PoojaMenon

– Senior Product Designer at HubSpot

“People ignore designs that ignore people” -Frank Chimero

  • Mentoring at UX Tree since September 2023
  • Based in Dublin, Ireland
Pooja Menon

About

“My name is Pooja Menon and I’m currently a Senior Product Designer at HubSpot. I have worked in the software industry for over a decade – from being a manual to automation test engineer, to being a software developer to my latest role as a Product Designer.

Over the years, no matter my role, I have always been passionate about delivering products that users love. It has been a long journey to becoming the Product Designer I am today, and it is no small part, thanks to the mentorship of my managers, senior designers, and my lecturers. And now I finally feel like I have enough experience to shape and guide future designers in their paths, to hopefully get them to a place where they love what they do, and have the skills to accompany it.

Top Skills

  • Design Ethnography
  • Joining design goals with business goals
  • Systems thinking
  • Interaction design

Favourite Topics

  • Research Methodologies
  • Design process
  • Product Strategy
  • Design tools

Mentoring Skills

  • Active listening
  • Constructive feedback
  • Portfolio review
  • Employer perspective

Working experience

HubSpot | Product Designer

Oct 2023 -Present

Intercom | Product Designer

I worked as a designer within the App Ecosystem team. App Ecosystem is a platform that extends the value of Intercom for customers with sophisticated communication workflows by enabling Intercom to integrate with 3rd party tools.

Feb 2022 -Oct 2023

Twilio | Product Designer

I worked as a design partner within the Billing platform to improve the interactions that customers, as well as internal Twilions, have with all things billing.

Sep 2020 -Feb 2022
My Portfolio
My LinkedIn

What led you to the world of UX?

“I learnt my first programming language when I was 13 years old and all I’d wanted since was to become a software developer. And I eventually became one.

Then, I realised I wanted a bigger voice to shape the direction of the products I worked on. I wanted to understand why we were building a feature, and I wanted to be more involved in developing creative solutions to solving those user problems. And that’s what lead me to the world of UX – a strong desire to build lovable products.”

What advice do you have for future mentees and UX designers?

“My biggest advice to future designers is to keep building on your empathy skills – empathy is what connects us to our users, and empathy is what will help us build products that solve real user problems. Always talk to your users, walk a mile in their shoes – do whatever you can to get a deep understanding of your user’s goals and motivations.