Hustle

Guigo Sanchez is the Creative Director at THIRD EAR — previously known as LatinWorks — an agency that specializes in creating advertising for the U.S. Hispanic audience. Born and raised in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, he is the husband of Mari Chamoun (Managing Director at Funsize), and father to Julia Elena Sánchez Chamoun. After completing his psychology degree in Puerto Rico, Guigo moved to Austin to study advertising and decided to stay forever (for now). He enjoys dad life, music, computers, food and personal finance.In this episode, we discuss:How studying psychology affects advertisingSpeaking to different audiences and cultures in advertisingThe top skills needed for creative directingImagination as a skillHispanic marketing and advertisingMaintaining belief in the value of creativityThe temporary nature of advertising and designWhat does "partner" mean in the advertising worldCommitment in professional relationshipsThe emotional operations of an organizationVisit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize

Thomas Ewart is an Associate Product Designer at Funsize, where he works with startups and enterprise design teams to craft thoughtful digital experiences. With a non-traditional career path that spans accounting, tattoos and electronic music, Thomas brings a unique perspective to his work and enjoys helping others find their place in the design world. Non-traditional paths to designThe decision to spend the money on General Assembly's design intensiveYear one as a product designerEnterprise vs. startup design workCollaborationThe three stages of design in an organizationFigma and the future of design toolsVisit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize Digest     

Desiree Garcia is a senior designer at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and most recently, Tumblr. Their goal is to democratize publishing so that anyone with a story can tell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world. She's also an editor at A List Apart, a webzine that explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.In this episode, we discuss:How a psychology degree can influence design and teamworkWhat we miss about the old webStar Trek's Kobayashi Maru and how it applies to designHow to respond to situations that can't be wonThe challenges of talking about your workDesigning things that "aren't real"Visit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize Digest

Mike Trozzo is the EVP at Tide University Laundry, a service business disrupting the laundry-norm on campuses around the country. His career trajectory took him from dreams of being an astronaut and doctor, to studying finance in college, pursuing acting in LA and eventually leading design and engineering teams in Waco, Texas.In this episode, we discuss:Connecting the dots between design and P&LBudgeting for designStaffing projectsDesign roles and responsibilitiesBalancing the skillsets and goals of team membersThe shifting need for generalists and specialistsChildhood career dreams vs. adult career realityPersonal values and work valuesHow Funsize's values emergedVisit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize Digest  

Brian Peterson is a former Funsize Associate Design Director with a passion for collaboration and intentional design. He's a close friend and talented designer whose career saw a lot of growth during his time with us. Brian is making the move back home to Chicago, but before he left, he graced us with a send-off podcast to discuss goal-setting — a subject he's particularly passionate about.In this episode, we discuss:The characteristics of a good goal.What it means to work with intent.Goal-setting for teams.The importance of clear communication with clients.Understanding different stakeholders in an organization.Visit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize Digest

Joel Beukelman is a Senior Interaction Designer at Google where he works on Chrome. He's also a prolific content creator with a popular YouTube channel and vlog. In this episode, Anthony and Joel cover everything from family life and time prioritization, to health, jacuzzis and — of course – design. On this episode we discuss: Juggling family, travel, a high-level design job at Google and content creation Prioritizing for life satisfaction The importance of health for designers Joel's experience transitioning from startup life back to Google The need for support in your career and personal life The challenges of investing in personal time as a creative The consequences of too much hustling Chasing titles vs. doing work you love What it’s like to work on a product used by 1 billion people. Finding what’s next after you’ve reached your career goals Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest

Jen Dary is the founder of Plucky, a company that specializes in creating healthy dynamics at work through coaching, consulting, workshops, and education. On this episode of the Hustle she chats with Anthony about how to know if management is right for you, what challenges new and established leaders face every day, and strategies to help along the way. On this episode we discuss: What questions to ask before accepting a management role The most common challenges facing both high-level and new leaders Understanding how management might fit in your career path How to create and communicate vision to your team Dealing with creator grief: not making things anymore The role of trust in management relationships How to gauge and improve employee experience Giving yourself permission to experiment, learn, and find new tools Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Read the article

Katie Dill is the VP of Design at Lyft. Her team includes about one hundred creatives who are part of everything Lyft makes for drivers, passengers, users, and in-house teams. Katie discusses the importance of believing in your mission, how diverse teams benefit companies in multiple ways, staying in touch with users, and how creating and empowering a great design team is, in itself, an amazing design task. On this episode we discuss: Making sure a team is happy, healthy, productive, and doing the best work of their lives Seeing beyond the pixels to the offline experience of users Managing a design team and being farther from the work, but closer to the people who make it happen Defining design beyond a product or object. We design teams, design strategies, we design the way we work Empowering diversity in hiring and beyond and the far-reaching benefits of a diverse team Lyft’s multidimensional goals to improve transportation, environmental issues, and accessibility to make every city more about the people

