Developer experience is at the core of everything we do here at Mux. We hired our first designer early on and have continued to invest in Product Design over the years. This year the team will more than double in size in order to keep pace with all of the new features and products that we plan to deliver to our customers. We thought this would be a great time to introduce our Product Designers to the world so you can get to know the folks behind the experience.
The team, and their favorite GIFs:
Heidi Slater, Senior Product Designer, Mux Data:
Jason Petz, Staff Product Designer, Mux Platform Experience:
Jenny Mahmoudi, Senior Product Designer, Mux Video
Diana Brown, Product Design Director (👋 that's me!)
Why are you a designer?
Heidi: My initial interest in design was motivated by an interest in psychology, and when I discovered it was all about problem-solving, I knew I’d found the right fit. I also need variety in my day-to-day and design is so interdisciplinary that I feel I’m using different skills each day, which is really satisfying.
Jason: I’ve always enjoyed solving puzzles, and I wanted a career where I could have a direct impact on people’s lives. Design lets me tackle tough, convoluted problems, all while focusing on making life better for the end-user. It’s the perfect blend.
Jenny: I ask a lot of questions and I love solving problems. It turns out those are pretty useful as both an engineer and a designer, but after trying both I can say I much prefer the latter.
What are your favorite types of design problems to work on?
Heidi: I love complex workflows, with multiple account states, plans, and user roles to consider. I like the challenge of ensuring that one feature or interface works well across these different contexts. It’s so natural to consider a single happy path, and I enjoy the mental exercise of considering all of the states outside of that.
Jason: I love visualizing complex information. It is often a two-fold problem: how do we present mountains of data in an easy-to-understand and engaging way, and how do we structure it so that viewers are able to take meaningful action from the data presented? Achieving this balance between understanding and action is always a welcomed challenge.
Why did you choose to join the Mux design team?
Jason: With Mux democratizing video for any and all engineers, there are great opportunities for design to not only impact and shape our products but to bring greater sophistication and know-how to the ever-growing diverse range of engineers.
Jenny: I was looking for a company that valued design, which ultimately meant a company focused on user value. One of the Mux company values is “Turn customers into fans” - not just happy customers, but *fans*. This made it clear to me that Mux wants to succeed by making their users successful, and that’s what design is all about.
What is your favorite notebook or writing implement?
Heidi: Theoretically a red Moleskine grid notebook, but really mostly use scrap paper. For pens, a Uni-ball 207 gel pen.
Jason: Legal pads and free pens.
Jenny: MOO hardcover notebook, for its lay flat-ability, and Muji gel pens.
What are some of the challenges in designing user experiences for developers?
Heidi: One of the fun challenges of working on a developer product is that much of the customer experience occurs outside of the UI, through integrating with APIs or SDKs. That complicates the workflows. This requires you to actively focus on keeping the customer’s end goal in mind, and understand how the interface you’re designing fits into accomplishing that goal.
Jenny: Developers often need the ability to configure options to integrate with a variety of tools and processes, but not necessarily for the first time use of a product. One of the most common challenges I see in developer tools is balancing that configuration flexibility with an opinionated workflow that helps users get value as quickly as possible.
Describe the culture around collaboration between Product Design, Product Management, and Engineering at Mux.
Jason: Good design is a balancing act between customer needs, technical requirements, and business realities. None of this is possible without deep collaboration with product managers, engineers, and customers. We know this at Mux, and not only do we care obsessively about the customer, we care about each and every colleague’s take on a problem. Doing so ensures that we are addressing any problem from every angle.
Heidi: One aspect of collaboration at Mux that I think is great is having designers, PMs, and engineers all involved in the discovery process, so we’re aligned as a team on the problem that we’re solving. As I’m working through design iterations and getting feedback from engineers, having that shared context leads to a better discussion on what will ensure the best experience for customers.
Exciting work ahead
We can’t wait to keep filling up our Moleskines, MOO notebooks, and legal pads with ideas on how we can build better experiences for developers. Our design team is growing fast and we have open roles to fill with enthusiastic and skilled designers. But we aren’t the only ones! We have a whole team at Mux that’s committed to solving the hard problems of video for developers. Check out our open roles and join us!
