The Hacking UI Podcast - with Sagi Shrieber & David Tintner – Details, episodes & analysis

Episode #35: Ran Segall

We are super excited to have with us today the inspiring Ran Segall - a full stack designer, a creator, and a vlogger. Ran started out as a designer, working with startups to create great products & brands. For the past 5 years, his been freelancing with 3-5 clients at any given time, and also, he's been sharing his journey on his youtube channel called 

Flux and has over 40,000 followers. 

He believes in constant learning and sharing knowledge, he was running the Nu-School - which was an online hub for people to learn freelancing and design, and later on, he built a product company called Prospero - a service for freelancers to create online proposals.

In this episode, Ran shared his amazing insights and knowledge on freelancing, value-based pricing, learning new skills, networking, putting yourself out there, achieving your goals and aiming higher.

This is the tenth episode of the third season of the Hacking UI podcast - 'Scaling a Career'.

In this season we have 10 amazing guests for you, who are leaders and influencers from a variety of different backgrounds. Design managers, development leaders, entrepreneurs and product geniuses that we admire, and we'll be sharing a new episode every Thursday.

Please support our amazing sponsors

Invision:

This episode is brought to you by Invision, an amazing product design platform that you probably already know about.

The education team over at Invision created a magnificent source of quality learning material for product designers. On DesignBetter.Co  you’ll find interviews with dozens of leading designers from companies like Google, Airbnb, Netflix, Facebook, Slack and more.

Discover the design practices that they use that will help you to transform your organization and create better products. Also, you can subscribe to their amazing podcast, read one the four free books they published and put together for you and also, be sure to check out their one of a kind workshops for designers.

Start designing better →

Freshbooks:

Freshbooks is the perfect accounting software for freelance designers and developers or creative entrepreneurs with a small business. They have some really powerful features like integration with stripe, expense tracking and a customer support team who actually works with you to find the perfect solution. If you’re looking to get some understanding of your business and keep track of things without wasting hours of your time, then this is exactly what you need.

Try it free for 30 days →

Links from the show

• Ran's website - ransegall.com
• His service for freelancers to create online proposals - Prospero
• His Youtube Channel - Flux
• Twitter - @ransegall

Recommendations for books & apps

• Recommendations for gear & books on Ran Segall's website
• The 7 habits of highly effective people - By Stephen R. Covey
• Design is a job - By Mike Montiero
• The 10x Rule - By Grant Cardone
• Radical Candor - By Kim Scott
• Toggle - (for tracking time)
• Audible - (for audio-books)
• Coda - (for managing projects)

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. When you review us it lets us know that you like the show and that we should keep doing it. Check out the following image, which describes exactly how to leave a review in one minute.

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :)

Key points from this episode:

• Learn about Ran’s background as a designer and how he developed himself into freelancing, building his own brand, vlogging and running his own businesses and company. [00:04:00]
• Learn about Prospero - his service for freelancers to create online proposals. [00:06:20]
• Ran shares his interesting insights about doing what you love, learning skills that will make you more valuable, and how every project is contributing to your success. [00:09:10]
• Find out why and how working with other people, networking, putting yourself out there to the world will help you to reach your true potential, and being successful in any career. [00:13:00]
• Ran shares his process with freelancing and how he manages dealing with all of his projects. [00:17:00]
• Learn about the 10x rule and how to push your goals higher and take massive action. [00:19:00]
• Learn about freelancing, pricing and how to work with value-based pricing. [00:27:20]
• Ran shares his methodology on talking with clients, startups and how to price according to the value that they get. [00:32:15]
• Find out how to measure the success of your work with clients and how to understand what they really value. [00:35:20]
• Get tips! for anyone who is just starting out in freelancing, and tips for designers who want to start vlogging. [00:40:20]
• The lightning round - get inspiring tips & recommendations from Ran, for ambitious achievers. [00:44:10]

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer, and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We are thrilled to launch the third season of the Hacking UI podcast, where we hack our way through product design, development, and creative entrepreneurship.

Our first season, was called ‘Scaling a Design Team’, the Second season was called ‘Scaling a Side Project’ and we’ve decided to call this season -...

