Laroche.fm - Design & Business

More thoughts on design context, how you prioritise a design process, where do you start and saying no to features. ------------------ I am building Shosho, an app for your writing: shosho.co ------------------ Read my articles on: medium.com/@eugenesanu Learn about my work: eugenesanu.com Follow the podcast on Spotify: tinyurl.com/y5langqg Or Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/y5jj7ukh

Some quick thoughts on what to do and not do when hiring a designer. Lately I have been talking with many managers that are trying to hire a designer and I noticed a couple of things we can all do better. ------------------ I am building Shosho, an app for your writing: https://shosho.co/ ------------------ Read my articles on: medium.com/@eugenesanu Learn about my work: https://eugenesanu.com Follow the podcast on Spotify: tinyurl.com/y5langqg Or Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/y5jj7ukh

Millions of years ago, on the continent of Africa, humans who survived and emigrated to other parts probably did so because when they saw many beings running in the opposite direction, they followed them. Herd mentality and conforming to group norms is almost always a positive approach for your survival. We survived because we followed and mimicked others. This helped us develop norms. Learn what is a norm and how to use them to design better products. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu Learn more about my work: https://www.laroche.co Follow the podcast on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/y5langqg Or Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/y5jj7ukh

In this episode I will share with you some of the best books I have read on business, design and behavioural economics. These are an important read for anyone who wants to design great products and experiences. Here is the full list of all books mentioned: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug Inspired by Maty Cagan Nudge by Richard Thaler Alchemy by Rory Sutherland Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmul Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Brand Thinking by Debbie Milman How to think Like a Great Graphic Designer also by Debbie All books by Marty Neumeier (Brand Gap, Scamble, Zag, etc) Flow and Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2 books) Zero to One by Peter Thiel Creators and Intellectuals by Paul Johnson (2 books) Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger

Welcome to a new Raw! Behavioral economics, how we make choices, and how we can change value perceived by only changing a name and wallpaper and many more. Random thoughts expressed logically :) ------------ Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu My portoflio: https://www.laroche.co

In previous episode we discussed 5 most important skills a designer must have. One of them was communication skills, but I did not discuss how to develop them. And one way is writing. You can read the full article on Medium: https://tinyurl.com/y25g5njv Study 1: https://tinyurl.com/y7qetd6s Study 2: https://tinyurl.com/y4cnsvzh ------------ Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu My portoflio: https://www.laroche.co

In this episode I will talk about the most important skills any designer must have - communication skills. These skills go above any other. I will give you examples from my experience and how to apply them. --------- Link to the article: https://goo.gl/3TT9RG Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu My work: https://www.laroche.co/ my product: https://www.shosho.co/

I this episode I will share some thoughts about modern privacy concerns, how we can design with privacy in mind and many more. Vitaly Friedman article: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/04/privacy-concerns-ux-web-forms/ My work: https://www.laroche.co Check out Shosho: https://shosho.co Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu

Have you ever noticed that once we make certain things more efficient, we, sometimes, lose the emotional connection with the brand, service or object? For example, we now have more efficient planes, but the flying experience is less pleasant. In this episode I will talk about how sometimes sacrificing an emotional experience for efficiency is not the best approach ------------- You can follow me on: Medium - https://medium.com/@eugenesanu Dribbble - https://dribbble.com/larocheco Personal website - https://www.laroche.co Shosho (personal product)- https://shosho.co

A couple of years ago, Wordpress had a security flaw, and once they fixed it, they asked all their users and customers to update to the newest version. Unfortunately, many people didn’t want to. After the Wordpress team gave it some thought, they came up with an unusual solution. During their next email update, they said they introduced five new emojis. And their users began updating the app. In this episode I will talk about how there is no average, and why logic is not always the best approach. Especially if you want to create value. You can follow me on: Medium - https://medium.com/@eugenesanu Dribbble - https://dribbble.com/larocheco Website - https://www.laroche.co Shosho (personal product)- https://shosho.co

In this episode I am going to give you a couple of thoughts I had on my mind lately about what is real innovation, what makes a person buy or not buy a product, do looks really matter or not and why context is key. ------- Don't miss any new podcast episodes or articles. Subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

