Question: Are there any design patterns/methods/ways to remove nested if then else conditions/switch statements?

I remember coming across some methods used by the Google folks listed in a Google code blog post. Can’t seem to find it now though

Answer: 
Have you read [this](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000486.html) on flattening arrow code from Coding Horror?

You can replace throw with return or goto if you're using a language without exceptions.
Were you thinking of Google's "[The Clean Code Talks -- Inheritance, Polymorphism, & Testing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F72VULWFvc)" video? It discusses approaches to using Object Oriented techniques to remove if/switch conditionals.