Amazon Design

Laura Katz is a Principal Designer for AWS’s Network Security. Laura works on customer experience at the intersection of security and AI. Check out Laura’s perspectives! 🎤 What inspires you? I was often told as a child that because I was strong in science and math classes and picked up concepts quickly that I was going to become a doctor and my interests should align with that. But I also loved playing instruments, writing music and making art. I felt conflicted growing up, like I was not allowed to like or do those things. One day I picked up a biography of Leonardo da Vinci. It explained how his passion for sciences and invention made him a better artist and vice versa, that his ability to master those fields individually made him better at all of them holistically. I took that and ran with it. I was able to think beyond what was expected of me to wonder what I could design and build if I see the world across these different chasms. These cross sections of skills in math, engineering, design, art and psychology have led me to the field I’m in today, and I’ve loved every minute of it. 🎤 What is the biggest design challenge you face in your space? How can we design products that keep customers safe in the constantly evolving landscape of AI. 🎤 Share a dream project you're working on. I used to specialize in installation art pieces. I’ve done a couple installations in museums around the country. Several years ago I dreamt up a plan of an interactive light display that played with colors, tones, and physical sculptures as well as buildings. Someday I hope to turn my installation plans into reality. 🎤 What advice do you have for designers? Align yourself with people, not just projects. Even the most fascinating and innovative work can be challenging if you're not in sync with your team. Your daily growth, enjoyment, and long-term satisfaction in a role depends significantly on the people around you. When you find the right team, you'll naturally want to stay longer. 🎤 What do you do after work? I am a baker, I make excellent breads, pies, cookies, etc.. and I love watching the British Baking Show. My family loves all the treats. I am also an avid reader and an artist. I am from Buffalo, so I am also a big Buffalo Bills fan, WSU alumni (Go Cougs!). And I am always game for an adventure, I have ran marathons, climbed mountains, rappelled off of waterfalls in the rainforest, ziplined across ravines, paraglided, sailed, and so much more. But my biggest adventure these days is being Mom to two amazing boys. #AmazonDesign 

Very cool updates to Prime Video UX! Check it out below. 👇

Colleen Creighton is a UX Designer for Amazon Books. Check out her story and work designing Kindle Achievements! 🎤 Why did you join Amazon? What keeps you here? - The team: the Books Design Studio has exceptionally empathetic leaders with a clear mission. The charter of the team I joined was also inspiring - helping people read more and get more out of reading. I was drawn to the problem space of trying to figure out how to keep reading relevant in the golden age of content. - Amazon as a whole: The impact and successes Amazon has had across so many industries at scale is something I wanted to understand and experience first-hand. - What keeps me here: The culture of innovation, the energy, and the entrepreneurial spirit keeps me here. The degree of customer obsession is at the core of everything we do, not just within design, but across all roles at Amazon, which is unrivaled by most organizations. 🎤 What’s your favorite project? The first project I worked on was a reading engagement program - Kindle Achievements - using gamification to help customers grow a regular reading habit. The goal was to encourage customers to read more regularly and reward them with achievement badges in the form of bookmarks. I witnessed the program evolve from an experiment to an evergreen initiative, eventually launching internationally! This program motivated customers to read more frequently and has cultivated a loyal following that is active on social media. 🎤 What’s your favorite creative tool? Stretching the definition of “tool” - my favorite method is going someplace new, disconnecting, and taking my mind off of the problem. My best ideas come when I least expect it while going for a run or a hike, or skiing down a mountain. 🎤 How do you generate creative ideas? Environment is a big factor for me - sometimes it’s as simple as switching rooms, going outside, or redecorating my work space. 🎤 What recharges your creativity? Traveling - experiencing new places, different cultures, different ways of life. 🎤 Share a fact about you that isn’t on your LinkedIn profile! I’m a mom to 3 boys under age 5! They are constantly reminding me about raw creativity and using imagination to conceive of wild ideas. 🎤 What’s something you want to do that you’ve never done? A triathlon! If I can ever find the time to train, I’ve always wanted to compete in one. 🎤 What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in your career? - Never stop learning - there’s always more to learn - from leaders, from customers, from peers. - Embrace failure - learning from failures, and applying them to the next idea is part of the process that leads to growth. - Innovation isn’t always creating new things - it can be incrementally doing old things in new ways. Sometimes we think our job is to define a grandiose forward looking vision. But great #design can also manifest itself as rethinking things in small ways, iterating, and inventing micro-solutions that can compound.

