041: Christine Balatbat (The Empathic Researcher)

Jake Nuñez is an experienced Senior Product Designer at Maya, focusing on enhancing the merchant experience by designing their Business products. He brings over 9 years of diverse work experience in fields such as Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Art Direction, and User Experience. Additionally, he is dedicated to mentoring aspiring designers and equipping them for the industry through his involvement with ADPList - a global mentoring community committed to democratizing mentorship.

In this episode, we talk about taking risks and investing in education, learning UX design during the pandemic, and going from aspiring disc jockey to senior product designer.

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

ADPList: https://adplist.org/mentors/jake-nunez

Frances To is an Independent Designer who specializes in creating bespoke websites, digital products, and interactive stories for fast-growing companies. Previously, she co-founded UX+ University, a learning platform that empowers career shifters to become User Experience professionals in 16 weeks. She also designed digital products at First Circle and Maya. Since the start of Frances’ independent design practice her work has been recognized by Awwwards, CSS Design Awards, Typewolf, and Buried Signals.

In this episode we talk about owning your background and past as a designer, exploring the boundaries of design through interactive storytelling, and learning to be an independent freelancer.

Instagram - https://instagram.com/francesto.design

Twitter - https://twitter.com/francesto927

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@francesto

DigiValet - https://www.digivalet.com

The Haircut - https://the-haircut.webflow.io

Jarell is an intermediate product designer currently working on enterprise software for Copperleaf who helps utility companies make better decisions that make a better world. On the side he volunteers at ADPList and BCIT as a mentor, regularly hosts or speaks at local meetups and events, and started a local design community in Vancouver on April 2020 with over 600 members worldwide for casual bi-weekly calls. 

In this episode, we talk about the power of community and building it from scratch, helping other people succeed, doing enterprise design, and so much more.

Jen Enrique is a Staff Product Designer at Slack. With over 14 years experience, she has worked at agencies, startups, and big companies. Today, she champions building design culture and teaching designers how to self-advocate at work. As a 2nd generation child of immigrants, she had to learn how to navigate corporate cultures without insider expertise or formal mentors. In the last year, she has parlayed that experience into mentoring 100+ designers.

In this episode, we talk about starting and formalizing design community work at Slack, going through the interview circuit, finding balance through travel, and so much more. 

Ray Sison is a Senior Design Director for Product Design for SNKRS at Nike, designing for a niche community of sneakerheads. Before that, he was the Head of Design at Clarity Money, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018. He was previously a Design Director at both Work&Co and R/GA, and worked on top brands like Google, Apple, Facebook, Playstation, Fortnite, Aesop, Nike+, Nike Basketball, Samsung, and a lot more.

In this episode, we talk about what it’s like to design for a brand like Nike, how to be an effective design director, why making it harder to buy shoes makes sense, and so much more.

Pia Zaragoza is a creative technologist, researcher, and educator exploring the current use cases and future possibilities of emerging technologies. She is the former Vice President of Accessibility Research and Insights at JP Morgan Chase and is currently a Presidential Innovation Fellow. Pia’s Google Home once told her that the meaning of life is all about finding a way.

In this episode, we talk about how Pia found her way into inclusive design and research, finding your voice as a designer, contributing to civic tech, designing for accessibility and inclusion, and so much more.

Leonardo is a content designer and content strategist from Seattle, Washington—where he was born and raised. He currently works at Orca Pacific, a MightyHive company, as the lead content strategist, helping some of the leading brands optimize their content across multiple eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, Target, and Wal-mart.  In his spare time, he mentors up-and-coming UX writers through the UX Writing Hub, and is particularly passionate about helping those in the BIPOC/AAPI community.

In this episode, we talk about shifting to a UX writing career, systemic racism and the BLM movement, the challenges and privileges of being Filipino-American, and so much more.

Ian Sagabaen is a UX Designer at Google, building Google Cloud's enterprise tools. If you've ever been described as shy and need that nudge to break out of your comfortable shell, Ian’s travel stories might motivate you. He started as the quiet kid from San Jose, when on a whim challenged himself to live on the other side of the world, then applied his newfound courage he discovered while abroad to build up his body of work at different Silicon Valley tech companies. 

In this episode, we talk about progressing from graphic to interaction design, moving to Japan to study, designing for internal tools, enterprise vs consumer design, UX mentoring, and so much more.

Francis Estrada is an Interaction Designer at Google, currently working on YouTube Music Ads. As a fan of taking the scenic route, Francis gained experience working in marketing, software quality assurance, and web design before finding his way into UX. Over the years, he's picked up a side hustle as a UX instructor, having taught both undergraduates and adult learners at several institutions including The University of Washington, Bellevue College, and the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. 

In this episode we talk about starting out as a web designer, designing for Amazon Key and its delivery experiences, working on Google Cloud design systems, joining the Youtube Music Ads team, and so much more.

Krizia Lim is a Senior Graphic Designer at Kalibrr by day, a Freelance Illustrator and Designer by night, and a photographer, web designer, and more in between. She was previously an intern at Pepper.ph and an art director at Elevation Partners, where she worked with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf — developing her interest in designing for F&B brands. She believes that her love for design, food, music, games, and k-culture fuels her to create, illustrate, and explore other trades of design.

In this episode we talk about creating a narrative for your illustrations and designs, how deep interests and hobbies help Krizia create, starting out in an industry you’re not used to, and so much more.