Banter is a brand new and exciting social podcast platform for sharing and discussing podcasts, and discovering amazing new content and shows with your friends. Banter's Co-Founders Steve Krenzel and James Reggio join me on this episode to discuss the product's recent launch, their origin story, what makes Banter great, and their vision of the podcasting space. Download Banter for iOS, or Android. “There are more Americans listening to podcasts than being on Twitter... It’s really about connecting people to stories, and connecting stories to people.” On this episode we discuss: The Banter origin story How James and Steve run the company and develop product from opposite sites of the United States How Banter helps people discover new podcast episodes and shows through their friends and social connections Banter's cool Recast feature for sharing awesome content with the community and on social networks The importance of being cross-platform Banter's experience working with Funsize to design the brand, produc

Eric Bollman is a Design Lead on the Facebook Groups team. Today he stopped by the Funsize studio to discuss his team's approach creating their missions, how they design and evolving the product, and methodologies they leverage to test and validating their design decisions. On this episode we discuss: Eric's experience running and growing a startup called Perkville in the bay area Creating a culture of mentorship Being a Chief Design Officer of one, and how running a startup helped Eric refine his focus and purpose Eric walks us through the Facebook Groups team, their mission and how they work The importance of "north star" concepts and their ability to help you sell an idea and a vision to your team Why shorter (3 day) sprints can be more effective than 5 day design sprints The "People/Problem" framework at Facebook and how Facebook designers drive the products and determine what to ship The value of diverse job experiences and how working in an agency can help you learn skills to create

Ryan Wilson is a Product Designer on the Day of Travel Team at Alaska Airlines in Seattle Washington. Ryan stopped by the Funsize studio to talk about how Alaska gets people from point A to point B, designing a holistic experience, building trust in your design team, and why he's adamant about being a lifelong learner. On this episode we discuss: Design in the airline industry and at Alaska Airlines Complex service design, ecosystems and designing for consistency in digital and analog experiences User research and advocating for your customers in all you do How context should inform your product, design, and the user experience Why developing trust is critical for success, and how good trust leads to opportunities for your team Why process is more important than product, and why invalidating your ideas is as essential as validating them The role of passion in getting work done and doing it well The importance of lifelong learning, and choosing who you learn from Staying mindful of the people that helped you

Esteban Marquez is a Product Designer on the Funsize team. He's also a very talented graphic designer and artist. Esteban and I discuss his experience in the various design fields that led to his recent transition to digital product design, the importance of personal branding and differentiating yourself, and much more. On this episode we discuss: Esteban's design career experience and journey Art direction vs. product design The value of both deep focus and variety Onboarding designers and what it feels like joining a new design team What it's like hustling when you're first getting started Creating a personal brand, a persona, and a story that differentiates yourself The value of working in a team setting Managing ego and empathy Designing your life Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest

“Until designers can speak the language of business (and to some degree talk their talk), we’re just going to be the people that make things look good." An apology: I had some unknown issues with my gear during this recording so the quality suffered a bit. However, it was such a great conversation I just had to post it! Greg Storey is an Executive Director of Design at USAA, captain of industry, and an all around badass designer and leader of designers. It’s been a while since Greg and I caught up and so we covered a bunch of important design business topics in this extra long episode of Hustle. I hope you enjoy it. Also check out Greg's podcast Sprints and Milestones where he and Brett Harned share war stories, tips, tactics, and anecdotes on navigating the sometimes rough waters of getting digital projects done. On this episode, we discuss: The team that Greg leads at USAA, which focuses on investment products What it was like using Iomega zips and Jaz drives The biggest challenges that design organ

“Many designers don’t realize the challenges their leader faces.” Peter Merholz is the VP of Design at Snagajob and co-author of “Org Design for Design Orgs”. He previously co-founded Adaptive Path, which is now part of the Capital One Design. In between all of this, Peter was also Funsize’s first client during his time at Groupon. It’s been a couple of years since Peter’s been on the Hustle Podcast and we’re really excited to have him back. On this episode, Anthony and Peter chat about designing design teams, Peter’s new talk “The Four Archetypes of The Complete Design Leader”, design job titles, why Product Management is the new User Experience, and more. More on Peter’s Four Archetypes of Design Leadership: As designers become design leaders, they need to leave behind what made them successful and embrace new approaches to their work. And when they realize just how much there is to do, it can feel overwhelming. In this talk, Peter draws upon 20 years of leading design teams to provide a memorable framewo

