Product Design Archives - Experience Haus

Student Success Story: Vez Maxwell

Vez completed our 12-week part-time Product Design course in February 2023 and now works as a Senior UX Designer at WeDo Digital.

We caught up with her recently to see how the course helped her achieve her goals and if she has any pearls of wisdom for any budding product designers.

Tell us a bit more about what you were doing before you decided to pivot into design?

was working as a hybrid ui designer/ui developer but wanted to move into a more design-centric role and get some best practice knowledge.

How was training at Experience Haus different from other providers ?

The project you get to work on during the course isn’t like something you can get with anyone else. 

What was the highlight of your course?

I honestly loved the whole experience!

What was the most challenging part of your learning experience?

Probably that I had been using Figma before but not very well, so needed to relearn some workflows. 

Instructor Profile: Parth Loliyania

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

I am a designer and researcher based in London. I believe the secret behind crafting meaningful experiences is a mix of three key ingredients – having the patience to explore the unknown, be ruthlessly action-driven and a team player. On weekends you may find me in a random coffee shop practicing my calligraphy skills. In the past I have worked with clients across various sectors such as finance, aviation, cloud computing, automobile and e-commerce.

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?

One of the most important things for me personally is to give back to the community that has given me so much. And I think teaching people is one of the best ways to do it. I am always eager to learn something new and what better place than a classroom. For the second part, I’m not sure if there is a right or wrong track, I’m happy as long as I’m doing what I love!

What is your teaching philosophy?

There are three key qualities that my lectures focus on – having the patience to explore the unknown, be ruthlessly action-driven and be a good team player. Based on my personal experience these qualities are core for any designer.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

One of the most important things in design is to work with real people on real problems and Experience Haus embeds this quite well in their courses as we are always working on live client briefs where students can apply what they have learned in real time.

Student Success Story: Eve Wu

Eve completed our UX & UI Career Development Bootcamp in February 2023 and has recently landed a role as UX Designer at Sage.

We caught up with her recently to see how the course helped her achieve her goals and if she has any pearls of wisdom for any budding product designers.

Tell us a bit more about what you were doing before you decided to pivot into design?

I was working doing a lot of research at UCL.

How was training at Experience Haus different from other providers ?

I loved the fact it was in-person teaching so that you get exposure to all the brilliant minds at Experience Haus and the real client briefs get you prepared for job hunting.

What was the highlight of your course?

My instructor Joe, my course mates and everyone at Experience Haus. 

What was the most challenging part of your learning experience?

Time pressure but pace over perfection might be the way to go!

Student Success Story: Elrica Degirmen

Elrica completed our 12-week part-time Service Design course in April 2023 and is currently working as a Senior Service Design Consultant at Human Engine.

We caught up with her recently to see how the course helped her achieve her goals and if she has any pearls of wisdom for any budding service designers.

Tell us a bit more about what you were doing before you decided to pivot into design?

I was starting in the industry working as a service designer for the adult social care department of a local authority.

How was training at Experience Haus different from other providers ?

I liked how at Experience Haus I got to work on a live client brief. During my course it was within the University of Essex’s start-up service. This meant I was able to put the skills I learnt into immediate practice.

What was the highlight of your course?

The amazing help and support from my instructor Jack. I learnt so much from him.

What was the most challenging part of your learning experience?

Nothing for me! I really enjoyed the whole experience and would 100% recommend it.

Instructor Profile: Orok Brooks

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

I’m a drone flying, dog loving, car driving enthusiast from the North West with a lifetime of being creative. I’ve worked in the world of UX Research and Design for the past 10 years, having the curiosity of a toddler, and the bad knees that go with being 35 and deciding skateboarding and football were the best hobbies to have when I was young.

I’m currently the Head of Product Design and UX at a global education software company, alongside owning my own UX Consultancy: Omagood, and drone videography business: The Flying Ibo.

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?

The latter chapters of my UX career made me realise how important mentorship is, and how it impacted my own career trajectory. I’ve taught UX for the past 3 years and wanted to continue inspiring people who share my passion for design and problem solving. I love what Experience Haus is about, and I’ve learned so many things about myself that help me shape who I am as a leader in my own roles and businesses. Not to mention the interesting people I get to meet!

What is your teaching philosophy?

If you want to learn, I will do everything I can to help in the course and beyond. You get out what you put in, and if you’re willing to turn up and have the passion about the subject, I feed off that and reciprocate!

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

Watching students from all backgrounds who have some hesitation about their own capabilities, and helping them unlock them. When a student gets back in touch to say how the course and myself helped in any way with the next phase of their story, it puts a huge smile on my face.

