Ricky Stoch - A Career in Human Behavioral Design

Ricky is a behavioral designer from Johannesburg, South Africa. She founded?Studio Fundi?in 2021, performing the following activities: Designing products in the medical field, consulting companies, and developing products and services based on a human-centered perspective. Moreover, she developed a deep interest in building communication and products that bridge the gap between what the business is doing and what the user needs.?

She started her interview by paraphrasing Milton Glaser's quote, "I have a mother whom said that I can do everything and a father that said prove it!". As she sustains, these two phrases relate to two types of motivation: Intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic Motivation is a short-term type, while inherent is a longer term, which defines your motivation's longevity. Those motivations pushed her to where she is now.?

We discussed human-based-centered design, which is gaining popularity but not so widespread among businesses. It focuses on creating products based mainly on the designer's desires rather than on users who will utilize the product. By missing the customers' needs, companies may miss critical information on their customers when designing the product.?

I asked what brought her to building her own business, and she mentioned that when she finished her MA degree, she opened her own business directly, based on the interest that she could foresee based?FebriSol, a product she designed during her Master's degree competition that she was part of. In addition, she says, "building a business is brutal; But there are only a few times when you can do it without risks. At this point, the only person at risk is me." As she recalls, the only person at risk is you. She displayed a vast, realistic truth regarding what it takes to be an entrepreneur.?

As an entrepreneur, she continues to develop and sell FebriSol. She is building her medical product, "FebriSol," based on a competition brief to create a design-based solution to solve one of the UK UN Sustainability Goals. While she also runs consulting projects under the umbrella of her company?Studio Fundi. The company has a new type of structure; A small group of associates with interdisciplinary expertise supporting her ("Fundies" Fundi = Expert in ISI Zulu), and they collaborate actively on consulting and building the projects mentioned above.

She later mentioned that Studio Fundi doesn't work on projects that are not making an impact. Still, her vision is not to build a company that is a prominent consulting player, but rather to work on enjoyable and impactful projects.

Additionally, she participated in a very compelling Ted Talk organized by one of her friends. She chalks up much of her success to the privilege of having access to the right people. If it were otherwise, she wouldn't have experienced it. "You need luck," she says and then quotes Derek Sivers, "If more information were the answer, we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs."

She also mentioned her deep relationship with her parents, the three degrees she completed during her academic career, her career as a freelance graphic designer, juggling consulting and research activities, some behavioral design rules, and her passion for being a sea skipper in South Africa.

Her professional tip is to have the humility to know your weaknesses and the confidence to know your strength and to hire an accountant for financial operations.