Cells and Pixels

Here's a bonus episode where I talked with the seasoned leaders Diego Mendes and Jessica Ko on CogX2021 Festival 2021. We discussed some of the challenges on hiring your first designers and growing your team: Should Product Design, Marketing and Branding be in the same team? Should you hire an unicorn designer? How to hire diverse talent? If you're a founder and don't know who to hire on the design side, this is for you. If you're a new head of design trying to grow a team, this is for you. #designleadership #google #facebook #opendoor #chegg #pocket #meebo #playbook #branding #marketing #cogx2021 #cogx --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/support

Daniela is an inspiring Brazilian leader, she led teams of hundreds at PayPal and prior at AT&T, Intuit, Ebay and Yahoo! She designs organizations that are a true reflection of the widely diverse customer base it serves while championing DEI across the enterprise. She believes in the philosophy of "doing great by doing good" and she is committed to giving back to the design and broader tech communities. She also sit at BayBrazil board of directors, an organization focused in highlighting tech professionals from Brazil in Bay Area. Follow Daniela at twitter.com/danielajorge Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month! #paypal #chiefdesignofficer #CDO #at&t #intuit #baybrazil #yahoo #getninjas #ebay --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/support

Another fun, lighthearted chat with good nuggets of positivity and self-care. Check out my conversation with Danielle Kawasaki, we talked about some nitty gritty details on her design process, documentation, designing for different devices and user environment. Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month! #square #kanopy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/support

What a inspiring chat with Varun from Apple and Banana. We talked about his journey from healthcare to UXR, how research can be included in your product development, from small to large organizations and some of his plans for the fruitful research approach book. Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month! Apple and Banana website: www.appleandbanana.org #appleandbanana #bestbuy #facebook #uxresearch --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/support

I had so much fun chatting with Kai Haley. We talked about her journey and her incredible work educating Googlers about Design and Sprints. Kai is the go to person at Google if you want to learn the latest and greatest about the methodology, so this chat is must for anybody curious about it. Disclaimer: my voice may sound different, I had a sore throat today – but already way better now. #google #designsprints #designeducation --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cellsandpixels/support

A conversation with Guidione Machava about the World-Class Designer organized in Moçambique, Africa. Guidione shared about his plans to make Africa the future of Design.  He talked about his story and how inspired by podcasts, he decided to organized a conference with people 3 other friends to decolonize design, and make it more inclusive.

Here's the video of my crazy fun convo with 4 amazing professionals at Lyft: Len Yeh, Julie Celia, Dario Fidanza and Akhil Dakinedi. How cool it was to learn more about Diversity, Safety, Bikes and Scooters, Unumute (our internal conference), Design Ops and more from these ones!

This was the final episode of the year! Yes, and I talked with Noah Levin, the Director of Design at Figma, yes! The tool that all of us love so much. Before Figma, Noah led teams at ClassPass in NYC, and the iOS Search team at Google in Mountain View. He also spent some time teaching designers how to code as an advisor at Framer, and building a digital assistant for Astronauts at NASA. We talked about design culture, his journey as a designer to leadership, and how he grew his interests organically in design tools and education. For all my followers, thank you for being active during the live interviews, sending us questions, and participating in this long journey. It's been 21 interviews, in 21 weeks for season 1. Stay tuned for more content and updates about season 2 here. Also thank you for your donations during the lives, we raised in total about US$1,000 to organizations like Mission Graduates, Trans Law Center, and Raices. I am extremely grateful to all of you!

