Anna Bäck has seen user-centred design from all angles: spending time as managing director of a small specialist agency, playing a leadership role at a larger agency as it became part of McKinsey and most recently as CEO of an expanding digital platform where she is nurturing a strong design culture throughout the organisation. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about her formative experiences travelling the globe, her background in telecoms and engineering, as well as what kind of design approach she is hoping to build at Kivra, a rapidly growing service for delivering and securing users’ most important documents. Get in touch with feedback and questions @mexfeed on Twitter or email designtalk@mobileuserexperience.com.

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On this edition

• • Marek Pawlowski, podcast host & founder, MEX (@marekpawlowski)
  • Anna Bäck, CEO, Kivra AB (@kivrahq)

Links

• Cecilia Lindqvist, the Swedish Sinologist, who Anna studied with.
• Veryday, where Anna worked as COO during the time it was acquired by McKinsey.
• Ocean Observations, the Swedish design consultancy founded by Sofia Svanteson, where Anna worked as managing director.
• Marek’s discussion with Sofia Svanteson in episode 48 of the MEX podcast.
• A collection of MEX resources on the theme of SMUIs (simultaneous multi-person user interfaces), a topic Anna and Marek discuss during the podcast.
• Kivra, where Anna currently is CEO.
• A MEX article on principles for creating trust in digital experience design.
• Swedish BankID, mentioned by Anna as the login platform used by Kivra.
• MEX resources on the theme of quiet design, mentioned by Anna as an example of one of the approaches she looked at on a project for a global bank with Marek.
• The Attention Economy, a book relating to Marek’s thoughts on the business models of social networks.
• Marek’s discussion with Eric Kim of Modo Labs in episode 45, another conversation which focused on design culture in smaller companies and founders with design backgrounds.
• Marek’s discussion with Craig Bryant of We Are Mammoth in episode 31, which looked at how design agencies incubate user-centred ventures of their own.

About MEX Design Talk & how to get in touch

The podcast for the MEX community, interviewing UX pioneers, exploring emerging technologies, user behaviour and how to design better digital experiences.

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Thanks

• Jukedeck, for the artificial intelligence engine which provided the music