In order to mature Web3 products, we have to expand beyond the early adopter audience.

Tell me something that’s true, that almost nobody agrees with you?

NFT art is a hoax 🙊 

How did you get interested in Web3 and what are you currently working on?

Just like most people I got hyped by media and friends. Some of my more tech savvy friends told me about crypto mining back in 2017. And I have heard that a friend of a friend of a friend made a fortune in trading crypto. Unfortunately, I haven’t made the right investment for early retirement. The good thing is that I didn't stop at buying hyped coins either. I had to study more about crypto. In my previous job, I worked at an IoT company that was experimenting with blockchain-encrypted smart locks (Sesame Labs in South Korea). I think that drew me more into the technology and made me look deeper into the Web3 world. As a hipster UX designer, I had to be one of the first people to try out more of this. And naturally, I got extremely excited when I got in touch with the Request team. In November 2021 Laure Sassus-Bourda has reached out to me. Given my plans to switch to Web3 and start working remotely, it was a perfect match. The digital X-Mas party was already in December when I met the whole team.

Currently, I’m working on expanding the toolset of Request. To the already existing invoicing feature, we’ve added salaries, escrow, expenses, and an automated invoicing streaming feature in collaboration with Superfluid.

Why did you join Request Finance?

As a UX designer, I get excited to find a great product in the rough. Like sort of a Marie Kondo but for a tech product I can reorganize and rewire based on the foundation that was already built. Just in general in Web3, most tools are made by developers for developers. And as one of the early UX designers in this field, I think that I have the chance to go somewhere where no UX designer has been before 🧑‍🚀. At Request I get the opportunity to try new things. As an example, we recently released the first expense app that allows crypto currency payments. Our company is the first to try that, as far as I know.

What’s the best thing about your job? The most challenging?

The best thing is to work with a dedicated team. I learn new things every day and get the honor of working with brilliant and fun people.

It’s also challenging to have to be learning new things every day. There are always obstacles to work around and at least partly I need to reinvent UX-related tasks to adapt to Web3.

Since finance deals with sensitive data, conducting usability tests is more challenging. It is important to consider the individual's needs in terms of wallets, tokens, and networks when making a choice. The challenge is to find solutions that fit individual needs while also keeping Request relevant for most users. Additionally, our users' knowledge base ranges from beginner to expert. We are creating different pools of users depending on what kind of test we want to run. - If you are a CFO interested in seeing new features or improving Request, please get in touch!

What separates someone who is adequate at product design from someone who is exceptional at this position?

The question makes me think of two books that have helped me a lot. The first one is “Crossing the chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore who talks about scaling a company while adjusting to different target audiences.

The other one is “Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug which teaches about creating products that are intuitive and user-centric. 

I think if you take the philosophy of both of these books seriously you are on the best way to becoming a really good product designer.

If you then are excited about what you are doing you are on the best way to being exceptional. Plus you have to know a whole bunch of stuff about product design just in general and you should be a good team player and also a good communicator…

If I really think about it, I guess there is no short answer or formula to becoming exceptional.

What was the one positive thing you underestimated before working in Web3?

Coming from an art school, I never thought I would have much to do with finance and tech. I think I had a certain cliche in mind about the people working in the industry. Like Accountants are boring and introverted or don’t have any creativity. And I can say that most of the cliches are not true.

What is missing from the Web3 ecosystem?

There is a lack of non-expert user-centric development. Most products get built within an expert bubble and have a hard time adapting to a mainstream audience. It’s just natural for Web3 companies to have strong dev teams. But in order to mature Web3 products, we have to expand beyond the early adopter audience.

Another thing is interoperability. If I look at CFO's workflows in the current ecosystem of finance tools, there are just too many hoops to jump through. There is no smooth and automated flow to make payments without a headache, yet.

What is the question that has not been asked here that you would have enjoyed reading the answer to from one of your peers? Answer it.

Why is it that there is a hyped crypto community but not all too many practical ways of spending in crypto?

What would it take to switch from fiat to crypto completely?

I can only guess. I think it has much to do with the mainstream adoption of crypto. If enough companies would start accepting crypto the trust would grow. And also there are all too many shady companies around who need to die off first.

What quote has actually stuck with you and changed your life?

I’m not much into quotes, to be honest.

Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one that rises against them and strikes back!

Or 

We must all face the choice between what is right, and what is easy.

Are both good quotes by Albus Dumbledore