Episoder
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Jonathan Yap is a design leader and community advocate exploring the evolving identity of design in Southeast Asia. Through Design Pay Asia, he dives beyond surface-level salary data to uncover deeper insights about career growth, education pathways, and the changing value of design in the region. With 15 years of experience across WeWork and Visa, and currently leading design standards at a Singapore bank, Jonathan brings a unique perspective on how design roles are transforming alongside technological advancement. His work combines quantitative insights with nuanced understanding of cultural and educational shifts in the design industry. As someone deeply invested in nurturing future design talent, he regularly speaks about the intersection of design education, industry needs, and regional identity in Southeast Asia's growing tech ecosystem.
Hear us cover:
Preview of Design Pay 2025 Report Salaries between men and women Where are the UX hotspots in South-East Asia? How design education is shifting and what that means for future talents The perception vs reality of design value in our region Continuous learning as a product and design talent -
With over a decade in design, Yin has done everything from print and branding to working with startups, leading event creatives, and managing an indie band’s branding. After 5 years in consulting, where she worked across different industries and regions, she now lead the design and product teams at Naluri, pulling all that experience together to create impactful digital products.
Hear us cover:
Building a regional product with global ambitions from Malaysia Evolving Naluri's Brand and Design Language Designing around legacy systems Insights building and designing for HealthTech Consulting at McKinsey vs working In-house -
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Kicking off his career through hackathons, Isaac Lee quickly transitioned from payments into wealthtech. With a passion for solving problems at scale, he's revamped wealthtech apps, overhauled customer service workflows, and automated everything from onboarding to exclusive investor products. Now, he’s discovering just how far technology can elevate wealth management as a senior product manager at Endowus.
Hear us cover:
Solving the issue of both online and offline experience in wealth management Cultural adaptation versus thought leadership, GTM for different markets Product Innovation at a growth stage company Building a career in FinTech -
Shery is a design strategist with a flair for unconventional thinking and excels at tackling complex problems in creative ways. After nearly a decade in New Zealand, this Singaporean returnee has built a solid track record across Aviation, Education, Digital Consulting, FinTech, and more. As a cheeseboard layout expert, amateur wine-enthusiast and lazy food lover, she set up the Innovation Design Club as a support group for wayward designers like herself. Now part of the care Innovation team at SC Ventures, she leverages her talent for connecting the dots to drive ecosystem considerate thinking and achieve meaningful growth.
A strong believer in outcome-driven collaboration, Shery is passionate about reinforcing future-proof strategies through people-first approaches. With deep experience in service and product design, she’s led impactful initiatives in digital transformation, customer experience, and partnerships across diverse industries.
Hear us cover:
- Skillsets of an Innovation Designer (or Consultant)
- Building a community like Innovation Design Club
- Consulting vs In-house Design Team
- Innovation theatre in enterprises
- Sustainability practices
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Adela is Director of Product Design and User Insights teams at Zalora, working across various SEA markets. She has been at the forefront of designing user friendly and intentional products, services and experiences. She has been both on client side and consultancy side having worked across continents in Americas, Europe and now in Asia.
Hear us cover:- Service Design in Europe vs Asia- Skillsets of a Service Designer- Projects at Zalora and more that goes beyond UX design- Consulting vs In-house Design Team
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Norman is a senior design manager based in Singapore. At Grab, he drives strategy, design, culture, and growth across the organization with a focus on elevating user experiences across support, comms, safety, and family experiences for 600+ million people across Southeast Asia.
He’s deeply fascinated by how businesses, communities, and ecosystems are built, broken, and evolved and why we make the choices we do. Outside of work, he shares his insights as a writer, moderator, and speaker. He’s been nominated as a young gun by Antalis 10-20-30, a judge for Singapore Good Design and has been featured in Business Times, Singapore Economic Development, The Straits Times, art4d, MTV Asia, The Breakfast Show, and Juice magazine.
