Roll Call: Andrew + Chevail + Yannick
Yelp’s Product Design team consists of many talented folks who work on all facets of Yelp products. Each month, we’re sharing their stories.
Andrew Yee
Favorite businesses on Yelp:
Brenda’s in San Francisco, CA
Kiraku in Berkeley, CA
How did you end up here?
Prior to joining Yelp, I was a freelance designer working with various companies ranging from large corporations to small startups. My time spent freelancing was enjoyable and something I’d urge all designers to experience at least once. It was during this time that Yelp reached out about a creative design position that I had applied to many months back. As a daily Yelp user, my passion for the product made it a no-brainer to jump at the opportunity. What really sold me on making the switch to Yelp was the culture and the people who contributed to it. I worked on the Yelp Creative team for just over two years before transferring to the product team.
When you’re not designing you are…
When I’m not designing, instead of binge-watching GoT, you’ll more likely find me deep in a Sesame Street marathon! I happily spend most of my time outside of design trying to raise a tiny human. Watching him explore and experience things for the first time is a blast; he’s currently obsessed with dancing to Wild Thoughts by DJ Khaled. I’ve learned so much from my son, Hunter, and I can only hope one day he’ll say the same about his parents. So, at eleven months in, I’d say things are going well.
Music is always on at our house, from Spotify to vinyl records. While hip-hop is our go-to, most genres are welcome. If you have any suggestions of artists or bands to check out, let me know! I’m also into exploring new restaurants and planning trips (cliche, but true). As I get deeper into my thirties, I’ve started to realize that I value experiences way more than I value things. Current trip in the works: Japan!
If you weren’t a Product Designer, what would you be doing?
Most definitely something creative with food! My parents used to own a restaurant and wine bar. They’d put me to work in the back washing dishes, preparing ingredients and working the line. To this day, I enjoy exploring possibilities with food and am especially fascinated by molecular gastronomy and other infusions.
What advice do you have for a younger self?
Write down your goals, don’t let failure hold you back, and always follow your gut instincts!
Chevail Alexander
Favorite business on Yelp:
Chang’s Kitchen San Francisco, CA
What makes a company great to work at / what do you like about working at Yelp?
I’ve always found culture to be the driving factor for happy employees and great products. Respecting and enjoying those you work with allows for ideas and collaboration to flow so much easier. I love our design team. It’s awesome working with designers from different backgrounds and talents. The design process can be subjective at times so having people with diverse and well educated thoughts really helps ease the process at times when you’re not 100% on certain things. Feedback from like-minded peers is a gift I’m glad to have at Yelp.
What product do you work on? What challenges is your team up against?
I am on the the business monetization team. I work on improving the experience of all the the businesses owners that are on Yelp. It’s the other side of Yelp that less people are familiar with. The biggest challenge working on this side of the business is trying to gather the feedback from the users since they are a much smaller cohort and not as front and center as the consumer facing product. Also every business’s goals are different, so there is never a one-size-fits-all model for solving a problem. We have an amazing sales and support team and sometimes working with them is the best solve for an issue rather than a new UI element or flow. Overall, trying to humanize the world of metrics and analytics for small businesses that don’t have time or resources to invest in understanding them is a big goal of mine. So I really need to make sure that I understand the data that much more when designing around it.
Where were you before Yelp?
Before Yelp I was at thredUP, an awesome e-commerce retail startup. I was there for a little over 2.5 years and it was my first job in the bay area. It was definitely a place that you had the chance to wear many hats, which was great for jump starting my product design career path, while also learning many other facets of the tech world. I love every aspect of design so being able to exercise all those muscles in one setting was really nice. Before moving to SF, I was working at Freddie Georges Production Group, an exhibit and tradeshow booth design firm in Southern California doing primarily print and technical design. And before that I was in school at Cal Poly Pomona studying design.
If you weren’t a Product Designer, what would you be doing?
I would love to create cartoons and still illustrate on the side so that would most likely be my design alternative career path. Outside of design I love music and was seriously considering music production at one point, so that. Choosing the scores for movies and television would be amazing in that regard.
Yannick Garcia Del Estad
Favorite business on Yelp:
Bodega lo Pinyol in Barcelona, Spain
What makes a company great to work at / what do you like about working at Yelp?
What I like most about working on the product design team at Yelp is the critique sessions we hold. Check out this article by my coworker Eric for more info about it. All my career, I’ve been working with different types of designers (graphic, motion, illustrators, even front-end or sound designers) and I loved our healthy debates. In my previous job, I was the only designer and I missed the community spirit and shared goals so much. I’m so glad to have them back at Yelp, especially with so many talented designers! I love to present my work and get feedback and I love to see what others are doing. Every time, the team gives very constructive critique with a lot of respect. Critique (and design critique in particular) is not an easy thing: it’s subjective, but everyone is so professional that they know how to keep their ego away from their designs. I wish we could gather for critique more often, but we’re working in different time zones. I would say to every designer that if you have the chance to work among other passionate fellow designers, please take advantage of it! It’s precious.
Who do you look up to as a mentor in your life?
I don’t really have a mentor in my life, but in terms of design, the work of the team at fantasy.co are really inspiring, in particular their “What if?” works. Everything is so beautiful: the UX, the UI, the interactions and animations … man that’s dope!
I also learned a lot from a graphic designer at an agency when I was in Belgium: Nicolas Courtoy. He’s so talented and humble, and never fails to impress. He taught me to have an eye for details, precision, consistency, timing, and composition. He’s the kind of guy that will take your design and push it to the next level. He always has the same standards for quality no matter the amount of work, and that’s something I deeply admire.
Another Belgian designer, Benjamin De Cock, really impresses me (though I don’t know him personally). I do visual design, code, and animation, but Benjamin is doing all of these things at a Master level. The work he’s doing at Stripe is very inspiring. Listen to this interview with him and another talented Stripe UI designer to learn more.
If you weren’t a Product Designer, what would you be doing?
Well, my answer is probably influenced by the fact that I’m currently a designer, but I would definitely be crafting something with wood. I love woodwork; I had the chance to practice it when I was in Belgium … I miss it so much. Unlike digital design, it’s something real that you can touch, smell, and feel. The smell of the wood in a woodshop is relaxing to me; it feels so good and peaceful to be in the woodshop. And I like the fact that you can’t afford to make mistakes on a piece of wood. There’s no Cmd + Z. You need to focus all the time, know your tools and do things very precisely. Building furniture would be my thing.
What advice do you have for a younger self?
“Never don’t give up.” Just kidding, I love that fail tattoo — it makes me laugh every time I see it. More seriously, I would just say to a younger me to not be too serious. Things change, plans change, and goals change. It’s normal, go with the flow and be happy.
If I had to offer some design advice, it would be “code more!” … interesting, huh?
Feeling inspired to get to know us a little better? Look us up on Dribbble, and if you’ve got the design chops and are passionate about local businesses, check out current openings for the Yelp Product Design team at yelp.com/careers.
