Not Just Pixels

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted 🙈 Just been super busy with internship + summer classes, but I’m planning to release more consistently now!-Before we start, I just want to let you know that the next four episodes will be a bit different. Well, I won’t be hosting! Instead, the wonderful Mita will be hosting them! Mita is a recent graduate from California College of the Arts and has worked at LinkedIn and Apple as a product design intern before! Last year, she reached out to me and asked if she could join me on podcast creation. Though she’s now not working on it anymore, she helped me record four awesome episodes! Now, to caveat - the next four episodes are more focused on how each of these designers landed a role at their respective companies, so it’s much more career and application focused. But I’m sure you’ll still learn a ton!-Now, onto the guest introduction. Our guest today is Rachel Poonsiriwong, who recently joined the product design team at Terrascope - a smart carbon measurement and management platform. This episode was recorded a while ago, so this episode will focus on Rachel’s previous role at Scale AI. Now, Scale AI, a late-stage series E startup, is a data platform for AI that provides high quality training data for leading machine learning teams. In this episode, you’ll learn how Rachel landed a role at Scale AI, her tips for junior designers who want to join a late-stage startup, and even her specific presentation projects for her Scale AI interviews! So, without further ado, here was Mita’s conversation with Rachel Poonsiriwong.===Highlights⭐ Rachel’s journey to Scale AI⭐ The two case studies Rachel presented during her interview⭐ What it’s like designing at a late-stage startup⭐ What does Scale AI looks for in designers⭐ How to land a role at a company with no job openings===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Kyle Turman.-Kyle, on this day of posting, no longer works as the Director of Product Design at Retool, but for great reasons, which you can read more about in his latest article - “Oh Hey, I Quit My Job.” Before Retool, he worked at Slack as the Sr. Director of Product Design. And before that at Dropbox, Etsy, and many other companies.-I first discovered Kyle’s portfolio a while back, and man - if you haven’t seen it, it’s in the show notes. Go check it out - this is what I call a portfolio with personality and style. Now, I got in touch with Kyle thanks to another amazing guest - shoutout to Catt! And I was so, so excited to chat with Kyle, and it sure did not disappoint. We talked about a variety of topics including the pillars of product design, learning business as a designer, the beauty of the internet, and so much more. I am so glad I chatted with Kyle, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one too. So, without further ado, here was my conversation with the World Wide Web Mad Scientist - Kyle Turman.===Highlights⭐ Pillars of product design⭐ Learning business as a product designer⭐ The importance of data⭐ Beauty of the internet⭐ Relationship between AI & human===Links🔗 Kyle’s portfolio🔗 You're Telling Me Designers Should Business?🔗 Bento🔗 Partiful===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Sara Wachter-Boettcher.-Sara currently is the founder and CEO of Active Voice, a leadership development company on a mission to make work culture better for everyone.-In 2018, Sara wrote a book titled “Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech.” From the title of the book, you know that this episode will be different from the rest. We talked about the…not-so-great and even harmful side of the tech industry and advice for junior designers who are about to enter the workplace. There are a ton of golden nuggets in this episode, and I’m sure you’ll learn as much as I did. So without further ado, here was my conversation with Sara Wachter-Boettcher.===Highlights⭐ Discussion about Sara’s 2018 book “Technically Wrong”⭐ What has changed in tech workplace culture⭐ Problematic area of the design industry⭐ Things good to know for junior designers before entering the workplace⭐ What should junior designers do if they join a bad company===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Sankalp Sinha.-Sankalp currently works as the Founding Lead Designer at Harbor, a testing infrastructure company in the web3 space.-Now, the reason I wanted to chat with Sankalp was because I read an article he published last summer. It was titled “After 6+ months of personal sabbatical, I’m joining Harbor as Founding Lead Designer.” Now, the title might just seem like an announcement, but it was so much more. What inspired me the most was just how intentional Sankalp is with his design career. For example, he looks for core characteristics such as 0 → 1 product journey, lead designers role, product clarity in founders, and more. As an early career designer, I was just fascinated by how clear he was in his job search. Thus, we hopped on a call and here we are! We talked about what’s it like to build products 0 → 1, the benefits of a work sabbatical, and Sankalp’s specific take on the job search! So, without further ado, here was my conversation with Sankalp Sinha.===Highlights⭐ What fascinates Sankalp about 0 → 1 journey?⭐ How to turn an ambiguous idea into a product⭐ Why should you take a work sabbatical?⭐ How to plan your career⭐ Sankalp’s proudest invention===Links🔗 BuildwithFramer===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Diana DeMarco Brown.-Diana currently works at Mux as the Director of Product Design. Before Mux, she worked both in the developer tooling and healthcare industry.-I reached out to Diana in the first place because, as a designer, I’m about to enter the world of developer tooling and B2B product design. Thus, on top of talking about both of these topics, Diana also shared what it’s like to design in the healthcare industry, why she moved towards design leadership roles, and her experience scaling up design at startups. Overall, this was a fun and fruitful conversation, and so with that, here was my conversation with Diana DeMarco Brown.