What is UX?

Caitlin Steele is a user-centered design and engineering expert focused on design operations.

As a founding team member at MasterClass, she helped take the startup from an idea through Series C on the way to being a multi-billion-dollar company. Currently, she enables design and engineering teams to deliver exceptional native mobile experiences for Trello.

In this episode, we talked about:

• How Caitlin got into design
• Why did she choose UX in particular?
• Helping people with mobility
• Early days at MasterClass
• Caitlin cites some of the cool design insights she had at MasterClass
• Working at Lululemon
• Tips for designing on mobile
• And MUCH MORE!

Links and Resources:

https://twitter.com/jargoonco 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinrsteele/ 

Harsh Wardhan is a design thinking thought leader, who uses his human-centered design skills and his design strategy expertise to help companies build future strategies rooted in deep human insights that deliver business value. In his ten years of practice in the design industry, he has collaborated with organizations across different sectors like automotive, healthcare, hospitality, fin-tech, and architecture.

In this episode, we talked about:

• How did Harsh get into design
• Harsh cites some of his first projects
• Architecture to software design work to being a design strategist
• Learnings from starting own design firm
• Design thinking + innovation
• And much more!

Resources and Links:

https://www.hwardhan.com/

https://www.wespeakinnovation.com/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt4EEtn2ShY 

Shay Howe is the Vice President of Platform Strategy at ActiveCampaign, where he leads platform experience and ecosystem, strategic partnerships, and product, front-end, and communication design. He works to make the customer a hero, helping them create ideal customer experiences through intuitive products, marketing, and integrations.

Prior to ActiveCampaign, Shay was Vice President of Product at Belly and Yello, where he was responsible for product strategy and design. He has previously led product teams at multiple high-growth companies, including Groupon. He has held in-residence roles as an advisor with the Techstars, Lightbank, and Prota venture portfolios.

Shay is the author of "Learn to Code HTML and CSS," published by Pearson Education.

Episode Highlights:

• How did Shay get into design?
• Designer from being a musician
• Passion Projects experience
• Pek and Shay talked about Apple, Ipad user interface and product designs projects
• Career experience at Belly
• Design education
• Being a Co-founder at Leadhonesty
• Career and role at ActiveCampaign
• And much MORE!

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/

https://twitter.com/shayhowe

https://www.activecampaign.com/

https://leadhonestly.com/

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Kevin Hsieh is a product design leader with 15+ years of experience under my belt. I have shipped countless products at companies both large and small. He has 5 patents and enjoys complex problem solving, collaboration, and creative thinking to take projects from concept to completion. Creating stunning and innovative designs, that are user-centric is his passion.

He is currently the Director Of Product Design at Sonder.

In this episode, we talked about:

• How did Kevin get into design?
• How did he get his first job?
• His first digital agency
• Kevin shared the projects and opportunities he handled that led him to where he at now
• Career and projects at Apple
• The difference between working between an agency and a software product company
• Working experience in automotive design at Tesla, Lucid Motors and Faraday Future
• His role in Sonder
• And MUCH MORE!

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/killahgrafikz/

https://www.sonder.com/

Jen Byyny is a leader in tech/product design with over 17 years of experience. She has over 7 years of design leadership experience and 10+ years of hands-on professional design experience focused on software/Saas, analytics and media experiences for business and consumer audiences with strong management experience, design-thinking methodologies, design system knowledge, user research and product insights, plus a love for innovation through storytelling and design. She had led teams focused on product design, branding, AI, data analytics, fin-tech, health-tech, media and enterprise tools across multiple platforms.

In this episode, we talked about:

• How did Jen get into design?
• Her journey in designing for tech
• What is Teladoc Health and how it serves people?
• Jen’s role as Director of Product Design in Teladoc
• The transition from graphic design to software design information design
• Jen’s advice for people who are transitioning into design
• Career growth after transitioning
• Jen’s career at Yahoo
• What is a good design for Jen?
• And MUCH MORE!

Links and Resources

Visit our website: https://whatisux.co/

Connect with Jen - They are hiring various levels in Product Design at Teladoc

http://bebraver.org/ 

https://www.teladochealth.com/ 

https://venettasbakedgoods.com/ 

Brittany Schlenk is currently the Assistant Director of Design & UX at The Hartford. In her current role, she helps oversee and manage the Middle & Large Commercial portfolio. She works heavily in the business-to-business space and focuses primarily on underwriters, agents, and account managers as her main users. Prior to joining The Hartford, she used to work in the aerospace industry at Collins Aerospace and Raytheon Technologies. In addition to her career, she had received her Master of Communications in Interaction Design at Quinnipiac University and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems, minor in Information Security.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Brittany’s role in Hartford
• Hartford’s design team
• Brittany’s design experience working in aerospace
• What made Brittany want to become a designer?
• What is a good design for Brittany?
• And MUCH MORE!