I am assuming you all know John Maeda for his many influential books on Design and Technology. From Laws of Simplicity, his classic book to How to Speak Machine, John Maeda adds humanism to technology. And our conversation was fantastic! I was humbled to meet him and learn more about his career, journey as a person, and surprised that he bring many questions back to me, showing his charismatic curiosity about humans. So this conversation is about us and how can we as humans can interact better with this planet and the many questions that surrounds us today, including social justice, technology and design. Learn more about John Maeda at maedastudio.com. People John mentioned during the interview about Product Inclusion: https://twitter.com/quinntonharris Quinnton J Harris (Publicis Sapient) https://twitter.com/katholmes Kat Holmes (Salesforce) https://twitter.com/Its_Me_AJB Annie Jean-Baptiste (Google)

I feel like this is another dream coming true. I talked with Jesse James Garrett, one of my favorite UX authors; he wrote in 2002: The Elements of User Experience. We talked about his history, from a writer to one of the founders of UX, his consultancy Adaptive Path and the acquisition by Capital One. We also found some time to chat about post-rock and his recent work as a coach for design leaders at jessejamesgarrett.com

What a fantastic conversation I had with Lucas Hirata! We covered a lot in this episode. We talked about the future of design, smart displays, voice UI, and some challenges when designing for hardware and physical devices. Lucas is one of the people behind the new Chromecast with Google TV. Before Google, he worked at Huge with many known brands like Apple, Coke, CNN, Hulu, Fox, FX, Lexus, Nintendo, Target, Toyota. If You Wanna Fly, YouTube Channel (In Portuguese) Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Another incredible person I met via Cells and Pixels: Joshua Taylor! Joshua and I talked about some great life changes, big pivots, and how to stay true to your principles. Joshua Taylor is an experienced Design Leader (Evernote and Credit Karma) who moved to Costa Rica and started Ordinary Ventures, a startup creating multiple experimental products, including Parrot.fm a podcast app. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Finally my conversation with Joris Van Mens, Group PM at Google was recorded again. Joris launched Files by Google from 0 to 500+ million downloads, Camera Go, Android TV data saver and he works on many other 0-1 products for emerging markets. We will talk about some challenges when building new products, how to deal with tradeoffs, the concept of reverse innovation and how he as a Product Manager collaborates with Designers, Researchers and Engineers. This is going to be another super fun conversation, and I'd like to invite all of you to send him questions during the live too. https://medium.com/@jorisvanmens Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

IC Leadership with David Ikuye – Staff Product Designer, Lyft I had a blast with David Ikuye, he is a Staff Product Designer at Lyft, he shared a bit of his fantastic experience working in different cities with innovation and one of the most well-known design consultancies around IDEO, Frog, and Fjord/Accenture. David shared some tips on how to evolve in the Design career as an Individual Contributor. We talked about building a vision and working with xFN partners to get the vision executed. Highly recommended if you're looking for inspiration on where to grow as a designer. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Here's an inspiring conversation with Arya Zarrinkelk. Arya left some great messages to us: how to keep positive in difficult times, how to use tools to find the job you dreamed of and how to take some of your learnings to heart when you enter a company. Arya coaches and trains arts, media, entertainment students at City College of San Francisco. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

I had a blast reconnecting with Malea Gadoury. Malea and I talked about her career, her transitions in life, from graphic to UX Design, from IC to management, and now as an entrepreneur. Malea is a Co-Founder at ILK, previously she was the Head of Design for Wonderschool and Head of Design for Firebase at Google. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels    

I had so much fun reconnecting with Laith Ulaby. We talked about his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, his experience working at the United Nations, Udemy, and his passion for education and culture. We talked about how technology can help to increase access to education worldwide, the challenges in the field, and some of his learnings. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Another great learning experience! I talked with Joel Isaac who is an Accessibility Lead at Delta Dental. We talked about how his background as an engineer and designer influenced his views on accessibility, and he also shared great tips and ideas on how to build more inclusive products and teams. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Audrey Liu is a VP of Design at Lyft, previously she was a Design Director at Thumbtack where she helped to build the design team, I had a blast chatting with her about her style of leadership, her honesty and transparency is incredible and you'll definitely feel inspired by this talk. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aditi evaluates new pitches and many startups reach her to get funded every day. I learned a lot with this conversation, we talked about Venture Capital, how to attract investment, and build a great pitch for a new product. Aditi and I also talked about what makes a great team and she shared invaluable ideas around the future of work, and what type of products will move the needle. Aditi Maliwal is a Partner at Upfront Ventures. She is also an investor for Chime, PowerToFly, and BetterUp. She has a very interesting take on what products will move the needle towards the future of work. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

