What is UX?: Recent Episodes
Pek Pongpaet
The show dedicated to inspiring, educating, and motivating UX designers both new and seasoned. Guests share their UX journey, career, and industry experience.
Natalia is a design leader from La Paz, Bolivia and now works in Dallas, Texas as Director of Product Design for Cariloop, a caregiver support company focused on relieving the stress and anxiety felt by all caregivers. After interning at advertising agencies she fell in love with the interaction design portions of campaigns and quickly transitioned into the world of user experience. She’s had the great fortune of working with some exciting brands, most notably Verizon, 7-Eleven, Animal Supply Company, Coca-Cola and Qdoba, before ultimately adopting the mission of helping caregivers. Natalia is a strong believer in thoughtful design, and intentional storytelling, and works hard to bring empathy, emotion and quality to products.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Cariloop?
- Natalia’s role at Cariloop
- How Cariloop serves people
- Transforming customer’s journey
- Natalia’s background and how did she get into design
- Natalia’s advice on people who are struggling to become a better designer
- Natalia as an artist
- What do expect if you will try Cariloop’s services
Links:
https://cariloop.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cariloop/
Connect with Natalia
Meesh Lin began designing and launching websites at age eight by learning from her self-taught web designer mother. She's had an unconventional path to design—having freelanced, contracted, and designed-in house for start-ups and public companies over the last 6+ years. Today, Meesh is designing Okta's first consumer product.
Inspired by her design journey, she discovered a deep passion for mentorship and helping aspiring designers and technologists break into tech. Also, having worked alongside so many different people and personalities on global remote teams, Meesh has mastered the art of leveraging soft skills to build authentic relationships at work, which lead to effective cross-functional collaboration and happier teams.
Meesh mentors for ADPList, Co.Lab, and First Round Fast Track. She also provides design advice for early-stage start-ups. Prior to Okta, Meesh designed at Lilt, 15Five, Reddit, eBay, and Gigster.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Okta?
- How did Meesh learn design from her mom
- How to find opportunities as new designers
- Pay gaps
- How to advocate for yourself
- How to get people to engage more in a meeting
- Meesh’s first job and her challenges
- From archaeologist to designer
Links:
https://meesh.design/
https://twitter.com/meesh_lin
https://www.instagram.com/meesh.lin/
Peter Szalontay is the DataGoat/CEO at DataMilk, it is a team of data science and UX experts on a mission to empower eCommerce brands to build AI-powered UX on the level of Big Tech. DataMilk’s Smart UX suite enables fast, fluid, and predictive digital experiences that boost user engagement and gross profit.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How Artificial Intelligence will impact UX Design
- What is AI software called “DALL-E”
- Peter’s career at Google
- Peter on creating businesses out of AI applications
- What UX means to “DataMilk”
Links:
Connect with Peter
https://www.datamilk.ai/
Alicia is a Product Design Director for IT Products at Rippling - the platform that frees smart people to work on hard problems! She has been a designer across industries, including higher education, academia, insurance, pharmacy, e-commerce, and technology, and is an Adjunct Instructor at Columbia College, where she focuses on how to prepare for moving from college to what your life as a designer will be like. She co-organizes the Ladies that UX Chicago meetup, where she brings conversations like accessibility, ethics in design, and emotional intelligence to the community.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How to get a job after being unemployed for a year
- How to see if a company is a good fit for you using organizational design
- Tips on career struggles
- UX driven transformation
- How did Alicia get into design
- Alicia’s role at Rippling
- What is Rippling and how does it serve people?
Links:
Connect with Alicia
https://twitter.com/mika_jo
https://www.rippling.com/
https://adplist.org/mentors/alicia-joy-warren
Hiring:
Product Designer: https://www.rippling.com/careers/5035370003?gh_jid=5035370003
Lead Product Designer: https://www.rippling.com/careers/5201191003?gh_jid=5201191003
UX Researcher: https://www.rippling.com/careers/5035351003?gh_jid=5035351003
Erick Arias is an Experienced Product Designer with a demonstrated history of transforming the way enterprises build software. He is currently the Sr. Product Designer at Meta (formerly known as Facebook, Inc.)
In this episode, we talked about:
- Erick’s advice and tips with portfolio reviews
- How did Erick get into design
- Where did Erick grow up and the story of his upbringing
- Erick’s first job as a designer
- Erick’s mentorship at ADPlist
Links:
erickarias.com
https://adplist.org/mentors/erick-arias
https://twitter.com/erickarias
https://medium.com/@earias1
Nima H. K. graduated from York/Sheridan Program in Design, and is a passionate storyteller obsessed with user experience and telling the right story at the right time. Currently a design director in San Francisco, and just recently designed and built a SaaS product from scratch. He has 16+ years of experience working as a freelancer, at design agencies, and startups. He is happy to share his findings throughout this journey to inspire other designers.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Building team for design org
- Mentoring at ADP list
- Learning from people in regards to passion and leadership
- Lessons, advice and principles on building great teams
- Career struggles
- Opinion on consulting vs full-time employee debate
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources
Five Love Languages
https://adplist.org/mentors/nima-h-k
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimahk/
Hiring!
Director of Product Design: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3126648593
Senior Product Designer-Strong UI: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3141175010
User Experience Research Lead: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3060459257
Senior Product Designer-Design System: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3141169643
Glen Lipka is a product leader who has created innovative products for B2B companies since 1995.
Previously, he was the first employee at Marketo, best in class marketing automation software acquired by Adobe and helped guide the company through IPO up to 1000 employees in 9 years. He holds several patents in design innovations.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is the definition of design for Glen? How does Glen think about design?
- Glen on being the first employee at Marketo
- His job and learning in the pre-internet era
- Designers and their role in society
- The one rule of design for Glen
- What’s needed for a successful company
- And more of his personal design journey and the role that design has played in his life, the insights and knowledge, how he got in where he is now and the inspiring lessons he’d learned along the way!
Links and Resources:
The Power Broker https://amzn.to/3aj0Ypa
https://commadot.com
https://adplist.org/mentors/glen-lipka
https://twitter.com/glenlipka
https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenlipka/
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/
Ari Krzyzek is the Co-founder and chief creative officer of Chykalophia (read: see-ka-lo-fia), she helps Femtech DTC and women-led companies craft a brand that delights their customers beyond a pretty design, delivers no-brainer user experience, and gets them the clarity they need to for their business to thrive online.
She has over 10 years of branding and design experience, a certified brand strategist, and UX expert. She has transformed businesses' visions into a tangible form that helps set their business apart from their competitors. As her diverse client roster attests, the one constant in her work is spot-on design for major impact every time. She’s the co-host of Halo Femtech Podcast, a podcast that honors disruptive innovators and change-makers advancing women’s health.
Furthermore, she serves as a design consultant, mentor and professional peer in support of fellow female entrepreneurs through the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world, 1871 Chicago, Interaction Design Foundation, Ms.Tech, and ADPlist.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Winning Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program Women of Color Grant
- Starting Chykalophia design agency with her husband
- More tips from Ari about increasing sales and web conversions without coding
- Ari’s story of growing up as a Southeast Asian and her humble beginnings
- Ideal customers for her company
Links and Resources:
https://arikrzyzek.com/
https://chykalophia.com/
Connect with Ari
Erik Kennedy is the creator of Learn UI Design and Learn UX Design. He’s also a freelance UX/UI designer based in Seattle, WA. He has also spoken in the US and abroad at businesses, meetups, and universities (like UC Berkeley, Yale, and UW). His design writing has been read by over a million people.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How Erik got into teaching design
- Erik’s design tips
- Erik enumerates and explains 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI
- Erik’s UI and UX courses for students
- Erik talks about his teaching style and the types of students he has
- Design Hacks newsletter
- His course, Learn UI Design and its vision
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources
Erik’s Design Hacks Newsletter FREE!