Links:

Instagram: BrittanySchlenk

Clubhouse: Brittany Schlenk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyschlenk/ 

https://www.thehartford.com/ 

Joe Natoli is a UX consultant, author and speaker. Everything he does is born from three decades of consulting with and training the product development teams of some of the world’s largest organizations. He has taught over 200,000 students through his online courses and is a regular keynote speaker and lecturer at events across the globe. He recently launched a new online school, the UX 365 Academy, where he publishes online courses, training videos, ebooks and more every month, at learn.givegoodux.com.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Joe’s impressive background and what does he do
• Joe in giving lectures and workshops across the globe
• His job as a veteran consultant
• How did Joe start in UX?
• Joe shared some of his life and career advice 
• Joe’s UX courses 
• Joe’s definition of a “good design”
• And MUCH MORE!

Links:

https://twitter.com/joenatoli

https://givegoodux.com/

Joe Natoli courses (Enroll now!)

Reina O’Meara is an award-winning UX/Graphic Designer who has helped define brands for both Fortune 500 companies and small startups. She has worked for companies such as Weta Workshop, Redbox, and Steelseries. She is currently the Brand Director of Comfort Eats.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Reina’s role in Comfort Eats
• Her accomplishments in Redbox and show she got started in the company
• All about Redbox and her designing ticketing kiosk project
• Awarded a design patent
• Understanding user-testing
• Being a UX Design Manager at SteelSeries
• Her career in Impekable and projects like mobile apps, websites and an interactive device for the military.
• Her journey from WETA to Comfort Eats
• Branding and designs for Comfort Eats
• And MUCH MORE!

Links and Resources:

https://www.rsodesign.com/

Connect with Reina

Felix Lee is a designer and tech entrepreneur based in Singapore. He is the Co-Founder of ADPList, one of the world’s largest mentoring platforms for designers. He had previously founded Packdat, which was acquired in 2018; led design at Gotrade (YC S19) and was the Head of Product & Design at Passpod Indonesia ($YELO). Felix previously notably consulted for Eatsy.co, Capture App, Knowledgehook, and several global startups. He's known for his thoughts and works in product design & startups; he is an active invited speaker and writer on online platforms. Featured on TechInAsia, StraitsTimes, TODAY, VulcanPost, and more.

Episode highlights:

• What is ADPList and how it serves people?
• ADPList’s impressive stats
• Felix’s vision to make ADPList a sustainable platform 
• Who designed ADPList?
• How did ADPList get their initial mentors?
• Learn how ADPList’s system evolved,  from using only a spreadsheet
• How he started ADPList even before graduating college
• And much MORE!

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixleezd

https://www.twitter.com/felixleezd

https://adplist.org - Come join as mentors to contribute your knowledge forward to the global community!

Eirini Kasti is a User Experience Expert focused on design for emotions. She has created experiences for the airline, financial, education, energy or transportation industries, from the biggest European companies like KLM or ING Bank to pioneering start-ups and scale-ups. Currently, she is a Senior Product Designer at Proxyclick, a European scale-up in the facility management sector. 

Besides design, she is passionate about physical and mental health, self-improvement and connection with nature. That’s why she started Shaking Olives, a side project to help people have a healthy mind in a healthy body. She does this by using technology to improve their habits and educate them on the science of nutrition and well-being.

In this episode, we talked about:

• What is Proxyclick and Eirini’s role
• Kinds of designs and what use cases they have in adjusting the business and the product to the pandemic
• Eirini’s journey in design - from working in a transport engineering agency to being passionate in UX, psychology and design technology
• Eirini shares how she got her scholarship
• Designing for emotions especially for SaaS enterprises
• How she divides the work and tasks at Proxyclick
• Proxyclick’s design process and workflow
• Shaking Olives - Enable people to achieve the ancient wisdom "a healthy mind in a healthy body" through science and technology
• And many MORE!

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eirinikasti/

https://www.proxyclick.com/ 

http://www.shakingolives.com/