Kwasi's Journey to Twilio Segment

From Capital One Designer to Leading Segment: Career Insights on Design Management, Data Platforms, and Navigating Tech Acquisitions

Ever wondered how designers make the leap to leadership? Join us for a candid conversation with Kwasi Twum-Acheampong, who navigated his way from designing at Capital One to leading the design team at Twilio Segment.

Kwasi shares honestly about the complex, rewarding transition from hands-on design work to guiding a team of talented designers. (And yes, he admits that letting go of daily Figma work wasn't exactly easy!) He breaks down Segment's data platform in accessible terms—finally explaining what CDP and CDI actually mean without the technical jargon—and reveals how he maintained team culture through Twilio's acquisitions.

Whether you're a designer with leadership ambitions, curious about customer data platforms, or simply enjoy authentic stories of professional growth, this episode delivers insights with warmth, humor, and practical wisdom that you can apply to your own career journey.⁠⁠

Chapters

[00:00:00] From Capital One to Head of Design at Twilio Segment

[00:10:03] Design at Intuit, Mexico City, and Finding Your Next Role

[00:18:13] Head of Design at Segment Reaches Out & Interview Process

[00:22:48] Becoming a Manager and Handling 3 Reports

[00:25:00] Segment’s Data Platform: CDI, CDP, Audiences, Events, Tracking

[00:28:47] Segment’s Activation Rate and Making Human Solutions Digital

[00:35:24] Identifying Strengths and Letting Go of IC Work

[00:37:40] Twilio Acquires Segment & SendGrid and Co-Creating Culture

[00:45:05] How Managers Document Team Skills

[00:47:48] Side Hustles, Mi Casa, & Collaborating with Polish Design Agency

[00:50:49] Lightning Session ⚡️

Where to find Kwasi:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwasiuxd/

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

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➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Discover how Product Led Growth (PLG) is transforming SaaS business models in 2025. This comprehensive guide breaks down the fundamentals of PLG strategy, why it's revolutionizing customer acquisition, and the key metrics that drive sustainable growth.

In this video, you'll learn:

— The core principles of Product Led Growth and how to implement them

— Why PLG creates a competitive advantage in today's market

— The measurable benefits PLG brings and who benefits

— How to build your own growth loops

— Essential value creation metrics to track your PLG success

Whether you're a founder, product manager, designer, or growth specialist, these PLG insights will help you create more efficient acquisition channels and improve your product's value metrics.

Chapters

[00:00:00] Understand PLG

[00:04:34] Why PLG is Game Changing

[00:06:48] Benefits of PLG

[00:10:01] Anatomy of a Growth Loop

[00:12:38] Value Creation Success Metrics

Where to find more on PLG:

https://seratajima.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-product-led-growth

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima —  Founder, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect for more good energy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⚡️

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

This is Watershed's zero to one journey. From serving tech companies with climate interest to building enterprise-grade solutions for Fortune 500s, Molly Goldberg (Group Product Design Lead, Apps and Foundations) and Tess Hannel (Product Designer, Finance) take us inside this Series C climate tech startup that's tackling global emissions at scale.

Discover how they're helping multinational corporations measure, report, and reduce their carbon footprint with a rigorous approach to data and auditable artifacts. Learn how their design team balances technical complexity with user experience while working toward an ambitious goal of reducing global emissions by 500 megatons—equivalent to Brazil's entire carbon output.

The conversation spans building effective design teams, tackling complex Scope 3 emissions, navigating corporate sustainability requirements, and creating measurable climate impact. Whether you're a founder looking to create impact at scale or a product designer interested in climate tech, this episode reveals valuable insights about building solutions for one of our generation's most pressing challenges.

Subscribe to Conscious Tech⁠⁠🗞️

Chapters

[00:00:00] The Inspiration to Join a Climate Startup

[00:03:31] How Watershed is Reducing Global Emissions by 500 mt

[00:06:45] Product 0-1 Journey

[00:10:20] Calculate Emissions from Primary Activity Data

[00:12:37] Gathering Scope 3 Emissions as Levers

[00:15:55] How Watershed Found PMF Upmarket

[00:19:22] Key JTBD, Policy, CSRD, ESG

[00:22:15] Joining Climate Tech and Climate Expertise

[00:24:50] Growth Opportunities in Financial Institutions Scope 3.15

[00:27:33] Watershed Design Teams & Customer JTBDs

[00:32:59] Gaps in Data, Support Team, Activation

[00:39:38] Customer Profiles, Reporting, Data, Watershed Customers

[00:48:00] Investment in ESG, Report Authoring

[00:50:13] Future Investment Forecasting & Insurance Risk

[00:52:10] Design Team OKRs

[00:55:54] How to Hire a Great Design Team

[01:00:39] Interviewing and Onboarding at Watershed

[01:01:52] Hiring Designers Interested in Climate

[01:06:33] Measuring Success on Product Usage

[01:09:04] Transition Into Climate Tech With No Background

[01:11:57] Biggest Surprise Working at Watershed

[01:14:55] Lightning Session ⚡️

Where to find Molly & Tess:

