Full Stack Whatever
Maykel Loomans
Full Stack Whatever is a series of conversations with creatives and technologists about the work behind the work.
Technology, design, and art are all subjects powered by an immeasurable amount of time invested by humans. And too often, we find ourselves only talking about the superficial aspects; job titles, launches, campaigns, etc.
With these conversations, I want to dig deeper and uncover the lessons, insights, and motivations of some of the best and brightest in our industries. I hope to illustrate that the journey is the reward, and that the stories shared will resonate and support some of you.
Technology, design, and art are all subjects powered by an immeasurable amount of time invested by humans. And too often, we find ourselves only talking about the superficial aspects; job titles, launches, campaigns, etc.
With these conversations, I want to dig deeper and uncover the lessons, insights, and motivations of some of the best and brightest in our industries. I hope to illustrate that the journey is the reward, and that the stories shared will resonate and support some of you.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 8, 2023 • 1h 21min
Noah Levin: A Tool That Creates Tools
Noah is a designer and design leader who is currently the VP of Design at Figma. In our conversation, we talked about his path into design from high school, to Carnegie Mellon, to Google, and discovered some great anecdotes and stories along the way.
Beyond that, we talked about his experience at Figma, about hiring and growing teams, and about some of our other favourite parts of design leadership.
Dec 3, 2023 • 1h 22min
Josh Harris: Exceeding Expectations in Unexpected Ways
Josh is the founder of The Bon Vivants and owner of Trick Dog, a legendary bar in San Francisco that has very recently been crowned Industry Icon by Punch.
We talked about the creation of Trick Dog, the context in which Trick Dog was founded, and the lessons from it's first decade. We talked about his 20 year sobriety, how he looks at the low-ABV, non-alcoholic movement. And he also opened up about mental health and some of his recent lessons and realizations.
Nov 24, 2023 • 1h 12min
Chantal Jandard: Useful and Non-Evil
Chantal is a designer and design leader. She currently leads a part of the design team at Autodesk related to construction products.
We talked about her early years on the internet in her parent’s basement, how she went in to design, and found her role at PlanGrid. We talked about Autodesk’s acquisition of PlanGrid and how they eventually merged their design teams.
From there, we took a deep dive in to talking about managing teams and hiring.
Nov 17, 2023 • 54min
Om Malik: The Joy of the Creative Input
Om Malik, former journalist and Partner Emeritus at True Ventures, discusses the current state of technology and shares his insights on the future. He delves into the topic of photography and creativity, exploring techniques like film to digital transition, minimalism, and adding imperfections to images. He also discusses frustration with Lightroom Classic, the value of each second in photography, and the role of technology, especially AI, in the creative process.
Nov 3, 2023 • 1h 1min
Om Malik: Bumper Sticker Gurus
Om Malik, former journalist and Partner Emeritus at True Ventures, discusses the current state of technology and the challenges of online interactions. He also explores the shift from social media to personal websites and the essence of successful social media platforms. Additionally, they delve into topics such as photography, technology, and the impact of automation on the planet.
Oct 26, 2023 • 60min
Vicki Tan: Happy Accidents
Vicki is a designer, author and creative. She’s worked at companies like Google, Headspace, Lyft and Spotify, and is now writing and designing an illustrated book with the goal of making people aware of their biases.
We talked about her path from Research Coordinator to Designer, the lessons she learned in her various roles, how she’s managed her career and her creativity, and what excites her about her new book.
Oct 17, 2023 • 56min
Jasper Hauser: Bananas Stuff
Jasper is a designer, entrepreneur and fellow dutchman. He’s most notably known for his roles at Sofa, Facebook and Darkroom.
We talked about how he started with design, the Sofa team being acquired by Facebook, and the growth he experienced at Facebook. We then dug into his time after Facebook, as a co-founder of Darkroom, and various other ventures.
Oct 10, 2023 • 1h 4min
Amy Snook: Books Are Not a Secret
Amy is the founder of Parea, a startup that is taking a modern approach to book publishing. Before founding Parea, she was various comms, marketing and ops roles at companies like Haus, Glossier and SeatGeek.
We walked through her career, and she shared some fantastic insights around brand, operations, and the publishing industry.
Sep 26, 2023 • 47min
Coleen Baik: Asking the Dumb Questions
Coleen Baik, designer and multidisciplinary artist at Braintrust, talks about impostor syndrome, early days of Twitter Design, her experience helping startups at Sequoia, and the challenges of remote work for design teams.
Sep 5, 2023 • 54min
Nathan Sharp & Ryan Olson: A Big, Beautiful Retrospective
Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, co-founders of Retro, discuss their journey, the social media landscape, and their goals. Topics covered include: joining Instagram, lack of innovation, developing a private archive feature, benefits of working in small teams, daily meetings, creating a friend network, and introducing their app Retro.