I had a wonderful conversation with Bruno Bergher, he is the VP of Product and Design at Gladly. We talked about his experiences as a Designer, and how that influences positively on the work he does today at Gladly. Among other things we discussed about some of the challenges of uncertain times, and how transparency and honesty are main elements of his leadership style. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Jessica Ko has an impressive career, from a Designer at Google to CEO, she shared some of her challenges, inspirations and two big moments where she pivoted her career. As a Leader with Design background she has a very instigating perspective and great tips for managers and ICs. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

A lighthearted conversation with Sun Park, Product Designer at Facebook, she shared some of her great habits, her strategic view on Design and some learnings she had over in her career. This is not to be missed if you're interested on Visioning and 0-1 products. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

I had an inspired and inspiring conversation with Daniel Stillman where we talked about his new book "Good Talk: How to Design Conversations that Matter". Daniel has been investigating the nature of conversations and he shared a bit how he is helping companies and people to have meaningful, inclusive and courageous conversations. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Luke W. is a Product Director at Google. He's an advisor for: Woven and LITHO. Prior to Google, he founded 2 start ups and wrote: Mobile First, Web Form Design and Site-Seeing and in the past worked at NCSA, eBay and Yahoo! Luke W. and I had an instigating conversation around his books, how his investigations translated to his current work at Google, augmented reality, wearables and the role of a designer. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Had a blast chatting with Marianne. We talked about her experience at Nasa, Google, cats, and designing for high-tech products. We’ll also chat about her passions, how she started TEDx in Brazil. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

Tejas Peesapati and I talked about leadership, finding a purpose in your work and research in diverse cultures and communities. We reviewed memories about his research in Jordan at Za'atari refugee camp and his experience leading research teams. Tejas is a UX Research Manager at Google and a purpose driven professional who focus his work understanding users in diverse cultures and in underprivileged communities. He also started the uxcoffeehours.com, a platform that connects more than a 150+ volunteers mentors from 60+ companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST  www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

I talked with Felix Lee who started adplist.org (Amazing Design People List), a community-initiated talent base helping designers land new jobs and connecting to design mentors. We talked about how he became an entrepreneur when he was 19, why he decided to start adplist and how he helped to landed people on over 200 jobs during the pandemic. Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST  www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Hey, there, my name is Koji and I am a Product Design Manager in Silicon Valley.  I started this show during times when most of us were stuck in our homes, and I was craving some human connection. I looked at simple ways I could reconnect with some people and Instagram was skyrocketing with Live shows and get-togethers. So I started an Instagram Live to meet some people I admire, every Tuesdays at 5PM PST I am there, asking questions, training my listening skills and because this is instagram the audience could also send questions. The episodes you hear here are converted from these sessions. I had insightful chats with some brilliant people that I worked with: people like Sun Park, Product Designer at Facebook, Luke W., Prod Director at Google and author of Mobile First, and Daniel Stillman, author of the book Good Talk. So although I talk about product, UX, research and tech in general, these conversations are meant to be light hearted and fun, so we talk a bit about everything around these topics including life choices, difficult conversations, what’s essential in life, and so on. Being a first gen asian-latino immigrant myself, I am also utilizing these shows to raise some money for organizations I deeply respect, organizations like The Bail Project, that provide bail to the underprivileged and RAICES, an organization that fights for immigrants and refugees rights.  Oh and… In case you’re curious about the name. Cells are the smallest unit of life and Pixels are the smallest unit on a screen. So, Cells and Pixels is about the intersection of Human interactions and digital interfaces. I hope that makes sense... Thanks for listening My name is Koji and this is Cell and Pixels Every Tuesday 5PM PST on Instagram at cells.and.pixels