Cells and Pixels

By Koji Pereira

Cells and Pixels podcast is extracted from a weekly talk show on Instagram Live hosted by Koji Pereira, first gen asian-latino immigrant, Head of Design, Lyft Business (ex-Google) in Silicon Valley. The guests are range of professionals, scholars and authors that talk about product, UX, UX research, product design, inclusion and diversity. Hear from people who create products that we love.

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

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Bonus: Leading design teams: from seed to scale on CogX2021. With Diego Mendes – Design Manager, Facebook and Jessica Ko – CEO, Playbook. Former employees of Google, Opendoor, Chegg, Pocket, Meebo.

Cells and PixelsJun 16, 2021

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36:18

Bonus: Leading design teams: from seed to scale on CogX2021. With Diego Mendes – Design Manager, Facebook and Jessica Ko – CEO, Playbook. Former employees of Google, Opendoor, Chegg, Pocket, Meebo.

Here's a bonus episode where I talked with the seasoned leaders Diego Mendes and Jessica Ko on CogX2021 Festival 2021. We discussed some of the challenges on hiring your first designers and growing your team:
Should Product Design, Marketing and Branding be in the same team?
Should you hire an unicorn designer?
How to hire diverse talent?

If you're a founder and don't know who to hire on the design side, this is for you. If you're a new head of design trying to grow a team, this is for you.

#designleadership #google #facebook #opendoor #chegg #pocket #meebo #playbook #branding #marketing #cogx2021 #cogx

Jun 16, 202136:18

Doing good by doing great with Daniela Jorge – PayPal, Chief of Design Officer (Ex: Ebay, AT&T, Intuit, Yahoo!)

Daniela is an inspiring Brazilian leader, she led teams of hundreds at PayPal and prior at AT&T, Intuit, Ebay and Yahoo! She designs organizations that are a true reflection of the widely diverse customer base it serves while championing DEI across the enterprise.

She believes in the philosophy of "doing great by doing good" and she is committed to giving back to the design and broader tech communities. She also sit at BayBrazil board of directors, an organization focused in highlighting tech professionals from Brazil in Bay Area.

Follow Daniela at twitter.com/danielajorge

Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month!

#paypal #chiefdesignofficer #CDO #at&t #intuit #baybrazil #yahoo #getninjas #ebay

Jun 07, 202144:15

The craft of design with Danielle Kawasaki – Product Designer, Kanopy (Ex: Square)

Another fun, lighthearted chat with good nuggets of positivity and self-care. Check out my conversation with Danielle Kawasaki, we talked about some nitty gritty details on her design process, documentation, designing for different devices and user environment.

Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month!

#square #kanopy

May 11, 202144:34

Democratizing UXR, Varun Murugesan – Head of Research, Apple & Banana (BestBuy, ex-Facebook)

What a inspiring chat with Varun from Apple and Banana. We talked about his journey from healthcare to UXR, how research can be included in your product development, from small to large organizations and some of his plans for the fruitful research approach book.

Cells and Pixels, now every first Tuesday of the month!

Apple and Banana website: www.appleandbanana.org

#appleandbanana #bestbuy #facebook #uxresearch

Apr 12, 202126:55

Design, facilitation and innovation with Kai Haley – Google, UX Methods and Process (Ex: Yahoo!)

I had so much fun chatting with Kai Haley. We talked about her journey and her incredible work educating Googlers about Design and Sprints. Kai is the go to person at Google if you want to learn the latest and greatest about the methodology, so this chat is must for anybody curious about it.

Disclaimer: my voice may sound different, I had a sore throat today – but already way better now.

#google #designsprints #designeducation

Mar 08, 202137:42

Bonus: The Future of Design is African with Guidione Machava – Founder, World-Class Designer

A conversation with Guidione Machava about the World-Class Designer organized in Moçambique, Africa. Guidione shared about his plans to make Africa the future of Design.

He talked about his story and how inspired by podcasts, he decided to organized a conference with people 3 other friends to decolonize design, and make it more inclusive.

Feb 28, 202127:45

A Conversation with Lyft's Product Design+ Team – Len Yeh, Julie Celia, Dario Fidanza, Akhil Dakinedi

Here's the video of my crazy fun convo with 4 amazing professionals at Lyft: Len Yeh, Julie Celia, Dario Fidanza and Akhil Dakinedi.

How cool it was to learn more about Diversity, Safety, Bikes and Scooters, Unumute (our internal conference), Design Ops and more from these ones!

