Bear Academy

Bear Academy

By Bear LiuBusinessEducationArtsSelf-ImprovementCareersDesign
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Bear Academy episodes

  • #16 - Why a Growth Mindset for UX Designers is Essential?
    In the book Mindset, Dr. Carol Dweck shows the importance of a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. Why is a growth mindset essential for UX designers? As a UX designer, you should be bold enough to admit things you don't know and believe you can find the proper solution for the problem you are working at. In another way, the UX discovery stage for designers is a trial-and-fail process, which requires a growth mindset so you can reflect on what you've learned and adapted it to your design.
    9 min
  • #13 - E-Myth: Work on your business, rather than in it
    E-Myth is an excellent book about business, especially for helping small businesses grow without them burned out.
    I like the book's structure by telling a story about Sarah, a small pie Store owner struggling to survive on her own business. She worked 12 hours per day. She gets used to working as a technician rather than an entrepreneur. The author met Sarah as a mentor to help her to think about things from a different perspective and improve the shop business step by step. This is a great way to share some theories with the audience by telling a great story. Show characters struggle, and what are the specific actions that they can do? How they cope with the problems. Finally, what was the result?
    Also, the whole book is about building a system without involving personality, which means that even people change, your business won't be impacted.
    And another part of the book, which I found quite helpful, is an example of how two or three co-founders can run a business by defining each role and its responsibility for the business. It could be just the founders initially, but later, if they have better candidates, they don't have to spend all the time doing the technician work. They can hire someone who can do the job. And document all the steps with precise measurements so that anyone can pick them up.
    14 min
  • #12 - Prepare the portfolio that can get you hired
    Why do we need a UX portfolio? And how to prepare the portfolio that can get you hired? In this video, I'll share a few tips about portfolios for UX designers and product designers, so that you could know how to start to build your own portfolio to help you get the design job you want.
    11 min
  • #11 - Designer Michel Ferreira and his four other hidden roles
    A few years ago, when I move to New Zealand from China, as a designer without local experience, references, and didn't even speak the language properly, I had a big question: how can I start? I think it's not only my question but probably the key question for all the people who would like to work somewhere else from his/her home country: yeah, how can I start?
    Because I've been experienced this struggle, I was impressed when I learned Michel Ferreira's story. Started from Brazil, Michel extended his design career to an international level: he previously worked in the US, then worked at Shopify in Canada and Booking.com in the Netherlands, and currently in Sydney as a Design Manager at Atlassian. Wow! How did he start? With curiosity in my mind, I invited Michel for this podcast interview and the result? Boom! I got this mind-blowing conversation. Let's jump into it! By the way, if you curious about the title - what about his four other hidden roles? Stay to the last, and you'll get it then :)
    Shownote
    Visual shownote
    michel-sketchnote https://i.imgur.com/1gDOoNo.jpg
    About the guest
    Michel Ferreira is a Brazilian designer living in Sydney, Australia where he works full-time as a Design Manager at Atlassian, building the future of world-class Enterprise products like Jira. Previously worked at Shopify in Canada and Booking.com (http://booking.com/) in the Netherlands. Michel is also the host of LatinXs Who Design podcast.
    As a writer and public speaker, Michel has delivered numerous presentations to audiences around the world to introduce new design ideas and examine best practices in A/B testing. He's also written articles for Net Magazine and company blogs such as: Would you like fries with that? For Booking.com (http://booking.com/) and 11 Lessons from the NBA Bubble for your newly remote team for Atlassian.
    Michel Ferreira's podcast
    https://anchor.fm/latinxswhodesign (https://anchor.fm/latinxswhodesign) Special Guest: Michel Ferreira.
    1 hr 2 min
  • #10 - Design an app to save our grandmas - Story of delivering the NZ COVID Tracer app
    The NZ COVID Tracer app took an essential part during the whole COVID-fighting process - more than half of the people in New Zealand using the app to help save people's lives.
    The app was developed and delivered by RUSH, an Auckland based digital agency, which only took six weeks from concept to launch. It's a once-of-a-lifetime opportunity for a designer. What are the stories behind the scene? Who are the people doing the design of the app? In this episode of Bear Academy, I have the pleasure of talking to Stephen Horner - Chief Design Officer, and Chloe Fong - Product Lead about the story of designing and delivering the NZ COVID Tracer app.
    As a reminder, please turn on Bluetooth tracing in the app.
    Shownote:
    Latest stats of the app since the app launched… (as at 27 January 2021)
    There are 2,496,000 registered users
    This is 61% of the adult population of NZ (*aged 15+)
    There have been 160,466,530 total QR poster scans
    And 6,555,858 manual diary entries
    The highest peak of scans so far is 2,509,166 in a single day
    Since Bluetooth launched on 17 December 2020, 859,369 devices have activated this function
    Official website:
    https://tracing.covid19.govt.nz/ (https://tracing.covid19.govt.nz/)
    https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-resources-and-tools/nz-covid-tracer-app (https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-resources-and-tools/nz-covid-tracer-app)
    Case study (RUSH):
    https://rush.co.nz/work/nz-covid-tracer-app/ (https://rush.co.nz/work/nz-covid-tracer-app/)
    Guests:
    Stephen Horner - Chief Design Officer at RUSH
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevehornernz/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevehornernz/)
    Chloe Fong - Product Lead at RUSH - teacher at EF (UK)
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloefong/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloefong/) Special Guests: Chloe Fong and Stephen Horner.
    1 hr 10 min
  • #09 - There Are no "BAD" replies for your job applications
    We all received emails like this: "Thank you for applying this role, we really appreciate your time and effort putting on this. Unfortunately, you will not go to the next stage. All the best and good luck to your job searching." It's a bad reply, isn't it? Actually, no. And, there're no bad replies at all. In this short podcast, I'll share a tip that you can always get some useful information from the reject replies.
    14 min
  • #08 - 5 tips to onboard a new job like a pro
    Onboarding a new job could be overwhelming - you might look calm on your face, but totally freak out inside. I have some experience of onboarding new jobs, new projects in different countries, and I found there are things in common, no matter where and when. Basically, you need to be clear about 3 things: information, resource and expectation. In this video, I'm going to share a few tips to help you do better when you get a new job.
    YouTube: https://youtu.be/_DJ9raUIywY
    10 min
  • #07 - These are the tips that helped me to read 1 book per week