Episode #34: David Kadavy

We are thrilled to have with us today the amazing David Kadavy - Bestselling author of The Heart to Start & Design For Hackers, a creative entrepreneur, and host of Love your Work Podcast. David started out as a curious web designer, working with startups and freelancing, he wanted to figure out a way to design smarter, for code, so he wrote about it in order to learn, and that eventually got him to write 

Design for Hackers and teaching others along the way. 

Later on, he got the writing and self-publishing bug and wrote his bestselling book of The Heart to Start and How to write a book, which got him to rethink what books are today in this new digital age, and how we can learn from that and use it to our advantage.

In this episode, David shared his inspiring perspectives and insights on self-publishing, connecting with our curiosity, creative resistance, forming habits and setting priorities for our goals. Wheather you're a creative, an entrepreneur, marketer or just starting out - this episode will give you tons of value and knowledge to reach your goals.

This is the ninth episode of the third season of the Hacking UI podcast - 'Scaling a Career'.

In this season we have 10 amazing guests for you, who are leaders and influencers from a variety of different backgrounds. Design managers, development leaders, entrepreneurs and product geniuses that we admire, and we'll be sharing a new episode every Thursday.

Attention! A very special announcement

This episode is different than any other episode we’ve done so far, because, besides being recorded for audio, this was also transmitted as a Facebook LIVE interview to a closed Facebook group of creative entrepreneurs called - Mindful and Ruthless - where I (Sagi), personally interview experts about building personal brands, online businesses, passive revenue streams, and much more!

So, if you liked the episode and the Hacking UI Podcast, I would LOVE to invite you to join  - “Mindful and Ruthless” on Facebook, where I’ll be launching a series of these kinds of interviews on FB LIVE videos once a week, and also, I’m happy to announce that this will be my new podcast!

So if you’re a creative entrepreneur and you’re interested in online marketing, building a personal brand and an online business, generating passive income and building an online presence in general - then I think you’ll feel right a home and would love the group and its content.

Check out this episode LIVE VIDEO on Facebook →

JOIN the Mindful and Ruthless community →

Please support our amazing sponsors

Invision:

This episode is brought to you by Invision, an amazing product design platform that you probably already know about.

The education team over at Invision created a magnificent source of quality learning material for product designers. On DesignBetter.Co  you’ll find interviews with dozens of leading designers from companies like Google, Airbnb, Netflix, Facebook, Slack and more.

Discover the design practices that they use that will help you to transform your organization and create better products. Also, you can subscribe to their amazing podcast, read one the four free books they published and put together for you and also, be sure to check out their one of a kind workshops for designers.

Start designing better →

Freshbooks:

Freshbooks is the perfect accounting software for freelance designers and developers or creative entrepreneurs with a small business. They have some really powerful features like integration with stripe, expense tracking and a customer support team who actually works with you to find the perfect solution. If you’re looking to get some understanding of your business and keep track of things without wasting hours of your time, then this is exactly what you need.

Try it free for 30 days →

Links from the show

• David's Blog - kadavy.net 
• His Podcast - Love Your Work (Be sure to check out episode 77)
• Get a free course on design - Design for Hackers
• His Books - Design for Hackers, The Heart To Start, & How to Write a Book
• Twitter - @kadavy
• On Facebook - Kadavy Author, Design for hackers
• Seth Godin's new Podcast - Akimbo 
• Tools for marketing - Active Campaign, Convert Kit, Amazon AMS Ads 
• A group of creative entrepreneurs and my new podcast (with LIVE expert interviews) - Mindful and Ruthless

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. When you review us it lets us know that you like the show and that we should keep doing it. Check out the following image, which describes exactly how to leave a review in one minute.

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook...

Episode #25: Khoi Vinh Our guest today is none other than Khoi Vinh, Principal Designer at Adobe and former Design Director of The New York Times. Khoi is the founder of the popular blog, 

Subtraction.com and a true family man. He was born in South Vietnam and immigrated to the United States as a young boy. He attended Otis College of Art and Design, and after graduating with a major in Graphic Design, Khoi moved to New York where he co-founded the design studio, Behavior. Khoi was named one of Fast Company's "50 Most Influential Designers in America". He is the author of two books and has a long history of launching successful startups and side projects. 