If you have been following my newsletter, you know that I shared 5 design principles through 5 different articles. This episode is a combination of all of them. I will talk about user testing, design simplicity and perception, commiting to delivering great products, and many other details. Enjoy! :) ------- Don't miss any new podcast episodes or articles. Subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

In the era of "BREAKING NEWS" with big numbers flashing in front of our eyes through our feeds on how a 22-year-old kid just closed an investment round of 15 million, it becomes harder to stay focused on what is essential for your company. With that in mind, it becomes easier to copy to be recognised by the entire world. Or you could build your own path, and probably nobody will ever hear about you. By working with startups and building my own product on the side, several things keep re-appearing. Mistakes we still make, which are easy to spot, but hard to avoid. Of course, there are many more, but these come only from my own experience and practice. ------- Don't miss any new podcast episodes or articles. Subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

In this episode, I had the pleasure to speak with Murat Mutlu. CEO and one of the co-founders of Marvel. We talked about the beginnings of Marvel, designing a product to respond to his needs as a designer, the vision for Marvel and other exciting stuff. You can find Murat on Twitter (@mutlu82) or check out his company Marvel - http://marvelapp.com ------- Don't miss any new podcast episodes or articles. Subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

In this episode I had the pleasure to speak with Dan Toma, one of the authors of The Corporate Startup. Dan started his career in entrepreneurship, being involved with technology startups across the world. Puzzled by the questions ‘why are innovative products mainly launched by startups?’, he focuses on enterprise innovation strategy - specifically on the changes blue-chip organizations need to make to allow for new ventures to be built in a corporate setting. In this capacity he worked with companies like Deutsche Telekom, Bosch, Jaguar Land Rover, Bayer, John Deere or Allianz. From innovation to startups and management mistakes, we discussed about everything and there is a little for everybody. Enjoy the episode! Dan's Website: http://danto.ma ------- You can subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

The default setting of a product may create a better or worse habit for your users. Nudging people with a message may increase their spendings. Or sometimes, creating an ambient environment may influence what you buy in a store. There are several principles that we interact with on a daily basis, which might help us design better products. Or not. ------- You can subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

If you read my articles on Medium you know that I often say - a big part of Design is human behaviour. This episode will be more about psychology and how it can be used to create better products. I will dive into 7 stages of action by Don Norman, what is and how to do a root cause analysis and other interesting principles. ------- You can subscribe to my personal newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po You can follow me on: https://twitter.com/esanueugen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ https://www.instagram.com/larochefm/ ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

Marco is a friend of mine and I am glad to have him on the podcast. He is the founder of Applified, were they help great companies and individuals grow with 10X mindset. They use high-energy Design Sprints to get results in one week. In this episode he will share his knowledge in doing Design Sprints with companies such as Ikea and Heineken. We talked about his process, how companies can change their way of thinking and acting with the 10x Mindset and much more. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

This is one of my favorit and most exciting episodes I had the pleasure to work on. One of the main reasons why games such as World of Warcraft gained popularity in the early days is because of the real-time feedback they provide. All your actions influence your avatar’s image and its stats which grow with every level. And you can see all this progress enforced by flashing stats +1 stamina, +1 intellect, +1 strength in front of you. In previous articles, I wrote about the importance of grind, hard work and failure. In this one, you will learn how to apply real-time feedback to your product. And the use of stat rewards will boost the motivation of your users to complete or proceed with a challenge or task. This and much more in the episode. Check out the article on the website for more images that can be useful for your project (inspiration): https://www.laroche.co/blog/gamification-rewarding-with-personalnbspstats ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

No one likes to fail. So how is that gamers can spend 80% of the time failing and still love what they are doing?  — Jane McGonigal In the previous episode, I talked about the basic motivation principles for setting up a great gamification model. In this one, I would like to tell you what I learned about failing and why it is a critical element in gamification. Nicole Lazzaro is a games researcher, and in one of her researches she found out that, gamers spend nearly all their time failing. Four out of five don’t finish a mission or quest, run out of time, and have to start all over. And gamers enjoy failing. And the most interesting thing here is that when we play a well designed game, failure does not dissapoint us. It actually motivates us to try again. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

