EP7. Digital Hospitality with Ty Fujimura

Hello and welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast. UserFlows is a show where we talk about UX Design and UX Careers. You should listen to this show if... You are a student of user experience or product design. You are a professional who is considering a transition to the field or if you're just someone who's interested in UX design and wants to learn a bit more about it. In each episode, I'll interview a successful, working designer in order to discover how they found the field and have managed to thrive in this highly competitive landscape. We'll break down the steps they took in order to land their first jobs, dive into the mistakes they've made while building their careers, and hopefully teach a bit about the processes, tools, and best practices that have helped them in their own design journey.

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Today I'm speaking with Ty Fujimura, CEO of Cantilever Web Design and Development. Ty is an extremely thoughtful designer and design leader. His career purpose (I mean, look at that, he actually has a career purpose) is to unite creativity and business. Cantilever is a mission-driven company and its mission is to harness the power of “Digital Hospitality". A term I absolutely love, it means they believe websites are spaces that users inhabit, not billboards they see from a distance. Ty is currently focused on building a great environment for Cantilever’s staff to thrive and deliver outstanding results for their clients.

In our conversation, we dive a little bit deeper into what Digital Hospitality means to Ty, his team, and their clients. Cantilever is a remote-first team so we talk a bit about remote working best practices for the rest of us just toying at remote working. How to make time to let designers design and some of his thoughts around building a successful design culture.

I can not thank Ty enough for sharing his time and ideas. If you'd like to learn more about Ty and Cantilever. You can connect with Ty on Twitter @tyfuji or by visiting cantilever.co. If you're a soccer fan, Ty also hosts a fantastic podcast We The Peeps focused on US Soccer, USMNT the World Cup and is an irreverent take on US Soccer. USMNT Gold Cup, CONCACAF Nations League, and World Cup Qualifying. Give it a listen.

TM