===Highlights⭐ What’s it like designing in healthcare⭐ Why Diana moved into design leadership⭐ Biggest challenges when building tools for developers⭐ Common mistake as a junior designer⭐ How to scale up a design team at a startup===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Daniel Robbins.-Daniel currently works at Adobe as a Principal Designer working across a suite of 3D projects. In the past, he has worked on Horizon Worlds at Meta, AR at HTC-Vive, VR at Visual Vocal, and more.-If you can’t tell already, Daniel’s design focus is XR design, which stands for “extended reality.” This is an umbrella term that covers VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Mixed reality). Thus, I was very excited to learn more about XR design from him. And man did I learn a ton. We talked about how he got into XR design, the biggest challenges designers in XR are solving, how to get into immersive design, and a ton of related topics. But, on top of that, what I really appreciated was Daniel’s attention to detail. You’ll hear in this conversation multiple times that Daniel would often either rephrase my question or ask me to clarify my question. It’s a great reminder as a host myself to be intentional with my questions & the clarity of them, so I really appreciate Daniel for doing so. Now, without further ado, here was my conversation with Daniel Robbins.===Highlights⭐ How Daniel got into XR design⭐ What are the problems designers in XR are trying to solve⭐ How to get started in XR design⭐ Current status of XR design⭐ The difference between design & art===Links🔗 Daniel’s portfolio===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Marcy Regalado.- Marcy is currently the Head of Design at Magna, a token management platform. Before Magna, she worked as the Design Lead at Meta AI.-AI has been really hot, like really hot. GPT4, Midjourney 5, stable diffusion - you name it. It seems like every day there’s something new in the AI space. And, as a designer, it’s not only hard to keep up but also hard to stay optimistic about the future of this field. Thus, I sat down with Marcy in this episode to chat all about AI - its current state, best practices, and the future of AI. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I’m sure you’ll learn a ton from this episode as well. Thus, without further ado, here is my conversation with Marcy Regalado.===Highlights⭐ Her decision to enroll in Stanford’s master's program after Fidelity⭐ Advice for people interested in AI⭐ Best practices/guidelines for designing AI⭐ Current state & future of AI⭐ What is the purpose of AI?===Links🔗 Lingua Franca===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Dhananjay Garg - DJ for short.-DJ currently works at foodpanda as Senior Product Designer.-I first discovered DJ on Medium, as he has over 26K followers and is a prolific writer. And the more I looked into his career journey, I realized that he has a ton of experience designing in different types of startups both in India and Southeast Asia. Thus, we hopped on a call and here we are! We talked about coming from a non-traditional background, design in India & Southeast Asia, writing, and a lot more topics. If you’re interested in whether a startup is the right fit for you or want to learn about non-Western design, then you’ll enjoy this episode. So, without further ado, here was my conversation with DJ.===Highlights⭐ Electronic engineering to product design⭐ Working at startups of different sizes⭐ Should an early designer join a startup?⭐ Design in India & Southeast Asia⭐ Impact of writing on product design===Links🔗 DJ’s portfolio===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to Minjun Chen.-Minjun currently works at Spotify as a product designer on the Ad Studio team. Before Spotify, she worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and Wayfair.-I first discovered Minjun through one of her community videos titled “How to Design a Stellar Portfolio Presentation.” And she has been very active in the design community whether that’s through mentorship or giving online talks. Thus, I was very excited to chat with Minjun, and the conversation was amazing. Before I start, I want to say one thing. On her resume, you might see all these big-name companies. But, after this episode, you’ll learn that Minjun’s design journey has not been butterflies and rainbows. In fact, it was quite the opposite. We delved into challenges she faced, working with cross-functional team members, mentorship, and a ton of topics. Thus, without further ado, here was my conversation with Minjun Chen.===Highlights⭐ Minjun’s biggest career challenges⭐ Setting goals as a designer⭐ How to work with cross-functional team members⭐ Reason for mentorship⭐ The importance of a growth mindset===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)

Today, I’m talking to JC Solis.-JC currently works at Epic Games as a Senior UX Designer. Before Epic Games, he worked at Roblox as a Senior UX Designer and at Unity before that.-I first chatted with JC when I interned at Roblox last summer. At the time, I remember how awesome his end-to-end material manager project was, so I wanted to chat with him. And we did it on one of my last days of the internship. And fast forward a few months, we ended up recording this episode after the internship! In this chat, we talked about various topics such as game vs product UX, the importance of visual design, and more. But, what I really, really appreciated was JC’s vulnerability towards the end when I asked him what advice he would give to his younger self. I would highly recommend listening to the very end of this conversation. So, without further ado, here was my conversation with JC Solis.===Highlights⭐ Why JC studied game design in college⭐ Game UX vs product UX⭐ Work at Unity, Roblox, and now Epic Games⭐ Tips for great storytelling⭐ Importance of visual design===Links🔗 Storytelling Tactics (Pip Decks)===Not Just Pixels is a student-led UX Design podcast that strives to help you grow as a designer and get that next design internship or job. This is the podcast I wished I had as a design student, and I hope you’ll get something valuable from this show.===Have a great day! :)