UX & Growth Podcast

What factors breed innovation? How do you take a product from zero to one, launching and iterating quickly? What does it mean to create sustainable growth? In this episode, Cambria Davies (Product Manager at Ro) tells us the story of launching one of HubSpot's flagship products from scratch, and all of the critical steps her team took along the way. We dive into jobs-to-be-done, activation metrics, and the significance of sustainable growth. Plus, Cambria gives us a peek into her new role at Ro, and some of their recent fast-paced COVID-19 launches.

"For those who might not be familiar with the Jobs-to-be-Done framework, the basic premise is that people hire products to fulfill jobs for them. So in the morning when I wake up, I have a job of waking up as efficiently as possible and I can either hire a cup of coffee to perform that job for me, or I could hire a green juice. So, you really shift the way that you think about competition and how people explore solutions to their problems, which is rooted in acute pain points or problems they have, as opposed to it being this generalizable demographic that will always drink coffee in the mornings." — Cambria at 12:29

Cambria's site: https://cambriadavies.com/

Cambria's blog: https://www.shipsh.it/blog

Cambria on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cambria_davies

Ro: https://ro.co/ (P.S. They're hiring. Ping Cambria if you're interested.)

Book about JTBD: When Coffee and Kale Compete by Alan Klement

Book about error reduction: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about the show and host: https://austinknight.com/

So you've started a podcast. Now, how do you book guests? What about sponsors and affiliates? Where should you be promoting your show? In this episode, I sit down with Jason Ogle (Host of User Defenders) to discuss the intricacies of being a podcast host.

This episode was originally recorded in April of 2017 and we didn't release it. So now, it's being brought to you as a bonus episode. The recording may be a bit dated, but the information isn't. Enjoy!

User Defenders Community: https://community.userdefenders.com/

User Defenders Podcast: https://userdefenders.com/

Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonogle

John Lee Dumas' guide to podcast sponsorships: https://www.eofire.com/podcast-sponsorships/

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about me and the show: https://austinknight.com/

What are the key pieces of a great portfolio? What are the best tools for building and launching one? And what are the pitfalls to avoid? In this episode, Martijn van den Broeck (Designer at Google) joins me to talk about the art and science of design portfolios. For years, Martijn has closely studied portfolios, developing expertise in everything from the ideal number of case studies to the right way to handle an NDA and beyond. He shares a comprehensive approach to building, launching, and leveraging a portfolio.

"I'm surprised by how few people actually have read their NDA and tried to understand it. One thing I did was write an article about what I learned while interning at IDEO. So I couldn't go into the specifics of projects, but I could still say, 'Hey, I went to IDEO and I learned all these amazing things' that weren't NDA protected." — Martijn at 22:56

Martijn's portfolio guide: https://medium.com/portfolio-principles

Martijn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartijnvdBroeck

Martijn's portfolio: https://martijnvandenbroeck.com/

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about me and the show: https://austinknight.com/

What do designers do after they've achieved their career goals? Why aren't designers typically founders, and why is creative burnout so common? In this episode, I sit down with Joel Beukelman (Designer at Google) for a raw and honest conversation about career growth, goal attainment, and the inevitable existential crisis that follows. We touch on the dangers of being emotionally attached to work, the prevalence of ego and homogeneity in design, and the confusing world of design titles and roles (and how they impact us). Plus, Joel shares his framework for evaluating one's career and its impact on life.

"I had to look outside of design in my career and be like, 'There has to be something more than this, because this obviously isn't fulfilling or making me feel purposeful'. In the end, I had a meeting with Monica, my manager, and she was like, 'What do you want next?' and I was like, 'I want to work less. I want to be here less. Can we do that?' It was a weird conversation to have with my boss, but that was really it. I didn't want to invest my time in my career." — Joel at 9:55

Please note that this was recorded well before the COVID-19 pandemic, in October of 2019.

Check out the video that Joel made about this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUeQvp9b8M

Try his framework for yourself: https://www.bkl.mn/designer-at-scale

Joel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_bklmn

Joel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joelbeukelman

Joel on Instagram: http://instagram.com/bklmn

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about me and the show: https://austinknight.com/

What do designers do after they've achieved their career goals? Why aren't designers typically founders, and why is creative burnout so common? In this episode, I sit down with Joel Beukelman (Designer at Google) for a raw and honest conversation about career growth, goal attainment, and the inevitable existential crisis that follows. We touch on the dangers of being emotionally attached to work, the prevalence of ego and homogeneity in design, and the confusing world of design titles and roles (and how they impact us). Plus, Joel shares his framework for evaluating one's career and its impact on life.

"I had to look outside of design in my career and be like, 'There has to be something more than this, because this obviously isn't fulfilling or making me feel purposeful'. In the end, I had a meeting with Monica, my manager, and she was like, 'What do you want next?' and I was like, 'I want to work less. I want to be here less. Can we do that?' It was a weird conversation to have with my boss, but that was really it. I didn't want to invest my time in my career." — Joel at 9:55

Please note that this was recorded well before the COVID-19 pandemic, in October of 2019.