Today Khoi is working on a side project called Kidpost, which makes it easy for parents to share social media photos with people who are not on these networks. In this interview, we dissected how he does it all, and discussed some of the new projects that Khoi and his team at Adobe are working on.

This is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects that we admire.

Please support our amazing sponsors This episode is brought to you by 

An Event Apart. 

An Event Apart hosts the best conferences for both designers and front-end developers in cities all across the US. They bring in legendary speakers, like Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Dan Mall and Rachel Andrew. So if you haven’t attended one yet, it's time to get tix for 2017. Register now and get $100 off tickets with the code AEAHACKING.

Find your event →

If you'd like to become a sponsor of the Hacking UI podcast, contact us.

Key points from this episode:

• Learn all about Khoi's exciting time at the New York Times and how they transitioned into digital products.
• Khoi shares how his team there focused on user experience and creating lasting products and experiences, which completely transformed the world of journalism.
• Understand how writing has helped Khoi and served him not only in his career as a designer but also to form long-lasting friendships and create opportunities.
• Learn why Khoi believes writing is crucial for designers to continue to challenge themselves, grow with new ideas, and refine their expression.
• As a designer, find out how telling a story around what you do can help give you an opportunity to stand out from the competition.
• Khoi shares his secret to keeping a consistent writing schedule, and how passion gives him the extra motivation needed.
• Find out what it takes to write a book, and why Khoi found it to be much more difficult than expected.
• Understand why Khoi believes that writing a book gives you a certain amount of credibility, and why he would not trade his writing experience for anything in the world.
• Learn about Khoi's main insights from his book, How They Got There, and the behind-the-scenes learning points from key interviews.
• Khoi discusses his current role at Adobe and gives a sneak peek into Adobe XD.
• Find out how a shift to cloud-based products has motivated Adobe to develop new products and allowed them to adapt to the changes and demands of the market.
• Adobe allows employees to explore their own side projects. Find out how that type of culture has benefited Adobe in its' overall growth.
• Khoi shares his tips on growing your social media following and his strategies for integrating different platforms and keeping his profile authentic.

Links from the show

• Khoi’s Blog, Subtraction.com
• Khoi’s Twitter (@khoi)
• Khoi’s Book, Ordering Disorder
• 50% off on Khoi’s Book, How They Got There, with code “hackingui”
• Getting Things Done Methodology
• Todoist App

Transcript If you'd like to read the full text of this episode, you can 

 download the transcript. 

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. When you review us it lets us know that you like the show and that we should keep doing it. Check out the following image, which describes exactly how to leave a review in one minute.

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :)

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences, and secrets to success.

Episode #24: Chris Coyier It is our pleasure to present to you Chris Coyier. Chris started his journey writing blogs he didn't enjoy, and eventually realized that his passion was actually in coding the blogs and crafting the CSS behind them. He eventually closed down all of his blogs except one, and CSS-Tricks was born. His blog is now one of the largest front-end development blogs in the world and paved the way for his platform, CodePen, which allows developers to share demos of front-end code while inspecting the code at the same time. 

Chris is also the host of the podcast, ShopTalk, speaks at conferences around the world, and this year he published his second book, Practical SVG, which is all about using SVG on the web. In this episode, Chris discusses his strategies for blog growth, valuable tips for monetization, the proper etiquette for sharing sponsored content, and much more.

This is the twelfth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects that we admire.

Please support our amazing sponsors This episode is brought to you by 

General Assembly. 

We've partnered with this amazing team to create The 2016 Design Tools Survey to better understand which tools are currently being used by designers all over the world. General Assembly has a fantastic course where you can learn how to code for free! Get started with Dash today.

If you'd like to become a sponsor of the Hacking UI podcast, contact us.