Learn UI Design Website: https://app.learnui.design/a/aff_3n5bydnn/external?affcode=70335_ndhyzl7p
https://erikdkennedy.com/
Jeany Ngo is the co-founder at Kairos, which provides the tools for anyone to create, publish and sell NFTs without touching a single line of code. She blends her love of visual storytelling with thoughtful understanding of user behavior. 10+ years in product, UX/UI, and visual design comes from working at Brex, Airbnb, LinkedIn and consulting for design agencies and startups. Clients include Figma, Ueno, TM, Crunchyroll, Tempo Fitness, Handshake, Safari Riot, Yembo Inc, GoInsurance, Eleven Inc, Mira, Osmo Systems, Proven.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Jeany’s career journey at Airbnb, Linkedin and Brex
- How did Jeany get into design?
- Life as a designer-entrepreneur and its challenges
- Jeany talks about her startup: Kairos
- Kairos’ team and system structure
- Why Kairos and the NFT space
- Kairos mission
- Jeany’s creative system
- Jeany’s awards
- And much MORE!
Links:
https://kairos.art/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanyngo/
https://www.jeanyngo.com/
https://twitter.com/gojeanyn
Marissa Louie is the Director of UX Design at SiriusXM Pandora, she leads a design organization that thoughtfully creates experiences for 100m+ users.
She also serves as the Chairwoman of Animoodles, and runs Designers Club and Designers Guild. Previously, she was a design leader at Apple, Expedia, Ness, and Yahoo.
It brings her joy to design delightful products, drive innovative visions with billion dollar results, and help others achieve their full creative potential.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Marissa get into design?
- Marissa’s career at Apple
- Working as a “Jill of all trades”
- Mentoring and speaking engagements
- Who is Marissa outside of her professional career
- Animoodles story
- Highlights and accomplishments of Animoodles
- Her role at SiriusXM Pandora
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://karanarising.org/
https://www.thewaytomyheart.org/
https://www.theanimoodles.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/siriusxm/jobs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/malouie/
https://malouie.com/
@malouie
Pawel Bak is a strategic and passionate product/service designer with 12+ years of experience designing for mobile, wearables and IoT devices. Designs and helps develop high-performing design solutions and engaging customer experiences which drive business goals and user satisfaction for well-known brands. An innovative and hard-working leader who is both strong on ideation and implementation, as well as on enabling global agile teams to succeed. Mentors designers and manages established or growing design teams. Builds collaborations and establishes trust to engage and influence global stakeholders.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The transition from studying Computer Science to becoming a designer
- Pawel’s role at AbbVie
- How AbbVie serves people
- Pawel’s career at Nokia
- Memorable experiences in designing for Nokia
- Pawel’s career experience at Microsoft
- Transition from working at mobile companies to working on automotive company which is BMW
- Evolution of mobile design system
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
http://www.abbvie.com/
Connect with Pawel
Sarah is currently the Experience Designer at Patagonia. She also worked with Google, Pinterest and Nike, leading strategy and UX in a highly collaborative work environment. Mentored junior staff. Participated in the hiring process, project casting and scoping.
She makes experiences by orchestrating cross-disciplinary teams of designers, writers, developers and content creators. Her passion and curiosity about people and how we interact with the world around us drive her to continuously explore and learn.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Sarah’s role at Patagonia
- Patagonia’s product and e-comm side
- How Sarah started in design
- The transition from graphic design to UX design
- Agency work vs in-house work experience
- Sarah’s career as a design instructor
- Designing for a global audience
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://baymard.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/uxhiggins/
https://www.patagonia.com/home/
Katie Swindler is a human-centered design strategist with 15 years of experience. Originally educated as a theatre director, her creative approach combines storytelling and technology, emotion and utility to enable brands to connect deeply with consumers and fulfill real human needs.
Author of the book Life & Death Design, published by Rosenfeld Media in January 2022, which looks at what life-saving technology can teach us about designing for the human stress response. She’s an experienced presenter who has spoken on UX topics internationally at industry events such as SXSW Interactive, IXDA, 4A’s and PUSH.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Katie’s role in Allstate
- Duties as a head of design strategy for the Innovation Department
- How did Katie start in design?
- The transition from theater to design career
- Katie’s book: Life & Death Design
- And MUCH MORE
Links and Resources:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieswindler
http://www.katieswindler.com
https://twitter.com/katieswindlerux
https://www.lifeanddeathdesign.com
Nicole Torgersen is Vice President of Design at Dialpad. She’s been working in digital design since the late '90s working with a range of industries including cloud collab and storage at Dropbox, retail at Gap, and recruiting at Monster Worldwide. A Design craftsperson by trade, Nicole has been a leader most of her career, building teams by way of leveraging empathy and vulnerability in the balance to find business impact while mentoring individuals.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Nicole’s role in Dialpad
- How did Nicole get into design?
- How to become a leader
- Her career at Monster Worldwide, Gap and Dropbox
- Hardest transitions in Nicole’s career
- Nicole’s learnings and insights in her career adjustments
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ntorgersen/
How to Win Friends & Influence People
Making Ideas Happen
Tara Brach
Ryan Tauss is the leading product design for Tide Cleaners. The past almost 4 years, along with a talented crew have greenfield an entire suite of applications that help run operations, customer service, and improve the guest experience making laundry as convenient as just using your thumb. Before that, he worked at America's largest church, Life.Church. It was at this time in his career he made a switch from graphic design to product design. He went from art directing and brand creation to contributing to just about every digital space of Life.Church. He understands agency life and how fun and exciting it can be. He’s even had the opportunity to return to his alma mater and teach a design course. All these experiences have built on the other and he feels very grateful to have experienced each one. Lastly, He’s just tipped his toe into mentoring through ADP, and the first few connections have been warm and authentic.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Tide Cleaners?
- Tide Cleaners relation to Press Box?
- Tide Cleaners “personas”
- How did Ryan get into design?
- Transition from graphic designer to UX designer
- Tide Cleaners design team
- Values and why are they important
- How can design help create a better organization?
- How does Ryan’s cultural background affect his career
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
Product Leadership, by Richard Banfield, Martin Erickson, and Nate Walkingshaw
Michael Bierut
Paul Rand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryantauss
Sumier Phalake is Head of Design, Next Billion Users at Google, which focuses on products that bring connectivity to users in emerging markets. He has over 15 years of experience across both consumer and enterprise products.
Episode highlights:
- What is “Next Billion Users” (Google) and how it benefits people?
- Files by Google - file management that helps mobile freeing up space
- Files by Google success and its million users around the world
- Sumier cited more of their products
- Sumier on working on tools to make Googlers more productive and more beneficial to Google users
- How did Sumier get into design?
- How did Sumier get to work at Google?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
Digital Confidence Toolkit
https://nextbillionusers.google/tools/
Connect with Sumier
https://twitter.com/sumierflake
Tessa Rodes joined the very first cohort of IBM Design Bootcamp in 2013, and since then has seen the design organization and company grow and evolve into a truly design-led system. She has reviewed 100s of portfolio applications in the 8.5 years of IBM Design, and has strong opinions about both what makes a great portfolio and what NOT to bother with. She launched the initial version of the product IBM Cloud and has worked to ensure quality, consistency and differentiating features ever since.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Tessa get into design
- IBM design Bootcamp
- Tessa’s role at IBM Cloud
- Tips on what makes a good portfolio?
