Thunder Nerds

Kelly Knight

A UX Engineering lead at Google, Kelly leads a team of front-end specialists focused on providing excellent user experiences through prototyping, education, tools and technical mentorship. She’s been coding for the web since 1998 and worked at various companies before joining Google in 2008. In her 10 year journey at Google she’s developed tools and workshops utilized across the company. She’s known for her advocacy of the value of prototyping and commitment to empowering the UX Engineering community.

Munish Dabas

@munishdabas

A UX Engineer at Google, Munish applies his user-centric iterative design approach to lead prototyping efforts across Google Maps. Prior to Google he was a product design lead at Amazon, a lead technologist at Sports Illustrated Digital where his work garnered awards from The FWA and AdAge, and an interactive developer at award-winning digital agency Fantasy. He’s also an avid educator, having been an adjunct professor of Interactive Design at NYU and Parsons in the past.

UX Engineering @ Google (Co-presenter)

UX Engineering is a relatively nascent role in our industry, but it’s crucial to the product design lifecycle. As creative tinkerers, UXEs rapidly turn concepts into reality through prototyping and develop tools to empower design teams. Learn how this discipline operates at Google, its history, the impact we’re making there, and find out if your passions, interests, and skillset make you an ideal fit for this unique role.

@jponch

Jared is the Creative Director at Lullabot where he helps lead a talented, fully distributed team of strategists, designers and developers. Over the years they’ve designed and built sites for well-known brands and institutions like NBC, This Old House, Syfy, Intel, Harvard, MIT and more. Lullabot’s focus on projects with large editorial teams managing complex content models has helped Jared and his team build unique expertise when it comes to creating design systems that work at scale. Jared loves helping organizations use design thinking to simplify complexity, find focus, build alignment and make great experiences for the audiences they serve.

Ensuring Value in Our Work

We live in a world increasingly shaped by big data and a desire to “mathify” all of our decisions, especially design decisions. Never-the-less, as designers we often struggle to both sell and ensure the value of the work we do. In this session we’ll take a look at the ROI of design as well as some practical ways to shape our projects and processes to ensure value in our work.

We are LIVE and celebrating 10 years of the Front-End Design Conference 2018 and the incredible community of speakers and attendees that have been with the conference all the way.

Watch the Playlist

We chatted with…

* Dan Denney

* Ethan Marcotte

* Carl Smith

* Kuan Luo

* Jared Ponchot

* Chris Coyier

* Rob Harr

* Bermon Painter

* Mina Markham

* Tera Simon

* Tim Smith

* Ron Edelen

* Samantha Warren

* Eric Portis

* Kelly Knight

* Munish Dabas

* Gene Crawford

In this episode we get to talk with Ryan Erskine: Brand Strategist, Author, and Online Reputation Expert. We cover tons of actionable points you can use in your online presence, including how to mitigate negativity in social channels. We also talk about Ryan’s day-to-day at BrandYourself and chat about his book Online Reputation Management: The 28 Day Challenge: Get your personal brand in shape.

Show Links

* Our Guest: Ryan Erskine

* Ryan’s website: http://ryanerskine.com

* Ryan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanErsk

* Ryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erskineryan/

* BrandYourself: https://brandyourself.com

* BrandYourself Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrandYourself

* The small BIG: small changes that spark big influence: https://www.amazon.com/small-BIG-changes-spark-influence/dp/1455584258

* Bread Time – Personal Brand with Pablo Stanley: https://breadtime.simplecast.fm/3e9daa3d

* Brian on a Shirt: https://www.cafepress.com/thundernerds

* Points from The 28 Day Challenge: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LOXPPWY

* Gattaca: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

* Black Mirror: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/

* Social Credit: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion

* Quaker Oats Cereal: https://www.amazon.com/Quaker-Oatmeal-Squares-Crunchy-Cereal/dp/B0036FFJ98

In this episode we chat with Purpose Driven Communicator & Connector, Amanda Eyer. We talk about how to visualize your happiness with actionable techniques you can employ daily. We debate an organic career path vs calculated choices. We also discuss the value of seeking help via working with a career coach.