The fact that so many people all over the world are ready to spend (in total) 3 billion of hours a week playing games is a sign of something. A sign that the reality we’ve built is broken and the virtual world offers more of what we need. A sign that reality isn’t able to provide us what we need. Games provide rewards that reality isn’t. They are teaching, inspiring and engaging us in ways that reality is not. And unless we do something dramatic in the next decades, half of the population of the planet will spend a lot of energy and devotion to the game world. So we can play around this trend and design products that can help us to improve ourselves. I finished reading Jane McGonigal’s book Reality is Broken and would love to share some thoughts I learned and what we can do better about gamification. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Available on: Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

On this episode I will dive shortly into why people, sometimes, rationally choose the irrational. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Available on: Podcast Website - https://www.laroche.fm/ My Blog: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

It's an unusual episode for me because previously I was doing my research or taking time to create an episode, and this one is just a couple of ideas I had on my mind recently. And they boiled too much so I decided to share them with you. Too many people are rushing the process in the hope of creating something great and in the end all they get is more problems with their product, etc. Or sometimes they plan too much without actually getting anything out. Or they set themselves audacious goals that only intimidate them which in the end ruins the entire project. It's a question of what balance are you able to keep. But if you take it to extreme, problems will appear along the way. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Medium Blog: http://medium.com/@eugenesanu Personal: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co

There is a problem with online reviews and I want to hear it out. We have to start designing better online behaviour, because the current one leads to some bad incidents. For example, I often take my coffee at a place with a 3 stars rating on Google, but it serves one of the best coffees in the city. The reviews come from two people who had once a bad experience. And Google shows to everyone that it has 3/5 stars without saying that it is one the best places to have a non-Starbucks, coffee. Some companies keep manufacturing certain products only because 10 years ago they received so many 5 stars on Amazon, that it’s almost impossible to retire the product. My Uber score is 4.7, and the only “bad thing” I do is the lack of conversation with my driver. I always say “Hello”, “Thank you”, “Goodbye” and leave some tips. So apparently for not talking you still get a low score. Once I was working for an e-commerce shop, and I was having a discussion with a customer about his shopping experience. He gave 3 stars to a product because the delivery guy was rude to him. Meanwhile, the delivery company has nothing to do with the shop itself. And of course, you can’t blame him. But it’s our job to make it harder for people to leave delusional feedbacks and encourage more well-thought and constructive criticism. The rest is in the episode ;) ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Medium blog: http://medium.com/@eugenesanu Twitter: https://twitter.com/esanueugen Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ ------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co

Ever watch people entering an elevator and repeatedly push the Up button? Or repeatedly push the pedestrian button at a street crossing? Or hit a refresh button many times because the loading bar keeps spinning and nothing happens? What is missing in all these cases is feedback — some way of letting you know that what you did is working. Feedback acknowledges actions and shows results to keep people informed. In this episode I will tell you about why it is crucial for a product to have a proper feedback, when to use it and what to avoid, and other interesting stories. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Medium blog: http://medium.com/@eugenesanu Twitter: https://twitter.com/esanueugen Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanesan/ ------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co

Many times you see so many poor products because the person who designed it, ignored some basic design principles. In this episode I will go through seven of them. These principles should serve as more as a guiding path rather than a checklist or rules. Because if we make a rule out of a principles, with time it will be hard to break the pattern as the rule will become a habit. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ----------- About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ----------- Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ Podcast website: https://www.laroche.fm/

I would like to share with you some thoughts I have on UX and what we can do better. It mainly involves how we think about a design process and the fact that we are always trying to rush the process in order to achieve some self-imposed metrics that don’t bring any value. For example, the desire to always be first on the market with a product. But we forget that does it better will always beat, did it first. Also, during the podcast, I will tell you an interesting story about how I noticed a person interacting with a product for the first time on a tram and what we can learn from that encounter. Enjoy the episode! You can read the full article on Medium: https://goo.gl/e7QxQn ----------- Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ Podcast website: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

