Sera Tajima Podcast

Many designers struggle to gain buy-in for their work, to communicate with stakeholders, or to measure their impact. Join Sera in this episode to understand how to design like a growth hacker. If this interests you, the Sustainable Growth Playbook is now available (linked below). Chapters (00:00:00) An Introduction to growth thinking (00:02:00) Advance your design career with business thinking (00:03:53) The intersection of growth hacking and product design (00:05:28) Identifying the business lever (00:07:38) How to think about the customer lifecycle and growth frameworks (00:09:52) Risks associated with growth hacking (00:10:36) A strong growth strategy starts with retention (00:12:31) Good growth practitioners are humanity centered (00:14:48) Where your power lies as a technologist Recommended Resources: Sustainable Growth Playbook (The Craft) Decentering profit (referenced) Rethinking capitalism (referenced) Reforge Center for Humane Technology Design Guide Tristan Harris on Trevor Noah Podcast Where to find Sera Tajima: Newsletter: ⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima Website: https://www.seratajima.com/ Business: https://www.the-craft.io/

Gabriela Lucía Lorenz is Director of UBS in Switzerland. She has an MBA in Sustainable Business, is originally from Argentina, and has worked in Switzerland for 10+ years. She is an advocate of ethical design practices, fostering sustainability and a change of paradigm — from user centric to humanity and planetary centered design. Chapters (00:00:00) Gabriela Introduction (00:03:34) Design Director at UBS Zurich (00:05:50) MBA in Sustainable Business (00:09:38) Ethics and Sustainability (00:12:39) Moral values for individuals and companies (00:18:01) Talking about DEI in Europe (00:19:00) Getting started with ethics (00:23:41) Frameworks for design and business (00:30:03) How to approach projects for sustainability and ethics (00:34:14) Growth, power, and money unregulated isn’t working (00:35:58) The definition of success (00:36:57) Work life balance Recommended Resources: Don Norman, Design a Better World Kelly Small, The Conscious Creative Ruben Paten, Politics of design The Center for Humane Technology Mariana Salgado Podcast ⁠https://disenoydiaspora.org/Uxía⁠ Arias García ⁠https://universomeraki.com/⁠ Where to find Gabriela: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/gllorenz/⁠ Where to find Sera Tajima: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠https://www.seratajima.com/⁠⁠ Business: ⁠⁠https://www.the-craft.io/

Chapters (00:00:00) Thijs Introduction (00:02:15) Internship with Albert Heijn (00:06:39) Internship with medical center (00:07:25) Why Thijs didn't pursue a 9-5 (00:10:21) Design content writing (00:13:46) Thijs' approach to Linkedin (00:15:58) Thijs' system for notes (00:18:09) Writing topics (00:20:44) Linkedin as a business model (00:26:26) Using LI to land clients (00:29:22) Design teams need marketing (00:31:22) Building a business that reflects your ideal life (00:34:48) What's the direction of Linkedin (00:37:52) Evangelizing design (00:40:45) Everyone is a designer (00:41:28) The value of writing Recommended Resources: Tim Ferris Podcast Founders Podcast Paul Graham Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking Naval Ravikant Where to find Thijs Kraan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thijskraan/ Website: https://thijskraan.com/ Where to find Sera Tajima: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima Website: https://www.seratajima.com/ Business: https://www.the-craft.io/

In this episode, Leanne Waldal, Principal at ADP, shares her expertise with us on how to measure the value of design, perspectives on layoffs, career growth, and more. Chapters(00:00:00) Introduction (00:03:10) How to navigate politics(00:05:05) Set up your own board(00:06:08) Learn from sales(00:09:57) Find a coach (00:11:54) Working styles(00:13:17) Manager Training (00:14:36) Layoffs(00:17:00) A typical week(00:18:25) The value is in the hands of the customer(00:24:32) Who and how to research (00:30:45) Is research valued? (00:33:28) Sell yourself using data(00:37:33) Balancing work and personal life(00:42:44) Observe how humans operate(00:43:26) ResourcesRecommended Resources:⁠Follow Leanne on LinkedinDesign XResearchOps CommunitySteve PortigalFollow Sera on LinkedinGet the conscious design newsletterwww.seratajima.comTo become a sponsor contact podcast@the-craft.io.

In this episode Sera shares an excerpt from her Conscious Design newsletter on substack. Chapters (00:00:00) Why capitalism? (00:03:39) Capitalism is not inherently bad (00:05:41) Where does capitalism fall short? (00:06:16) 1. Business is about the maximization of profit (00:07:34) 2. Companies lacks an ethical foundation (00:08:18) 3. Companies operate with a low level of consciousness (00:09:20) 4. Money buys influence (00:10:43) Rethinking Capitalism (00:13:10) What does change look like? For full access, ⁠⁠subscribe to the newsletter⁠⁠. Where to find Sera Tajima: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcast⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.seratajima.com/⁠ To become a sponsor contact podcast@the-craft.io.

