Jess - Product Design Lead at Resourcify | Meet Our Resourcians

Can you please introduce yourself and your role at Resourcify.

Hey, I’m Jessica Matz and I’m the Product Design Lead here at Resourcify. I’ve been here for about a year and a half now, and I essentially built the product design function from the ground up. I was the first designer back then but now there’s three of us, and hopefully we’ll continue to grow! It was very new and exciting to bring in a lot of new and nice things into the company, which really aligned with my vision, as I wanted to make impactful changes from the very beginning. And now I’m not the solo UX designer any more and have a team that is supportive and has the same vision of shaping the function and driving the direction of our company.

What do you think makes our company an attractive place to work for Product Designers or anyone who works with a Product? (Feel free to talk about your personal experiences here too!)

I think our company is a great place for Product Designers to work at because the function of product design is taken very seriously. UX isn’t an afterthought, but rather an important part of the process. I also love that you’re able to run through open doors. In companies I previously worked with, the UX function may not have had a big standing or impact. However, here at Resourcify, there are no barriers, and it’s much easier to make suggestions for improvements, and have people listen to you and take your feedback, make those changes and run with it.?

And of course there’s the sustainability aspect. I believe we practise what we preach and in the end even the worst most polluting companies would do better by utilising our product and services, and that’s very nice, I love that.

Can you please describe your approach to leading and motivating a team?

I see myself as a democratic collaborative leader. Being a leader, to me, is like being a gardener. So I provide the breeding ground, fertiliser and a healthy environment so that my team can grow, mature and blossom. I don’t see myself as a leader that needs to trim and prune my team all the time, rather I like to provide my team with a lot of space within the right conditions. All in all, I do that by putting my team, their ambitions, and needs first.?

What qualities do you think a Resourcian should embody?

That’s a good question! When I recruit for my team, I definitely appreciate people who are positive and motivated. From a design perspective, it’s important that they also strongly value thinking ethically, and that they always consider accessibility and inclusivity. So I might throw my team and candidates a ball and ask them questions just so I can learn about their perspectives and their ideas, understand how they think.

I also think it’s important that we don’t just hire for pure skills, but for potential also. You can see who is super eager to learn and who is motivated, and it’s important to cultivate these people who have a willingness to learn. You can always learn a new skill, but the right mindset is a great driver for growth.

What excites you most about working at Resourcify?

This sounds a little nerdy but honestly, I love waste! I’m a waste nerd. Years before I joined Resourcify, I began my own zero-waste journey, and I phrase it as a journey because I wouldn’t say I’ve been the most consistent there, but I also don’t think it’s fair to put all of the pressure on the end consumer to be perfect zero-wasters. My personal value set fits Resourcify really well.

Another thing that excites me about working at Resourcify is that even though I’m a digital designer, we’re still close to the real world and are making real impacts on pressing societal and environmental problems. In my previous role, I felt detached from the real world as everything I created was purely utilised online, but now with Resourcify, I feel like I can get closer to reality as we have created and continue to develop a product that is designed to make real and positive impacts in our physical environments.

What advice would you give to younger women just entering the tech workforce today?

I’ve seen women feel insecure around me and have felt insecure in my own personal experiences. I struggled with imposter syndrome for some time, because I was applying for and getting jobs that were outside of my comfort zone. You’ve got to stick with it, learn and get through the growth period to extend your comfort zone. It is a stressful time, but through my growth, at least for me, I started building my confidence in that new challenging role and the imposter syndrome stopped.

So, don’t wait for others to pave the way for you. There’s no use in being intimidated by job descriptions and settling in, finding reasons why something can’t work. Be cocky and fake it till you make it. If you have confidence in yourself and have the potential, then the rest can be learnt.

Another piece of advice is to always hold space for other women, empower them and offer advice when you can. I strongly recommend getting into coaching and carefully choosing someone who you believe would be the best mentor for you. This is an important step as you want to take lead on your learning and not let the decision be made for you.

Finally, be gentle and accepting of yourself. Allowing yourself to be mediocre is perfectly good enough as it’ll give yourself time to grow. The more you learn and experience, your standards will grow alongside you.

What is your most important leadership skill?

I think it’s super important to put your team first. Having a high performing and happy team will exponentially increase the impact that you can have with your function. Even if I’m a good designer, if I can have two more people, that triples our capacity. Then of course, I want them to do their best work so that I can make my own contribution less important and take pressure off myself. I definitely want my reports to thrive and I take time to nurture that.?

Are there ways you implement circularity and sustainability into your daily life?

Yes definitely! As I said before, Resourcify really aligns with my personal values towards sustainability and my own zero-waste journey. So I’m actively buying less, buying used, cycling instead of driving, keeping my square footage small. I eat less animal products and practise less waste habits like freezing veggie scraps for veggie stock, using solid shampoos and package-free/plastic-free products and buying in bulk from package-free store. I even utilise an organic delivery service from local farmers so that we get fresh local fruits and vegetables regularly delivered, package-free.

While thinking about producing less waste is a good standard to set for yourself as an individual, it’s important to reiterate that all responsibility shouldn’t fall on the end consumers. It’s still very limited what you have control over, especially when you take your financial and time capacity into consideration. It’s all an investment.?

This is why it’s necessary that consumers put more pressure on politicians and their governments to take climate action and we’re seeing this more and more these days. I also watch a lot of content that circulates these topics. There’s a fantastic Youtube channel called Climate Town. It’s cynical and at times, a bit bleak, but it’s also quite funny too. However, in almost all of their videos, their take action step is to call and write an email to your politicians to take action now.?

So here’s my side note: Go protest and send emails to politicians!

Do you have any working from home accessories that you love??

My treadmill at home is a great life hack. I use it whilst I’m working as it helps me focus. I can walk with music, get in the flow and get things done.

What is the most valuable career advice you’ve been given?

“Give away your legos”

I was sent an article with this as a headline and it’s essentially about handling change, and it could be more applicable to start-ups and scaling companies rather than larger companies. What this means is that you have a set of building blocks and some tools, and you are able to build up a cool product, new processes and a culture. And as the company grows, you get more collaborators who have their own time, resources and energy to give. But often, they continue building with your lego blocks, and you have to give them away. Some people want to grow their team in the hope that their work will get less. Other people feel uncertain about this change – “but this was my job!”. But usually there’s a ton of different, new projects to work on. Your work will not get less, but you can enjoy evolving as you witness this normal part of company growth. Also this evolution is always a growth opportunity for you personally. You are now free to find a new tower to build with new lego blocks and tackle a new set of challenges.

Thank you Jess for sharing your experiences with us!

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