Show Links

* Guest: Amanda Eyer

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandaeyermarketer/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmandaEyer

* Gretchen Rubin — books on happiness: https://www.amazon.com/Gretchen-Rubin/e/B001IZTAPW

* Kuan Luo: https://www.thundernerds.io/2018/03/the-many-hats-of-a-designer-w-kuan-luo/

* Mr Feels podcast: https://mrfeelspodcast.com/

* Sad boyz podcast: https://sadboyzpod.com/

* Crazy Ex Girlfriend: https://www.netflix.com/title/80066227

* ShelterBox: https://shelterboxusa.com

* Career Coach, Phyllis Mufson: https://twitter.com/@phyllismufson

In this episode we get to talk with Sr. Interaction Designer, Cheriana Griggs. We talk about her move from Tampa to San Francisco, and her career journey to Google. We dive into the value of meetups and the authentic human experience. We also talk about the opportunities in mentorship and how to help move the industry forward.

Show Links

* Guest: Cheriana Griggs

* Website: https://www.cheriana.com/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheriana/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/cheriana

* Medium: https://medium.com/@cheriana

* Hooked: https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788

* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: https://www.sfmoma.org

* WEST(Women Entering & Staying in Tech): http://www.joinwest.org

* Tampa Bay #1 for Women Entreprenurs https://stpeteedc.com/st-pete-region-ranks-no-1-for-best-city-for-women-entrepreneurs/

* Everwise: https://www.geteverwise.com

* World IA Day: https://2018.worldiaday.org/

* Meat Loaf I’d Do Anything For Love But I Won’t Do That: https://youtu.be/wGalkLRdlOs

* Agile Thought: https://agilethought.com/

* Dan Denney: https://www.thundernerds.io/2018/03/start-a-conference-with-dan-denney/

In this episode we have the honor to speak with Dan Denney, Front End Developer Lead and Founder of the Front End Design Conference. We chat about Dan’s career path and gain some insight into what he is doing now as a Lead Front End Developer at DataCamp.

We also talk with Dan about the Front End Design Conference: how he started it, why he did it, and what it has become.

Show Links

* Guest: Dan Denney

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/dandenney

* Website: https://dandenney.com/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-denney-77b60a152/

* Code School: https://www.codeschool.com

* DataCamp: https://www.datacamp.com

* Preactjs: https://preactjs.com

* Pluralsight: https://www.pluralsight.com

* Vuejs: https://vuejs.org

* Reactjs: https://reactjs.org

* FEDC: http://frontenddesignconference.com

* Boagworld: https://boagworld.com

* Chris Coyier: https://www.thundernerds.io/2018/03/front-end-dev-power-w-chris-coyier/

* Kuan Luo: https://www.thundernerds.io/2018/03/the-many-hats-of-a-designer-w-kuan-luo/

* Designing Emotion: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Emotion-Aaron-Walter/dp/1937557006

* Dan’s current podcast recommendation: https://truecrimegarage.com

* Frederick’s band: https://www.youtube.com/user/videosofhomeland

In this episode we chat with Design Director, Kuan Luo. We get to know Kuan’s passion for design and how she has gotten to where she is today. We explore her upcoming talk at FEDC “How to Kick Ass While Wearing Many Hats”, and gain insight into the points she will be discussing. We also explore what it means to be a designer and how to lead teams.

Kuan’s Bio

Kuan is passionate about optimizing small design teams to ship ambitious products. She is currently the Director of Design at Cockroach Labs, maker of the next-generation SQL database CockroachDB. Trained as a journalist and graphic designer, Kuan sees design as an humanistic investigation to tell a meaningful story. Prior to joining the enterprise world, she dabbled in design agencies and ultimately found her home leading in-house design efforts at The Washington Post and Etsy, delivering tools for the best of journalism and e-commerce. Somewhere in between, her startup Grand St. was acquired (by Etsy).

