By day Odeya Noble-Bougay is Director of Product Design at Aviv Group, but at heart she is a maker. Someone who thinks with her hands, listens deeply, and believes that creativity is as much about care and connection as it is about output. Her journey spans sound engineering, visual communication, early usability work, telecoms at massive scale, property tech, and leading large, pan-European design teams through constant change.

In this episode, Odeya joins Adam for a gentle, reflective conversation about light – how it’s created, how it’s shared, and how leaders can help others shine. She talks about her lifelong love of making things, from pencils and paint to prototypes and systems, and why pen and paper still matter even in an AI-accelerated world. From walking by the canal with a cup of bitter tea to collecting pieces of discarded wood to paint on later, her creative practice is grounded, tactile, and deeply human.

Odeya shares her career journey from sound engineering at a radio station to early startup life in the late 90s, scaling usability teams, leading 180 designers across Europe at T-Mobile, building product teams at Rightmove, and now shaping property platforms across multiple markets. Along the way, she reflects on stepping into leadership before feeling ready, thriving in chaos, and learning to systemise complexity long before design systems had a name.She also speaks candidly about moments that didn’t go to plan. From bold concepts that arrived too early for their market, to the painful impact of a truly bad manager and the long road back to confidence. Her advice is clear and compassionate. If something is draining the air from the room, leave. Protect your energy. Trust your instinct.

This is a warm, thoughtful episode about leadership as illumination. About bringing people together, creating the conditions for clarity, and lighting one candle from another until the whole room is brighter.

In this episode, we cover:

* Growing up loving both art and engineering, and why that duality still matters* Starting out as a sound engineer and studying visual communication design* Early usability work and scaling teams in the late 90s startup boom* Leading 180 designers across Europe at T-Mobile during rapid handset evolution* Building and leading product teams at Rightmove and Aviv Group* Why chaos can be energising when it’s well-organised* Observing real users “in the wild” and what train journeys taught her about product truth* The ocean between concept and market, and why MVP should really mean “minimum lovable product”* Learning from projects that arrived too early for their context* Recognising harmful leadership and knowing when to leave* What healthy creative conversations feel like, and how to spot the warning signs* Designing for people in an AI-driven world and why human needs haven’t changed* Pride in moments of alignment, not individual outputs* Family, music, festivals, and the life that sustains the work

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This is Awaiting Approval. A global charting design podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.

Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.

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Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 10 : Odeya Noble-Bougay - Light