’ve been doing these since April 2020, so it’s almost impossible to avoid this sometimes
  • If you’d like a new pair, reply to the email and I’ll arrange that. If you’re happy to meet your partner for the second time, go ahead!

Struggling to receive my emails:

  • I suggest you add barbara.mertlova@gmail.com to your contact list. If this doesn’t help, please get in touch with me directly to resolve the issue

If you can’t reach your partner:

  • Please let me know and I will follow up
  • If you are no longer able to do the meet up yourself, please consider your partner and let them know. CC me in your cancellation of the meeting as I will offer alternative arrangements to your partner

Need to accommodate for your time zone:

  • Please get in touch with me if you are in a timezone that has made it difficult to organise those coffees. If I have a note of your time zone, I can try to rejig the random pairing a little where possible! 🙂

Withdraw or pause

If you want to skip a month, pause indefinitely, or completely withdraw, please let me know in an email. I appreciate your help with this as it avoids missed coffee opportunities for interested participants.

Frequency of coffee pair-ups

I have been revising and testing various timelines, to reflect the changing needs of the world and our work as Designers. We had started as a weekly project, then monthly, and now we pair up roughly every second month.

If you would like to be paired up sooner, feel free to email me. I will do my best to match you with an available partner. 

Feedback

I appreciate all your feedback – please email me at barbara.mertlova@gmail.com with comments or questions. I hope you enjoy your coffee!

Note on partnership

In the past, my former workplace, Opencast Software partnered with me on this event. I’m glad that having moved jobs (and countries!), my new work is also keen to support this way of connecting people. 

If you find yourself intrigued by the world of HR-tech, have a look at what Alma Career can offer, including some live roles always going on:) 

Now, I hope you enjoy your coffee! All the best in the meantime,
Barbara

Have you noticed anything that doesn’t work well?

I am keen to improve this website in any way that makes it easier to use for everyone. Please email your comments to barbara.mertlova@gmail.com