    In 2020, I managed to read 54 books, marking the sixth consecutive year of maintaining a pace of one book per week. Curious about which books I read, my recommendations, and my reasons for this reading habit? Check out the video to find answers to these questions.

    Here are ten books from my 2020 list that I highly recommend:

    1. Digital Minimalism - This book helped me regain control of my attention and time from undeserving distractions.
    2. Siddhartha - A captivating fable about life and the universe.
    3. Amusing Ourselves to Death - Written decades ago, but accurately predicted our lives in the 21st century.
    4. The Urban Sketcher - This book provided me with the confidence, skills, and roadmap to learn sketching in my late 30s.
    5. Guns, Germs, and Steel - A fantastic book about history, geography, and culture that opened a new perspective for me to see the world.
    6. Educated - Deeply touched by Tara's story, as she uses knowledge to discover the world and her identity. "There's a world out there, and it's different from dad's whisper into your ears."
    7. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman is my idol in many ways. This book is the best way to learn his thinking process, and it's quite enjoyable to read his remarkable stories.
    8. The Design of Everyday Things - A classic book if you want to know anything related to design.
    9. Forever Employable - Jeff Gothelf, a design industry influencer, shares tips and strategies for building a future-proof career in this new book. The timing for reading this book couldn't be better - I mean, 2020, right?
    10. The Tartar Steppe - "Time has slipped by so quickly that his heart has not had a chance to grow old." This is the best story about time I read this year, highly recommended!


    13 min

About Bear Academy

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Bear Academy is a series of candid conversations with founders, designers, and builders about the decisions behind what actually ships. Product bets, design craft, AI workflows, and the messy…