Key points from this episode:

• Learn why Chris started blogging, and why he began with a huge network of many blogs and eventually ended up with one, CSS-Tricks.
• Chris found that it was a lot easier to write blog posts when he knew someone would be reading the content. Find out how that still holds true today.
• What was the most popular tactic to grow your blog back in the day? Chris reveals his tactics and how blogging strategies have changed drastically over the years.
• Chris discusses the value, as well as the pros and cons of having comments open on a blog today and why perspectives have changed.
• How does Chris find the time to manage old content while still creating new content? He believes that maintenance is just part of the job, and it is a necessary component.
• People treat blog posts as a bigger deal than they are. However, Chris believes that a blog post can be anything and that you should treat your blog like a drafts folder.
• Chris shares his advice for new bloggers considering using WordPress and the criteria to review before making your decision.
• Throughout the years, Chris used several strategies to monetize CSS-Tricks. He reveals how he was able to generate profit while still finding a balance of authenticity for the blog.
• One of the biggest changes that Chris has discovered in the last couple of years is that display advertising no longer performs well. Learn what his most effective type of advertising is today.
• What is the proper etiquette for sharing sponsored content? Today readers prefer to be disclosed to when content is driven by advertising instead of passing it off as authentic content.
• Learn how blogging relates to journalism, and why the same basic rules still apply.
• Chris shares how his idea for CodePen came about, and then he realized it would be more than just a blog and how the community became such a strong force behind it.
• Find out what Chris is working on for his next book, and why he feels that it is the book others truly want him to write.
• Learn who most inspires Chris in his work, and how they have motivated him to go through all the challenges in life and come out stronger on the other side.
• Chris shares his top podcasts to listen to, and his favorite books, for everyday inspiration and continuous learning.

Links from the show

• Chris’ website
• Chris’ blog, CSS-Tricks
• Chris’ Podcast, ShopTalk
• His new book, Practical SVG
• Radiolab Podcast
• This American Life Podcast
• Planet Money Podcast
• Dinner Party Download
• Decrypted Podcast
• Murder in Mayhem Conference
• Alex Segura’s book, Silent City

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. When you review us it lets us know that you like the show and that we should keep doing it. Check out the following image, which describes exactly how to leave a review in one minute.

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :)

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences, and secrets to success.

Episode #23: Harry Roberts Today we had the pleasure of talking to Harry Roberts, the founder of the well-known blog, 

CSS Wizardry. Harry started his career as a web developer at a very young age and has become one of the world’s most well-known experts in CSS. He was named young developer of the year in 2014 by Net Magazine, and now runs workshops all across the world in large companies such as BBC, Google, The Financial Times and The United Nations. 

Harry has built an incredible personal brand and we’ve been following CSS Wizardry for years. We discussed with him exactly how he got started, what made him successful, and what he thinks is the best way to blog, build a personal brand and start a side project today.

This is the eleventh episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

The Side Project Accelerator Registration for the next batch of the 

Side Project Accelerator closes on November 10th. Apply now to reserve your spot. 

Apply now for batch #2 →

Key points from this episode:

• Learn how Harry became a front-end developer, and how starting a design company at the age of 16 helped him find his true path.
• Understand Harry's tactics in keeping his blog authentic, and how he niched down in order to properly serve his goals.
• What are Harry's views on academia? Find out why he decided not to go to university and how he launched his career as a developer instead.
• Learn about the only time not having a degree let Harry down, and how it cost him a job at Apple
• Harry started his career really young and was trusted in a senior position early on. Learn how he navigated the intense scale of responsibility.
• Find out Harry's key to a successful career, and why he urges others never to miss out on big opportunities and why he believes you have a duty to take them.
• Get the behind-the-scenes of how CSS Wizardry got started and why he decided not to treat the blog as a job, but just to write whenever he had an idea.
• Harry gives his tips on how to find your writing style and his best trick to get started again.
• Understand how you can overcome the roadblock of not feeling qualified to write an article. Harry gives his advice on how to establish your credibility as a writer.
• Learn about the positives and negatives about a narrowed approach to business, niching down to a specific market.
• Find out how one positive of having such a specific niche market got Harry the opportunity to work on a project with UN.
• Understand how he finds the balance between learning new skills or specializing even further.
• Understand Harry's views on putting lifestyle over riches and how his current business model is not a get-rich-quick scheme — he does his work mainly because he loves it.
• One of the best pieces of advice Harry ever received was, "Don't do it for the money, but never do it for no money." Find out how he has implemented this concept in his work.
• Learn how Harry uses his speaking engagements to promote his blog and funnel new readers to his website, and why self-promotion is still a challenge for him.
• Understand why Harry believes in not only delivering high-value service but also creating the best client experience.
• Harry gives his tips for developers looking to enter open-source.
• Find out how to get started running workshops, and how to adapt your content to your audience to deliver specific value.
• Learn what inspires Harry and how he uses fundamental elements from the work of others and real life constructs from engineering and manufacturing to better understand processes.

