Hello epic humans! For the next post in our series featuring Square employees who are active in our LGBTQ+ resource group, I'm excited to introduce you to @puka! Puka and I have worked closely together at various points throughout our careers at Square.
Square Team Name: Community
Role at Square: UX Designer for Seller Community
Name (and pronouns): Puka (She/Her)
Location: Oakland, CA
Tell us your story.
Hello everyone, my name is Puka!
Some of you may remember me as one of the Seller Community Moderators answering questions you may have had about Square. In the last two years, I’ve transitioned roles and I am now the UX Designer for the Community. What does that mean? In a nutshell, I’m invested in improving the Community for you all. That involves speaking with Sellers like you to find the pain points you’re experiencing as you move throughout this space and designing solutions that mitigate those pain points. I’m always thinking of new features that could help you all engage more easily with each other in order to make this feel like a true community. One example of the design work I’ve done so far is the feature we’re using to connect with each other right now: Seller Groups!
On a related note, I am taking feedback on how Groups are working for you so feel free to private message me if you have any thoughts to share!
A little about me: I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA (where my Bay Area natives at?). I now live across the Bay Bridge in Oakland, CA with my partner and our 4-year-old English Bulldog, Nui (unamusingly pictured above). Outside of my design work for Square, I am also a professional sound designer for film. Yes, more design, but ✨different✨. Did you know that more than 50% of the sounds you hear in a film are recreated in a studio and are *not* filmed on set? For example, you know when you’re seeing someone walk through snow in a movie and you hear the satisfying crunch of snow under their feet as they take each step? To make that sound, someone like me is stepping on a leather pouch full of cornstarch in front of a mic. Or when you hear bones crunching in an action movie fight scene? It’s lil ol’ me breaking a stalk of celery in half. It’s really fun stuff and I could geek out about this for hours, but for Tom’s sake, I will end it here. However, if you do have more sound questions, drop some for me in the comments and I’ll be happy to go down that rabbithole with ya’ll 🙂
Last shameless plug: I’m also a Square seller! My sister, cousin, and I formed a skate crew (I’m a skateboarder and they are rollerskaters) called The Patch Kids Crew and we design our own skatewear clothing (as well as produce it in my small apartment). We are currently in the middle of “Giving Season” in which we are donating 25% of all proceeds throughout November to the Philippines Typhoon Relief fund through a non-profit organization called CORA. Feel free to check us out and tell your family/friends! 🤙🏼
Thanks for sharing! I'd like to ask a few more questions to share with the group.
What is your favorite (and/or most challenging) aspect about your career at Square?
My favorite thing about my career at Square is also the most challenging part of it which is my career growth here. I’ve been with Square for over 5.5 years now and because of leadership, I’ve been encouraged to explore paths that I never saw for myself. Had you told me three years ago that I would become a UX Designer, I’d look at you sideways because I had never considered this field. It wasn’t until a past lead had enough confidence to throw me a UX-related project and let me run with it - even though I had no previous experience - that I realized it was something I enjoyed doing and could make a career out of.
What’s challenging about it is the growing pains. Being in a new role was intimidating especially since I was learning on the fly and even though I’ve progressed immensely, I still struggle with imposter syndrome until this day. Thankfully, I have a team who believes in my skill set and is always there to support me so that I have the confidence to keep pushing forward.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Learn how to ask for what you need. As the eldest child of three, I became a caretaker very early on in my life for my younger sisters. This meant that it became a habit of mine to put the needs of others over my own. While this isn't the worst trait to have, I've realized over the past couple of years how that could stunt my growth professionally. I started to see that whenever I was unhappy with where I was at in my career was because I hadn't been telling my leads what I needed from them. It was such a big Aha! moment. How could I expect them to help me get to where I wanted to be if they didn't even know where that was? They're not mind readers. So I started speaking up and I started seeing things shift in my favor. I'll admit it was super uncomfortable at first since it was totally out of my nature. However, the more I did it, the easier it became and now I wish that I had learned how to do it sooner.
Within the context of COVID-19, what's the most helpful resource (and/or practice) that's kept you thriving/surviving over the last few months?
Honestly, I wish I had some insightful answer here like I meditate each morning or journal every night, but I suck at keeping up with both. 🥴 The most I do each day is to assess where I am at mentally on a scale of Not Good to Okay (because are we ever really "Good" these days? Let’s be honest). If I'm Okay, it means that maybe this is the day I finally get the dishes done because I have the energy to do so and that is enough of an accomplishment for me. If I'm Not Good, then I ask myself what kind of Not Good it is because yes, at this point there are more layers to the Not Good than the Okay. Is it one of those days that I can do something small to help myself feel better or do I just need to be in bed and not even try to pretend I have the effort for that (because that's okay, too!)? Long story short, it's a day by day survival process over here.
Want to learn more from Puka's experience? Reply below with any questions for Puka, her career path at Square, or simply say hi!
Check out last month's post: Question & Answer: Meet Peter from Square Appointments.