- Importance of cover letter in the application process
- IBM’s interview and hiring process
- How pandemic affects IBM operation and current workplace environment
- And much MORE!
Links:
https://www.ibm.com/design/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessarodes/
Ryan has spoken all over the world at schools, and organizations sharing his story and inspiring others to live their dreams. Ryan is a father, husband, mentor, motivational speaker, and designer.
His current role, leading product design at Rocket Homes. He is an experienced User Interface Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Skilled in App Design, User Experience (UX), E-commerce, and Leadership.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Motivational story of Ryan who was born without arms and legs
- How Ryan designs
- Ryan’s early journey and how did he started in design
- Design tools he’s using
- Ryan’s role in Rocket Homes
- How should people think about accessibility?
- Ryan’s past role in Ford Motor
- Ryan as a motivational speaker
- Look Mom No Hands – The Story of Ryan Hudson-Peralta
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
Connect with Ryan
https://lookmomnohands.com/
Tiktok: lookworldnohands
https://twitter.com/hudsonperalta
https://dribbble.com/hudsonperalta
Jared Spool is the founding principal of User Interface Engineering (UIE), a research, training, and consulting firm that specializes in website and product usability, He is also the Maker of Awesomeness at @CenterCentre/@UIE. Helping designers everywhere help their organizations deliver well-designed products and services.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Jared started his business Center Centre-UIE
- More about running a successful 30 year old company
- Jared’s early design research work
- How experienced designers can still make bad designs and design decisions
- Why large organizations can have bad design
- Why design so important?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
Jared Spool Twitter
Jared Spool Articles
Center Centre
UIE
UX Centered Careers
Michaela Mucha is an award-winning designer, art director, & matcha-drinker currently making fun things (virtually!) at The Walt Disney Studios. Michaela is a first generation Mexican–Filipina–American with over a decade of experience in graphic design. She is a design nerd at heart, and is currently at The Walt Disney Studios where she delivers best-in-class advertising campaigns for theatrical record-breaking box office hits and Disney+ streaming movies and series from Pixar, Disney, and 20th Century Studios. She is a member of the original team that launched Disney+ in 2019.
Her clients and collaborators include: Disney, Starbucks, ABC, Pixar, Marvel—among others. She holds a B.A. in Graphic Design & Digital Imaging and is a board member of AIGA NY. Recently, she was awarded as a Semifinalist (twice!) in the Int’l Adobe Design Awards.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Michaela’s role in Walt Disney Studios
- MIchaela cited some design projects she worked on Walt Disney Studios
- How and why Michaela start in design?
- What makes a good movie poster?
- Tips for getting a job at your dream company
- What is a good design for Michaela?
- How did Michaela land a job at Disney?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources
Dispo app
https://workingnotworking.com/
Michaela on Behance
https://www.muchaela.design/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelamucha/
John Yesko is a veteran experience design, creative, and digital business leader; now Head of User Experience and Service Design at Walgreens. Responsible for the digital experience on Walgreens websites, consumer mobile apps, and in-store retail interfaces - as well as team member-facing digital. He also leads the Omni-Channel Service Design practice, with the mission of improving customer and employee experience across their ~9500 stores.
John's specialties include Information architecture, user experience design, service design, usability testing/user research, website design, interaction design, and creative direction.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Walgreens and how it serves people?
- John’s role in Walgreens
- Walgreens and Boots relationship
- How did John get into design?
- How did John get the job at Walgreens?
- John shared some knowledge to those aspiring UX designers in healthcare/pharmacy world
- What is a good design for John?
- More design tools that can be used for service design
- And MUCH MORE!!
Links and Resources:
http://www.yesko.com/
https://miro.com/ux-tool/
https://rosenfeldmedia.com/
Jared Spool books
https://hbr.org/
Jesse Gaskin serves as a Co-Program Director for the Design Leaders Council of The Conference Board. In addition to his work with The Conference Board, Jesse is a patient experience and human-centered design lead at Kaiser Permanente who specializes in using human-centered design to develop and launch new care experiences. His hybrid background in design thinking and business enables him to develop products and services that solve real customer needs while balancing organizational capabilities. He has worked with start-ups and Fortune 500 companies primarily in health care and financial services. Over the last 12 years, he has been involved in nearly every aspect of the design process, from pixel to platform, from designing mobile apps to identifying new product opportunities to launching new businesses. In his current role, he leads interdisciplinary teams in defining, designing, and delivering products and services that are desirable, feasible, and viable. He holds an MBA from the Stuart School of Business and a Master of Design from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, as well as a BFA in Graphic Design from San José State University in California.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Jesse’s role in Kaiser Permanente
- Strategic thinking for designers
- How Jesse started in design
- Jesse’s consulting business
- How did Jesse get into the healthcare industry?
- Jesse explains why designers are ideal to work in healthcare
- Jesse as the Program Director at Design Leaders Council
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources
Discovery Design: Design Thinking for Healthcare Improvement
https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/front-door
https://www.conference-board.org/us/
Connect with Jesse
Jane Portman is a UI/UX consultant specializing in web application design, founder of UI Breakfast and Userlist. At Userlist, Jane's goal is to provide flawless onboarding and engagement for SaaS companies through a simple customer messaging platform.
Jane has also been running UI Breakfast Podcast since 2014.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Jane get into design?
- Software design and Saas Products
- Life as UI/UX consultant
- Productized Consulting
- Jane’s workflow and process in writing a book
- How to network?
- Podcasting to build a network
- What is Userlist and what designers need to think about as entrepreneurs
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
UI Breakfast Podcast
Better Done Than Perfect
https://userlist.com/
UI Audit by Jane Portman
Authority by Nathan Berry
Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick
Stacking the Bricks with Amy Hoy - https://stackingthebricks.com/
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
USE PEK300 as a code to get $300 OFF - https://userlist.com/
Ana Lara is an award-winning app product and strategic designer with more than ten years of experience. She has worked with different clients such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Hilton. She was one of the earliest UX team members at T-Mobile, where she led and transformed one of their most important apps into an award-winning mobile experience. Later she transitioned to lead a team of strategists building omnichannel end-to-end customer journeys, seeking user-centric solutions to their pain points. Three months ago, she joined Cisco, leading a new app experience. She recently joined the ADP List community as an active mentor.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Ana's role at Cisco
- Industry awards
- Building a good team, dedication and research
- Career journey at T-mobile
- Internal award at T-mobile
- How to balance personal and professional life
- Empathy in the workplace
- How did Ana start in design and her design journey
- What qualities to look for when looking for a designer
Links:
Connect with Ana
https://www.cisco.com/
Book: Design Thinking Toolbox
Jesse Showalter is a Fullstack Designer, Mentor, & Content Creator on a mission to help every creative make an impact on the world.
Jesse has a Youtube Channel with over 200k+ subscribers and counting! The channel shares Digital Design & Web Development videos each week focusing on tools, techniques, projects, and more to help creative people make amazing things. If you're an aspiring Web Designer, UI Designer, or Front-End Developer who is interested in creating awesome things in pixels and code, make sure to subscribe for helpful training videos.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Content creation, indie, freelancer and designer journey
- Handing off designs
- Helping creatives learn & grow
- Jesse’s tips for budding freelancers
- Jesse as a big advocate of self-learning and journey as a self-taught designer
- Dealing with clients as a freelancer
- Starting his Youtube channel
- There is no “overnight success”
- Jesse’s various streams of revenue
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
Jesse Showalter Youtube
https://www.jesseshowalter.com/
Hey Creative Discord Server
Mike Heitzke is a perpetual hobbyist. Competitive powerlifter, three-pedal car enthusiast, tinkerer and watch collector. He served within the logistics space at CarMax as a Lead Product Designer.
