Roots

Kervin Tan is a freelance product designer and a mountain seeker. He is currently a product designer consultant at Hometime, a property management startup based in Australia and at BioMark, a health-tech startup based in Singapore. He is focused on working with companies that are building their MVPs, redesigning their platforms, and scaling their systems. Kervin loves to hike and appreciate nature in its raw form but due to the current pandemic situation, he became a plant daddy.

In this episode, we talked about using his programmer background to his advantage, designing in the health and travel industries, deciding to be a freelance designer, and so much more.

Carla Taruc Porticos is the UX/CX Research Lead and Managing & Founding Partner of Influx Research Philippines. Before her ABCs, she learned research terms from her parents who worked in market research for over 30 years. Shifting from market research to UX was seamless for Carla, having worked on UX projects since 2006. She also rides a 1200cc BMW RNineT motorbike which she calls “Beast.” Now, Carla is building an agritech start-up to uplift the lives of Filipino farmers, and dreams to be the first Filipina unicorn.

In this episode we talk about golden nuggets of wisdom for user researchers, starting a profitable remote-first research company, the differences between marketing research and user research, and so much more.

Grey wanted to be a UX Designer way before it was cool. After spending more than half a decade as digital product manager for the banking and fintech industry, she is now a Product Design Lead for UBX Philippines. She loves conducting design sprints/workshops and user research and testing.  — anything that will allow her to talk to and learn more about people. She also regards herself as a serial solo backpacker. Having seen how cities/towns in other countries are like, her dream job is to become a globetrotting urban designer for the Philippines. 

In this episode, we talk about transitioning from product manager to product designer, being a T-shaped specialist, how to work in the financial and banking industry, and so much more.

Jennifer Suazo is the UX Lead for Singlife Philippines, a digital insurance company that embraces technology to help Filipinos manage, grow, and protect their money. She took her Master's of Science in Interaction Design and Computing at University of Westminster in London with a Merit Award Class, which previously helped her land her first UX role in AXA Philippines. She’s an avid reader and a self-proclaimed Axure fangirl who enjoys turning complex and manual processes into efficient and delightful digital experiences.

In this episode, we talk about transitioning from web designer to UX designer, Jen’s life as a masters student in London, the challenges of designing in the field of insurance, and so much more.

Miramark Diaz is a Designer who creates digital products for brands, companies, and startups. Currently he’s a Design Manager at one of the largest airline companies in the Philippines, Cebu Pacific Air, where he looks over the process, people, and the optimization of their work. His drive to learn, do, and create is fueled by his hunger for the mastery of the process, and the continuous cycle of problem-solving. Outside of work, he fiddles around with learning how to brew good coffee.

In this episode, we talk about Miramark’s journey and insights as a freelancer, how he built his network and presence through Dribbble, learning to become a Design Manager in a corporate environment, and so much more.

Alex Atienza is a Senior Product Designer working on the “Carina” Design System and the Hospitality Cloud platform at Cvent. Previously, he was a designer at gaming companies like Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Online Studios shipping https://Bethesda.net  and leading design for the game platform shipping The Elder Scrolls Online. Alex believes that transparent UX processes, cross functional teams, and a delivery driven work ethic will result in shipping great products. Currently, he juggles being a good father and playing FF7 Remake.

In this episode we talk about designing interfaces for mobile before mobile existed, doing design systems for government and beyond, how to design for a game platform like Elder Scrolls Online, and so much more.

Tim Quirino is a Product Designer on Facebook's News Feed & Stories. In over 6 years at the blue app, he helped launch Facebook Watch, Facebook Live, and Music Sharing. Not one to miss the opportunity for excellent wordplay, Tim lives by the ethos of Ray and Charles Eames. “The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of his guests.” He's also a Chef and Co-founder of Carb Your Enthusiasm, a pop-up dinner series based in San Francisco.

In this episode, we talk about Tim’s journey from Manila, New Jersey, and Philadelphia to San Francisco, how Tim evolved his career at Facebook, how he manages to spin so  many plates at the same time, and so much more.

Jamie Cabaccang is an award-winning Product Design Leader, Inventor, a Certified Reiki Master and Founder of Techies + Wellness. She led product design at Microsoft for over 10 years for Office on the Apple platforms and invented new technology for the Windows Incubation team. She is currently a Product Design Lead at Pinterest. By designing holistic wellness experiences and transformative retreats,  she connects individuals to their own inner wisdom. Helping them on their path to self discovery, authentic self expression and honoring their true calling.

In this episode, we talk about leading design at Microsoft, working on secret future technology, building communities, going inward and following your heart, and so much more.

Jeremy Dizon is a Senior Production Designer at Lyft, where he maintains and evolves the Lyft Product Language design system, supporting the entire Product Design organization. He honed his production design skills at companies like Google and Airbnb, where he advocated for production design as an integral part of building products. Balancing work and life as a dad of two, Jeremy also enjoys dressing up in plastic armor on the weekends as part of the worldwide Star Wars group, the 501st Legion.

In this episode, we talk about Jeremy’s production design process, doing design QA, creating component libraries, the different approaches to design systems, and so much more.

Everett is a Bay Area transplant and failed musician who exchanged the Los Angeles smog for the San Francisco fog. Raised in the LA skate punk scene of the 80s and 90s, he was naturally drawn to the counter culture epicenter that was the Bay Area. He’s currently a documentary filmmaker at Stripe, and is wrapping up Stripe Press’s first feature length release. Prior to Stripe, he was a Brand Creative Manager at Pinterest, Co-Founder of the Facebook Analog Research Laboratory, and was an Exhibition Designer at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

In this episode, we talk about being a museum designer, using your network to get career direction, being a provocateur in the Facebook office, working with film to tell stories , and so much more.

