About Monika Ocieczek

Monika Ocieczek is the head of product design at Primer. Monika has also served as a CPO and co-founder at Gimi AB, a youth-first neo-bank, and as a product manager and team lead at Tink.

Monika is widely recognized for her work in Fin-tech and has been named one of the "Top 250 most promising Fin-techs in the world 2018" by CBInsights and one of the "The hottest startups in Stockholm" 2019 by Wired. Monika has a Master of Science in Marketing and Management from the Stockholm School of Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the same school.

SHOW NOTES:

0:11 | Episode intro and what’s in for you today

1:21 | Why product designers might do things that aren’t in the best interests of customers

3:43 | Evolution of product design approaches over time

5:54 | How Monika’s background in marketing and product blends into product design

8:47 | The role of product marketing in product design

11:28 | How do you become a genius in serving customer’s interest

13:44 | Monika’s thoughts on the best practices in a startup environment

20:16 | Characteristics and qualities of a successful product designer

23:34 | The source of intuition among many product designers

27:17 | Changing thinking patterns from time-tested principles around product design

32:08 | Who should be blamed for unsuccessful product

33:54 | If Monika was to make a 30-second social media video, what would she say, and how would it look like

35:18 | Monika’s most exciting part of her job and why

36:54 | Wrap-up

QUOTES:

“In product design, the primary focus should be on the users because that always leads to great products, and that great product leads to more business value.” [2:02]

“There are two schools of thought that are very popular within product design. These are Google’s Design Print and IDEO Design Thinking. What is lacking in the market is a school of thought on product design that focuses on fast-growing and high-performing startups.” [4:15]

“Marketing in the digital space is more interactive than in the traditional way.” [06:26]

“No matter which product methodology or framework you use in design, it may not be the best, or most successful.” [31:49]

Follow Monika Ocieczek

Company’s Website: https://primer.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-ocieczek/

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