For the longest time I have admired baristas and designers. I figured that it must feel fantastic to master a creative craft, enjoy the process and make other people happy. 2,5 years ago I felt unhappy and stuck in my career path and realized I needed more room for creativity and craft in my work. I put aside my doubts, quit my job and became a barista and a product designer. I don’t regret it for one second and I found out I’m pretty good at it!
Why I’m a great fit for this role
I’m passionate about coffee
I’m sure everyone that wants to work at Cropster says this, but I took “I love coffee” a step further and quit my job because I wanted to learn all the ins and outs about making coffee. I got hired at my local specialty coffee cafe, completed my barista training at Counter Culture Coffee in Emeryville, California and regularly attended their coffee cupping events. One event where we were tasting the same coffee processed in 3 different ways totally blew my mind. I would love to keep working in the coffee industry. I like how much there is to learn and I feel like I’ve only brushed the surface.
My view for a year as a barista in Albany, CA
Learning the craft
Coffee cupping at Counter Culture Coffee
I know and care a lot about quality
When I pointed out to a fellow barista at work that an espresso shot was pulling too fast, they asked me: “why do you care so much about the coffee?” Well, because I care about consistent quality and I know our customers do too. In my previous job I worked as a QA specialist, conducting quality assurance audits for sustainability certification programs. I bring valuable knowledge about how imporant a well designed and easy-to-use quality management system is.
It's important to have some fun while we're at it! This was a Dutch games party at Sungevity I helped organize.
I loved working with my small but mighty team at SCS (I can explain the costumes later!).
I also like to mingle and get to know people outside of my direct team.
Dedicated to sustainability
I did my undergrad in arts and culture, but at the end of my studies I grew increasingly concerned about the climate crisis and I couldn’t imagine anything more urgent to work on. I got my masters degree in natural resource management and I have always chosen to work for companies that make a proven, measurable positive social and environmental impact. As a product designer I want to work on Cropster’s mission to increase transparency, sustainability and fairness in the entire coffee supply chain.
How my design work fits in
End-to-end for multiple devices
I’m a well rounded product designer with experience working on projects from end-to-end, from conceptualization to prototyping. I truly enjoy talking to people to learn about their work, behaviors and motivations to create a product they love to use. I’m a natural problem-solver with strong analytical and critical thinking skills, not afraid of a challenge.
I have relevant experience with designing interactions and interfaces for data heavy processes that are user friendly and easy to interpret. I for example designed an app for the Portland Water Bureau that provides real-time water use insights to residential water users. Visualizing data on a small phone screen without overwhelming the user was my biggest challenge during this project and I learned that keeping it simple and testing often is key.