The Minimum Viable Podcast with Joey Limmena: Recent Episodes
Joey Limmena
The Minimum Viable Podcast is an independent exploration into the creative lives of those who design, research, write and manage in the world of products and services - from the ones just starting out to industry experts in their field, and everywhere in between. This podcast is hosted by Joey Limmena.
It isn't easy designing one of North America's fastest-growing companies, especially as you're just starting to piece together your career path; but our next guest proved that it was more than possible.
As early as her university days, Cindy followed her creative passions which eventually led her to design for startups around her. It wasn't long until she would meet Later's co-founders at a local hackathon, setting the course for a career many could dream of.
I've always heard that the founders wanted to create a company that they wished they could have worked at. And as we've learned in the past season, that sentiment still holds true 7 years later.
So join me as we close off season 1 of the Minimum Viable Podcast with none other than Later's co-founding designer, Cindy Chen.
To say our next guest had an average career and life growing up is a complete understatement. At a young age, Danka had already lived between three different continents and had a wide range of work experiences including SAP, Facebook, and even her own film production studio.
As a UX Researcher at Later, Danka leveraged her research experience and has helped lead studies across a number of different features. Join us as we talk about her unique upbringing, her roller-coaster of a career, and how she has navigated and tackled UX research from a global perspective.
It’s no question that designers today place a big emphasis on visuals and aesthetics. While they are often easier to market and catch people’s attention, a lot of the best practices we use today are rooted in psychology. And it was when he was studying that and management at UC Irvine and interning at Merill-Lynch that our next guest decided that working business just wasn’t for him.
He solidified his move into design after enrolling in a Bootcamp and landing his first role as a UI/UX Designer at Moola. Today, Justin works at Later as a UX Designer on the mobile team, helping manage and create user experiences for both the Android and iOS applications. So tune in as we dive into the psychology and user experience behind mobile apps with UX Designer, Justin Yang.
These days, the role of properly established user experience research is commonplace, and what was once a nice-to-have or a luxury, now has a seat at the table at design processes globally. Abby is someone who created that seat for herself early on in her career, leading to her first experience as a User Researcher at HSBC.
As a current UX Research Lead at Later, Abby used her knowledge and experience from her previous roles to build up both the company’s research processes and the research team today. And in her own words, while her career wasn’t inspirational or driven by passion; it was to move forward with a genuine interest in the human condition and knowing what her strengths were. This week’s episode is full of gems, including our guest herself, Abby Hoy Baylen.
Between film, photography, art, and design, I can confidently say that our next guest is somebody who lives life with a distinct passion to create. In a world where the average time spent at a single company is 3 years, Feb actually spent 6 of his foundational years as a designer at Procurify, starting back when it was just a 25-person company.
It was in this experience that he decided to make the switch from being a Visual Designer to a more product-focused one, before eventually finding his way to Later. As the sole Product Designer on the mobile team, Feb helped create the designs for both the Android and iOS apps that we use today. While we might not have worked together in the past, his attention to detail and visual skills are hard to miss. So, I’m super honored to have had the chance to sit down and learn more from this week’s guest, Febril Cuevas.
In his own words, a lot of the things our next guest learned about working in a team came from his love of basketball growing up. So much to the point that he even majored in Human Kinetics at university, hoping it would land him somewhere in the sports world. While he gave it his best shot, he would ultimately find himself pursuing UX Design under retail companies like Clearly, as well as Kit & Ace.
These days, Billy plays on starting five of the Later UX Design team as a lead, which makes sense, considering he was the first official UX Designer at the company. However, off the court, he operates more like a coach, having mentored over 30 young designers around the world - all within the past few months no less. I can genuinely say that Billy has played a fundamental role in many careers including mine - and of course, my love for sneakers. So, it is my honor, to welcome the real MVP of the MVP, Billy So.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And if I were to guess just based on the number of words she’s ever written, I’d assume our next guest was some sort of photographer. Pick a local concert that’s happened in the past six years, and you’d have a better chance of seeing her taking notes rather than taking pictures. And that’s because our next guest used to write for musical publications before she became a UX Writer, including an interview with one of my favorite bands growing up, the one and only, Simple Plan.
She would eventually go on to write copy at Later, trading in the concert tickets for support tickets while helping set the standard for UX copy across a number of different teams. For those wondering, we have dads here too. Anyways, without further ado, please, join me in welcoming on to the stage, Natalie Dee.
When translated from the original Greek word, the term Philosophy refers to the love of wisdom. You’d probably recognize names like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, as they’ve laid the foundation for studying human behaviors and interaction today. In fact, many Greek philosophers would often spend their whole lives, searching for the meaning of - well, life. And our next guest is no stranger to the world of philosophy. In fact, he studied it in university before eventually starting out as a designer.
And before becoming a UX Manager at Later, Tim spent years teaching himself design from the ground up, taking on countless projects through his experience at companies like Hootsuite and Amazon as well as agencies including his own. And for the past six months, I’ve gotten to work closely with him while learning how to become a better designer and leader myself. I’m very excited to kick off our very first episode of the Minimum Viable Podcast and share with you the philosophies of none other than Tim Kolke.