Instructor Profile: Burak Dogramaci

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

I am an entrepreneur and design studio owner based in London. I established Component Product Foundry in 2018. What started as a solo consultancy grew into a creative UX studio working in partnership with larger agencies to deliver UX projects for healthcare, finance, retail, automotive and e-commerce fields.

I started my career as a customer experience researcher in 2014, helping a boutique service design firm called Ethnogram after getting my master’s degree in marketing communications. During that time I also started learning to code, design and build websites as a self-taught freelancer. These two career paths turned out not to be so different when I discovered with UX design was and how I could apply them together for my clients moving forward.

My entrepreneurial journey has provided me with many valuable lessons and different aspects I need to think about when dealing with businesses. I use the UX skill set I’ve cultivated through years of experience to navigate through this journey, always keeping an open mind to learn new perspectives and find various ways to overcome obstacles.

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 have previously mentored, taught occasionally and helped others with my knowledge, but students I’ve met in Experience Haus allowed me to understand their learning journey across a longer period of time and track their progress, assisting and coaching them session after session to help them build the right mental models around their creative output and thinking processes.

What is your teaching philosophy?

I am a practical and resourceful learner who can find information quickly and I intend to teach my students to be as resourceful as possible, supporting them to develop the mental pathways to get unstuck, think of solutions on the go and find necessary information to help them make the right decisions or test their assumptions.

I believe that learning requires different modes of thinking and experience in implementation, and therefore should involve more than just lectures in a classroom. I prefer combining my lessons with hands-on experiences, and small workshops to allow experimentation and discussions to keep the students engaged, fostering their confidence to self-express and build their design intelligence to advocate and express their ideas.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

As a self-taught entrepreneur, I know the importance of having real-life experience while honing your skills, and that the reality is often different from what is taught in learning environments.

The real-life startup projects come to Experience Haus from startups or accelerator partnerships and guiding students through understanding those real challenges might be the most exciting part.

Student Success Story: Luis Montanha

Luis completed our 12-week part-time online Service Design course in July 2023 and he has recently landed a Service Designer role at TPXimpact.

We caught up with him recently to see how the course helped him achieve his goals and if he has any pearls of wisdom for any budding service designers.

Tell us a bit more about what you were doing before you decided to pivot into design?

I had just been made redundant and found myself at a crossroads in my career. Despite the initial shock, I saw it as an opportunity to reassess my priorities and overall perspective on work. After a period of self-reflection, I decided to enrol in a Service Design course at Experience Haus.

How was training at Experience Haus different from other providers ?

There were a couple of reasons that made training at Haus stand out from other providers. Firstly, the small class setting. For many career switchers like me, starting over isn’t easy and getting attention and support from your instructor is key to keep you engaged and motivated to do the work.

Secondly, the opportunity to work for a real client. For someone now in a consultancy role, this exposure was invaluable. Stakeholder management is widely considered one of the most crucial skills in the consulting world, and this course provided me with firsthand experience in it.

Finally, the flexibility it offered, which allowed me to balance my studies with work – a stark contrast to some courses that demand a full-time commitment and leave little room for anything else.

What was the highlight of your course?

The hands-on nature of the course, as it provided a more practical and immersive learning experience. I’m not going to lie that at times it felt a bit daunting, but proved to be the most effective way to build a real understanding of the frameworks and mindset of a Service Designer.

What was the most challenging part of your learning experience?

Learning how to effectively collaborate with other team members. There were a lot of uncontrollable variables, which are particular to training courses with a more flexible structure. We would have benefitted from having someone responsible for leading the project, for example. Having no well-defined roles and responsibilities was initially difficult, but ultimately offered invaluable lessons in teamwork.

Instructor Profile: Jon Bennallick

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

I’m a Product Design Director & Consultant with over 12 years of experience. Specialising in SaaS & Enterprise Platform Design, Design Systems, AI implementation, Chat Platforms, Digital Transformation, and Device Agnostic Design. I’ve lead teams within and built solutions for big brands like Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, L’Oreal and many others. I’ve also worked with startups and smaller companies to help grow their offering into highly profitable products.

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 wanted to help others on the strange and challenging journey in the world of Product Design. It’s such a wonderful and exciting space to be working in, and to share the keys with others is a unique opportunity. Selfishly too, teaching others often helps us understand where our own strengths and weaknesses in our craft may be. Since starting with Experience Haus, I’ve felt the need to go the extra mile in staying up to date on the tools, techniques and strategies being used by the best in class, to ensure I can be a pro performer!