Dan Mall is the Founder of Design Systems University. He's an expert in helping companies scale design systems. In this episode Dan and Sera talk design systems, why they matter, and how to implement them. Chapters(00:00:00) Dan intro (00:01:58) How Dan got into design (00:04:17) Starting his agency (00:07:10) Find equilibrium as a business owner(00:08:40) Design Systems(00:10:16) The spectrum of design systems(00:13:50) What organizations Dan works with(00:15:15) Get buy-in to scale something that's working(00:16:29) Dan's approach  — "Piloting" (00:18:57) Designers need to learn the language of business(00:22:36) We are not a great representation of users(00:23:47) Design Politics(00:27:14) Have your own opinions(00:32:36) Templates, patterns, and packages(00:36:06) How to get started(00:43:37) No parity between design and code(00:47:15) Get people to spend less time in Figma(00:49:15) Build a tool that people use(00:51:50) Publicize your Design System(00:53:20) Design Systems democratize designFor Sera's highlights, ⁠subscribe to the newsletter⁠. Where to find Dan Mall:Design Systems: https://designsystem.university/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/danmallWebsite: https://danmall.com/Where to find Sera Tajima:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajimaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcastWebsite: https://www.seratajima.com/To become a sponsor contact podcast@the-craft.io.

Redona Dida is Founder of The Sofire, a design agency. She went from 0 to over 100,000 followers on Instagram in the span of a year. In this episode, Redona shares her career growth with us, the journey of becoming a mom, approach to social media, and how she started her agency. Chapters (00:00:00) Redona Introduction (00:01:25) How she got into design (00:03:15) The starving artist (00:07:39) How Redona got her first job as a web designer (00:10:00) A strong social profile creates trust (00:11:25) Getting pregnant while working (00:13:20) How her company started (00:14:25) Redona's Instagram journey (00:17:15) Using human psychology (00:23:18) What makes Redona successful on Instagram (00:25:20) Hateful comments (00:29:10) How are we caring for people (00:30:35) What to do when you don't have data (00:34:20) Don't just follow design steps blindly (00:38:36) Supporting female designers (00:46:50) Redona's agency is fully booked (00:49:00) Get Inspired Where to find Redona Dida: Community: https://www.skool.com/cro-growth-academy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redona-dida-growth-designer/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redonadida/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@redonadida Visual Voice Substack: https://redona.substack.com/ Where to find Sera Tajima: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcast Website: https://www.seratajima.com/

Tommy Geoco is Founder and author of UX Tools. Chapters(00:00:00) Tommy Introduction (00:01:21) Making design education better with UX Tools (00:02:01) The design industry is competitive(00:02:50) The bootcamp business model (00:04:10) The best way to learn is on the job(00:07:14) Ditch the cynicism of the way things evolve(00:09:09) All companies have dysfunction (00:10:10) Tommy's journey into design (00:15:35) Learning online and the shapes of work(00:26:20) How to attract the right fit(00:30:00) Make time for play (00:46:39) Have a growth mindset(00:51:41) Build real relationships(00:55:13) Newsletter & Micro CoursesGet Sera's podcast highlights & resources.Where to find Tommy:UX Tools: ⁠https://uxtools.co/⁠Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@designertomLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco/⁠Website: https://www.designertom.io/Where to find Sera:LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcast⁠⁠

Chapters(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:25) Misunderstanding design(00:01:12) Example: The evolution of cars(00:02:02) Continuous improvement for users(00:02:30) Great design is invisible(00:03:00) Design's impact on society (00:03:10) Design as problem solving(00:03:27) Form follows function(00:04:40) The role of aesthetics(00:05:06) My experience as a product designer(00:06:48) Expanding the impact of design (00:07:26) Product Designers(00:07:50) Creating an experience(00:08:55) Identifying the right problem to solve(00:09:54) Collaborating with teammates and aligning stakeholders(00:11:06) Creating a functional solution(00:12:30) The importance of design (00:12:53) Unintended consequences of design (00:14:00) The conscious design movementWhere to find Sera:Newsletter: ⁠⁠https://seratajima.substack.com/⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcast⁠

Welcome to the 1st episode of the Sera Tajima Podcast! ⚡️ This podcast can also be found on YouTube. Get the highlights each FridayChapters(00:00:00) Dedication(00:00:21) Podcast Launch (00:00:32) Personal challenges(00:00:48) Grief, illness, and finding strength(00:02:04) Mission and purpose(00:02:44) Conscious design for humanity and the planet(00:04:28) Who the podcast is for(00:04:40) About Sera(00:05:18) Gratitude and Support(00:05:57) Join the movementWhere to find Sera:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajimaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeraTajimaPodcast