Meet Stina Janson, UX Director at Schibsted Products & Technology, on a typical day at work. Stina leads a team of 40+ UX’ers, designers and researchers in News Media.
How does your workday start?
After reading the news and having breakfast I try to exercise in some sort of way, bicycling to the office or doing training at home. It makes the mind a bit clearer! After that I make myself a good cup of coffee and go through the objectives of the day.
Do you have any tips and tricks on how to learn and develop at a workplace?
Stay curious! Not only in your own field but stay updated in other fields as well. New tech, innovation, and storytelling are areas that have always been close to my heart, besides the UX field. Staying close to different areas drives new perspectives and new ideas that enriches your own products – and your life!
My latest course I took was The Duffer Brothers’ (creators of the TV Series ‘Stranger Things’) class on Masterclass – I highly recommend it!
Having a great team to learn from is also key! I have the privilege to work with fantastic people here, in my team, in the UX community, and with others colleagues! Everyday is a day to learn something new from each other.
Can you describe your closest team, interfaces and stakeholders at Schibsted?
My nearest team is my management team within the User Experience area. We are a team of six design- and research leaders plus one Process Manager & UX Strategist from both Norway and Sweden. They are the best, and I am so fortunate to have them as my colleagues!
I am also part of and work closely with a great product management team here. We are currently working on strategically important projects; for example, we are helping the organisation to work truly user-centric and work as empowered teams. We do that by getting a product development in place that ensures that we all have the knowledge to build products or services that really solve our users’ problems, (not only “nice to have”) but also provide great value for our business.
We are all working in a complex matrix, and by that we work with many different stakeholders daily. It’s absolutely crucial that we collaborate well to be able to create products that our users love and use.
How are you closing the workday?
One routine that I always do before ending the workday is to go through tomorrow’s schedule and take a final look at my inbox and Slack to ensure that there’s nothing urgent that needs to be taken care of before the day ends. If I work from home I pet my cat Milli (that usually is chilling in the cat tree beside me), trying to get some of her relaxing energy. Cats are really experts at relaxation! Then I go and hug my family.