Are you a design manager? Azim Ali is hiring! Check out the details and links below! 🙌

Don't Miss the Latest Episode of Black Stories Podcast Featuring Amber Davis, Director of UX Research at Audible! Join us as Amber shares her journey and insights on negotiation. In this episode, Amber delves into her personal experiences and offers practical strategies for effective negotiation. She highlights the importance of thorough research, setting clear goals, and maintaining confidence even in the face of fear. Amber also underscores the value of finding a job and company that resonate with your values and interests. At Audible, her work involves understanding people's experiences and conveying their stories to decision-makers, which she finds incredibly meaningful. Amber's story is a powerful reminder to reflect on your achievements and to negotiate not just for salary, but for other significant benefits as well. Tune in to learn how to advocate for yourself in your career and gain valuable insights from Amber’s experiences. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dm33Zrqq

Mark Nader is a Senior UX designer for Amazon Devices. Check out his experience, passions, and learn more about what he does at work! 🎤 Why did you join Amazon? Amazon’s innovative culture and the scale of the work we’re able to do is what brought me here. I’m also constantly meeting incredibly intelligent and talented individuals and working alongside them. Seeing how they work has been educational and inspiring, to say the least. 🎤 How did you get involved with design? Going to school in Industrial Design sparked my love for design and, while in school, our class had to redesign a pedometer, which required a lot of UX-type work. I fell in love with it, so after graduating, I went to a UX bootcamp, got an internship, and had a lot of incredible instructors, mentors, and colleagues that helped me build an exciting career in UX! 🎤 How do you generate creative ideas? I did theater and improv in high school and learned the ‘yes, and...’ principle, where you can never say ‘no’ to someone’s idea, you have to go with it, no matter what. We also did an exercise in college where we took two unrelated concepts and had to come up with as many product ideas as possible. I found that combining this exercise with the ‘yes, and...’ principle helps me generate a ton of ideas. One of the worst things you can do during ideation is shut yourself off from a train of thought. Build upon previous ideas and when you feel yourself running dry, throw in some randomness with novel concepts and see how those seemingly unrelated concepts can provide inspiration to the specific problem you’re trying to solve. 🎤 What do you do after work? Most of my hobbies revolve around the mountains, sports and food. A good friend of mine got me into trail running when we lived in Washington and I love going on runs out here in Colorado. Camping and hiking with my family, playing basketball, finding the world’s best burger, and watching the Nuggets win the NBA championship are some of my favorite things! 🎤 What do you draw inspiration from? The precision, magnificence, and complexity of nature has always inspired me as a designer. I had a professor say that ‘simplicity is found on the other side of complexity’, meaning that a product or process will never be truly simple unless you’ve worked through all of the complexities first. My experience on the Just Walk Out team taught me this. It’s such a simple product, but designing a way for people to ‘Just Walk Out’ of a store is incredibly complicated. But that’s our role as designers, to take the complexity away from the customer, work through it, and provide a simple experience on the other end. #Amazon #Design

Pottery serves as more than a hobby for Rob Strong, the Director of Futures Design for Amazon's Devices and Design Group. The communal environment of Pottery Northwest in Seattle offers him a space for reflection and creativity, fostering a sense of community that he brings to his role at Amazon. Take a look at Rob's journey to see how he nurtures passion to inspire his work: https://lnkd.in/gtnijhuP #Amazon #design

