Archives: Mentor

Hieu is an empathetic and passionate UX designer. He has more than a decade of work experience from agency, startup to large technology companies like Atlassian and Adobe. With a background in both graphic design and human-computer interaction, he enjoys working on the entire end to end design process. During his journey, Hieu has learned a great deal from incredible mentors and now he would love to share his knowledge with the global design community.

Warner is a seasoned UX Research practitioner with a decade of experience spanning diverse industries and products. Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in shaping product strategy and guiding product roadmaps for various companies by providing valuable and actionable insights derived from his deep understanding of user behaviour.

As a co-founder of his own digital design agency, “We Discover,” Warner has played a pivotal role in leading the Research strategy and execution for numerous products across a wide spectrum of industries, including fintech, proptech, insuretech, and government sectors. His experience in managing and mentoring teams of researchers and designers has helped foster their professional growth and hone their research skill sets. Currently, Warner is applying his craft at Canva as a Senior Design Researcher. By uncovering user insights across Canva’s large user base, he contributes to uncovering new and exciting areas for Canva to continue its exponential growth, and continue empowering everyday people to design.

Notably, Warner’s background as a registered Architect has provided him with a unique perspective in the realm of tech design. His passion for mixed-method research, particularly in qualitative research techniques, and his keen interest in human psychology fuel his drive to engage with users and uncover underlying motivations that influence their choices, ultimately leading to better product outcomes.

As a firm believer in the balance between addressing user needs and aligning them with business objectives, Warner strives to achieve the most optimal product outcomes. His philosophy centres around striking a delicate balance between catering to users’ requirements and aligning those needs with the overarching goals of a business

Becca currently holds the position of Senior Product Designer at Intuit Mailchimp. With an academic background in Human Computer Interaction and Ethnographic Research, she boasts a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. She’s well-versed in various environments, from small, fast-paced dev shops to bureaucratic GovTech, as well as in-house roles in financial services and SAAS companies. Her professional interests lie in qualitative research and inclusive design, and she considers herself a Figma enthusiast. Her work often involves building intuitive component libraries for her teams. Throughout her career, she has found great value in mentoring junior designers, taking pleasure in imparting her knowledge of the design discipline to those new to the field.

Ken has over 17 years experience in UX design, most of which has focused on mobile strategy and design. As Head of UX at Fairfax Media, Ken received multiple Australian Mobile awards for his user centred, mobile led contribution to iconic Australian brands such as the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), Domain, Good Food Guide and Realestate.com.au. Throughout his tenure, Ken’s leadership saw Fairfax double its UX capability and he was instrumental in the launch of key flagship products including the Domain mobile app, which many of us use every day.

Ken has a passion for tackling complex design challenges and turning these into experiences that feel second nature to consumers and it’s this drive that gets him out of bed every morning. This project is a unique opportunity to be mentored by one of Australia’s leading UX designers and we’re so excited to welcome Ken to the Harness Projects mentor team.

Jinny began her journey as an Art Director turned Web Developer before she realized UX/UI was her passion. She is a Sr. UX/UI Designer at i-PRO, a global video and security company, and she has several years of experience owning the end-to-end design process at B2B/B2C SaaS and Enterprise companies. Her experience includes conducting UX Research, wireframing, creating high fidelity prototypes, pairing with engineers, creating a Design System, and managing change at her organization to embrace new ways of thinking. Her style is lean and agile with a focus on innovation. With Jinny as your mentor, you’ll learn how to work cross-functionally with multiple teams, become a UX ambassador, establish a Design Thinking mindset, learn to push back and receive critical feedback, and connect with end users with empathy. She will help you learn to articulate your design decisions, challenge biases, and embrace UX Research to drive your designs and inspire stakeholders along the way.

Nick is a Sr. UX Designer at Home Depot. His current focus there is on customer journeys and design systems for customer communications. He helps connect business partners, developers, and other designers around communication strategies. Nick’s educational background is in graphic design, but Nick started his career in web design working alongside web developers.

With Nick as your mentor, he pulls from his experience of working across a variety of organizations. You can expect to learn how to: work within limitations, collaborate with cross-functional partners, educate others about the role of UX, and best practices to keep stakeholders engaged and informed. With his work on design systems, you’ll learn how to create scalable component libraries to efficiently manage large-scale projects across any organization.