Isn't it strange how sometimes we make decisions within the blink of an eye? Sometimes we simply seem to follow the crowd and sometimes we seem to make decisions without really thinking at all. In fact, recent academic studies in cognitive psychology, social psychology and behavioural economics suggest that over 90% of our decision-making is conducted somewhat unconsciously and automatically on a daily basis. In this episode we are going to discuss how certain things influence our decisions more than we are aware of and how it can be applied when designing a product or service. In case you don’t want to listen to the episode, you can read the full article on Medium. https://goo.gl/gu8Lgw ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Supermarket research: https://goo.gl/bmyshT Google cafeteria: https://goo.gl/4jrcLe Book Nudge: https://goo.gl/rBKBsL --------- Podcast episode: About Eugen: http://eugenesanu.com About Laroche: http://laroche.co Eugen on Medium: http://medium.com/@eugenesanu

Many years ago, when we just started using the buzzword “big data”, a lot of people thought it’s the magic pill for all of their product or comapny failures, problems and future success. Most people still believe that vast amounts of data can provide better solutions than a person who doesn’t have it but knows human behaviour. But somehow we again don’t hit the sweet spot, why’s that? If it were a logical answer, we would already have found the answer — Rory Sutherland Further reading: Stop Asking Users What They Want - https://goo.gl/UT4imc Designing Perceptions Instead of Solutions - https://goo.gl/rGxPev ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- ----------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co We are on Spotify too: https://goo.gl/Fc5s6o

Uber did not allow you to pre-book a taxi. Amazon started out by selling books only. Google was just a search engine. McDonald’s got rid of cutlery. And somehow we still believe that for a product to be successful it must do many things. In this episode we will discuss why one of the best products always start simple and why sometimes it's better to keep it this way for the rest of product lifecycle ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Articles mentioned: Why Greatest Products Do Only One Thing - https://goo.gl/CMz7Sm Stop Asking Users What They Want - https://goo.gl/q5STV8 Why Small Teams Win and Biggers Ones Fail -https://goo.gl/AiYHzV Jim Collins - Built To Last Book - https://goo.gl/fdkqwG Harvard Business Review Article - https://goo.gl/CeNHrG ------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co

UPDATE: I just noticed that in the example of the elevator I said Window instead of Mirror. So it's a mirror that he installed to change perception of speed not a window. Pardon Why a solution to a problem in the 21st century may not be the answer and why sometimes we should focus on what users feel rather than what they see. What if we switched the food that is served in a restaurant with a Michelin star with one that does not have one, and vice-versa? Chances are you wouldn’t notice a difference. What if I told you that travelling faster by train from point A to point B and saving one hour of time difference would cost you 6 billion in renovations and constructions, but if you just installed a high-speed internet nobody would give a cent about that 1-hour difference? This and much more will be covered in the episode. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Link to the article: https://goo.gl/AySpWK Ted Talk with Rory: https://goo.gl/gJ5DvT Second Ted Talk: https://goo.gl/7T8S3y -------------- Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm Laroche: https://www.laroche.co -------------- We are now on Spotify too! https://open.spotify.com/show/6cqQxVEMw96pzEewW0zlwM?si=TyQZ2VQjS_mvKnSKfuaztg

Recently I wrote an article on Medium about how to find unseen opportunities and think in reverse. And the inspiration came from the ideas of two great men, Charlie Munger and Rory Sutherland. So I am going to discuss their ideas and give you an interesting story on how you can apply the thinking in reverse method. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Medium article link: https://uxplanet.org/finding-unseen-opportunities-e9d5e6acef69 More about me: Medium - https://medium.com/@eugenesanu Website - https://www.eugenesanu.com/ Laroche.fm - https://www.laroche.fm/ Laroche - https://www.laroche.co/