In this episode, we talked about:
- MIke’s role at CarMax
- Design Operations and management
- Serving internal partners CarMax
- Experience in managing designers
- The first failure in leadership
- Mental Health
- Life as a competitive powerlifter
- First design job from Craigslist
Links and Resources:
https://www.designbetter.co/designops-handbook
Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams
Daring Greatly
Brian Brown books
5 Love Languages
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
The five keys to a successful Google team
https://twitter.com/heitzke
Nico Li is a UX / Product Designer who has been around for a while. Currently, he is residing with the Zebra Technologies Innovation and Design team and spending quite some time incubating new digital solutions.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Nico Li’s role in Zebra Technologies
- What is Zebra Technologies and how it serves people
- Hardware and software solutions
- Zebra Technologies’ stage gating process
- Company’s general approach
- Alignment and design evangelism
- How Nico got into design
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoli/
www.zebra.com
Liminal Thinking (book) http://liminalthinking.com/https://amzn.to/3wTYHb2
Note: Currently, the design team (Zebra Technologies) is looking for UX Researcher and Designer in the US and UX Designer in India. Check out the job openings from Zebra on LinkedIn.
Morten Winther is a lead UX designer originally from Denmark but now in the Bay Area. He approaches design strategically and strives to ensure the future doesn't turn into a Sci-Fi dystopia. Morten's worked as a UX consultant and collaborated with organizations like Amazon, Absolut Vodka, and the Danish government, and he's currently shaping the future of mobility at Volkswagen Group Innovation.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Things to consider to become a sustainable lead design company
- Research and Development design
- Morten’s role in VW Group Innovation Center California
- Creating bold new ideas - sort of mobility and automotive for the Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Porsche brands.
- Voice design
- Creative confidence & imposter syndrome
- Morten’s mentorship life at ADPlist
- What is a good design?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mowinther/
https://mortenwinther.dk/
Best Interface is No Interface - https://amzn.to/3F19Idj
Erika Hall, Mule Design: https://muledesign.com/blog
Jamie Dihiansan is currently a Lead Designer at Basecamp primarily focused on the Android and iOS mobile apps for Basecamp (Project Management software) and HEY (Personal and Company Email service). He's been at Basecamp for over 13 years. He has 20+ years experience designing for the Web, including 7 years at Crate and Barrel building up their Internet Graphics department--designing and producing solutions for crateandbarrel.com and cb2.com. Prior to his work at Crate and Barrel he worked at Organic, an interactive agency, where he designed and developed online solutions for industry leaders such as Target and FTD.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Basecamp and Hey and 37signal’s origins
- Jamie’s role at Basecamp
- Jamie’s career and how he ended up at 37signals
- Differences between design in big vs small companies
- What do you do when you are the only designer at a company
- What to look for when looking for a designer
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
Connect with Jamie
@asianmack
https://basecamp.com/
Caitlin Steele is a user-centered design and engineering expert focused on design operations.
As a founding team member at MasterClass, she helped take the startup from an idea through Series C on the way to being a multi-billion-dollar company. Currently, she enables design and engineering teams to deliver exceptional native mobile experiences for Trello.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How Caitlin got into design
- Why did she choose UX in particular?
- Helping people with mobility
- Early days at MasterClass
- Caitlin cites some of the cool design insights she had at MasterClass
- Working at Lululemon
- Tips for designing on mobile
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://twitter.com/jargoonco
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinrsteele/
Harsh Wardhan is a design thinking thought leader, who uses his human-centered design skills and his design strategy expertise to help companies build future strategies rooted in deep human insights that deliver business value. In his ten years of practice in the design industry, he has collaborated with organizations across different sectors like automotive, healthcare, hospitality, fin-tech, and architecture.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Harsh get into design
- Harsh cites some of his first projects
- Architecture to software design work to being a design strategist
- Learnings from starting own design firm
- Design thinking + innovation
- And much more!
Resources and Links:
https://www.hwardhan.com/
https://www.wespeakinnovation.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt4EEtn2ShY
Shay Howe is the Vice President of Platform Strategy at ActiveCampaign, where he leads platform experience and ecosystem, strategic partnerships, and product, front-end, and communication design. He works to make the customer a hero, helping them create ideal customer experiences through intuitive products, marketing, and integrations.
Prior to ActiveCampaign, Shay was Vice President of Product at Belly and Yello, where he was responsible for product strategy and design. He has previously led product teams at multiple high-growth companies, including Groupon. He has held in-residence roles as an advisor with the Techstars, Lightbank, and Prota venture portfolios.
Shay is the author of "Learn to Code HTML and CSS," published by Pearson Education.
Episode Highlights:
- How did Shay get into design?
- Designer from being a musician
- Passion Projects experience
- Pek and Shay talked about Apple, Ipad user interface and product designs projects
- Career experience at Belly
- Design education
- Being a Co-founder at Leadhonesty
- Career and role at ActiveCampaign
- And much MORE!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/
https://twitter.com/shayhowe
https://www.activecampaign.com/
https://leadhonestly.com/
ItsnTG40RatCEvY9LXGt
Kevin Hsieh is a product design leader with 15+ years of experience under my belt. I have shipped countless products at companies both large and small. He has 5 patents and enjoys complex problem solving, collaboration, and creative thinking to take projects from concept to completion. Creating stunning and innovative designs, that are user-centric is his passion.
He is currently the Director Of Product Design at Sonder.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Kevin get into design?
- How did he get his first job?
- His first digital agency
- Kevin shared the projects and opportunities he handled that led him to where he at now
- Career and projects at Apple
- The difference between working between an agency and a software product company
- Working experience in automotive design at Tesla, Lucid Motors and Faraday Future
- His role in Sonder
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/killahgrafikz/
https://www.sonder.com/
Jen Byyny is a leader in tech/product design with over 17 years of experience. She has over 7 years of design leadership experience and 10+ years of hands-on professional design experience focused on software/Saas, analytics and media experiences for business and consumer audiences with strong management experience, design-thinking methodologies, design system knowledge, user research and product insights, plus a love for innovation through storytelling and design. She had led teams focused on product design, branding, AI, data analytics, fin-tech, health-tech, media and enterprise tools across multiple platforms.
In this episode, we talked about:
- How did Jen get into design?
- Her journey in designing for tech
- What is Teladoc Health and how it serves people?
- Jen’s role as Director of Product Design in Teladoc
- The transition from graphic design to software design information design
- Jen’s advice for people who are transitioning into design
- Career growth after transitioning
- Jen’s career at Yahoo
- What is a good design for Jen?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources
Visit our website: https://whatisux.co/
Connect with Jen - They are hiring various levels in Product Design at Teladoc
http://bebraver.org/
https://www.teladochealth.com/
https://venettasbakedgoods.com/
Brittany Schlenk is currently the Assistant Director of Design & UX at The Hartford. In her current role, she helps oversee and manage the Middle & Large Commercial portfolio. She works heavily in the business-to-business space and focuses primarily on underwriters, agents, and account managers as her main users. Prior to joining The Hartford, she used to work in the aerospace industry at Collins Aerospace and Raytheon Technologies. In addition to her career, she had received her Master of Communications in Interaction Design at Quinnipiac University and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems, minor in Information Security.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Brittany’s role in Hartford
- Hartford’s design team
- Brittany’s design experience working in aerospace
- What made Brittany want to become a designer?