Feb 17, 202152:09

Design tools with Noah Levin – Director of Design, Figma

This was the final episode of the year! Yes, and I talked with Noah Levin, the Director of Design at Figma, yes! The tool that all of us love so much. Before Figma, Noah led teams at ClassPass in NYC, and the iOS Search team at Google in Mountain View. He also spent some time teaching designers how to code as an advisor at Framer, and building a digital assistant for Astronauts at NASA.

Nov 02, 202037:53

Speaking Machine and Humanism with John Maeda – Author & SVP, Everbridge (Ex: RISD, MIT Media Lab, Sonos, Ebay)

I am assuming you all know John Maeda for his many influential books on Design and Technology. From Laws of Simplicity, his classic book to How to Speak Machine, John Maeda adds humanism to technology. And our conversation was fantastic!

Oct 27, 202044:44

The evolution of UX with Jesse James Garrett – Author, The Elements of UX (Founder of Adaptive Path, Ajax inventor, Ex: Capital One)

I feel like this is another dream coming true. I talked with Jesse James Garrett, one of my favorite UX authors; he wrote in 2002: The Elements of User Experience. We talked about his history, from a writer to one of the founders of UX, his consultancy Adaptive Path and the acquisition by Capital One. We also found some time to chat about post-rock and his recent work as a coach for design leaders at jessejamesgarrett.com

Oct 17, 202046:20

Smart devices and future of design with Lucas Hirata – Design Lead, Google (Ex: Huge, Globo.com)

What a fantastic conversation I had with Lucas Hirata! We covered a lot in this episode. We talked about the future of design, smart displays, voice UI, and some challenges when designing for hardware and physical devices.

If You Wanna Fly, YouTube Channel (In Portuguese)

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Oct 11, 202041:57

Life Pivots with Joshua Taylor – Design Leader, Parrot.fm (Ex: Evernote, Credit Karma)

Another incredible person I met via Cells and Pixels: Joshua Taylor! Joshua and I talked about some great life changes, big pivots, and how to stay true to your principles. Joshua Taylor is an experienced Design Leader (Evernote and Credit Karma) who moved to Costa Rica and started Ordinary Ventures, a startup creating multiple experimental products, including Parrot.fm a podcast app.

Oct 05, 202044:58

Cross-functional collaboration with Joris Van Mens – Group PM, Google

Finally my conversation with Joris Van Mens, Group PM at Google was recorded again. Joris launched Files by Google from 0 to 500+ million downloads, Camera Go, Android TV data saver and he works on many other 0-1 products for emerging markets.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Sep 28, 202021:58

IC Leadership with David Ikuye – Staff Product Designer, Lyft (Ex: Ideo, Frog Design)

IC Leadership with David Ikuye – Staff Product Designer, Lyft

I had a blast with David Ikuye, he is a Staff Product Designer at Lyft, he shared a bit of his fantastic experience working in different cities with innovation and one of the most well-known design consultancies around IDEO, Frog, and Fjord/Accenture.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Sep 28, 202037:54

Interpersonal skills for designers with Arya Zarrinkelk – Training Specialist, SF City College (Ex: Peace Corps)

Here's an inspiring conversation with Arya Zarrinkelk. Arya left some great messages to us: how to keep positive in difficult times, how to use tools to find the job you dreamed of and how to take some of your learnings to heart when you enter a company. Arya coaches and trains arts, media, entertainment students at City College of San Francisco.

Sep 21, 202039:60

Entrepreneurship and Design with Malea Gadoury – Co-founder, ILK (Ex: Google)

I had a blast reconnecting with Malea Gadoury. Malea and I talked about her career, her transitions in life, from graphic to UX Design, from IC to management, and now as an entrepreneur.

Malea is a Co-Founder at ILK, previously she was the Head of Design for Wonderschool and Head of Design for Firebase at Google.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Sep 04, 202033:45

Education, culture and research with Laith Ulaby – UXR Director, Udemy (Ex: UN, UC Berkeley, Uber, Google)

I had so much fun reconnecting with Laith Ulaby. We talked about his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, his experience working at the United Nations, Udemy, and his passion for education and culture.