Links from the show

• Harry’s Twitter (@csswizardry)
• Harry’s website, CSS Wizardry
• Neil Gaiman’s Commencement Speech
• Nicolas Gallagher
• Jonathan Snook
• Nicole Sullivan
• Martin Fowler

Transcript If you'd like to read the full text of this episode, you can 

 download the transcript. 

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. When you review us it lets us know that you like the show and that we should keep doing it. Check out the following image, which describes exactly how to leave a review in one minute.

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :)

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences, and secrets to success.

Today’s episode is what we like to call an in-between-a-sode. There are a few days left of the applications for our program, The Side Project Accelerator, so I wanted to quickly discuss one of the core philosophies we teach in the program - audience-driven product development.

This is the methodology that Sagi and I developed and used to build Hacking UI. We believe that this methodology works extremely well for side projects and can ensure that you will come away from each project with a new asset.

In The Side Project Accelerator, we guide you through how to start building your audience, establish your personal brand and get yourself out there - all so you can ensure success with your side project. The next batch starts on November 13th, and If you’d like to join applications are due by November 10th. You can find out more on sideprojectaccelerator.com or visit Hacking UI.

Episode #21: Rizwan Javaid Today we are joined by Rizwan Javaid, a member of The Side Project Accelerator. Rizwan is a UX designer who is passionate about transforming ideas into engaging and profitable digital solutions. He is based out of California and works on a variety of projects both for mobile and web. 

Rizwan is also a blogger and international speaker, who pushes his boundaries to reach new audiences and inspire them to release their creativity. He started speaking about sketching, as he found it helped him in a variety of ways, and now has several talks and a brand focused on the power of sketching.

In this episode, Rizwan shares how he faces his weaknesses head on while implementing feedback constructively. He also gives great tips for building a talk, how to reach out to get speaking gigs, and how important real relationships are when building a brand. Going forward, Rizwan is working on clarifying his focus on sketching and now plans to manifest this critical part of his venture into his newsletter and overall brand.

This is the ninth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

The Side Project Accelerator The program works in batches, with only 3 batches per year. Registration for the next batch of the 

Side ProjectAccelerator is now open until November 10th, and there are only 50 seats available. Apply now to reserve your spot. 

Apply now for batch #2 →

Key points from this episode:

• Find out what the Side Project Accelerator program has done for Rizwan and his project, how it pushed him to new levels and the key role that a supporting environment plays in success.
• Learn how Rizwan identified that speaking was one of his weaknesses, and how he chose to face it head-on and transform his weakness into a strength.
• How do you become a speaker? Rizwan shares his tips on how to get started and how to build your confidence as a speaker in your industry.
• Rizwan shares his views on the importance of sketching and how that can give designers an edge and open doors to greater success.
• Find out how receiving feedback is a critical way to implement continuous improvement. Rizwan shares how he navigated the challenge of using feedback constructively.
• What creates a compelling talk? Learn how Rizwan builds his presentations and why he believes in the motto of "less is more" when it comes to creating presentation slides.
• Understand why it is important to focus on value and creating good content instead of being side-tracked by disappointing analytics.
• Learn the value of starting small when creating a newsletter to ensure that you create something effective and engaging, without being overwhelming.
• Automating secondary tasks can free up time to prioritize content creation. Rizwan shares how it is critical to find a balance and a rhythm of consistency.
• What does true sacrifice look in order to achieve success? Find out how Rizwan maximizes his time as a "morning person" by waking up at 3 or 4 AM to work on his projects.
• Understand why Rizwan values feeling good about the work that he does and how he implements this by prioritizing family time while sacrificing personal time to pursue his work ventures.
• Find out what success means to Rizwan, and why having others appreciate his thoughts and ideas is an invaluable aspect of achievement for him.
• Learn why Rizwan believes that it is not a numbers game, but that connections and relationships are more valuable than metrics. Changing the lives of others and helping them improve is key.  Rizwan has the mindset of doing something small each day to move closer to his goals. Learn why this is so critical when first starting out.