- What is a good design for Brittany?
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
Instagram: BrittanySchlenk
Clubhouse: Brittany Schlenk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyschlenk/
https://www.thehartford.com/
Joe Natoli is a UX consultant, author and speaker. Everything he does is born from three decades of consulting with and training the product development teams of some of the world’s largest organizations. He has taught over 200,000 students through his online courses and is a regular keynote speaker and lecturer at events across the globe. He recently launched a new online school, the UX 365 Academy, where he publishes online courses, training videos, ebooks and more every month, at learn.givegoodux.com.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Joe’s impressive background and what does he do
- Joe in giving lectures and workshops across the globe
- His job as a veteran consultant
- How did Joe start in UX?
- Joe shared some of his life and career advice
- Joe’s UX courses
- Joe’s definition of a “good design”
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
https://twitter.com/joenatoli
https://givegoodux.com/
Joe Natoli courses (Enroll now!)
Reina O’Meara is an award-winning UX/Graphic Designer who has helped define brands for both Fortune 500 companies and small startups. She has worked for companies such as Weta Workshop, Redbox, and Steelseries. She is currently the Brand Director of Comfort Eats.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Reina’s role in Comfort Eats
- Her accomplishments in Redbox and show she got started in the company
- All about Redbox and her designing ticketing kiosk project
- Awarded a design patent
- Understanding user-testing
- Being a UX Design Manager at SteelSeries
- Her career in Impekable and projects like mobile apps, websites and an interactive device for the military.
- Her journey from WETA to Comfort Eats
- Branding and designs for Comfort Eats
- And MUCH MORE!
Links and Resources:
https://www.rsodesign.com/
Connect with Reina
Felix Lee is a designer and tech entrepreneur based in Singapore. He is the Co-Founder of ADPList, one of the world’s largest mentoring platforms for designers. He had previously founded Packdat, which was acquired in 2018; led design at Gotrade (YC S19) and was the Head of Product & Design at Passpod Indonesia ($YELO). Felix previously notably consulted for Eatsy.co, Capture App, Knowledgehook, and several global startups. He's known for his thoughts and works in product design & startups; he is an active invited speaker and writer on online platforms. Featured on TechInAsia, StraitsTimes, TODAY, VulcanPost, and more.
Episode highlights:
- What is ADPList and how it serves people?
- ADPList’s impressive stats
- Felix’s vision to make ADPList a sustainable platform
- Who designed ADPList?
- How did ADPList get their initial mentors?
- Learn how ADPList’s system evolved, from using only a spreadsheet
- How he started ADPList even before graduating college
- And much MORE!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixleezd
https://www.twitter.com/felixleezd
https://adplist.org - Come join as mentors to contribute your knowledge forward to the global community!
Eirini Kasti is a User Experience Expert focused on design for emotions. She has created experiences for the airline, financial, education, energy or transportation industries, from the biggest European companies like KLM or ING Bank to pioneering start-ups and scale-ups. Currently, she is a Senior Product Designer at Proxyclick, a European scale-up in the facility management sector.
Besides design, she is passionate about physical and mental health, self-improvement and connection with nature. That’s why she started Shaking Olives, a side project to help people have a healthy mind in a healthy body. She does this by using technology to improve their habits and educate them on the science of nutrition and well-being.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Proxyclick and Eirini’s role
- Kinds of designs and what use cases they have in adjusting the business and the product to the pandemic
- Eirini’s journey in design - from working in a transport engineering agency to being passionate in UX, psychology and design technology
- Eirini shares how she got her scholarship
- Designing for emotions especially for SaaS enterprises
- How she divides the work and tasks at Proxyclick
- Proxyclick’s design process and workflow
- Shaking Olives - Enable people to achieve the ancient wisdom "a healthy mind in a healthy body" through science and technology
- And many MORE!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eirinikasti/
https://www.proxyclick.com/
http://www.shakingolives.com/
Jason Ogle has been designing for Tim Berners-Lee’s “World Wide Web” via CRT monitors, 2400bps modems, and 216 colors since 1996. He is also a highly innovative and strategic design leader who is passionate about the user defender.
He is an influential podcaster who uses the enchanting magic of audio to inspire and equip an audience of hungry and ambitious designers. His podcast “The User Defender Podcast” is an avenue to inspire, enlighten and entertain people passionate about making a difference in their work. While staying hungry and inspired in UX design.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Jason Ogle’s passion and journey in UX growth
- What is Jason’s vision as a designer?
- Blast from the past: Jason Ogle’s Myspace journey
- About The User Defender Podcast
Get in touch with Jason
- Visit Jason's website:
https://userdefenders.com/
- Listen to “The User Defender Podcast”:
https://userdefenders.com/podcast/
Books Mentioned
- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Dr. Carol Dweck
Michael Ernst is a multidisciplinary designer and cross-functional manager who works with executive teams to drive customer loyalty in business and convert them to results. He has 20 years of experience as a product designer, creative director, brand designer, and illustrator for various companies in the tech industry.
He started his journey with Yelp in 2004. He became the lead designer and designed Yelp’s overall brand identity. In 2009, Michael led the UX design on a product that grew from an unknown site to 20 million page views and 6 million reviews. In 2012, he rejoined Yelp as a product designer. In addition to his work experience in Yelp, Michael also was the Lead Designer at Soothe, Fountain, and Giftly.
Today, Michael focuses on leadership and management, product strategy, process, and user experience design as the Lead Designer at Daylight.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What is Yelp’s design process?
- The Benefits of Yelp elite member
- Developing a good visual language and framework for Yelp
- What is Yelp for Business Owners?
- Michael’s personal story and some of the dark side of the startup lifestyle
Get in touch with Michael
- Michael's LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beingernst/
- Visit Daylight:
https://www.daylight.video/
Koji Pereira is the Head of Design for Lyft Business. He creates products for organizations, companies, healthcare systems for employees, collaborators to get rides for their employees.
Koji grew up in a poor family of five siblings, one mother, and had no father figure. He was the first among all of his siblings to go to have studied for college. For a college program, Koji took up Fine Arts, which soon led him to Graphic Design.
Since then, he has worked in Google and led Design for Files by Google from 0 to 1/2 billion MAU, and launched many products- including Camera Go, Android TV Data Saver, and Google Spaces. He also taught Design around the world in schools like Harbour. Space in Spain and PUC Minas in Brazil.
Today, Koji has over 20 years of experience in the Design field. He leads a team of designers, building new products for business transportation. Koji also hosts Cells and Pixels Podcast with Product and Design leaders.
In this episode, we talked about:
⦁ What is Lyft Pass?
⦁ Koji's background: Growing up in Brazil
⦁ What does it mean to focus on the discovery side of a new product?
⦁ About the Google brand and work experience
⦁ Koji shares his learning and insights for designing
⦁ About diversity and the Latin community
Get in touch with Koji:
· Koji's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kojieumesmo/
· Listen to Koji's Podcast:
https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/
Howard Pinksy is the Senior XD Evangelist at Adobe and creates educational videos for Adobe. He shares UI/UX knowledge and experiences with the design community through video, live streams, at creative events, focusing on the process Adobe XD application.