Hear us cover:
- Managing and partnering up in a corporate environment
- Building a diverse in-house design team that thrives
- Engaging others on the possibilities and potential of design
- Building sustainable talent practices with new capabilities and approaches
- How do you push yourself to be better as a design leader?
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Izwan Ismail is a digital and design leader with over a decade of experience that encompasses startups, scaleups, and corporations. He has advised a government on building startup ecosystems and built the nation's digital and design capability.
Izwan builds and leads teams of world-class designers, product managers, engineers. He believes in tying together the user's need, technology's feasibility and business viability to achieve digital evolution's success.
He also co-founded VLT Labs, a venture builder that builds, launches, and invests in startups across South East Asia, Australia, and Europe. His venture builder successfully merged with McKinsey & Company in 2017. As an Expert Associate Partner In McKinsey, Izwan led the design for Digital Labs in Southeast Asia. He has experience delivering impact in education, banking, insurance, energy, and oil & gas sectors.
Join us to hear us cover:
- Managing upwards in a corporate environment- Building an in-house designer-friendly ecosystem- Exciting others on the possibilities of design- Building sustainable talent practices: new capabilities and new talent- How do you push yourself to be better as a design leader?
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Eyad's a venture bricklayer with his recent experience primarily being in the digital sector for energy, renewables, commerce, media and fintech, from early-stage strategy and product concept development to securing resources required to set-up and operationalize new products and services. He tends to surf the sweet spot between product management, business development and technology. He is interested in positive and sustainable change and is energized and enthused by great design and great experiences. Today, he supports the commercialisation aspiration of a large, diversified renewable energy firm in Malaysia.
He scored top in the 2020 Oxford Fintech Programme with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. In 2019 he was invited to join the Advisory Council of Gerson Lehrman Group for Technology, Media and Telecommunications. In 2014 he had an award-winning technical paper published twice (in Malaysia and Australia). He's a Certified Innovation Practitioner and Train The Trainer. He holds a Design Thinking Facilitation certificate from the Copenhagen Institute for Interactive Design. Eyad recently became an accredited Angel Investor. He's based in Kuala Lumpur with his son.
Join us to hear us cover:- The parallels of evangelising something abstract like innovation or design in an enterprise- What are the models of innovation at an enterprise?- Communicating value and impact of a mid to long term project- Practical skills Eyad had to acquire to be an innovation or venture leader- Tips to engage senior management and stakeholders
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Meet Johnny, a seasoned designer with over two decades of experience spanning various industries, including comics, automobiles, mobile apps, and secondhand goods. He is driven by the belief that exceptional design should seamlessly blend into our lives, offering intuitive experiences that feel like second nature. Johnny's mission is to simplify our increasingly complex world through the creation of digital interfaces that are not only visually appealing but also user-friendly, making information readily accessible. With a wealth of expertise in product design and a track record of shaping UI/UX strategies for tech companies in Malaysia, Johnny is deeply passionate about all facets of design. And, by the way, he's also an avid coffee enthusiast!
Hear us cover:
- Johnny's UX career working for startups like Carsome and Mudah.my (part of Carousell Group) and with larger organisations
- What leaders need to know about the Malaysia tech ecosystem concerning product talent
- Johnny's career conversion journey from Art Director to UX Designer
- Why build a community of design leaders through an event like Design Leadership Kuala Lumpur?
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With over 13 years of experience spanning digital agencies, e-commerce (11street - a joint venture between SK Planet and Celcom Axiata), and telecommunications (Digi in Malaysia and Smartfren in Indonesia), Faidzal strongly advocates for a research-first approach. He emphasises the importance of data-driven decisions and continuous design experimentation. Currently, Faidzal is the UX Design Lead for Global Commerce at LINE in Bangkok, Thailand.
He focuses primarily on building and strengthening the 3Ps:- People: Uplifting the team's research-driven mindset and building a data-driven culture.- Product: Strategising a UX approach that fits the company's direction.- Practice: Setting up a core framework for UX design practices.