Amazon UX Design Manager Kasia Wasko has worked in User Experience Design for over 15 years. Recently, she internally transferred from Search and Conversational AI design to lead a design team at IMDb, driving impact to fans and industry professional alike. We spoke with her about how she continues her growth as a design leader and people manager in a new space. 🎤 How have you grown at Amazon? In my time at Amazon, I have owned and developed CX solutions for A to Z, Job Creator, Alexa Shopping List and Search. Amazon has challenged me to think big, develop trust and stronger partnerships across organizations, and seek opportunities to deliver an ideal customer experience. My intent as a design leader is to cultivate a team of advocates that elevate the craft, take ownership and continue to innovate towards an ideal customer experience. 🎤 What is the biggest design challenge you face in IMDb? There has been a lot of change in Hollywood since the pandemic - at IMDb, we seek to evolve and innovate with the needs of our business, our customers and the industry. While we learn how to best serve a global community of entertainment fans, creators, and professionals, we have a great opportunity to use new technology to innovate in a rapidly evolving space. IMDb has been implementing personalization, driving stronger relevance in the customer experience as an entertainment guide. We are making it easy for our customers to share opinions on their passions and connect with like-minded fans to discover the next entertainment. 🎤 What do you love about your team? I deeply appreciate the passion and enthusiasm within every designer to make a positive impact to our customer’s day to day lives. The IMDb team is thoughtful and curious in their approach to customer problems, and equally, they support one another in challenges that arise. 🎤 Tell us a fact that isn’t on your LinkedIn profile! While I grew up in the States, my parents both emigrated to California from Poland in the mid 1980’s. I learned English as a second language, and I grew up speaking Polish as my first language with my family. Growing up, I spent most summers with family in Poland, and I would return to the US for the school year. Navigating a multi-cultural world has given me a deep appreciation for the differences that shape our view of the world, our perspective and our approach. As a design leader, I intentionally seek to support a team culture that celebrates inclusivity and diversity. 🎤 What do you do after work? I enjoy hiking through the woods, and exploring the beaches around the Pacific Northwest with my dog, Sabina. I explore breaks and surf with friends, and of course, I enjoy checking out local music around Seattle. During my surf adventures, I will always sketch the beaches, woods, animals, and botanicals around me. #Amazon #design

♻️ Designing for the future!

Katy Hamill refers to herself as a “chaos wrangler”. She works at Amazon as a Senior Program Manager on the AWS Customer Experience Operations (CX Ops) team, where she creates project processes, policies, and structures with clear timelines, goals, roles, and communication. She resolves issues, streamlines workflows, and aligns everyone for efficient work. Check out her story! 🎤 How do you express yourself at #Amazon? I co-lead a chapter of the Inclusion Ambassador Program, which empowers Amazonians to champion an inclusive workplace for all. I LOVE people, and am always working to be more open, welcoming, and loving to those around me (and myself). I see inclusion work as an extension of that. I firmly believe diversity of thought is essential for impactful work, and I love that this program gives me a chance to promote that. 🎤 How did you get involved with design? HA! I have never been one to take a direct route in life; I love the journey more than the destination. I come from a family of creatives and makers going back a few generations. I tried to go to school for an art degree, but couldn’t figure out how to turn what I loved doing (creating, making) into a paying career that would support the life I wanted. After 12 years, 2 community colleges, and 3 universities (for real!), I finally graduated from UT Austin with a degree in International Relations, focusing on media, culture, and the arts, with a minor in Turkish culture and history. I spent years working in the international cultural exchange industry, running programs for foreign university students to come to the U.S. for temporary summer jobs and internships. I took a COVID break to work at a friend’s furniture restoration shop, where I solved less abstract, more structural problems to bring gorgeous antiques back to life. Then a brief stint at an Austin-based cybersecurity startup, before AWS Design found me, and it all sort of came together: people, inclusion, tech, and creative problem solving. 🎤 Tell us something that isn’t on your LinkedIn profile! My partner and I are rebuilding a 1993 Harley Sportster, nicknamed Pamela, which will be my first motorcycle. She’s currently a pile of engine and frame parts in the garage, but she'll look completely different when we're done. 🎤What do you do after work? I enjoy making things, playing with my plants, kayaking, spending time with my teenager, walking in nature, caring for chickens, watching movies, taking road trips, and trying new things. I'm also in my fourth year of crocheting a popcorn garland for our large Christmas tree—had I known the time commitment, I doubt I'd have started! But I also enjoy the tediousness. 🎤 How do your passions align with your job? I organize everything: refrigerators and cabinets, the garage, neighborhood events, volunteer activities, our gigantic collection of tools, multi-country vacations. I love creating systems for how things work together, which translates well to design operations.