#nntech podcast

"We are going to Mars, baby!" We interview one of the biggest influencers in the Nordic startup scene: Tyler Crowley. Tyler organizes STHLM TECH, the largest startup meetup in Europe. We have a fantastic conversation about how he ended up in Sweden, what constitutes a good startup pitch, obsessing about a problem, why growth is such a focus of startups, and much more.

In this episode, we interview Andreas Vural, the President and the founder of Happy Plugs. We discuss his road to success, a journey from moving from a small town to starting one of the first social networks in Sweden, and then on to founding what will become the global market leader in what Andreas describes as “fashion tech”. It’s a fascinating story and he shares many learnings on how to be a successful entrepreneur. During the interview, Andreas also tells us about Happy Plugs’ new collaboration with H&M.

”Fearlessness is like a muscle.” Arianna Huffington In this third episode, we interview Natalia Brzezinski, described as “one of the strongest links between the US and the Nordics”. She is the CEO of Symposium, an invite only “TED-like conference for the tech scene”, which she’s running with Daniel Ek from Spotify and Ash Pournouri, Avicii’s manager. The episode is jam-packed with stories and insights about the Nordic tech scene. We touch upon topics such as will there be a life after death, the “secret sauce” of why Nordic founders tend to be so successful and much more.

In this episode, we interview Johan Lilja, the CEO and co-founder of the much-hyped startup Universal Avenue. They’ve grown in just two years to employ 70 people with offices in UK, Greece, Spain, Sweden and US. So what’s Universal Avenue? Their value proposition is to outsource sales to freelancers, so-called Brand Ambassadors. If you’re a company, you can hire a Brand Ambassador to sell your products and services, and you pay a commission on each sale. Brands like Spotify for Business and Bambora are already using the product and we see a bright future for their growth. In our discussion, we touch on quite a few subjects such as: - Johan's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs - How to quickly scale a business to new markets - What Universal Avenue’s product development process looks like - and Johan also takes us through a day in the life of a startup CEO Enjoy, Marcus & Tuva And as always, please reach out to us using the #nntech hashtag if you have any feedback.

Our podcast on product development, technology, and design is back — but — with a twist. We have a new co-host, Tuva Palm, and a new name Nordnet Tech, with the hashtag #nntech. In this premiere episode, we're interviewing Stefan Krook, a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and the CEO of Kivra. We have a conversation about a defining moment in his career, product development at Kivra, their process for innovation, his “Poker rule”, and much more. Show notes: https://medium.com/nntech-podcast/nntech-ep-1-with-stefan-krook-ceo-of-kivra-on-happiness-the-poker-rule-and-innovation-751bdb266011#.cznukjbux

Summer is here. Thank you for listening to the episodes during the winter and spring. We're now taking a pause until the fall when we're back with new stories to share about our journey, and perhaps about Dennis' kite-surfing adventures. Until then, please share your feedback on Twitter using the #slowtofast hashtag. If you have a minute, also please write a review on iTunes. Have a great summer everyone and thank you again for listening, Marcus & Dennis

In this episode, we interview Alok Alström the General Manager of Uber in Sweden. We get an inside look at how Uber operates, a company that has scaled from nothing 7 years ago to being valued at more than $60 billion dollars.  The conversation is centered around how Uber is set up for growth and scale. It’s jam-packed with useful insights for any type of business. We discuss topics such as: - Alok’s approach to management and hiring - Uber’s employee onboarding process - How Uber uses internal apps in product development - Successful traits of an adaptive organization - Uber’s core values, and lots more Show notes: https://goo.gl/haovgH

This is the second part of our From Business To Buttons special. We interview Golden Krishna, Design Strategist at Google and the author of the book “The Best Interface is No Interface”. At Google, he works in the Android UX team on shaping the future of the operating system. Golden is passionate about curing our addiction to screens. In his opinion, screens are the pollution of our generation. He urges us to stop focusing so much on designing for interfaces. During this interview, we discuss topics such as: - Our addiction to apps and “app fatigue” - The idea of a “screenless” society, just like the notion of the paperless society - Google Now - The removal of so-called “digital chores” - The purpose and issues with chat bots - The over-saturation of notifications - A "watch first" design approach Show notes: https://goo.gl/PiZY8r

This is the first part of our From Business To Buttons special. We interview Susan Weinschenk a psychologist focusing on the intersection of brain science, behavioral psychology and design. She’s written numerous books on the subject such as 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click and How To Get People to Do Stuff. As you would expect, during the interview we talk a lot about the brain, and what we as designers, product managers, marketers etc, can learn from psychology when we’re designing experiences for customers. We discuss topics such as: - Three nuggets from the book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People - How unconsciousness is affecting our decision-making - The importance of designing for peripheral vision - Why you should ask customers for stories, and the benefits of the story format - Dopamine, and the power of anticipation - The ethics of data mining Show notes: https://goo.gl/5RDVrR