His journey first started in 2006, when YouTube was just a new website. Howard first started posting Photoshop videos, and immediately, his videos took off, became a YouTube partner, and his hobby became a career.
Today, Howard has a Youtube channel of 466K subscribers. He regularly creates videos of his loyal designer community.
In this episode, we talked about:
· Howard's journey
· An experience being part of the YouTube Partner Program
· What is a design evangelist's goal?
· Some expert tips when creating videos and thumbnails
· Why are user experience and good design so important?
· About Howard's LinkedIn Learning Program
Get in touch with Howard:
· Visit his YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48fSJKMFBka3Zl0u7DGf0A
· Howard's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardpinsky
James Helms is the Vice President of design a product at Intuit. A global technology platform that helps the customers and communities we serve overcome their financial challenges.
He is a graduate of the Visual Communications program at the University of Delaware. Today, James has been with Intuit for 7 years now. Performing and delivering strategic Identity and Financial data experiences for Quickbooks, Turbo Tax, and Mint.
He’s passionate about creating and improving design teams, coaching design leaders, and mentoring early career designers to use their design skills to shape their careers. James has worked with third-party apps, financial institutions, governments, and educational institutions. His mission, along with Intuit, is to drive a full spectrum of customer benefit to prosperity and power around the world.
In this episode, we talked about:
⦁ The core of human-centered design
⦁ About product experiences, empathy, and understanding consumers
⦁ Testing consumer behavior through lightweight prototypes
⦁ What is knowledge engineering?
⦁ Role of personalization
⦁ What is adopt a small business?
Get in touch with James
Visit his website:
· https://www.intuit.com/
James LinkedIn profile:
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshelmsad/
Sarkis Buniatyan is the founder of Meraki Ventures, Mirai Biotechnology, and more. He is an entrepreneur by day and a product designer by night.
Sarkis creates hyper-realistic prototypes, develops MVPs, turns them into successful products, and teaches makers how to launch their vision. He invests in the 1% of ideas that can challenge the status quo through Meraki Ventures and restores Earth’s natural balance through Mirai Biotechnology by developing hyprobiotics that transform the way food is manufactured and consumed.
Another is Meraki Ventures which values vision. In Meraki ventures, your world is a canvas to invest your ideas and shape them. Sarkis' third business is Nocode Rumble, the first live accelerator that brings together talented makers from around the world to create impactful products and put their skills to the ultimate test.
In this episode, we talked about:
⦁ What is today's definition of products?
⦁ Creating ideas and making prototypes
⦁ What are the possibilities of an idea?
⦁ More about Mirai Biotechnology and Meraki Ventures
⦁ Going in-depth with product design
⦁ His restaurant business
⦁ Thinking about Gary Vaynerchuk
Get in touch with Sarkis
Visit Meraki Ventures:
· https://www.meraki.vc/
Visit Mirai Biotechnology:
· https://www.mirai.am/
Sarkis LinkedIn profile:
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarkisbuniatyan/
Resources Mentioned
Webflow
· https://webflow.com/
JJ Moi has been raised most of his life in Thailand and did his undergrad in industrial design there, majored in furniture design. Then back to San Francisco to do his masters in data visualization and worked as a UX designer for the past decade, mostly in startups, but also had a fair share in the public sector.
Currently, he is working as VC design partner at Prime Movers Lab investing and working with startups that create breakthroughs in science that impact billions of lives such as in the areas of space transportation and autonomous vehicles, solar & nuclear energy, robotics & semiconductors, neuroscience & longevity, engineered food & automated agriculture.
Tune in as he discusses his role, he cites some innovative products that he’d helped bring to market, design systems, work for the government, work directly with the founders and executives who are amazing scientists, and what are his roles? It includes but not limited to:
- Design playbooks to create the right set of beliefs and design principles
- Design review and pay extra attention to design details that the engineering and science teams might overlook
- User research to validating user needs
- reducing waste and unwanted features
- Prototyping new ideas for analyzing ideas and user testing
- Creating a delightful user experience to support customer journeys
- Create brand strategy and identity that presents a lovable brand
- Help with recruiting and hiring for top design roles
Links:
Connect with JJ
https://jjmoi.com/
Isabela Freire is a Luso-Brazilian digital designer & art director driven by technology and art. She is currently the Design Team Leader at Arduino, the world’s leading open-source hardware and software ecosystem. The Company offers a range of software tools, hardware platforms and documentation enabling almost anybody to be creative with technology. Isabela believes in design as a lifestyle.
Episode highlights:
- Isabela’s background
- Some of the most impressive stats of Arduino
- Big companies and enterprises using Arduino
- Isabela’s role in Arduino there and what are some of the products she works on
- Isabela on leading a team of 10 designers
- Isabela on working and living in Italy
- Where's the revenue coming from?
- What are some of the best practices in designing for Arduino?
- Designing tools for interface designers
- Pek asks Isabel: What are some of the Arduino devices in Isabela’s home that she’s using to control something?
- What Isabela loves the most in working with Arduino?
- How Isabel navigated her career and ended up working in Arduino?
- And much MORE!
Links:
Connect with Isabela
https://www.isabelafreire.com/
https://www.arduino.cc/
Instagram: @isabela.fre
Twitter: @1sabelafreire
Here are some books Isabela suggest for designers who are starting:
- AlfaBeta by Aldo Novarese (recently re-edited by the Turim based Archivio Tipografico) for a historic overview and deep dive into Italian type
- Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles collection from Taschen. A thorough archive and eye candy book
- Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton is a must for anyone who wants to approach typography
- Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro, fellow Portuguese designer who puts into perspective our responsibility as designers and ethics
- Susan Kare
Here are some of the Arduino products they've talked about:
- Arduino Starter Kit: for the first approach to Arduino and programming
- Arduino Opla IoT Kit: everything you need to create an IoT project very quickly
- Arduino Cloud: our cloud-based platform to control the world around you by creating Things and dashboards and code online
Premika is the UX Lead at GovTech Singapore, one of her primary goals is crafting ‘moments of delight' through innovative and user-focused customer experience design. This is achieved by solving complex problems through user research, expert analysis, prototyping and iterative collaborative design with users and stakeholders.
In this episode, we talked about:
- GovTech in Singapore and how it serves people
- Number of UX designers in GovTech
- Who do they serve/design?
- GovTech on designing web apps, mobile apps and other digital solutions
- Premika shared a little bit of her life journey
- Premika on her agency/career background
- Her learning experience - as per Premika, each client was a completely different product, a different perspective, different countries, different ways of working different tech
- What a good design looks like at GovTech
- Advice to some small agency or SME
- And much MORE!
Links:
Connect with Premika
https://www.tech.gov.sg/
Christina Brodbeck was one of the earliest team members at the start of YouTube, she was the company’s first designer and the lead designer for YouTube mobile. In her last two years at YouTube, she led UX Design for YouTube Mobile and was responsible for creating an interface that brought YouTube to cell phones. Her passion for innovation in education led her to work on and launch YouTube EDU as a 20% side project while at the company. She was the co-founder of TheIceBreak, a Q&A service to help committed couples strengthen their relationships. As a seasoned angel investor, Christina has invested in approximately 20 companies. She is currently a co-founder and partner at Rivet Ventures.
In this episode, Christina takes us back to the early days of Youtube, its system design back then, what was her role and what kind of stuff she designed, also she talks about her venture firm - Rivet Venture and her journey on how she got into design.