Links from the show

• Rizwan’s Website (where you can sign up for his weekly Sketching Machine newsletter)
• Rizwan’s Twitter (@rizwanjavaid)
• Conference Directory
• ConversionCast

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. Here's how:

• Open the iTunes Store on your computer/phone
• Search for "The Hacking UI Podcast"
• Once you're on the podcast page, click/tap on "Reviews"
• Click/tap on "Write a Review"
• Rate us and write a short comment. Let us know which other guests you'd like us to bring on the show.
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Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :) 

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences, and secrets to success.

Episode #20: Kelsey Ruger With us today is Kelsey Ruger, a UX consultant based out of Houston, Texas. Kelsey is a professor, a designer, a developer, and pretty much a jack of all trades. We met and got to know Kelsey because he's also a member of 

The Side Project Accelerator. Kelsey has worked on web and mobile projects for Fortune 100 startups and agencies and was also named one of Houston’s 40 under 40 in 2012 by the Houston Business Journal. 

Kelsey's mission is to help people use their creativity to make better things happen in the world. He loves learning and consumes a lot of books, articles, and podcasts. In this episode, he reveals his tips for how he reads about 50 books a year. He also produces tons of his own content. Before he joined the Side Project Accelerator he had already published more than 100 articles. He shares with us his method for coming up with ideas and how to build a dedicated audience using the concept of “1,000” true fans.

This is the eighth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

Please support our amazing sponsors This episode is brought to you by 

Top Level Design. 

Top Level Design now offers the new .design domain names. Just like Facebook.design and Airbnb.design, you can now buy your own .design domain. Whether it's for your creative portfolio or a side project, nothing beats having a custom-made .design web address that builds a positive first impression and improves recognition of your personal and professional brand.

If you'd like to become a sponsor of the Hacking UI podcast, contact us

The Side Project Accelerator The program works in batches, with only 3 batches per year. Registration for the next batch of the 

Side Project Accelerator opens tomorrow, October 26 and there are only 50 seats available. Sign up for the waiting list to reserve your spot and to get notified of all events and updates related to the program. 

Sign up for the waiting list →

Key points from this episode:

• Learn how Kelsey uses his broad background as incredible experience to be a key problem solver in his industry.
• What is a BarCamp? Find out how these "unconferences" first introduce Kelsey to the startup scene in Houston.
• Get a glimpse into a day in the life of Kelsey Ruger, and find out how he juggles his time between all his many endeavors.
• What sparked Kelsey's decision to completely rebrand his personal blog? Learn the importance of writing "evergreen" articles for a long-term blogging strategy.
• Kelsey believes in pinpointing tasks that can be outsourced versus which to do yourself. Understand how he uses these critical distinctions to manage his time.
• For entrepreneurs, one of the main struggles is distinguishing between working in the business and working on the business. Find out how this can be a major hindrance in your business growth.
• How can you ensure that you hire the right people in a startup and mentor them to succeed in helping you grow the company? Find out why top notch employees are key to scaling your business.
• What does it mean to make yourself "obsolete" in your company, and why is this important for your business to grow? Kelsey walks through the dangers of limiting growth with your own constraints.
• Find out why a high salary job does not necessarily translate into freedom. Kelsey explains his views on pursuing career freedom.
• How does Kelsey use small wins to get to his bigger goals? Understand why he values being on a schedule that he can stick to consistently and how this has helped him produce more content.
• What is the concept of "1,000 true fans"? Learn how Kelsey applies this to his blog and newsletter and why it is his key to building a sustainable side project.
• Kelsey used a unique method for building his email subscriber list. Find out why his approach was different, and how he applied the principle of "start with what you know, and who you know".
• Understand the concept of "audience driven product development" and how Kelsey implements this strategy in creating his newsletter.
• "The most home run ideas are the result of 100 bad ideas." Understand how Kelsey applies this thought to his writing when creating new content.
• Kelsey reads an incredible number of books each month. Get an inside look into his reading habits, and tips on how to efficiently consume more content.
• What are Kelsey's tips for new speakers, and how is this similar to being an effective salesperson? Understand why Kelsey believes that aligning your content with an existing audience is the most efficient method.
• Get the inside scoop on Kelsey's method for preparing for a presentation and how a story format can help you most effectively convey your message and engaging the audience.
• Kelsey discusses the concept of including an emotional appeal, a logical appeal, and a visual component in your speech to create the biggest overall impact.
• Learn why Kelsey believes his legacy will be greater if he can point to and magnifying others through his teaching and that it is more important for him to give back than to receive.

