Meeting with Cyril, UX-UI Designer at UX Republic.

Cyril has a thousand and one ideas a second!
Technophile at heart, this jack-of-all-trades achieves daily goals and always goes further than expected! You can talk to him about everything, curious about what (and those) around him on a daily basis, on assignment and at the agency. It should be noted that he brings together UX Republic consultants around him during a monitoring and sharing point. Great autodidact, something he does not know will not be able to scare him, on the contrary! He will persist in understanding and learning.

I invite you to discover our exchange around his career, his current mission and his interests.

Hello Cyril, can you present your background in a few words?

I have a fairly junior profile because I have just finished two years of work-study in a French multinational in the water sector. I was in the Innovation Lab. An enriching experience because I was able to test and learn a lot of things within the teams.

The methodologies (Agile, UX, Design Thinking and others) were rather new in their organization. So it allowed me to evolve and discover all these notions.

Did you immediately start your work-study program with UX Republic?

I thought I would continue but they froze recruitment at the time of the health crisis. So I took a 6-month break which allowed me to redefine my life projects. And then, in September 2021, I actually joined the UX Republic teams.

Since your arrival at UX Republic, what have been your missions?

I have been on assignment in a surety and guarantee organization since my arrival at the agency.

I have lots of questions about your mission, we can come back to them later. Before that, how would you define yourself professionally speaking?

I'm pretty hands-on. I don't have a UX or UI stopped profile. You should know that before working in the design part, I did both web and industrial development, mainly front-end.

And even today these are things that interest me. I did Angular training and I plan to train on Vue.js soon.

I like the whole package. This is what interested me in UX Design. When I discovered UX, four or five years ago, I noticed that there was all the aesthetic part, the development side, project management and the Human upstream. It's this globality that interested me and that's why I chose this path, even if in the end, I do very little development.

What path did you go through to have this 360 vision? What did you do for higher education?

After my electronic baccalaureate, I did a first year of electronic BTS to design printed cards, for computers for example.

But I quickly realized that I didn't like it so I preferred to stop. I did a language degree (English, Dutch and Spanish).

One day, for a Spanish presentation on the theme of the web, I did some research and I came across the zero site. That's when I experimented with web development.

You put your hands in the code as they say?

In fact, I quickly realized that I had gotten lost in the zero site and that I had completely stopped this famous Spanish presentation! I developed, developed, developed!

Suddenly, I stopped my license and I left for BTS web development and industry (both web and network, VoIP, configuring servers and virtual machines, etc.).

I saw general development. Front (HTML, CSS, JS, Jquery) and back (C, C#, C++, …) development.

 

Did you already have a preference for web development?

Yes quite quickly because it was much more visual. But I was fine with it remaining global and seeing lots of different things.

I did a 6-week internship where I was able to do some development, both industry and web. I had to automate a network. It confirmed my choice.

When I discover something that I like, I struggle for several months until I saturate my brain and then I want to move on. I am someone who gets tired very quickly!

Did you feel that you had gone all the way and that you had to take a new turn, towards UX?

Now that I knew a little about development, I wanted to move towards something more aesthetic (webdesign, graphic charter, logo creation, etc.).

I joined the Web International School in Lille to do a Bachelor's degree. I discovered CX and I was also able to take courses in communication, marketing, crisis management and project management. And there were also development courses (Angular and Symfony for example). It was the CX courses that really fascinated me.

Then, I did a Master's degree at the IESA Multimedia in Paris, with a work-study program for two years. Having one day of school per week against 4 days at work motivated me.

What do you like the most, on a daily basis, in your job?

Team organization, coordination and implementation of the poles. I worked a lot on my own to improve my productivity and avoid wasting time in my days.

During my previous mission, there were some gaps in communication, tools and organization. And suddenly, I was able to propose things and take these improvements in hand when I arrived.

A few weeks ago, we both discussed your wish to organize sharing sessions within UX Republic, to share our methodologies and our methods of organization. Where are you with this project?

I would like to create like tribes at UX Republic with a cross table according to everyone's knowledge. And thus, allow everyone to contact an expert in a field.

You share with us your preference for the whole organizational part, do you also lead co-design workshops?

 

At the very beginning of my mission, we worked a lot on “quick wins” so I had set up weekly “Crazy 8” workshops. These are workshops that allowed us to work on concrete things and present our ideas.

But it's true that I'm more in the organization and in the process rather than in the animation and the restitution of workshops.

Is there someone who inspires you on a daily basis to create and offer efficient work methodologies?

I read the book Creativity.INC where we are told the secrets of the success of the founder of Pixar, Ed Catmull.