Resources and Links:
Connect with Christina
http://www.rivetventures.com/
Connect with us: http://whatisux.co/
Doug Collins is a User Experience expert that has lent his talents to companies in the financial, education, government, gaming, and sports entertainment industries. When he’s not working his day job as a User Experience Designer, he can be found hiking, cooking, coding, or writing about any of the above on his personal blog.
In this episode, we talked about:
- His role in Western Union
- Design systems and process flow in Western Union
- The design tool that they are using
- How B2B side of things are getting bigger with good opportunities
- Doug shared some advice on how he handles his team
- What is good design vs bad design according to Doug
- Knowledge about design principle
- And MUCH MORE!
Links:
https://uxmastery.com/author/doug-collins/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougcollinsux/
https://lawsofux.com/
Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter - Doug Collins
Justin Dauer is the Vice President of design at the Bswift Company- a CVS Health company. He is also the author of the book "Cultivating a Creative Culture".
He is from the lifelong land of Chicago and studied visual communications in the Art Institute of Chicago. While Justin was studying at the university, he decided to study more into the digital landscape. He taught himself how to code by reading a few books and doing web projects to enhance his skill.
Because of his never-ending curiosity, he jump-started his successful career as a designer, author, and speaker.
In this episode, we talked about:
⦁ Unhealthy cultural experiences
⦁ How to inform a diverse thought of thinking?
⦁ The new day one- establishing human connections
⦁ Culture, support, and empathy
⦁ The language of business
⦁ Not settling for anything less
Get in touch with Justin
Visit his website:
· https://www.bswift.com/
Justin’s LinkedIn profile:
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/pseudoroom/
Read Justin's books
· Cultivating a Creative Culture by Justin Dauer
https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Creative-Culture-Justin-Dauer/dp/0692840672
Fonz has a creative eye for design. He was born in Brooklyn, New York- one of the most design-centric places on the planet. The beautiful architectural designs exposed Fonz to art and culture. Initially, he wanted to take up architecture but ended up studying computer science.
During his senior year of college, his university opened up a digital aquarium- which fascinated him with all the multimedia equipment, resources, and software. Since then, he self-taught himself how to design, and from then, he became a digital and growth designer.
Today, Fonz Morris is the lead product designer for global conversion at Netflix and works with some of the world's biggest companies. He is also leading a design team at Coursera- the world’s leading online education platform and is currently working on a book and design course
In this episode, we talked about:
⦁ What is Global Conversion?
⦁ Why are resources so important?
⦁ Entrepreneurial start-up, funding, and connections
⦁ The impact of education, even if it's self-taught
⦁ Why data matters and how to build a system for success
⦁ Designing for growth and general principles of a good UX
⦁ Where does growth begin and end?
⦁ Working at a bigger vs. smaller company
⦁ Role of AV testing and tools test your platform
⦁ Iteration, empathy, testing, data, and communication
⦁ Learn with Fonz! Book and design course
Get in touch with Fonz
Visit his website:
· https://www.fonzmorris.com/
· https://signalfire.com/
Fonz LinkedIn profile:
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/fonzmorris/
Links mentioned in this podcast
Tool to test your platform:
· www.usertesting.com
Coursera- Online education platform:
· https://www.coursera.org/
Woman power; Michelle Tucker’s life in the tech industry.
Welcome once again everyone to the Ux Podcast show. As always, Pek Pongpaet is the host for the show and he is joined up by Michelle Ha Tucker as the guest of this show today.
Michelle's Bio
Michelle Tucker is the director of design at Sidewalk Labs. She is also well known to be actively involved in arts and design education and served on the board of the Hyde Park Art Center and not to mention that she spends a year reimagining design curriculum at RISD. Michelle also tops it off with a masters in architecture in Harvard.
Highlights from this episode;
➢ Michelle talks about how she grew up in California and how her parents were in the tech industry.
➢ According to Michelle, UX design is the ability of a designer to synthesize a lot of information about how people use things and how people move about their lives.
➢ Michelle says that a good design should be easy to understand and delightful for people to use.
➢ Michelle talks about a number of products that she refers to them as span. She gives Dell as an example and she claims that they are more of a very digital SAS software. Where she adds that for UX designers it might be the clear comparison to whatever they're working on today.
➢ Pek adds up and says that the user experience design has to always make sense for the business and for the tech team.
➢ Pek initiates a dialogue on what advice Michelle could give to her younger version, Michelle responds by talking about working in a field like urban innovation.
➢ As the episode draws to a close, Pek and Michelle both cite Jim Collins books and both seem to love the author.
Relevant Links.
http://www.sidewalklabs.com/
Connect with Michelle
Jay Demetillo, a designer that strives for greatness.
Jay works as a designer at Grab. He has also worked for the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, and Pinterest. Just to top it off, Jay was an adjunct professor at CCA in San Francisco. Jay currently teaches design innovation at New Campus.
Highlights from the episode:
· Jay speaks of how he switched teams and now belongs to the safety team which he says he considers to be much more interesting.
· Pek subjects Jay to the question of how it was, growing up in New York and how he decided to become a designer. Jay starts by blaming his parents for being typical Asians and believed that he should be a doctor or nurse.
· Jay advises looking at how and where everything is going in terms of blockchain and states that AI or VR are the most impactful factors.
· Jay narrates how he landed at Google Ventures.
· On how he explains UX design to most people, Jay simplifies it and just gives a reference to how you'd help your grandmother get from point A-B.
· Jay talks about the design team at Grab back then in 2017 where he says that he was the sole designer on the consumer side.
· As the episode approaches its latter stages, Pek asks Jay if it was a culture shock for him to move to Southeast Asia. Jay expresses his reasons and says that he did not move for love and that it was a lonely first year.
· Asked about any career advice he'd give to his younger version and what he'd wished to have known, Jay says that he wishes to have taken more risks. He really does encourage the importance of taking risks.
· Jay mentions a few books like 'The First 90 days’ where he states that it is a great book if you find yourself in a new job.
Relevant Links
https://twitter.com/asianxjay
https://www.instagram.com/asianxjay/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondemetillo/
Catch up with Malea Gadoury, the female designer Leading exemplary.
Hello people and welcome to yet another UX episode. In this episode, our host for the show, Pek Pongpaet introduces his guest, he says he's very happy to be synced up with his lovely guest for this episode in Malea Gadoury.
Who is Malea Gadoury?
Malea Gadoury is a stylish hardworking woman who is the Co-Founder at ILK. She grew up in the suburbs of Montreal in Canada and she was also previously head of design for Wonderschool. Malea was at google for about 6 years where she held various roles.
Episode Highlights
- Malea speaks up about how she joined Wonderschool. (A marketplace for early childhood education). She adds that at Wonderschool, they help in providing day-care. She was there for a year before the pandemic struck.
- According to Malea, it's all about exposure. Where she says the majority of what she knows about UX, she learned it from google.
- Pek asks Malea to describe what Google firebase is. Where she sums it as a tool that helps mobile developers be successful.
- They both speak about growth features and Malea expounds a little bit more about AB testing.
- Among some of the interesting stories of her work at Google plus, Malea remembers when they were working on Google plus collections because they wanted to be like Pinterest. She also mentions the time when Tiktok and Instagram came out and then they needed to do reels.
- As the episode rolls on, Malea says that it's really hard to recruit talent in a start-up because you might not have the means or the resources to offer as many perks nor the ability to offer professional development and growth.
- Pek asks Malea for some advice to someone who is a designer and wants to be an entrepreneur. She insists that you should have a mindset that doesn’t waver and always believe in what you want to achieve.