Lacey Sabado is a UX Program Manager at Google, where she helps improve people’s everyday lives through meaningful user experiences.  She completed her Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Maryland, where she was the Graduate School Commencement Speaker and Most Outstanding Graduate Assistant of 2018. She also co-founded the first student UX organization, UXTerps, at UMD. She interned as a UX Researcher for The New York Times. Before that, she spent most of her 9-year career as an IT Manager at Procter & Gamble.

In this episode, we talk about her student career at DLSU, her first UX Design role at P&G, choosing the right graduate school, UX program management at Google, and so much more.

Camille Villanueva is a Brand and Marketing Designer at Square, bringing product marketing campaigns to life through different media, such as illustration and photography. Four years ago, Camille took a leap of faith and left her job as a high school teacher in Los Angeles to become a designer in San Francisco. In her spare time, you'll usually find Camille juggling personal projects like puppetry, printmaking, photography, and cosplay.

In this episode, we talk about the fundamentals of critique and feedback, Camille’s journey from teacher-photographer to designer and manager, building an illustration style guide, and so much more.

Andrew Tolentino is a Senior Product Designer at Credit Karma designing experiences that help people make financial progress and buy their first home. His passion lies in mission driven, user-facing products that help people make progress towards their goals. At a young age, he started building his own websites, eventually transitioning to product and UX design through his internships at agencies like MWWPR and fullSIX. In his spare time, you can find him in a pottery class throwing clay on a wheel, hand lettering, or in the kitchen, baking regularly.

In this episode, we talk about how Andrew spent 8 years designing at Credit Karma, handling multiple product managers, evolving his design process, why designers should be more vocal, and so much more.

Arvi is Dad, Superman fanboy and Product Designer living in San Francisco. He has over 20 years of product and brand design experience. He is currently a Sr. Product Design Manager at Glassdoor helping people to find a job and a company they love. Previously, he was a Design Lead at Fitbit, leading the Activity and Exercise team to help people lead healthier lives. He was also a former Product Designer at Facebook with the Insights and Measurement team, building products for over a billion users worldwide.

In this episode we talk about how Arvi designs for people, his work on preserving the legacy of those who passed away, designing for analytics, prioritizing work-life balance, tips for new design managers, and so much more.

Kylie Timpani is a Product Designer in Silicon Valley working on the way people consume and experience TV. Previously, she was the Senior Designer at Humaan, an Australian digital agency with an aim to make technology and the experiences that come with it more human. Kylie loves to give back whether that’s by mentoring early-stage designers, organising conferences like Mixin, or sharing knowledge freely. When she’s not designing, she’s falling off a skateboard and watching Filipino soap operas as a way to learn Tagalog.

In this episode, we talk about how Kylie taught herself design, how to find opportunities through Twitter, why being responsible for your privilege is important, and so much more.

Anj Garong is a developer turned designer, now an Innovation and Creative Entrepreneurship student at Thames International. She loves seeing other people happy and successful, which is why she decided to focus on teaching and workshopping, and thus, started Ang Design Co. Before that, she spent 3+ years at Sprout Solutions, where she grew the Product Design team and spread the design culture. She has also been teaching at iACADEMY for several years now and sharing UX knowledge with communities and private companies since 2016.

In this episode, we talk about how Anj found her focus in design, why teaching in an important constant in her life, becoming a creative entrepreneur, and so much more.

Dan Mall is the Founder & CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Having worked with clients like United Airlines, Harvard Business School, athenahealth, Capital One, Apple, dotdash, Google, Reader's Digest, The New York Times,  ExxonMobil, and more, Dan has a passion for playing matchmaker between surprising art direction and intuitive interaction design and building teams that are finely tuned to the solutions clients are looking for.

In this episode, we talk about Dan’s design roots in Philly, how working with Jeffrey Zeldman shaped his career, fostering trust as a design director, his inclusive approach to building teams, and so much more.

Neil Bantoc is a UX Engineer on the Design Systems Engineering team at Facebook where he supports the Facebook Design System by creating standardised UI widgets that conform to the FDS design patterns and guidelines. Before this, he was a software engineer at Venmo — a PayPal company, and Freelancer.com Manila. As a student, he obtained his Bachelors in Computer Science at University of the Philippines at Los Baños and his Masters in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University.

In this episode, we talk about Neil’s journey to becoming a UX engineer, his time at Carnegie Mellon, Facebook’s internal tooling for design systems, and so much more.

Archie Riva is an Enterprise UX Designer and Manager at Procter and Gamble.  From being a systems analyst and project manager in the Financial Solutions department, Archie transitioned to be a UX practitioner and became successful in incorporating UX methodologies and techniques tailored fit to the enterprise environment. As a UX manager and having obtained master certification from Nielsen and Norman group, Archie continues to evangelize UX in his organization and seeks to reapply best practices from outside in.

In this episode, we talk about project management for designers, learning to get buy-in from stakeholders, measuring the business impact of UX, and so much more.

Nelson Gomez is a product designer at Holotech Studios designing an app called Animaze where people can make fun videos on their phone with avatars that imitate their every expression. Moreover, he has designed lifestyle web and app experiences spanning from weddings (through the Knot) to fitness to name a few. After hustling to start his career and graduating from college in the Philippines, Nelson also volunteers for ethical non-profits and organizations that cater to LGBT, women, and homeless communities.

In this episode, we talk about Nelson’s design education through UX Society, building a career in the US, finding community as a non-binary designer, and so much more.