We talked about how technology can help to increase access to education worldwide, the challenges in the field, and some of his learnings.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 30, 202034:33

Inclusive Products with Joel Isaac, Accessibility Lead at Delta Dental

Another great learning experience! I talked with Joel Isaac who is an Accessibility Lead at Delta Dental. We talked about how his background as an engineer and designer influenced his views on accessibility, and he also shared great tips and ideas on how to build more inclusive products and teams.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PT • 8PM ET

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 22, 202031:32

Meaning and purpose on Design Teams with Audrey Liu, VP Design – Lyft

Audrey Liu is a VP of Design at Lyft, previously she was a Design Director at Thumbtack where she helped to build the design team, I had a blast chatting with her about her style of leadership, her honesty and transparency is incredible and you'll definitely feel inspired by this talk.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 15, 202035:01

The perfect pitch with Aditi Maliwal, Partner – Upfront Ventures (Ex: Google)

Aditi evaluates new pitches and many startups reach her to get funded every day. I learned a lot with this conversation, we talked about Venture Capital, how to attract investment, and build a great pitch for a new product. Aditi and I also talked about what makes a great team and she shared invaluable ideas around the future of work, and what type of products will move the needle.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 12, 202043:16

Designing organizations with Bruno Bergher – VP Design & Product, Gladly (Ex: Google)

I had a wonderful conversation with Bruno Bergher, he is the VP of Product and Design at Gladly. We talked about his experiences as a Designer, and how that influences positively on the work he does today at Gladly.

Among other things we discussed about some of the challenges of uncertain times, and how transparency and honesty are main elements of his leadership style.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 03, 202025:50

Design Leadership with Jessica Ko – CEO and co-founder, Playbook (Ex: Google, YouTube, OpenDoor)

Jessica Ko has an impressive career, from a Designer at Google to CEO, she shared some of her challenges, inspirations and two big moments where she pivoted her career. As a Leader with Design background she has a very instigating perspective and great tips for managers and ICs.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Aug 01, 202033:02

Product Vision with Sun Park – Product Designer, Facebook (Ex: Apple, Google)

A lighthearted conversation with Sun Park, Product Designer at Facebook, she shared some of her great habits, her strategic view on Design and some learnings she had over in her career. This is not to be missed if you're interested on Visioning and 0-1 products.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

Jul 20, 202034:49

Designing conversations with Daniel Stillman – Author, Conversation Factory

I had an inspired and inspiring conversation with Daniel Stillman where we talked about his new book "Good Talk: How to Design Conversations that Matter". Daniel has been investigating the nature of conversations and he shared a bit how he is helping companies and people to have meaningful, inclusive and courageous conversations.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST
www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Jul 18, 202048:03

Design as a role with Luke Wroblewski – Author and Product Director, Google (Ex: Yahoo!, eBay, NCSA)

Luke W. is a Product Director at Google. He's an advisor for: Woven and LITHO. Prior to Google, he founded 2 start ups and wrote: Mobile First, Web Form Design and Site-Seeing and in the past worked at NCSA, eBay and Yahoo!

Luke W. and I had an instigating conversation around his books, how his investigations translated to his current work at Google, augmented reality, wearables and the role of a designer.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST
www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Jul 10, 202043:55

Designing for the high tech with Marianne Abreu – UX Designer, YouTube, Google (Ex: Samsung, Globo.com)

Had a blast chatting with Marianne. We talked about her experience at Nasa, Google, cats, and designing for high-tech products. We’ll also chat about her passions, how she started TEDx in Brazil.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST

Jul 08, 202033:06

Research in emerging markets with Tejas Peesapati – UXR Manager, Google (Ex: Yahoo!, Oracle)

Tejas is a UX Research Manager at Google and a purpose driven professional who focus his work understanding users in diverse cultures and in underprivileged communities.

We reviewed memories about his research in Jordan at Za'atari refugee camp.

He also started the uxcoffeehours.com, a platform that connects more than a 150+ volunteers mentors from 60+ companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon.

Cells and Pixels, every Tuesday 5PM PST www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Jul 05, 202036:15

Design and community with Felix Lee – Founder, adplist.org

I talked with Felix Lee who started adplist.org (Amazing Design People List), a community-initiated talent base helping designers land new jobs and connecting to design mentors. We talked about how he became an entrepreneur when he was 19, why he decided to start adplist and how he helped to landed people on over 200 jobs during the pandemic.

Jul 02, 202027:57

Trailer: Cells and Pixels, let's establish the connection!

Cells and Pixels podcast is extracted from a weekly talk show on Instagram Live hosted by Koji Pereira, first gen asian-latino immigrant, Product Manager @ Lyft (ex-Google) in Silicon Valley. The guests are range of professionals, scholars and authors that talk about product, UX, UX research, product design, inclusion and diversity. Hear from people who create products that we love.

www.instagram.com/cells.and.pixels

Jun 25, 202002:40