- Pek and Malea both agree that customer communication is very important and that it saves you some real pain. It minimizes the tendency of designing the wrong products.
- As the episode draws to a close, Malea says that anyone who wants to work for google should have a really solid UX process and make sure that they articulate it.
Relevant links:
https://twitter.com/maleagadoury
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maleagadoury/
https://www.foreword.space/
https://firebase.google.com/
Nor Sanavongsay, a senior product designer that stands tall.
Who is Nor Sanavongsay?
Nor Sanavongsay is a senior product designer currently working at Workday. The reason why he stands tall in his field is that he tells stories through interactions with storyboards, visual designs, and prototypes. Nor also runs a nonprofit publishing company that mainly focuses on helping southeast Asians tell their stories.
Highlights from the episode:
- Nor says that he read a lot of comic books growing up and he aspired of becoming a comic book artist when he grew up.
- When Nor was trying to discover himself a little bit more, that’s when he realized that they were refugees from Laos escaping the communist regime by coming to the US to have a better life.
- He then talks about how he went to school at NIU, Northern Illinois University, where he enrolled as an illustration major, just because he wanted to pursue a career as a comic book illustrator.
- Nor talks about working at Workday doing design systems and explains how they have a workforce of more than 150 people within his group.
- Pek asks Nor to explain how he communicates about the new changes or updated components to the 150 designers.
- Nor explains how he is now involved with reorganizing the old legacy stuff into new variants.
- Pek intervenes at some point and asks Nor to talk more about analytics and the role it plays in design systems. You’ll hear Nor boldly explaining the role of the analytics panel within Figma.
- Nor says that the most important step that people should always consider when they’re thinking about creating a design system for their organization is the research. Put some effort into the research.
- According to Nor, you know you’ve achieved success when your team can build a layout much quicker than they used to.
- As the episode wears on, a flashing memory comes to Nor’s mind about his time at Zoosk where they had introduced a new thing called couples profile in the dating app. He clarifies that the goal was to make couples share their experiences with their single friends so that they can sign up.
- Asked if he considers other constraints as well and if he consults engineers or people in the business, about what they want to achieve. Nor says he does that and refers to a scenario where they recently hired a chief design officer.
- In the latter minutes of the episode, Nor advises that the best way to learn is to experience. Not forgetting to also make it a habit of eradicating the imposter syndrome mentality.
Relevant Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nor/
https://nor.sanavongsay.com/portfolio/workday/
Zoosk
Who is Prakan Nisarat? A little bit more insight into his life, you'll learn that Prakan Nisarat has a bachelor's degree in graphic design and a master's in marketing communications, as well as an MBA. I know, it sounds a lot right, But that’s his thing. Prakarn started as a traditional graphic designer in advertising in Chicago. Currently, his recent project is working at Lululemon to improve the app and omnichannel experience.
Episode highlights:
- Despite Nisarat’s English being so clear, you’ll realize that he studied the language at a later stage in life.
- Prakan says that he loves US education because you can tie things up. Both men discuss a mutual topic about learning photoshop where Pek intervenes and says how he started learning photoshop with Photoshop 4.
- Prakan then talks about how he ended up at Microsoft, he talks about how he did advertising for a while. Then he says that at his workplace, they gave him a full scholarship, and just like that he thought why not Microsoft, let's do it he says. He then says how he landed a job there helping out as a contractor
- About how they met, Pek discusses how he was exploring the UI of 23 and me. He says, “there was a section in 23 and me that said, Hey, share your DNA with a network, the users. And we'll tell you, we'll notify people who are a match, your genetic match.” He says it was interesting how it revealed to him a list of people on 23rd who had 23 and me.
- Both gentlemen expound about designing interfaces as applications for the healthcare industry
- Halfway through the episode, Prakan tries to explain how he’s trying to bring in a way of thinking in the healthcare industry and how they should fit into people’s lifestyles.
- On health care tips, he emphasizes how double-dosing could ultimately lead to death as hypoglycemia.
- Asked whether designing for different cultures affects his designs at all, he says that they try to do that, but they cannot because they are in the FDA. He further explains the vendor regulations
- Prakan advises the young designers trying to get into the healthcare industry and make a change. He says that they should not make any assumptions and also take responsibility because at the end of the day, your decision-making into this design can impact lives.
Links and Resources:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prakarn/
Website: https://nisarat.info/
https://www.dexcom.com/
https://www.23andme.com/
Andrew Falcon talks about his experience at Fjord and how things are going, particularly at Accenture. Andrew explains his first day at the studio and how his team thinks extraordinary to grow the organization. Andrew and Pek speak about the role of Fjord in today's world, how Fjord expanded from 200 to 1400 employees. He explains different ways to treat the employees to get better out of them. How his team manages the problems faced by the organization early on and how they cope with them. They also talk about the opportunities produced during the pandemic time and how small organizations should work it out.
As a Managing director at Accenture, Andrew proves a lot about the investment policies and effective business models to help organizations worldwide. He was a COO at Fjord, and during his time, his vision, calmness, and articulate behavior resulted in great success for Fjord. He is on a mission to help small businesses to grow effectively in today's time.
Key Topics:
- How Andrew proves his worth at Accenture after Fjord's success?
- How did Fjord scale sales?
- Why does Andrew think that customer experience is a new way to conquer the designing world during the pandemic time?
- And MUCH MORE!
Resources and Links
- THE FIRST 90 DAYS by Michael D. Watkins
- TO SELL IS HUMAN by Daniel H. Pink
- DRIVE by Daniel H. Pink
- A WHOLE NEW MIND by Daniel H. Pink
- FREE AGENT NATION by Daniel H. Pink
- Andrewmfalcon@gmail.com.
- Andrew Falcon (LinkedIn)
I would love to introduce you all to our guest – Talin Wadsworth. He has been working for Adobe for over 10 years and has so much knowledge to share with us. Talin currently designs creative tools for Adobe and is the co-conspirator behind Adobe XD. He uses research, iterative design, prototyping and storytelling to create the best end-to-end experiences for all Adobe users. For more information about Talin, check out his LinkedIn profile. You will be able to know all about his achievements and career path.
In today’s episode of What is UX Podcast, we dove deep into Adobe XD in the point of view of one of the most important people in the project. To understand all the topics, we learn about Talin’s career from high school until his current job at Adobe.
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How does creativity affect the end result of such a complex project?
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How does finding the right stories, characters, and personas?
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How do we keep our focus, while allowing creativity to act and make the project unique?
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How did Talin develop such a strong technical skillset at such a young age?
We touched on so many interesting points when it comes to editing software, like Adobe and Photoshop and how Talin’s ability to use technology in his favor was a plus, even before his career jump-started to amazing levels. We were able to see that there is a way to turn your passion into a source of income and that there is no such thing as something being “too hard”.
Yes, we could go really technical in this description, but let’s hear every word that Talin has to share in this episode. So, join us in this fascinating episode where experts share their stories and views of their specialties.
For more information and inspiration from Talin, check out his Twitter https://twitter.com/mrtalin?lang=en and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/talinwadsworth/. You don’t want to miss out on the amazing projects he is working on.
If you’re looking for a career at Adobe, check out this link with all the job openings. You have dreams, put them on paper, write a deadline and they become achievable goals.
https://www.adobe.com/careers.html
And to help you prepare for this amazing opportunity, take a look at some up to date, detailed books about Adobe Cloud. These books can be the extra qualification you have that will dictate whether or not you get your dream job.
https://www.peachpit.com/promotions/adobe-creative-cloud-2020-release-books-ebooks-and-142099
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