Check out the video that Joel made about this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUeQvp9b8M

Try his framework for yourself: https://www.bkl.mn/designer-at-scale

Joel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_bklmn

Joel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joelbeukelman

Joel on Instagram: http://instagram.com/bklmn

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about me and the show: https://austinknight.com/

What are the basic steps to take when starting a podcast? And how do you grow it? In this episode, Matt, Geoff and I recap what we've done to run the UX & Growth Podcast. We talk format, guests, equipment, hosting, distribution, promotion and more. From the best mics to the most unexpected growth channels, these are the big things we've learned while running our small show.

This episode was originally recorded in April of 2017 and we didn't release it. So now, it's being brought to you as a bonus episode. The recording may be a bit dated, but the information isn't. Enjoy!

Microphones: ATR-2100 (USB/XLR), AKG P220 (XLR)

Software: Audacity, Garageband & Auphonic

Self-hosting on Wordpress: https://en.support.wordpress.com/audio/podcasting/

Submitting a podcast to iTunes: https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itcc0e1eaa94

Austin on Twitter: Twitter.com/ustinKnight

Geoff on Twitter: Twitter.com/dailydaigle

Matt on Twitter: Twitter.com/mattrheault

How do side projects impact a designer's career? What are the incremental growth tools that can turn a side project into something bigger? In this episode, I sit down with Lee Munroe (Director of Design at OneSignal) to talk about his numerous side projects, the various growth tools that he's used, and why personal growth (not revenue) was always his goal. We also discuss his role at OneSignal, where he's growing a product and a team simultaneously. I've discussed OneSignal (and their unique revenue model) several times in the past, and Lee brings some new insights on that topic throughout our discussion - including how they decided to pivot their revenue model recently. Plus, we dive into a space that OneSignal and Chrome share responsibility for: notifications on the web.

"I started a company called Lookaly, which was like the Yelp of Ireland. I thought what we needed to do was create a really good user experience and we didn't focus at all on customer development. We got to a point where the website was doing really well from a consumer point of view. It got lots of traffic. But when we tried to monetize it and make money, we didn't know who the customer was. We didn't know what persona was going to pay for the product. I definitely learned a lot from that experience. You have to try and find product-market fit and be more focused on that side of things, rather than just creating something beautiful." — Lee at 14:47

Learn more about OneSignal: https://onesignal.com/

Join Lee's team: https://onesignal.com/careers

Learn about Google's Digital Wellbeing efforts: https://wellbeing.google/

Lee's website: https://www.leemunroe.com/

Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leemunroe

HTML Email: https://htmlemail.io/

Codeshare: https://codeshare.io/

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

More about me and the show: https://austinknight.com/

The UX & Growth Podcast is back, and we’re kicking things off right. In this episode, I sit down with Hannah Lee (Designer at Google) to discuss how she audited Chrome’s entire UI and introduced a new design system in time for its tenth birthday, reducing the application size by megabytes in the process. When rolled out across Chrome’s more than 2 billion users, this represented a material impact on global device memory and data usage. From discovering 98 different shades of grey, to designing for obsolete operating systems, to open sourcing Chrome’s design system, we cover all of the epiphanies, lessons and downright hilarious moments in Hannah’s quest to design at planet scale.

Hannah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/san_toki

Hannah on Medium: https://medium.com/@san_toki

Unboxing Chrome: https://medium.com/@san_toki/unboxing-chrome-f6af7b8161a2

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

The UX & Growth Podcast is back, and we’re kicking things off right. In this episode, I sit down with Hannah Lee (Designer at Google) to discuss how she audited Chrome’s entire UI and introduced a new design system in time for its tenth birthday, reducing the application size by megabytes in the process. When rolled out across Chrome’s more than 2 billion users, this represented a material impact on global device memory and data usage. From discovering 98 different shades of grey, to designing for obsolete operating systems, to open sourcing Chrome’s design system, we cover all of the epiphanies, lessons and downright hilarious moments in Hannah’s quest to design at planet scale.

Hannah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/san_toki

Hannah on Medium: https://medium.com/@san_toki

Unboxing Chrome: https://medium.com/@san_toki/unboxing-chrome-f6af7b8161a2

Austin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustinknight

How do companies like Dropbox, Spotify, Slack, and HubSpot leverage freemium strategies to grow? What are the different approaches to freemium, and when should (or shouldn't) they be used? In this episode, I sit down with Dexter Zhuang (Growth & Monetization Manager at Dropbox) to take a deep dive on freemium growth. From acquiring free users, to converting them to paid customers, to reinvesting that money into acquiring more free users, we cover it all and give you a glimpse at examples where it’s all gone right, and a few where it’s gone terribly wrong.

"Spotify has 40 million paid subscribers out of over 100 million monthly active users. The active user to paid subscriber conversion rate is somewhere between 25-40%, which is unheard of. This is an astronomical conversion rate. 80% of all users on Spotify use it multiple times per week. Multiple times per week." — Dexter at 19:30

Dexter on Twitter: Twitter.com/dexteryz

Check out Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/

Email us: [email protected]

Austin on Twitter: Twitter.com/ustinKnight