098: Jowee Alviar (The Manila Storyteller)
Roots
Jowee Alviar is the co-founder of Team Manila, one of the most influential design studios in the Philippines. A CalArts-trained designer and UST alum, he won a global competition judged by David Bowie while still in college. He’s spent over two decades championing Filipino design through culture, retail, and policy—co-founding CDAP and helping pass the Philippine Design Competitiveness Act. In this episode, we talk about Team Manila’s beginnings, building a studio with purpose, figuring out your story as a brand, and Jowee’s take on how AI is reshaping the creative industry.
info_outline
097: Dan Cariño (The Career Gambler)
Roots
Dan Cariño is a Senior Product Designer at Klarna, leading integrations with global partners like Walmart and Stripe. He holds a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction from KTH in Sweden and has worked in design roles across Hong Kong and Stockholm. He started his career in UX research before moving into end-to-end product design across fintech and retail. Previously, he helped launch H&M’s circular fashion initiative. In this episode, we talk about the getting promoted via team visibility, the AI culture at Klarna and Sweden, the trade-offs behind turning down Meta, and pausing...
info_outline
096: Jake Nuñez (The Stoic Designer)
Roots
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...
info_outline
095: Frances To (The Curious Innovator)
Roots
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,...
info_outline
094: Jarell Alvarez (The Uncomfortably Comfortable)
Roots
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.
info_outline
093: Jen Enrique (The Advocate)
Roots
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...
info_outline
092: Ray Sison (The Design Champion)
Roots
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...
info_outline
091: Pia Zaragoza (The Wayfinder)
Roots
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.
info_outline
090: Leonardo Raymundo (The UX Writer)
Roots
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...
info_outline
089: Ian Sagabaen (The International Man of Mystery)
Roots
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,...
info_outlineIan 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.