He explains to us that he wanted to create a 100% virtual feature film from a very young age. And Toy Story came out. Following this, he says he has accomplished a life goal and asks himself the question “what do I do now?”.

He has transformed the Pixar company into a place of creativity where he accompanies people to create their own atmosphere. And even all the decoration took again the universe of films. Put yourself in a sufficient atmosphere to get out of the work environment a little but still be productive.

This is something that I think is very important but still too neglected.

Would you say you need a different environment to work and be more productive?

It offers proximity when you work in places like Pixar. I need a slightly different environment, not to be in a rut. I find it works well.

What made you want to join UX Republic?

It is a whole and at the same time it is chance. When I discovered UX, I learned a lot from the UX Republic blog posts and had purchased the UX Cards. And so I had the agency in mind.

When I started my work-study program, we were looking for training and so we started looking for a training centre. As I already knew UX Republic, I immediately proposed the agency to the teams.
So we took a training course that went very well on UX Design and Design Thinking. Training with our own project and organization as a red thread.

Time passed and then the teams contacted me via Linkedin.

So can we talk about a nice meeting?

It's a reputable agency with a good image and I had a good impression of the teams during the training and then when I had my interview.

How do we live with studies and entering the world of work during a global health crisis?

During my studies, I had lots of projects in mind! I wanted to travel and develop my passion for photography while working on projects with my macbook at the end of the world. I told myself that leaving for a year could allow me to see lots of new things and to evolve.

The Covid arrived and all these projects were blocked. So, I signed up for lots of training, I did the day before, I discovered tools, …

And after a lot of questioning and developing all that knowledge, I got an opportunity at UX Republic.

Since the beginning of our exchange, you talk to us a lot about tools and monitoring, it's a perfect transition to talk about your initiative to create a community around monitoring within UX Republic.

How did you come up with this idea?

When I join a company, I don't come to do my job and that's it. I need to create a link with my colleagues.

The tool and the sharing of the day before, I thought it already existed at UX Republic (via UX days, meetups, …) but that was no longer the case.

I missed these moments of sharing but instead of being passive and waiting for it to come back, I preferred to initiate a new event that could speak to everyone.

If we talk a bit about your mission, can you explain to us what you are working on?

In this organization of sureties and guarantees, there are several sites. For my part, I am working on the redesign of the institutional site which includes all the other sites.

We will soon be launching user research to determine how users will be able to find answers to their questions on their own.

At the same time, there is ongoing standardization work. We work, thanks to a Design System, on quick wins.

And in terms of organization?

I added this task to myself to improve and eliminate organizational problems. We try to make the team more agile (thanks to the definition of roles, ceremonies, etc.) and to set up reports at meetings with the expected actions.

From a design perspective, what design methodology do you work with?

These are still ongoing discussions.
I prepared for them a comparison of the methodologies according to the needs (teams, tools, advantages and disadvantages) and the objective of the project.

Can you imagine yourself in the long term within this mission?

Basically, as I was telling you, I get bored very quickly but with my client, ultimately, not at all.

You could say that I have several missions within my mission. And I have carte blanche to evolve and offer lots of things.

If tomorrow your mission ends, which sector could interest you?

I do not put any filter on the theme, however if I can make my choice, I would like to return to an Innovation Lab as during my work-study program.

In a Lab, there is a good atmosphere and we are spread over a lot of subjects and that's exactly what I like!

Cyril, we have almost finished our exchange. We still have a few questions more about your tastes than your experiences.

For example, the first, are you more into UX design, UI design, User Research, development?

I would say UI Design.

Do you prefer iOS or Android?

Android, I'm a Google pro!
Besides, if you come to my place, they are everywhere! Nest audio, Nest wifi, cameras, Pixel 5, routers, …). I have the whole Google store!

Are you also more comfortable with Google guidelines and ergonomics?

Yes. But, in comparison with Apple, it is also the product vision. Apple when they release a product everything is clean and quality. But what I like best about Google is how the products work together, from a global point of view.

When you work, do you like to listen to music or watch videos?

In general, more music, depending on the mood. And right now, I'm updating on all the series in the background.

Do you have a book, film or documentary on digital to recommend to us?

The Snowden movie (there is also a documentary). We are talking about the agent Edward Snowden who worked at the NSA and who swayed on the system of illegal information collection in the United States.

Cyril, we have finished our discussion, thank you for taking your time to share your journey with us. Before we leave, do you want to add something that we haven't covered?

In April, I led a UX Republic Masterclass on the Notion tool. Stay tuned for the future External Meetup on this topic!

 

 

Image sources: https://undraw.co/illustrations

Alexa Cuellar, UX Designer @UX-Republic

 

Our next trainings