InVision

In this episode, we talk about how frontend development has changed over the past 20 years, and how to keep on learning new skills, with Crysfel Villa, Senior Software Engineer at InVision, and backend lead at Coding Coach. Crysfel talks about how he navigated his english language barrier learning to code 20 years ago, how putting himself out there through blogs and remote and on-site teaching led to the most opportunities, and how he ended up diving into being a backend lead, even with his primary experience being a frontend developer. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) InVision Coding Coach HTML Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) JavaScript C++ C PHP Learning Ext JS 4 Integrated development environment (IDE) JSON Node.js Application programming interface (API) GraphQL Stack Overflow Object-oriented programming Functional programming webpack Crysfel Villa Crysfel Villa is a senior software engineer at InVision, and backend lead at Coding Coach. He has over 20 years of experience with more than 9 years of working with JavaScript on a daily basis.

Crysfel Villa

Senior Software Engineer

InVision

On this episode Abadesi talks to Matthew Paul, software product designer, researcher, and front-end engineer. He’s a former product designer at InVision, he’s worked on software and design systems at IBM, and has designed prototypes at Apple. In this episode they talk about... The open-source design project he’s working on, and how to make good design more accessible “As a designer you always have to bring the customer back to the conversation, and you have to invite the engineers, product directors, VPs, into your conversations with the customers, and let them hear what the customers have to say.” Matthew points out that type is being used on screens in more and more places these days, including in non-traditional places like in heads-up displays in vehicles and in VR headsets. He says that it’s important to make sure that good type is accessible to everyone, everywhere, and explains how the project he’s working on will enable that. Common design pitfalls to avoid and advice for working with designers “Seriously, don’t be afraid to ask for help. At a decent company, at a decent place, no one’s gonna get dinged for asking for help. You’re going to get dinged, not right away, but you’re going to get dinged if you don’t. You just end up burning out or not doing a good job at any of the things.” He runs through a bunch of different common mistakes that people make when they’re designing a product or working with a design team. He walks through some projects in the past that he’s been a part of that didn’t work out as intended and what the key issues turned out to be on those teams. “Don’t run a design sprint unless you actually know what it is and how to do it and have a plan to make it successful.” He explains the right ratio of designers to software engineers, saying that you want to usually have one designer for every eight software engineers. He also talks about the pitfalls of running a design sprint without really knowing what you’re doing. He also talks about what it means to be “neuro-atypical” and why we need more inclusion of different thinking, learning, and communication styles in the workplace. “They expect them to be a certain person, to fit a certain mold, to have good executive functioning, to have a set of cognitive processes that allow you to work in a linear fashion. The fact is, our brains are not all built that way. That’s neurodiversity.” How he’s working on his personal development and where he learns the most “I try to meet new people. I literally have gotten every single job that I’ve ever had through Twitter, just through them reaching out to me, me reaching out to them, and introductions happening that way.” Matthew explains the evolution in his thinking over time on how best to keep up with the latest trends in design and says that he used to follow all the blogs very closely when he was younger but has moved away from that as he’s grown as a designer. He offers a book recommendation if you’re interested in getting into typography, and says that he learns the most from other people. He tries to travel often to be exposed to new people and talk to them in person about what they’re working on. “I think I just learn the most from meeting new people and hearing what they’re working on — taking a little spark of what they’re working on and seeing if I can include that in my work.” We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Headspin Mobile for their support. 😸 Books and Products Recommended in This Episode 1Password — Save your passwords and logins with one click. AirPods Pro — New AirPods with active noise cancellation. Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli Headspace Sleep — Sleep section of the popular meditation app. Magnet — Window manager for Mac. Simplenote — Simple, lighter alternative to Evernote.

Matthew Paul

Product Designer and Front-End Engineer

InVision

Clark Valberg is the Founder & CEO @ InVision, the digital product design platform powering the world's best user experiences. To date, Clark has raised over $350m with InVision from some of the world-leading investors including Iconiq, Spark Capital, Accel, Battery Ventures, Tiger Global, FirstMark and even Atlassian. Prior to founding InVision, Clark spent 8 years as the Co-Founder of Epicenter Consulting, a leading web application design business. If that was not enough, Clark is also a leading angel with a portfolio including Algolia, Voiceflow, Unsplash and BentoBox, just to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Clark made his way from running a successful design agency to fundamentally changing the way designers design products and consumer experience them through InVision? 2.) Why does Clark believe that all aspiring entrepreneurs questions have a false premise? What is the fundamental false premise of entrepreneurship? How does Clark assess the importance of vision and mission over alternate elements? What advice does Clark give to the many aspiring entrepreneurs that ask for his advice? 3.) How does Clark think about market timing today as an entrepreneur? How does Clark think investors should approach and think about market timing? How does Clark look to measure impact not just size of the market? How has angel investing changed Clark's operating mentality as an entrepreneur with InVision? 3.) Why does Clark believe that enlightenment is a daily task? What does Clark do to fundamentally make himself present enough to appreciate those inflection points and moments of enlightenment? How can everyone use note-taking to gain this level of self-consciousness? How are the notes structured? What routine needs to be built around them? 4.) How does Clark think about taking the time to appreciate the milestones that are achieved? Why do we have to make celebrating a ritual? What can be done to ensure these moments of company and personal growth are recognised? What have been Clark's biggest moments of realisation on this theme? 5.) With InVision being an almost fully remote team, what have been Clark's biggest breakthroughs in making it work so well with his marriage and his family? What are "date days"? How does Clark use them to ensure the right balance of work and romance? What has Clark found to be the weirdest thing of operating a 900-person remote firm? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Clark's Fave Book: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: The Battle for Your Mind As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Clark on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Clark Valberg

Founder and CEO

InVision