Product Design Course London Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Experience Haus

Product Design Alumni Profile: Chris Magoba

product design ux ui experience haus

Tell us a little about your current work? 

Before starting the Product Design UX/UI course, I had recently graduated from university and was working as a freelancer; and prior to this I had been an intern, working in consumer products for a multinational media & entertainment company. Shortly after finishing the course, I secured a permanent role as an Associate Product Designer for a fin-tech start-up. One thing I love about the role is that there’s lots of potential to work in different areas and learn from the wider design team.

What made you choose Experience Haus?

After a few days comparing different courses, I chose Experience Haus because I felt I’d get the most meaningful teaching and also the best value for money. The biggest draw, for me, was the fact that while studying on the course we’d actually be working individual on real briefs for real start-ups.

What did you want to achieve from your Experience Haus course? Do you think that objective was fulfilled?

The main things I wanted to get out of this course were general experience working on a project, end-to-end, in the context of digital products & service; and to get a better understanding of UX/UI design best practices. I also wanted something more relevant to add to my portfolio and hopefully make connections that could lead to job opportunities.

Instructor Profile: Aditya Tripathi

aditya product management experience haus

Tell us a little about yourself and your current work outside of Experience Haus? 

I currently work as a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at VMware. My business area within VMware creates automation and tooling for software developers. There are usually referred to as “platform” or “DevOps” products. Previously I was a product manager here at VMware, and at Amazon before that. I was part of Amazon’s largest vendor business – think Prime but for large companies. In all my product roles, I’ve loved creating business impact with new technology, while delighting end users. In a previous career, I’ve worked in software engineering roles at a couple of investment banks. 

Did you have a specific goal you wanted to achieve before you started teaching at Experience Haus? Do you think your time here so far has kept you on the right track?

I learnt a lot of things about product management by accident and experiment. In teaching this course, my hope was to pass on my experience to others so they don’t make the same mistakes I did! So far my students consistently tell me what I’ve taught them has been relevant to them at work – so I feel like I am on the right track!

What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe effective teaching requires a lot of empathy. You really need to understand your student’s context and learning styles to deliver your content effectively. I endeavour to understand as much as I can about my students through in-class dialog, so I can tweak my content and delivery over time.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

At Experience Haus, I meet a range of people – some are only curious about digital skills whereas others are actively looking at transitioning into a digital role. I love conversations with my students about the new skills they could acquire and what impact those skills might have on their careers. Enabling someone to make the right decision for their careers is something I really care about, and get to do a lot at the Haus! I also love how much I have to think about my daily work as a product marketer / product manager, in order to teach my classes effectively.

Startup Profile: The Float

the float experience haus

Tell us a little about your company and your current team 

The Float is a finance company founded in 2018. The business was started as a way to ease cashflow issues among freelancers by paying them upfront on their invoices while their clients would pay us in 60 days time.

The current team consists of Mike Garrod, a media professional with over 20 years of experience, and myself, Neeraj Dhanothia, a finance and operations executive.

What was the brief you gave your student at Experience Haus? What were they able to produce for you?

The brief given to the Product Design student was on testing the design of some new features we want to add to the platform in the future.

The student spent some time researching the market to identify the actual issues that we are looking to solve with the new features, researching the alternatives available and making design recommendations on what the new features should look like to be useful. The end result was a slick presentation that forms the basic idea that we will further develop to create the new features on.

How have you been able to use this?

We continue to stay in touch with the student, though the output is not yet in production. We plan on implementing her new feature and design ideas in the near future and will absolutely reach out to her when that happens.

Product Design Instructor Profile: Jon White

Jon White

Tell us a little about yourself and your current work outside of Experience Haus? 

I work for Cleo – an app designed to fight for the world’s financial health – as a User Researcher and I love my role. I get to talk to people about their problems and then help build solutions. Outside of work I do the classic middle-aged thing of trying to balance a family and home whilst also squeezing in time to play video games.

Did you have a specific goal you wanted to achieve before you started teaching at Experience Haus? Do you think your time here so far has kept you on the right track?

I’ve always been interested in sharing knowledge, either as a student or a teacher. To that end I wanted to be able to share what I know and help inspire new designers to create products that put the user at the heart of the work. I’d also like to think that I’m empowering people to think in different ways and be more confident in their skills.

What is your teaching philosophy?

I encourage everyone to learn by doing, not to be afraid of ‘failing’, and to always keep asking questions. I lead the discussions and teach the material, but I want every class to feel like an open space where everybody can learn something – even me!

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

What I enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus has got to be the students! It’s so interesting to me to meet people with so many varied backgrounds and help them channel their energies and encourage their curiosities.

Product Design Alumni Profile: Kathryn Samson

Product Design Experience Haus

Tell us a little about your current work? 

I’m a freelance graphic designer, working in the industry for over 20 years, so I have a broad experience as a designer but have been very print based. I’ve recently finished the Product Design course, but I’m continuing the relationship with the company I was paired with during the course, contributing in a UX/UI capacity. It’s exciting as they’re mainly developers so it’s a baptism of fire, but the good thing is I definitely have enough mentors on hand.

What made you choose Experience Haus?

I actually found out about the Product Design course by Experience Haus through another organisation, Hexagon, who pair UX mentors with people who want to move into that field. Hexagon is a community of women and non-binary individuals trying to help others who want to transition into that space. My mentor there suggested this course and funnily enough she has recently been to the Experience Haus studio to present about online accessibility.

What did you want to achieve from your Experience Haus course? Do you think that objective was fulfilled?

I wanted to add to my design skill set with UX/UI design capabilities. I absolutely feel like i’ve now got all the tools I need to build my UX/UI design career. Because i’m continuing my work with the startup that I was paired with during the Product Design course, i’ll definitely continue to gain more experience and will also have a real case study for my portfolio.