Show Links

* Guest: Kuan Luo

* Twitter: http://twitter.com/kuanluo

* FEDC: https://frontenddesignconference.com/speakers.php#kuan-luo

* Website: http://www.kuanluo.com/

* Medium: https://medium.com/@kuanluo

* Cockroach Labs: https://www.cockroachlabs.com

* https://www.cockroachlabs.com/author/kuan-luo/

* https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/how-to-work-with-me/

* Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com

* Grand St. acquired by Etsy: https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/23/etsy-acquires-gadget-marketplace-grand-st/

* Product Design is a Work in Progress: https://medium.com/back-and-forth/product-design-is-a-work-in-progress-42f89dd3629a

* Navigate Conference: http://navigate2018.com

* Day Long Meditation Retreat at Home: https://medium.com/back-and-forth/day-long-meditation-retreat-at-home-3965ddb21259

* Where the Red Fern Grows: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Fern-Grows-Wilson-Rawls/dp/0440412676

* Alton Brown’s Meatloaf: https://altonbrown.com/meatloaf-recipe/

* Happy Cola Gummy Bears: https://www.amazon.com/Haribo-Gummi-Candy-Happy-Cola-5-Pound/dp/B000EVMNMI

In this episode we get to chat with Chris Coyier: Designer, Developer, Teacher, Writer, and Speaker. We dive into Chris’s upcoming talk at the FEDC, “The All-Powerful Front-End Developer”. We go to Chris’s topic for the conference and get a sneak peek into what he’ll be discussing.

Bio

Chris is a web designer and developer. He writes about all things web at CSS-Tricks, talks about all things web at conferences around the world and on his podcast ShopTalk, and co-founded CodePen, a social development environment.

Show Links

* Guest: Chris Coyier

* Website: https://chriscoyier.net/

* Chis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chriscoyier

* LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-coyier-1aa843100/

* CSS-TRICKS: https://css-tricks.com/

* Co-founder of https://codepen.io/

* Co-host of a podcast https://shoptalkshow.com/

* Practical SVG by Chris Coyier: https://abookapart.com/products/practical-svg

* Video about Chris https://youtu.be/kRmbVOI6oIM

* Wufoo: https://www.wufoo.com

* FEDC: St. Petersburg, Florida / April 25th-27th / The Paladium Theatre: http://frontenddesignconference.com

* Codepen Challenges: https://codepen.io/challenges

* Gutenberg: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg

* Twilio: https://www.twilio.com

* Steal Like an Artist: https://www.amazon.com/Steal-Like-Artist-Things-Creative/dp/0761169253

* Vocalbooth: https://www.vocalbooth.com

Spotlight

* Brian –  https://gonorthbooks.com

* Frederick – Sad Boyz podcast https://twitter.com/sadboyzpod

* Jenell – Gitify https://www.gitify.io

* Chris –  Codepen TV: https://codepen.io/tv

In this episode we get to chat with Rik Lomas: CEO of SuperHi and author of Learn To Code Now. We get to know Rik as a crazy cat-loving englishman from Manchester currently residing in NY. We discuss how Rik got his start and what fanned the flame of his love for teaching. We also talk about how and why Rik started SuperHi, and its value to the community.

Show Links

* Guest: Rik Lomas – Founder and CEO of the coding school for creatives, @superhi_, and author of Learn To Code Now.

* Website: https://www.superhi.com

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/riklomas

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riklomas/

* TEDxESCPMadrid – https://youtu.be/xcj1hjDKIBw

* Rik’s Book – Learn To Code Now https://www.superhi.com/learn-to-code-now-book

* SuperHi Video Tutorials https://www.superhi.com/video

* British spelling of Colour http://grammarist.com/spelling/color-colour/