Molly Goldberg, Group Product Design Lead, Apps, and Foundations

Tess Hannel, Product Design Finance

Watershed

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Juan Ramirez has such an incredible story. He came to the US from Colombia as a student and studied at Carnegie Mellon. Following this, he’s worked at some pretty incredible companies like Amazon, Meta, Gitlab, and Netflix. What I enjoy most about Juan’s content is how thought provoking it is. 💡

⁠Subscribe to Conscious Tech 🗞️

Chapters

[00:00:00] The Call to Be a Creative; Meta, Amazon, Netflix

[00:03:15] Studying as an Immigrant and Becoming a Citizen

[00:05:11] “Netflix is The Best Job I’ve Ever Had”

[00:11:50] Netflix is Going Hard on Ads as a Business Strategy

[00:14:20] Design Engineer Profile and the Value of Code

[00:24:53] What Good Designers Do

[00:27:41] Intro to Programming at Carnegie Mellon

[00:31:27] Human Consciousness & Esoteric Beliefs

[00:47:04] Side Projects: Brainglue.ai

[00:54:12] It’s Not Failure if You Learned From It

[00:58:17] Design Zeitgeist Concerns About AI Taking Our Jobs

[01:00:07] The Problem With Linkedin

[01:01:35] Lightning Session ⚡️

Where to find Juan

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanjramirez/

Brainglue.ai: https://www.brainglue.ai/

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Dori Tunstall is the author of Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook. She has a has a PhD from Stanford and was the Dean of the Faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto.

Join the Newsletter: ⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠ ⚡️

Chapters

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:23] Dori’s Journey from Anthropology to Design

[00:04:15] Becoming the First Black Dean on a Design Faculty

[00:10:17] Colonization is Intertwined with Capitalism and Sustainability

[00:16:15] Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook

[00:19:52] Releasing the Flow for DEI at OCAD

[00:28:43] Self Preparation for Equitable Community

[00:32:36] Liberatory Joy is about Connection and Purpose

[00:35:11] Colonization is Harmful to White People Too

[00:38:00] Is There a Place for Universal Design?

[00:44:33] Scaling Monopolies vs Specialization and Exchange

[00:47:30] Better Living Through Tech (AI) is a Fallacy

[00:56:41] Master and Slave Dynamics in AI

[01:05:35] Decoupling From Corporate Taking of Creativity

[01:12:11] Lightning Session ⚡️

Where to Find Dori Tunstall:

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Ridd, aka Michael Riddering, is the Founder of Figma Academy, Host of podcast Deep Dives, and the founding designer behind Maven.

Subscribe to Conscious Tech 🗞️

Join lightning session on product led growth ⚡️

Where to find Ridd

Twitter: ⁠https://x.com/ridd_design⁠

Dive Club Podcast: ⁠https://www.dive.club/⁠

Figma Academy: ⁠https://www.dive.club/advanced-figma⁠

Chapters

[00:00:00] Intro

[00:01:23] Ridd's background

[00:03:25] Learning coding

[00:05:29] Startup failure & finding design

[00:14:27] Transition to agency life

[00:16:56] Visual finesse and raw talent

[00:18:08] Becoming a Founding Designer with Maven

[00:22:43] Building the Maven team

[00:26:54] Twitter as testing for Figma Academy

[00:30:07] Design Media Business

[00:32:32] It's not work, it's a game

[00:42:25] What makes Figma Academy successful

[00:53:39] Prototyping is a superpower

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Founder of UX Playbook, Chris Nguyen, shares what it takes to build a design business with a focus on experimentation and understanding your audience.