A milestone! We are celebrating 10 episodes. Dennis and I are back in the studio yet again to share what we work on, and what makes us inspired. We initially stated that we would record 10 episodes as a test. And…we’ve decided to continue! In this episode we talk about: - The concept of “the runway”. Whatever you work on has a time limit. Learn how to use this to your advantage. Dennis also shares a story from an exercise he did together with the General Management team - The Design Studio is moving out to the scrum teams and Marcus shares the reason behind this move - Dennis talks about a book that he shared with the entire General Management team and the product organization. It’s called “Death by meeting”, and is written by Patrick Lencioni. Dennis sheds light on the topic of the book: how to make your meetings more productive - Marcus shares a simple framework for doing retrospectives, and also the concept of the “Pet Peeves” meeting, a meeting where the design team talks about little things they get annoyed by Show notes: https://medium.com/slowtofast-podcast/slowtofast-ep-10-on-runways-retrospectives-and-death-by-meeting-9a558b51fddb#.9ska67ymm

In this episode we introduce our new awesome CTO Tuva Palm who joined us a little over a month ago. Tuva has an extensive background in engineering and product management from companies such as Oracle and Klarna. She is also the co-host of STHLM Tech, the biggest tech meetup in Europe. Dennis and Tuva have an intense and entertaining conversation about: - The startup scene in Sweden - The BOPS prio list, a prioritization framework used by Spotify and Klarna - The key to creating something that customers want - Trends in technology - Successful traits of a CTO - Ingredients to achieve speed in product organizations - Tuva’s affection for Marty Cagan’s blog articles Show notes: https://medium.com/slowtofast-podcast/slowtofast-ep-09-the-tuva-palm-edition-81073cbc9e#.yyo63ncvy

This episode is for you Agile geeks out there. Dennis and our special guest Mattias Skarin from Crisp go all out nerd about how to use Agile to the fullest. Whether you want to get started with Agile, or if you’re already using the method, there is tons of value to take from the episode.

In this episode, Marcus geeks out about design systems and talks about the launch of Nordnet’s new visual identity and UI kit. He explains Nordnet’s process for working with Atomic Design, a framework for managing design systems. Dennis brings up something that you don’t often read about in the business press: how to manage your manager. He explains some simple tactics that you can apply to elevate yourself in your career, and most importantly to help your manager. Marcus also talks about an interesting article he recently read about the key characteristics of successful organizations. Dennis ends the episode by opening up about being on the receiving end of negative feedback. Perhaps, you should be more of a “Teflon dog” in those situations? Show notes: http://www.nordnetbloggen.se/episode-7-of-slowtofast-optimize-for-uncertainty-on-design-systems-managing-up-and-handling-feedback/07/03/2016/

In this episode Dennis shares his thoughts on what he refers to as “gravity”, a law of nature in product development: accepting that you have limited resources. Marcus gives examples of how you can create a positive mess in your creative process, causing interesting solutions to flourish. We also have a long rant about Agile. Why should you apply Agile methods? What are the benefits? And lastly, we talk about treating happiness as a skill, just like investing is a skill or nutrition is a skill. Show notes: http://www.nordnetbloggen.se/episode-6-of-slowtofast-using-resource-limitations-creative-chaos-agile-and-happiness-to-your-advantage/22/02/2016/

In this episode, Dennis is replaced with our first guest in #slowtofast: Spotify's Design Director Stanley Wood. Since this episode is hosted by two product designers, it's all about - you've guessed it - product design. Marcus and Stanley dig deep into the design process, how to be innovative, align a design language and achieve consistency in user experience. Learn more: http://www.nordnetbloggen.se/episode-5-of-slowtofast-stanley-wood-from-spotify-on-innovation-design-principles-and-culture/08/02/2016/

We debate if there are good and bad failures and if we will really need apps in the future. We also talk about how to successfully work with remote teams. All the links that you might need in order to follow what we talk about, can be found on the Nordnet Tech blog(http://www.nordnetbloggen.se/author/nordnet-tech/)

In this episode we talk about how to find the balance between fidelity and speed, a challenge for any organization working with product development. Dennis shares one of his favorite theories: The Theory of Constraints, a simple and powerful way of identifying bottlenecks in your value stream. Marcus tells two stories about applying a mindset, and a philosophy to produce more innovative and quality work. And lastly, Dennis geeks out on a new toy that he just bought for the office.

In this episode we discuss something that every company struggles with: what tools to use. Dennis argues that tools should always be submissive to the process. The conversation turns a bit existential when Marcus opens up and speaks about the flipside of being a design manager. Marcus also tells the story of AirBnB’s road to success and Dennis talks about creating a “bullshit free zone”. All the links that you might need in order to follow what we talk about, can be found on the Nordnet Tech blog

In this first episode of #slowtofast, we will talk about design sprints, how design is a team sport and the amazing story of the $300 Million button. We will straighten out how killing the blame game and measuring employees’ happiness will deliver customer value at a faster pace. We also mention loads of people, methods and theories. All the links that you might need in order to follow what we talk about, can be found on the Nordnet Tech blog (http://www.nordnetbloggen.se/on-diamonds-and-happiness-slowtofast-episode-1/14/12/2015/).

SlowToFast - Instrumental by Nordnet