Inside the Alaska–Hawaiian Merger: Shipping a Multi-Brand Experience in 10 Months

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges and strategies involved in the Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines merger within a tight 10-month timeline.

Send us feedback or episode suggestions. The Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines merger came with physical and regulatory deadlines that dictated an inflexible 10-month delivery window for digital and design work. With the timeline tied to real-world change, combined design, product, and engineering teams had to build and ship alongside a transformation that was already in motion. Chris Strahl talks with Noelle Lansford and Forrest Akemann about what it took to deliver a multi-brand experie...

People in this episode

Host: Chris Strahl

Guests: Noelle Lansford, Forrest Akemann

Topics covered

• merger
• shipping
• digital design
• team collaboration
• airlines
• project management

Keywords

• Alaska Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• merger
• digital design
• project management
• team collaboration
• shipping

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines

More episodes of Patterns Podcast

• Building in the Age of Agents with Alex Wilson, Engineering Leader at T. Rowe Price. · May 13, 2026 · 53 min
• Building Trust: Designing Product Ecosystems in the Age of AI · March 10, 2026 · 34 min
• Designing the Learning Loop: Context, AI, and Compound Systems · January 27, 2026 · 48 min
• DSP 139. Why the Future of Digital Production Starts With Code, Not a Canvas · December 17, 2025 · 35 min
• DSP 138. Scaling Inclusive Design: An Accessibility Conversation with Anna Thielke · December 4, 2025 · 25 min
• DSP 137. Why You Shouldn’t Aim for Perfect: Building Design Systems That Deliver Business Value with Noelle Lansford · November 11, 2025 · 45 min