Links from the show

• Kelsey’s personal blog
• Kelsey’s Twitter (@kenziecreative)
• Kelsey’s Instagram
• Kelsey’s Newsletter
• Kelsey’s Facebook page
• Online used bookstore
• Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. Here's how:

• Open the iTunes Store on your computer/phone
• Search for "The Hacking UI Podcast"
• Once you're on the podcast page, click/tap on "Reviews"
• Click/tap on "Write a Review"
• Rate us and write a short comment. Let us know which other guests you'd like us to bring on the show.
• Check out the following image to help describe the process

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :) 

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podca...

Episode #19: David Okuniev Joining us today is the former musician turned designer, David Okuniev. He is the co-founder and joint CEO of Typeform, one of the hottest young startups out there. 

In this conversation, we discuss his journey from being a musician with a record deal to owning a design agency and eventually building a product that was transformed from being a side project into a massively successful startup. Through Typeform David and his team have set the goal of making beautiful tools for human interaction that anyone can use.

David discusses his amazing world-wide journey from touring with his band in England, to starting a small design agency in Columbia, and eventually meeting his co-founder, Robert, in a co-working space in Barcelona. Looking forward, David and the team at Typeform continue to innovate and bring in new ideas to create the best conversational UI in the industry.

This is the seventh episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

Please support our amazing sponsors This episode is brought to you by 

An Event Apart. 

An Event Apart hosts the best conferences for both designers and front-end developers in cities all across the US. They bring in legendary speakers, like Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Dan Mall and Rachel Andrew. so if you haven’t attended one yet, you're missing out. Register now and get $100 off tickets with the code AEAHACKING.

Find your event →

If you'd like to become a sponsor of the Hacking UI podcast, contact us

The Side Project Accelerator Registration for the second batch of the 

Side Project Accelerator opens on October 26. Spots are extremely limited, and we expect it to sell out fast. You can get priority access to the next batch by joining the waiting list. You'll also get notified as soon as registration opens so you don't miss it. 

Key points from this episode:

• How did David go from being a touring rock star to building a full-time design agency? Find out how the events in his life played out, leading him to become a successful entrepreneur.
• Find out exactly how Typeform was inspired by the movie War Games, and how David and Robert translated that into a successful startup.
• David and Robert both had great faith in Typeform as a project. Learn how even after the first round of investment they still took no salary.
• Side projects can give you the advantage to perfect the product before launch. Understand how pressure from investors can create a completely different outcome for your product.
• Learn how when designing Typeform David and his team worked based off of a “gut feeling”. So without data and user testing, how did they actually know it was right?
• Find out how Typeform used conversational forms to achieve a 55% completion rate, compared to the industry benchmark, which is only 15%.
• Understand how Typeform is working to help people create conversations much more easily by removing the friction out of starting a conversation and providing them with the right tools.
• Learn how even though David is the co-CEO, he still manages to spend time designing and places a high value on design in his work life.
• At Typeform they have created a culture of happiness. Find out why David believes it best to organically establish a culture and how to manage it as the company scales rapidly.
• David’s advice to new entrepreneurs is to build your company from the heart, and not from the head. Learn how this concept has scaled Typeform rapidly to success.