Last year was a really big year for Funsize. Because the agency was growing, we focused 2017 towards designing our design team, hiring, developing employee growth plans, launching new cultural endeavors, developing new services, and investing in our future. Tony Sanchez joins Funsize’s Partners Anthony and Natalie Armendariz to talk about all of this and a recent interview on the InVision blog called “Designing a Design Team”. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest

The intersection of passions is at the center of this talk with designer Greyson. She discusses her journey to learn skills enough to shift from graphic design to product design. After finding employment and working in that field in the bay area for a while she's now pushing herself again. Striking out on her own, she’s established a freelance collective full of designers with varied skill sets called Wild and Grey. Greyson’s work in photography, and specifically portraiture, is a reflection of her passion for people-centered design. Considering her audience as individuals, rather than as generic users, enables Greyson to have deeper connection to the things she’s making. One of the keys to this is cognitive empathy, which relies on understanding, rather than absorbing, someone else’s experience. Greyson discusses her journey and the importance, and challenges, of both finding and facilitating mentorship. Whether looking to gain a new skill, navigating freelance life, or feeling comfortable speaking at confer

Many people lavish in immersive experiences when they hear VR, but companies like Facebook strive to push the boundaries of how people can and will interact with their social network, businesses around them and places around the globe. Gabriel Valdivia talks about his work exploring the possibilities of VR technology for Facebook and the importance of the tools to work in and on VR will be. Coming from a background of product design and visual storytelling, Gabe discusses making the leap to VR, a field that is still being defined. “I am wired this way. I’m excited by new problems that haven't been figured out yet and that’s kind of where I thrive. There’s a lot of people like that in VR today.” In the episode of Hustle, Gabriel Valdivia and Anthony Armendariz talk about his work exploring the possibilities of VR technology for Facebook and how they are seeing an opportunity to introduce the technology in media already familiar to their users. On this episode we discuss: The intersection of design and VR Sp

We don't usually talk about business on the show, but the head of BASIC was willing to talk about how he runs his and we were happy to listen (and take notes). Matt Faulk is BASIC's CEO and executive creative director. He always knew he wanted to do something big and is not surprised he ended up leading a company that does award-winning work brands like Apple / Beats by Dre, Nixon Watches, and BB Dakota. "I had this idea of never settling... I just wanted to do good work — but I don’t mean good work as in creative work, I mean really solving client’s business issues, aligning ourselves as partners..." His career has taken him all over the place, from basketball and professional BMX riding to bartending and graphic design. He says his goal with BASIC was to build a company where everyone involved had a stake in it, a say in it, and helped decide its direction moving forward. Today, BASIC leads creative efforts across traditional and digital initiatives for some of the world's biggest lifestyle bran

If you've ever used the hashtag, you've used a Chris Messina creation. For over a decade, Chris Messina has worked to transform and reimagine the way we look at the world and the way we interact with technology. A self-proclaimed “master of none,” Chris focuses on improving behavioral technology and the social web. Chris has worked in large and small operations, from owning Citizen Agency to being a part of large-scale enterprise companies like Google and Uber where he's worked to expand, cultivate, and advocate for the developer community. Chris just parted ways with Uber, where he was the developer experience lead. He is currently focusing on conversational products and, specifically, how the use of artificial intelligence (IA) and bots can profoundly affect self-driving and automated vehicles. He believes that conversational technology is the new wave of contextual design and that speech-based user interface can provide a shift into simpler technologies. "Imagine an army of bots that are your friends

For over 20 years, Marc has been a designer. From working at startups like Designed by Humans, TeeFury to Co-Founding Flick where he worked to redesign Youtube in 2011 after being acquired by Google. When Marc was at Google, he was a very valuable asset and collaborator with teams across Google to design the Google X self-driving car project and Chromecast. After spending 4 years with Google Marc left and started North, then went on to become the CEO and Founder of Design, Inc. "We should all be finding out what is going to make you happy and how are you going to figure out what's going to make you happy. How are you going to figure out how to truly be happy? and be self-aware enough to change things in your life to be grateful and have gratitude.." A designer's work is a direct representation of how they think the world should look and feel and their work is a story of how they were raised, where they grew up, the music they listen to and every piece of who they are. Designers are passionate and