Today we are going to talk about the questions you need to ask before designing anything. The episode is a part of the article I wrote some time ago on Medium. Asking the right questions is an important part of the job of a designer. Why? Because it will uncover the true value of the things you are trying to achieve and will influence the end result. I hope that this episode will bring you value to your design process. Cheers! ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Link to the article and table: https://uxplanet.org/top-questions-to-ask-before-designing-anything-2141c7f64888 Follow me on: Medium - https://medium.com/@eugenesanu Dribbble - https://dribbble.com/larocheco About: Laroche - https://www.laroche.co/ Laroche.fm - https://www.laroche.fm/ Me - http://eugenesanu.com/

On this episode I am going to talk about a recent article I wrote on Medium and it is Why Small Teams Win and Bigger Ones Fail. I received a lot of positive feedback for it and decided to make it as an episode and also added some extras to it. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- ___________ Link to the article: https://goo.gl/3TT9RG Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu My work: https://www.laroche.co/

On this episode, I will talk about a recent article I wrote on Medium called - Stop Asking Users What They Want. It seemed as an interesting topic to me that a lot of companies base their decision making solely on the research they just did about their customers. I believe that this is not the best approach and there is a better way to go about it. Hopefully, this short episode will bring you some value on how to approach user research. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- ------------ Medium article: https://goo.gl/coFGYY Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu About me: http://eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/

I had the pleasure to have Marty Neumeier second time on the podcast and this time we discussed many new things, including his new book Scramble. Marty is the author of Brand Gap, Zag, Brand Flip and other bestselling books. If you are a designer or business owner, then this episode is for you. We covered a lot of interesting stuff with some real-life examples: + How to bridge the gap between business needs and design + Why it is important to know how a day in the life of your customer looks like + Why companies lose focus on their mission and how to keep it + How to onboard your team with new ideas + And other interesting stuff ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- ----------- About Marty's book: http://www.martyneumeier.com/scramble/ ----------- About the podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/ About the host: http://eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu

In this podcast episode, we will dive into why product roadmaps suck and how we can make them better. --------- What should our product team work on today? The answer is usually on your product roadmap. It contains a list of features, ideas, tasks to do, small and big projects and multi-team efforts that must be achieved. Along with that, all of them have a deadline. So everyone can grab a task from the roadmap and not worry about what to do next. The problem is that in this case, we focus on business output than the outcome. We focus on the next feature to build and timeline rather than focusing on: what business problem are we solving? What customer problem are we solving? How we make their lives better? How is it adding value? ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- --------- Support the podcast on Patreon: http://patreon.com/laroche --------- ---------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ Medium blog: https://medium.com/@eugeniuesanu Podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/ Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

In this episode, I will briefly discuss the qualities of a great Product Manager based on the book Inspired by Marty Cagan. You can also find the article and script of this episode here. (https://goo.gl/uC5rQ8) The reason I chose this topic is that every business depends on customers. And they buy what your product team has built. If you don’t get it right from the beginning, you have all the chances to fail. More about the book: https://goo.gl/vifKHX Follow my blog on medium: https://medium.com/@eugeniuesanu About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/

A quick rant about what we are getting wrong about product features when designing a product and what we should do instead. This podcast episode was an article that I published on my Medium blog.  For a more in-depth analysis of this topic, go an read the article. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Medium: https://medium.com/@eugenesanu About me: http://eugenesanu.com/ Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm/ ----------- Have you ever been searching for a product that could solve your needs but could not choose one because all somehow look the same? Or it becomes harder for you to choose between 2 services because they offer the same features? The only thing that differentiates them is their design, but even that somehow becomes the same. So why do all products on the market look the same with little difference? Before I answer that question, would like to clarify something. To create a great product that solves a need, you must have a human-centred design approach for that. An HCD process is an ideal state that all aspire to, but almost nobody gets there. Most companies can’t get to that state because they have a disease called featurist. What is the primary symptom? Constantly adding features to your product.

The episode is based on an article that I wrote on Medium and gained some attention from the public. The article is called, Pixar's Braintrust and why it is important for a creative culture. I wrote about some ideas that any company can implement and make their environment more honest and creative. And I decided to make the article into a podcast episode. Here is the link to the article: https://blog.prototypr.io/pixars-braintrust-why-it-is-important-for-a-creative-culture-7dcbee3aa8f5 ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- About me: https://www.eugenesanu.com/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/

In this episode, I had the pleasure to speak with Anthony Armendariz, founder of Funsize. Anthony is a designer, businessman, and investor. This interview covers an array of topics from how he founded Funsize, how he manages to wear different hats, what challenges he had to overcome while building Funsize, how he hires people, how to build a design team and what are the key ingredients for a great product and company. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- About Funsize: http://funsize.co/ About Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Host: http://eugenesanu.com/

So much positive energy, passion, and knowledge in a long and meaningful conversation with Jess Williams, the founder of Communal Creative. What is this episode about? There is a bit for everyone. We discussed the early days of Birchbox and Thrillist and how Jess was leading the team of creatives and how much amount of work went into stepping up the product game for Birchbox. What challenges she encountered at these companies. She shared a lot of personal stories on how she builds Communal Creative, how she found/finds clients, her work approach, what it takes to build a great brand and product and much more. Also, an in-depth look on how she on-boards new clients and what is the process to kickstart the work. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- About Laroche.fm: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ Host: http://eugenesanu.com/

Anna Charity is currently Head of Design at Headspace and has been nurturing the design aesthetic and brand since 2012. We had a wonderful conversation about early days of Headspace, how they design with empathy, what is a good design and many more. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Available on: Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/larochefm/anna-charity-headspace iTunes - https://goo.gl/psDNrq Website - https://www.laroche.fm/home/anna-charity About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

About the Episode In this episode, Ryan shared his philosophy on how to design simple and human products, how Basecamp works when implementing new features and updates. I truly believe this episode can be eye-opening to many designers and companies that are trying to fix their products or simply improve them with multiple features. It will help you to see a clear picture of what to do next and what are you doing wrong with your current product. Basecamp is used by millions of people and having such a strong view and philosophy on how the product and the team should work is important. Because in the end it allows to build simple and human product. So much fire hasn't been on this podcast since the last episode! Don't forget to let me know your thoughts about the podcast down in the comments and I will join you for a conversation. About Ryan Ryan Singer is the Head of Strategy at Basecamp. Through over 15 years at Basecamp, he has designed features used by millions and invented processes our teams use to design, develop and ship the right things. These days he's more focused on strategy and that means understanding what their customers are trying to do so they can make the product more effective and coherent. ------- Subscribe to my newsletter: https://goo.gl/iEq3Po ------- Available on: Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/larochefm/ryan-singer-basecamp iTunes - https://goo.gl/psDNrq My work: https://www.laroche.co/

For the second time, I had the pleasure to have Blair Enns on the show and talk about his new book Pricing Creativity. So much fire and practical advice dropped on this episode of Laroche.fm that you can't miss it! How to price a creative service beyond billable hours, why billing hours are a dead end, why discounting prices is not good, the psychology of value you are selling & creating for your clients and so much more just in one episode. I would listen to this episode twice and then go buy his book for more knowledge as this is changing so many things on how you work, create and sell. Make sure to check the previous episode for more info about Blair's background and his other book Win Without Pitching Manifesto. Listen on Soundcloud: https://goo.gl/5LCKn7 Listen on iTunes: https://goo.gl/Ba2KcJ Episode page: https://www.laroche.fm/home/pricing-creativity-blair-enns About podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

JD is a Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Instrument. Since 2000, JD has created digital experiences for cultural institutions and companies large and small. Current clients include Facebook, XBOX, Google, Nike and Livestrong Foundation. We talked about how Instrument changed their HR model to a Human Development one and what are the benefits of it, what is his own design process and principles, how great products are created and much more. In the end, we discussed how companies can keep innovating and create a creative environment, and we got a bit more personal in the end with our blitz questions. Listen on Soundcloud: https://goo.gl/2ToK59 Listen on iTunes: https://goo.gl/AQoEZY About podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