Links from the show

• Typeform
• Play Bigger book
• David’s Twitter (@okuiux)

Transcript If you'd like to read the full text of this episode, you can 

 download the transcript. 

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn, and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. Here's how:

• Open the iTunes Store on your computer/phone
• Search for "The Hacking UI Podcast"
• Once you're in the podcast page, click/tap on "Reviews"
• Click/tap on "Write a Review"
• Rate us and write a short comment. Let us know what other guest you'd like us to bring on the show.
• Check out the following image to help describe the process

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :) 

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences and secrets to success.

Episode #18: Peter Nowell Our guest today is a super talented designer with an entrepreneurial fire burning in his veins. We are pleased to present to you Peter Nowell, a designer based in San Francisco. Currently, Peter is splitting his time between doing amazing endeavors, design work for high end clients, and running Sketch Master, his scaling platform of professional courses for Sketch. His course was quickly considered one of the greatest resources for designers to learn Sketch and improve their skills. 

Peter works with clients big and small, ranging from Apple to the Juice Shop, and absolutely revels in the high-level design vision and the execution of every detail in each of his projects. Living by his ideals of simplicity, honesty, and intentionality, Peter continues developing his design brand and do the things he really believes in.

This is the sixth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

Please support our amazing sponsors This episode is brought to you by 

An Event Apart. 

They host the best conferences for both designers and front-end developers in cities all across the US.
 An Event Apart bring in the best speakers and biggest names in the industry, so if you haven’t attended one yet,
 register now and get $100 off tickets if you use the code AEAHACKING at checkout.

Contact us to become a sponsor

The Side Project Accelerator Registration for the second batch of the 

Side Project Accelerator opens on October 26. Spots are extremely limited, and we expect it to sell out fast. You can sign up to and get priority by joining the waiting list. You'll also get notified as soon as registration opens so you don't miss it. 

Key points from this episode:

• Learn why Peter get’s the most out of long blocks of time, focusing on one thing at a time instead of many things over short sections of time.
• Understand why batching is important for the creative process and why these long periods of time can unlock more potential.
• What does it mean to be a successful creative in this era of social media and constant distractions, and how to combat this?
• Learn why Peter’s best piece of advice is to be defensive with your time, and how simply saying “no” more often has helped him succeed.
• Peter finds spending his time on vastly different projects brings him the most excitement. Why is that, and how does he implement that with his work?
• Find out what first motivated Peter to design his courses for Sketch and how that has changed the design world.
• Learn Peter’s top tips for batching to work on your side project while working a full time job.
• What was the best advice that Peter had and how reflecting on each project to find out what role you want business.
• Find out how Peter gained his following, and how Medium helped his content launch to a greater level of acknowledgement.
• What pushed Peter to launch Sketch Master? Find out how the launch was done by Sketch themselves.
• Understand the importance of having others test your product pre-launch and how that feedback is critical for success.

Links from the show

• Peter’s website
• Sketch Master
• Peter’s Medium
• Link to An Event Apart
• Peter’s Twitter (@pnowelldesign)
• (15% off) Discount on course

Transcript If you'd like to read the full text of this episode, you can 

 download the transcript. 

I Love this podcast - now what?

Show your love #1 - Talk: Talk about it with friends and get the word out! We started this podcast in order to learn, and would love to see others learn from it too. 

Show your love #2 - Leave a review: Review us on iTunes and tell us which guest you'd like us to bring on the show next. Here's how:

• Open the iTunes Store on your computer/phone
• Search for "The Hacking UI Podcast"
• Once you're in the podcast page, click/tap on "Reviews"
• Click/tap on "Write a Review"
• Rate us and write a short comment. Let us know what other guest you'd like us to bring on the show.
• Check out the following image to help describe the process

Show your love #3 - Share: Share this page on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you can :) 

About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences and secrets to success.