Join Conscious Tech: ⁠⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠⁠ ⚡️

Resources:

Backlog

UX Playbook

My First Million

Lenny’s Podcast

Where to find Chris Nguyen:

Linkedin

Chapters

(00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:04) How Chris Got Into Design
(00:03:10) Posting on Linkedin
(00:05:00) UX Playbook organic growth
(00:10:14) Expanding the funnel on Linkedin
(00:16:11) Product Bundle Experiment
(00:19:32) Free 5 Day Growth Challenge
(00:23:49) What the Market Wants
(00:27:33) Downsells are More Effective than Upsells
(00:29:02) Pricing Experimentation
(00:32:37) Sera's Business Journey
(00:39:36) Create Urgency Getting Your Product Out
(00:45:55) What Gives Designers Business Superpowers
(00:50:33) Biggest Mistakes Chris Made
(00:54:20) A Workday With Chris

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

The most comprehensive guide on the internet for Jobs to Be Done (JTBD).

Join Conscious Tech: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ ⚡️

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:40) Why companies are dying quicker(00:01:53) Why I like JTBD

(00:02:45) People are trying to progress in life

(00:03:37) The process of creative disruption

(00:04:39) Customers inadvertently lie

(00:05:30) JTBD theory and practice

(00:09:05) Examples of 3 dimensions

(00:10:48) Tony Ulwick's 9 tenets of JTBD

(00:12:22) Incorporate JTBD into Your Process

(00:13:59) Investigate beyond the superficial layer

(00:16:06) 1. Define your market(00:17:15) 2. UX Research

(00:22:59) 3. Synthesize your research

(00:23:41) 4. Map the job

(00:24:22) 5. Identify customer needs (example with ChatGPT and Claude)

(00:25:29) 6. Create JTBD statements

(00:26:28) 7. Ideate solutions

(00:27:12) 8. Prioritization and planning

(00:28:19) 9. Design and test

(00:29:19) 10. Refine and measure impact

(00:30:17) Bob Moesta's Case study

(00:32:52) FAQ

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Don Norman has paved the way for design as we know it. He is a retired Professor, Apple VP, and co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group. His 21 books include Emotional Design, Design of Everyday Things, and Design for a Better World.

Join Conscious Tech: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ ⚡️

Resources:

⁠Design for a Better World Resources⁠

⁠Don Norman Design Award⁠

⁠Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness⁠

⁠Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design⁠

⁠Empire of Cotton: A Global History⁠

Where to find Don Norman:

Linkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnorman/⁠

Website: ⁠https://jnd.org/⁠

Chapters

(00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:06) Don Norman introduction
(00:02:45) Don's 5th retirement
(00:05:16) Design Lab University of California San Diego
(00:06:53) Author of 21 books
(00:09:39) Design for a better world is spreading
(00:11:41) What's wrong with human centered design
(00:12:56) Expanding our mind and staying curious
(00:15:06) Logic is not how people think
(00:17:55) The value of creativity
(00:19:43) How economics is significant to design
(00:21:59) Nobel Prize for economics
(00:25:14) Sidetracked on profit
(00:27:06) Changing human behavior
(00:30:39) Prioritize the most important thing
(00:32:56) Problems like climate change are invisible
(00:33:39) Greenwashing is good
(00:35:00) If your company is wrong, give them a solution
(00:38:20) You must understand the entire company
(00:40:36) How design increases the quality of life
(00:45:58) Lifestyle changes since writing the book
(00:50:28) The US medical system has been taken over by profit
(00:52:36) Politics and lobbying for Apple
(00:55:31) The world is complex
(00:56:22) Design systems
(00:58:40) Are ICs powerless?
(01:01:08) UN Sustainable Development Goal 17
(01:01:37) The Netherlands is a leader for sustainability
(01:05:44) Colonialism rules the world
(01:12:29) It's not too late

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]

Sera Tajima, your host, gives a breakdown of planetary boundaries, tipping points, digital illusions, Biden's legacy, and the potential impact of the new administration in the US.

Join Conscious Tech: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ ⚡️

*Correction for the ai generated typo in the captions. It's Vox News, not Fox News.

Chapters

(00:00:00) Business Growth
(00:04:18) Crossing Planetary boundaries
(00:09:20) Social Tipping Points
(00:10:01) Degrowth is a Response to Crisis
(00:17:53) What Are Companies Doing?
(00:20:38) The Digital Illusion
(00:24:18) A New Paradigm
(00:26:49) Biden and Trump Climate Impact

___________________________________________________________

I'm Sera Tajima, Climate Tech Advisor & Investor. 🤙

I talk about:

→ Product Growth Strategy (Growth, Design, AI)

→ Climate Tech

→ Venture Capital

Connect for more good energy ⚡️

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Tech Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠

➕ ⁠Tiktok⁠

➕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Advising⁠⁠⁠⁠

Become a sponsor: [email protected]