David C. Baker is a speaker, author of 5 books, and a consultant. He worked with 750+ firms and in-house departments under that umbrella, and more than a hundred thousand others have been through his seminars or attended a speaking engagement. His most famous and recent book is the Business of Expertise. If you are an entrepreneurial expert selling advice for a living, you’ll absorb deeper and deeper insight each time you scour it. It emerges from the trenches and is written for experts in the trenches. What I really love about David is that he is straight on point with everything you need to know and do in order to be seen as an expert. This podcast episode is short but full of practical advice on how to position yourself, how to be seen as an expert, what not to do as an expert and many more. About podcast: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

In this episode, I talked with Martin Strutz, founding partner of AndCo which is an app that allows freelancers to automate invoicing, contracts, and payments. We discussed how and why he founded the company, why design is important and a crucial element in any successful company, why they did not automate the human support yet and how they make decisions when building the product. We also talked about the importance user experience and how it can be a key differentiator. Website: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Laroche.fm is a podcast hosted by Eugeniu Esanu, the founder and creative director of Laroche.co, a design agency from Amsterdam. We are on a journey of learning from different experts and industry leaders about how they design great & valuable products and what do you need for a creative culture. ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

This Part 2 only, make sure to check Part 1 for more in-depth background about Harald, his agency, work and some project insights. In this episode, we talked about Harald's second company DeCorespondent which is a Dutch news company (soon in the USA too). We talked about how he combines his work at Momkai and the news company, what he brings new to the table. Also we talked about his learnings through all these years . Harald is the founder and Creative Director of design studio Momkai and the co-founder and Creative Director of De Correspondent. With his fifteen years of experience as a digital entrepreneur, Harald has developed a keen eye for the creative and business opportunities the online world offers. A holistic approach to design can be seen in all his work. His Momkai designs cultivate calm, so that only the content can drive you to distraction. De Correspondent is a Dutch news organization optimized for trust. Their membership model is working extremely well in the Netherlands. De Correspondent has over 60,000 paying members paying and bills itself as an “antidote to the daily news grind.” De Correspondent aims to launch a U.S. edition in the near future: The Correspondent. Website: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Laroche.fm is a podcast hosted by Eugeniu Esanu, the founder and creative director of Laroche.co, a design agency from Amsterdam. We are on a journey of learning from different experts and industry leaders about how they design great & valuable products and what do you need for a creative culture. ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

This Part 1 only, make sure to check Part 2 for more in-depth knowledge and stories shared by Harald. Harald is the founder and Creative Director of design studio Momkai and the cofounder and Creative Director of De Correspondent. With his fifteen years of experience as a digital entrepreneur, Harald has developed a keen eye for the creative and business opportunities the online world offers. A holistic approach to design can be seen in all his work. His Momkai designs cultivate calm, so that only the content can drive you to distraction. De Correspondent is a Dutch news organization optimized for trust. Their membership model is working extremely well in the Netherlands. De Correspondent has over 60,000 paying members paying and bills itself as an “antidote to the daily news grind.” De Correspondent aims to launch a U.S. edition in the near future: The Correspondent. Website: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Laroche.fm is a podcast hosted by Eugeniu Esanu, the founder and creative director of Laroche.co, a design agency from Amsterdam. We are on a journey of learning from different experts and industry leaders about how they design great & valuable products and what do you need for a creative culture. ------- Music: https://soundcloud.com/itsnglmusic

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ryan Carson, CEO, and founder of Treehouse. Ryan shared a lot of knowledge from his own experience on how he did build Treehouse, what is a great product and how to create one, why a great team is one of the most important things for your company. And what I found most interesting is when he shared what he learned from growing Treehouse and why passion is important when building a product. About Treehouse: our mission is bring effective, valuable and accessible technology education to everyone so they can change their lives and change the world. Soundcloud: https://goo.gl/nqSCrk iTunes: https://goo.gl/QkZ3Ui Website: https://www.laroche.fm/ About Laroche: https://www.laroche.co/ ------- Laroche.fm is a podcast hosted by Eugeniu Esanu, the founder and creative director of Laroche.co, a design agency from Amsterdam. We are on a journey of learning from different experts and industry leaders about how they design great & valuable products and what do you need for a creative culture.