Join us to hear us cover:- Working overseas in Indonesia and Thailand as a Malaysian- Thinking deeper about user experience and its subconscious impact- Negotiating salaries and getting jobs overseas as a UXer
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Ruby has spent her career making organisations more customer-centric. In Singapore, her experience includes working as a Lead UX Researcher at Grab and Strategic Designer at Boston Consulting Group.
Previously she worked as a management consultant at Nous Group in Australia. Ruby's career has focused on using Human Centred Design techniques in diverse contexts across the public, private and non-profit sectors to provide advice on product and service design, strategy and policy.
Ruby has spoken at multiple international conferences and regularly shares design thought leadership on LinkedIn.
Join us to hear us cover:
- How do we quantify the business impact of UX design or research
- The role of a strategic designer
- What most organisations get wrong in digital strategy and design strategy
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Daryl is a Digital Product Designer with over a decade of experience working in various agencies, start-ups, and SMEs. He is creatively curious, and enjoys crafting meaningful experiences by leveraging on the latest data, processes, and technology.
In his previous roles and experiences, he led successful teams in delivering high-value projects, implemented processes and systems while collaborating across various business, research, product and engineering units locally and internationally to drive product and service to successful delivery.
His motivations are to continue to discover, learn and innovate through the understanding and application of new concepts and methodologies to endeavours both personally and professionally. He enjoys engaging with people from all backgrounds
Join us to hear us cover:
- How does working for an agency or startup feels like as a UX-er
- Coaching junior UX colleagues at work
- Managing burnout and stress in between change and projects
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Chenmu Wu graduated from university with a degree in Architecture and proceeded to work at Shopee for four years as a UIUX designer. In 2019, he played a pivotal role in initiating the migration of the design team from Sketch to Figma. This transition sparked his enthusiasm for Figma, leading him to embark on developing Figma plugins as side projects. During his time at Shopee, Chenmu served as the primary contributor and manager of the Shopee Design System. Additionally, he took charge of the UIUX design for Bill payments and the Shopee international platform.
In his current position as the Lead UI/UX Designer at Daraz - Alibaba, Chenmu holds the responsibility of overseeing a team of five designers from both Pakistan and Singapore. They are dedicated to driving innovation and fostering user-centric design solutions within the organization.
Join us to hear us cover:
- How and why Chenmu’s Figma plug-in the generates wireframes using ChatGPT went viral
- How can progressive designers work with AI
- Implication of AI in the product development process
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Part technologist and part psychologist, Gideon specialises in designing experiences with emerging technologies such as AI, IOT and Automation, and brings over 15 years of experience of working in Startups, Corporates and Consulting where he has worked on a wide variety of products and projects which range from Fintech, Insuretech to Media, Health, Telcos, E-Commerce and E-Learning.
Synopsis: UX has come a long way, from a term only used in academia, making its way into the industry and becoming part of day-to-day language.
At the same time, UX practitioners are constantly going through a roller coaster ride with changing role titles and terminologies, and the industry slowly calibrating the formulas to building products.
And now, with AI and no-code platforms starting to look like they can conquer more chunks of the UX process, it just makes you wonder what's next for UX...
Join us to hear us cover:
- How UX started and matured as a practice
- Existing trends we see today
- What's the future of UX going to look like
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Upasna started as a UX Researcher (Team of 1) in the fintech industry solving user problems related to finance needs specifically in the APAC region (think loans, insurances, investments etc) and then grew into a UXR leader growing research teams. Having worked for startups and corporates, Upasna knows what are the advantages and challenges that both environments bring and has been coaching researchers to align where they truly fit. All this only to realise that empathy and organisational culture stand at the core of what she believes in. Since then she has been trying to nurture and grow user research not only as a craft but also grow researchers in a way that is both nurturing and helps them demonstrate the value of what they deliver within the organisation effectively.
With a background in human computer interaction and behavioural design she turned her systematic approach to problem solving into processes and framework that help her teams achieve the results they want without compromising on work life balance. Armed with time management and ruthless prioritisation she believe she truly can have it ALL!