What is your teaching philosophy?

Making sure everyone feels like they’re in a safe space is key. It’s good to make mistakes, failure is a core part of product design, and people need to feel comfortable with that. I try and ease them into this thinking as pain free as possible!

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

There are some wonderfully talented future Product Pros out there, and helping them grow their career is incredibly rewarding. It’s very inspiring to start a course with people who have absolute zilch understanding of the product world, and within such a short period have the crafting tools that would impress Zuckerberg or Bezos!

Instructor Profile: Daniel Souza

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

My experience in digital projects spans financial services, consulting, healthcare, media, e-commerce and telecommunications. I am a collaboration specialist. I help teams create clarity, supporting structures and safe spaces. Most recently, I was leading teams at BT and Farfetch, and I have worked as a Creative Director at Publicis Sapient and Isobar.

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 was aiming to develop my facilitation and teaching skills, particularly in service design – a practice that sometimes is conflated with IR activities. I believe I am on the right track, and the feedback from students is quite positive.

What is your teaching philosophy?

I am a Freirean educator. For me, there are no questions that are not valid, and I believe that through dialogue and practice, we grow as designers and human beings.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

The students and the hands-on project based approach.

Instructor Profile: Cece Lynes

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

I am currently living and working in London. My current role is for a global health tech company where I work on various projects both on the Research and Design side.

Over my career I’ve worked in various industries and sizes of companies, from startups (in sectors such as e-commerce and construction) to large scale companies such as EON, TBS, PRS and Citizens Advice, both agency side and product side. I definitely find healthcare the most challenging and rewarding so tend to steer towards this type of work.

One a personal note, I love to keep active, be it a random dance class or hike, geek out on podcasts, salsa (learning!) and travel. We are actually in the process of renovating a camper van to do a bit of living on the road.

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 have taught and mentored a lot in the past and I really enjoy the process. From meeting new people, the reward in seeing them do well, and also the discipline it puts on you as the instructor to keep relevant, constantly checking for the latest on each of the topics for any further developments in the field.

What is your teaching philosophy?

I have a few! I think a huge element is to be passionate about what you are teaching. Show how you’ve done things ‘in the real world’ and the journey you had along the way. I love my work so I think it’s nice to showcase what it is at the end goal of the course.

I want the students to get the most out of the course so will make sure they feel pushed to achieve their potential and get the most out of it.

I want the class to be enjoyable, so make an effort to foster a collaborative environment.

Finally, I also believe in autonomy, the students will be trusted to do work on their own and a lot of it also comes from you get out as much as you put in.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

Without sounding cliche it’s the new people you meet and seeing how new groups of people can get together and produce such great standards of work. I also really enjoy meeting the new clients on projects too as this opens up completely different industries each time with a whole new learning curve.

Instructor Profile: Olivia Hall-Smith

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

I’m originally from Brighton but moved to London about ten years ago. I live in the East with my ragdoll cat, Heinz.

I have worked for many different tech organisations, ranging from small startups, to large established businesses like Haven and Tesco. I even did a stint at the infamous scale-up, Pollen (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, see the ‘Crashed: $800m startup fail’ documentary on iPlayer!). I have always been in the Product/Design space and recently I started my own consultancy, Lucid Launch.

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 love helping people and I’m super passionate about product design, and the difference that good design can make to users and businesses alike. My main goals were to grow in my ability to coach and teach others, to help me establish better mentor/management skills to take back to my day job. I think it’s going well so far!

What is your teaching philosophy?

Everyone is welcome, everyone has a voice, everyone deserves to learn. There are no stupid questions, there is no judgement. Whoever you are, wherever your starting point, I want to help!

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

I enjoy meeting new people and watching them progress through the course. It is always so satisfying at the end, when the students have pulled together amazing prototypes and presentations for their clients. I love celebrating with them and seeing where they go next.

Instructor Profile: Dr Anthony Giannoumis

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

I am a motivational speaker on inclusive leadership, social entrepreneur, equality advocate and hamster dad! At Experience Haus, I get to teach the online Service Design course.

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?

My lifelong mission has been to use my position to empower others. Experience Haus has helped me realise this mission by teaching and empowering some of the most amazing students I’ve ever met!

What is your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is based on the industry’s needs and student’s needs. The most important thing is that the students get the knowledge and experience they need to excel at work or finding a job. The second most important thing is that the student gains the self-confidence and strength to showcase their talent.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at Experience Haus?

The community at Experience Haus is the most supportive and nurturing group of people I’ve ever met. I am privileged to call them my friends and colleagues!