Won J. You is a seasoned design leader and educator who’s spent over 20 years designing and creating award-winning experiences. Currently, Won leads the charge at Won J. You Studios as chief disruptor and designer for social impact, where he is inspired by creating immersive experiences and elegant and engaging products.
In the past, Won has led innovation efforts as design director at Discovery Communications, where he successfully incubated, patented, and launched products like curiosity.com. More recently, Won directed experience design work for Porsche, Edward Jones, Alzheimer’s Association, Bic, and Cedar Fair, among others. Won educated hundreds of students while Chief Product Officer and curriculum director at Designation, an elite UX/UI design boot camp in Chicago. His students have gone on to work for Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM Design, Capital One, and many other Fortune 500 companies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Won to learn more.
Won You’s Background
As a kid, Won was always fascinated with computers, video games, and anything that innovatively used technology. Won said:
“During my freshman year of college, I fell in love with the Internet while the Web was still in its infancy back in the mid-90s. I was fortunate enough to have learned web design when I did because so many opportunities arose during the dot com boom.”
“Since that time, I’ve run design teams at agencies, start-ups, and consultancies, where I have been fortunate enough to have done work for global brands such as Porsche, American Express, Intel, and many more. As director of design at Discovery Communications, I incubated products, one of which I earned a patent for, and another which was spun out as its own startup.”
“As Chief Product Officer, I led one of the first design boot camps in the country called Designation, which went on to be acquired by WeWork. Outside of running my design studio, I’m passionate about using design for social good, so I volunteer as an advisor to non-profits, mentor other designers, and operate designapprenticeship.com.”
Formation Of Won J. You Studios
How did the idea for Won J. You Studios come together? Won shared:
“Throughout my professional career, I’ve worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies that endeavored to drive internal innovation but encountered challenges when adapting to digital transformation. It became clear to me that a more effective approach was needed to shape and develop products for these enterprises. My “aha” moment came when I discovered the power of design thinking and design sprints because of how effective they can be in fostering alignment and build new products.”
“At Won J. You Studios, I run our design sprints and oversee all of the design work that gets done across our portfolio of clients.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Won reflected:
“More than earning accolades and winning business, I take great pleasure in mentoring younger designers. As an educator, I’ve had the opportunity to launch the careers of dozens of students, some of whom have gone on to work at Google, Amazon, Meta, Walmart and others. I continue to be passionate about helping designers within and outside of my company by running designapprenticeship.com which is a website that promotes apprenticeship opportunities for designers who are just beginning their careers.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have you faced in building the company and has the current macroeconomic climate affected your company? Won acknowledged:
“The last few years with Covid have presented lots of highs and lows. Early in the pandemic, we had to move out of our office and learn how to work remotely, not only amongst ourselves but also for our clients. However, this shift ended up being a blessing in disguise in that it enabled us to no longer be tethered to a geographic location. This shift has led to our company having a geographically distributed team around the world. This has allowed us to hire the best talent regardless of where they reside.”
“Of course, more recently, the tech sector has experienced a large set of layoffs, which has somewhat depressed demand for design, but we consider this to be a temporary slowdown. Certain sectors have seen unprecedented growth such as AI. In fact, we’re working with a client now on their AI product.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Won explained:
“At our core, Won J. You Studios is a design consultancy that specializes in creating digital products. Our key service offerings include UX/UI design, branding, web design, mobile design, rapid prototyping, user research and product strategy.”
Evolution Of Won J You Studios
How has the company evolved since launching? Won noted:
“Being a small and independent company, we move quickly and find ways to out compete larger slow-moving organizations. We are constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to our design practice, whether that is embracing AI, design systems or remote design sprints. Early on in our history, we embraced Figma as our principal design tool, and as of late, we have started to incorporateAI tools such as generative AI into our creative workflow. As the tools continue to evolve, we will continue to find ways to leverage them to deliver amazing outcomes for our clients.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Won cited:
— Garnering design awards for our website design work from Awwwards, CSS Design Awards, among others.
— Being ranked 11 out of 30 digital agencies in Atlanta.
— Being able to do design work for The LA Times, Atomic Ventures, Stash, and Slice to name a few.
Customer Success Stories
After asking Won about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Last year we did the rebranding of Photobucket which was one of the early pioneers in the photo and video storage industry. Our goal for the rebrand was to modernize the brand identity and invigorate it with youthful energy to appeal to a new generation of content creators and everyday photo enthusiasts. Our branding effort has helped increase brand awareness and platform traffic.”
Company Growth
Can you discuss the growth of your company? Won affirmed:
“In the past, I focused most of my energy on headcount as a measurement of success, but these days I’ve learned to focus on measuring the company’s success by the quality of our work and impact on our clients’ businesses and perhaps, most importantly, the quality of life for our employees. I aspire to have the company adopt a 4-day workweek policy in the next few years.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Won J. You Studios pursuing? Won assessed:
“For our design sprint offering, we target early-stage start-ups that are either seed stage or series A. According to Crunchbase, there are over 12,000 such companies in the US alone. However, the general market size for our design services is valued at $9.4 billion and is projected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 12.5% from 2023 to 2030.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Won affirmed:
“Our superpower lies in swiftly tackling complex challenges with elegant design solutions. We excel at rapid prototyping and leveraging design thinking to explore ideas and gain feedback from users. Our secret sauce is perhaps our unique in-house process and culture. In the past, we’ve tried integrating within client product teams but we found the internal bureaucracy can limit our impact, especially when our approach isn’t embraced. That’s why we champion design sprints and our process for our client work. It leads to faster results and higher-quality output.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Won pointed out:
“Our continuing mission is to do great work for our clients and to continue to do more of it. Aside from that, ramping up content creation is on our radar. In today’s digital landscape, storytelling on social media is paramount, and we’re committed to doing more of it.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? Won concluded:
“Change is the name of the game. The technological landscape is constantly evolving, which makes this field so dynamic, endlessly challenging and rewarding. Digital transformation in the early days of the web was about helping companies create websites and digitize their offerings. Mobile apps were another wave. Now with AI, we’re seeing the next wave of disruption. The common denominator for us is leveraging design to create human experiences regardless of the technology that lies underneath it.”
