The Grand Challengers Podcast Episode #52

Feature-centric to user-centric – UX Design to navigate global challenges and the “AI Competence Mirage”

Guest: Makoto Kern

October 28th, 2025

Episode Teaser

Introduction

“…You have to go back to the user experience, for the user that uses this ‘day-in’, ‘day-out’, workflow is the most important … you gotta make it frictionless …”

Makoto Kern is the Founder and Principal Product Design Consultant at iiimpact in Austin Texas, focussed on enterprise software and UX design. Makoto adopts a holistic approach towards desinging and launching the user experience, guiding companies in the energy, ming, healthcare and cybersecurity sectors among many others. He emphasies user-centric, safe and secure interfaces to improve business workflow and operational safety. His passion for tinkering with hardware and software since his childhood days has now shaped his mission in navigating the disruptive AI landscape.

On today’s show, Makoto and I delve into the world of UX, short for user experience design, understanding its fundamental differences with UI and its role in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. We discuss his journey in helping companies in the environmental, resources and healthcare space design and automate better, address cybersecurity concerns and look at how we can best adapt to the rise of AI across industries.

Biography

Makoto Kern is the Founder and Principal Consultant of IIIMPACT, a strategic product design and development firm that has been delivering high-impact solutions for over 20 years. Under his leadership, IIIMPACT has earned recognition of the Inc. 5000 list for three consecutive years as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies. He began his career in robotics and electrical engineering for 10 years before founding IIIMPACT, learning skills in web design, UX and search engine optimization alongside gaining experience in a range of industries. With 20+ years of experience launching hundres of digital software products across virtually every industry (oil & gas, mining, healthcare), Makoto specializes in helping Fortune 500 companies and enterprise organizations transform chaotic development processes into predictable wins. His unique “Rapid Boardroom to Code” methodology reduces product launch risks and allows for companies to bring their software products to market 50% faster.

Makoto’s unique perspective stems from his foundational decade as a robotics and electrical engineer, where he developed the analytical rigor and systems thinking that now distinguishes his approach to complex software challenges. This technical background, combined with advanced training in Human Computer Interaction, enables him to bridge the critical gap between engineering feasibility and user-centered design. His strategic approach combines engineering precision with user-centered design principles, ensuring that complex enterprise software becomes intuitive and adoption-friendly while delivering concrete ROI. From reducing checkout abandonment for major retailers to streamlining cybersecurity enterprise workflows to controlling complex HMI robotic equipment, Makoto’s methodology consistently transforms user friction into business growth.

Makoto obtained his Bachelor & Master of Science at Northern Illinois University and Graduate Certification in Human-Computer Interaction at Iowa State University. He is recognized as a thought leader in strategic product development and frequently shares his insights as well as his realist’s view on the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence on his podcast Make and IIIMPACT, which has +17,000 subscribers.

Resources Related to the Episode

  • The make an iiimpact podcast – check it out and you’ll also see Makoto’s background
  • Japan – a country I dreamt of visiting and got to visit at the start of my research career
  • What is Lean manufacturing?
  • History of Robotics [Stanford]
  • Turtle Wax and Mystery Marvel Oil
  • The age of ‘Flash’ – for those who remember Flash! Here’s a bit of a history of it
  • What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
  • The dot com boom and bust
  • What is UX and how is it different to UI? [Article by Figma]
  • Case Study: Apple and UX
    • Pacheco, A. – What I learned as a product designer at Apple [UXMag]
    • Rousselle, M. – How apple inspired me to become a UX/UI Designer [Medium]
    • Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines
    • Apple’s Approach to Platform-centric Standardization [QtGroup]
  • iiimpact’s Website
  • Capital One
  • Business jargon: Here’s some useful terminology
    • HIPPO – highest paid person in the room
    • B2C – Business to Consumer (in comparison to B2B and B2E)
    • What are NPS scores?
  • All about the Internet of Things (IoT) [Wikipedia] [IBM]
  • The Meme I spoke about comparing programming languages
  • Cybersecurity and the dangers of Vibe Coding – an interesting article
  • Figma – the big design software that is changing the UX landscape
  • The AI Hype
  • Articles on people de-valuing AI-generated content:
    • Chia, S., Hartanto, A. and Tong, E.M., 2025. Do Listeners Devalue AI-Generated Pop Music? Exploring Negative Biases in Listeners’ Responses to AI-Labelled vs Human-Labelled Pop Music. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, p.100217. [Link]
    • Böhm, R., Jörling, M., Reiter, L. and Fuchs, C., 2023. People devalue generative AI’s competence but not its advice in addressing societal and personal challenges. Communications Psychology, 1(1), p.32. [Link]
    • Ragot, M., Martin, N. and Cojean, S., 2020, April. Ai-generated vs. human artworks. a perception bias towards artificial intelligence?. In Extended abstracts of the 2020 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-10). [Link]
  • History of the Internet Browser War
  • Podcasting:
  • Selected episodes on Make an iiimpact:
    • The AI Job Apocalypse 2030 – What college majors will be extinct by 2030? [Link]
    • Will AI Change Schools Forever? [Link]
    • AGI: Humanity’s Greatest Leap or our last mistake? [Link]

Episode Chapters

(Chapters are embedded in the episode for quick access, click this to expand and view all chapters and time stamps)
  • 0:00 Intro
  • 1:59 Guest Intro and Studio Background Design Talk
  • 4:49 How an electrical engineer got into UX
  • 12:36 The basics of UX vs. UI
  • 21:00 The steps to founding iiimpact
  • 30:21 The domains iiimpact has worked in
  • 36:47 The AI Competence Mirage and Cybersecurity
  • 43:37 Tips for Entrepreneurs – the importance of the team
  • 49:49 Talking AI
  • 59:42 Make an iiimpact Podcast
  • 1:04:33 Q&A Start
  • 1:04:58 What does innovation mean to you?
  • 1:06:17 Key moment, event, book, person
  • 1:08:46 Time management
  • 1:09:48 Favourite childhood memory
  • 1:12:09 Biggest challenge to date
  • 1:13:33 Advice for young professionals
  • 1:14:32 What would you most like to be remembered for?
  • 1:15:17 Where can people find you?
  • 1:16:22 Final message
  • 1:16:43 Outro

Connect with Makoto Kern

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Credits