Meet the FinLeap-Team: Hyeona Yang, Senior UX/UI Designer

Hyeona Yang holds the position of Senior UX/UI Designer at FinLeap. She joined the company builder in September 2015.

Having lived in South Korea, Denmark, and now Germany, Hyeona loves the diversity at FinLeap. She believes that people can gain great insights from the variety of cultures, backgrounds and projects that come together at the office.

Hyeona Yang joined FinLeap in September 2015 as the Senior UX/UI Designer. As such she helps the ventures make better products by focusing on the user experience. She works closely with a business developer, a product manager and developers to fulfil all needed specifications for the design. Originally from South Korea, Hyeona brings with her a bachelor degree in Multimedia Design from Seoul and a Master’s in Interaction Design from Copenhagen. Berlin attracted her with numerous job opportunities, so she has been in the city for over four years. Today, we interviewed Hyeona about design, her previous experiences, and the ventures.

FinLeap.com: What attracted you to study design?

Hyeona: I like to make products that people love and use on a daily basis. I like to learn people’s behavior and design intuitive products that fit into our busy lives. In this field, there is always stuff to learn such as new software tools, communications skills, programming and new technology. I am lucky to be a part of it.

FinLeap.com: How does FinLeap differ from your previous jobs?

Hyeona: I used to work in a design agency where I had a client, a product and task, so I couldn’t always understand the needs of the customers in depth. At FinLeap, I have more responsibilities about a product, more engagement with the team, and gain a deep understanding of the ventures’ processes, so I can make insightful suggestions. We all sit together and share the knowledge within a team of different skills and expertise; it’s dynamic with many things to learn.

FinLeap.com: How do you collaborate with the ventures?

Hyeona: I join in the very beginning of the process. I take their business model and transform it into a tangible product through collaboration with the product team. I conduct user research to find users’ needs or problems and make a high-level prototype to test and validate the product with users throughout many iterations. I also help ventures pitch their ideas through setting up high-level prototypes to their investors and partners.

FinLeap.com: Describe something you recently worked on.

Hyeona: I recently worked with FinReach on a new, innovative project. They gave me product specifications and I turned them into a creative design. We iterated several times, tested with users and validated the solutions. Now it’s in the development phase, we are communicating closely with developers to understand their efforts and tweak UI solution together to meet the time and effort.

In her free time, Hyeona tries going to the gym every morning before work. She is also planning her wedding in Korea in September of this year.