Join us to hear us cover:
- Transitioning from UX Research to Management track - How to create a space for yourself to shine as a potential leader
- Creating opportunities to start mentoring/coaching and establishing yourself as a referent
- Prioritization and creating your portfolio
- Finding work life balance
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Kuei Tien Huang is a Product Design Manager with Rakuten Viki who manages and develops the product experience design team. Whether it’s solving a complex design problem, or just making people happy in the office, she aims for simple, intuitive solutions that will improve the lives of those around her. Kuei Tien has previously also worked as a Senior UX Designer at Rakuten Viki as well as a Product Designer at Carousell. She has also done UX and Visual Design work for Migme and Bread Of Life Christian Church.
Join us to hear us cover:
- How designing for the western market at Viki differs from designing for the Asia market at Carousell?
- Lessons learnt from transitioning from a UX individual contributor to a manager
- Tina's career journey: Finding a job in Singapore and transitioning from a Mathematics major
- UX maturity in Taiwan
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Yi Xin is a senior product designer specializing in UX and UI with over 13 years of experience of solving problems and crafting great user experience for businesses and consumers. Her experience in software engineering and frontend development knowledge to be able to work with product development teams seamlessly to translate vision into functional and delightful experiences. She was previously from Stripe and Amazon Web Services and had also led UX and Design in multiple projects at Open Government Products, GovTech such as Parking.sg. RedeemSG used for CDC Vouchers scheme and Vaccine Appointment System.
Join us to hear us cover:
- How proficiency in coding helps you design better?
- Difference between designing for local vs global, for government vs business
- Yi Xin's career journey: From a game artist to a product designer
- Staying resilient during the tech layoffs
- Side projects tinkering with code and design
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Jared is an experienced product leader with over 15 years of experience in product management and digital innovation across various industries.
He is a design-thinking practitioner who enjoys creating products that empower people. During this tenure leading the product and design team in CARRO, he found passion in coaching and mentorship, helping others in their growth.
In his personal life, he is a proud fur-dad of 4 rescued dogs.
Join us to hear us cover:
- Scaling product and UX design teams, especially with resource constraints
- UX strategy (including hiring a strategist) and how it plays a role in taking the team to the next level
- Helping to keep Carro’s design language distinctive from competitors
- What new design leaders should know in their first/second year of their job
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Product Designer at SPH based in Singapore focusing on implementing user-centred, data-driven and business-oriented design.
He has been involved in various stages of product delivery, from doing 0 to 1 work in Xendit (YC15) a hyper-growth unicorn startup to scaling up B2B, B2C and B2B2C products in an array of different industries across multiple platforms.
His best work happens when he is crafting solutions and championing human experiences in a collaborative, ambitious and innovative team.
Passionate about Design, he coaches and mentors early-stage designers or transitioners in the field of design by either helping them land their first design role or accelerate their growth as a designer. He has helped more than 50 mentees and was recognised multiple times as a super mentor (Top 1% recognition worldwide) on ADPlist - A design mentorship platform.
Join us to hear us cover:
- 1.5 years experience in a high-growth startup
- What do Product Designers do vs UX Designers?
- Product Thinking between PMs and Designers, where is the line drawn?
- What does being a top 1% super mentor on ADPList mean? What have you noticed in portfolios?
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UX Researcher at Amazon, Monica Chan, is a Singaporean living and working in the United States.
She recently graduated from Columbia University (Teachers College), where she completed her doctorate in Education Technology and focused on K-12 maker / STEAM education. Now at Amazon Alexa, she investigates interactive experiences between humans and voice assistants, in areas such as personalization, customization, and proactivity.
She recently started mentoring at ADPList and Open Door Policy, an organization that helps refugees upskill to find remote jobs, as she is passionate about supporting upskilling/reskilling opportunities and career transitions for underserved populations. In her free time, Monica keeps up-to-date with edtech and emerging tech trends.
Join us to hear us cover:
- Do you need a PhD to work in UXR?
- Projects and processes at Amazon Alexa
- Reframing your experience and CV for UXR
- Experience working for US Tech companies like Uber, Pinterest & Amazon
- Vis mere
