Frank Bach, UX
A designer who crafts peace of mind through Design.
Interview notes: This interview was conducted in April, 2023 when Frank was at Headspace. Currently, he joins Instagram with a focus on enhancing the creator experience, advocating for creators, and providing a platform for them to engage with their fans.
Hello, could you please introduce yourself ☺️
Hello, I am Frank! I have been working in the industry as a designer for close to probably 18 years. My background is in graphic and communication design. At one point, I decided to switch gears and focus a little bit more on the world of product and app design. Most recently, I was a principal product designer at Headspace. Before Headspace, I was involved in the worldwide launch of Red Bull TV and various other brand and marketing initiatives. Throughout my career, I've consistently embraced an entrepreneurial spirit, despite holding a full-time job. I've actively pursued side projects and ideas that keep me energized and engaged in my day-to-day work.
How would you define the Headspace app?
Headspace started as the first meditation app in the app store in 2010. Over the years, we've evolved to be more of a mental health tool. It is not just meditation but also products to help users sleep, move and focus better along with inspirational videos. If you explore the app now, you'll notice features, including workouts, yoga, and various other offerings to enhance your mental well-being. Recently, we've been dedicated to incorporating coaching and therapy services into the app for our customers. Our expansion into other areas of wellness reflects our evolution from a meditation app to a comprehensive health and wellness platform. I am proud to push the boundaries of what people expect from a meditation app, and my team and I are committed to balancing user goals with business trajectory.
“Throughout my career, I’ve consistently embraced an entrepreneurial spirit, despite holding a full-time job. I’ve actively pursued side projects and ideas that keep me energized and engaged in my day-to-day work.”
How would you define a Principal Designer?
A principal designer is an individual contributor who holds greater responsibility for shaping the strategic direction. In this role, undoubtedly, leading a project will be a significant aspect, involving both leadership and some degree of team management and product vision. I am collaborating seamlessly across different functions, such as product, engineering, content strategy. I would say there's a level of quality and consistency that's expected of you in a principal role, ensuring it stands out as top-notch. You're not only an expert in one area of design, but you're able to be an expert in the whole spectrum. From user research all the way through to visual design. You are owning the end to end of how to craft an experience for users.
Have you worked on a “principal project” before getting promoted? If yes, mind sharing your story?
Yes, I was promoted from lead designer to my current role. After being a lead for 2 years, I really pushed to move to my next position for a while. It was a conversation with my manager over a year. During the promotion cycle, it didn't get what I was looking for, so I had to continue this conversation. My manager knew I was up for my next promotion, but there wasn’t a principal role defined. So there was some discussion to define that new level such as Why does Headspace need a principal designer? What is the responsibility? What is the salary band for that level? I definitely had to work on some projects to really highlight the breadth and depth of my expertise and socialized my impacts to my team. I asked myself “How can I contribute to both the Headspace member journey and the company's bottom line? How can I Identify opportunities and actively seeking projects that align with these goals:
Improve end-to-end user experience. There were a couple of areas in our product where it was evident that there was friction in the user flow, and we knew that reducing this friction could greatly benefit both the member experience and metrics. I worked with my product team to build a compelling case and to justify why these changes were necessary. To manage this process effectively, we set up experiments to test the proposed updates and their impact. One particular project showed promising results, where we saw a 10% increase in content starts and a 5% increase in content completes, all without any rise in customer support tickets. This outcome was a win-win situation, significantly boosting engagement, which is vital for any subscription-based product.
Optimize your impact. It is essential to actively participate in company all-hands meetings by asking thoughtful questions, or make sure your presentations and prototypes are easily shareable across the organization. Be seen and noticed, especially in these key moments. Don’t be shy to take credit. Put your name on the presentation deck. You deserve that credit and can be proud of it.
Revamp the pay-wall feature. When I was in the Headspace Growth team, I supported our upsell screens where we asked our users to pay for the app between a monthly or an annual subscription. I worked on landing pages to increase our organic search engine optimization so we can reduce our ad spend being a subscription based business. You can envision ad spend as a significant aspect of the process. The experimentation with paywalls involves being open to trying out various ads, from the smallest details like button colors and call-to-action buttons to the imagery used, incorporating elements like social proof and scientific facts. The goal is to find the perfect combination of elements and information that resonates with the potential customer at the moment they are prepared to make a purchase. I spent time identifying which stage of the purchasing funnel the person is in and how to effectively showcase your product or service as the solution to their problem. And with Headspace as it's grown that has become more complex because. People at different stages of change. For instance, someone who is curious about mindfulness vs. somebody is ready to make a change? There's a, there's a lot of different kinds of levels that somebody might be at. I think Product Growth is fascinating because it is always evolving.
“I would say there’s a level of quality and consistency that’s expected of you in a principal role, ensuring it stands out as top-notch.”
Based on your observations, what trade-offs or risks should designers know about before continuing down the IC path?
In most companies, the principal role is often at the same level as a design manager. Even though a principal designer is expected to be autonomous, there is still a certain level of team structure in place. So, it's not realistic to be completely left alone without any reporting responsibilities. From my own experience, even as a high-level individual contributor, close collaboration with a people manager at the same level is necessary. Sometimes, I need to remind myself, the person who is managing my performance is the job that I prefer not to take. This choice brings me the freedom to focus on creating and enhancing products instead of getting involved in day-to-day people management. To me, the risk is the headcount in a company, as there appears to be greater growth potential in the people management track, such as becoming a director, compared to remaining in a principal role. The management path offers multiple levels of advancement, which often translates to higher salary and greater responsibility. This could be a strong motivation for individuals to pursue a management career. However, I have made a conscious decision at this point. I prefer to focus on more hands-on work and prioritize work-life harmony.
Could you share your framework to be more impactful?
Sure! I would break into a qualitative and quantitative approach to measure impact. I was able to influence beyond my product squad which is across multiple teams. For instance showing impact in user engagement and subscriber growth that are very important to most companies. Keeping track of those wins is crucial because it enables you to have tangible evidence and data to support your growth during one-on-one discussions or annual reviews. By having concrete numbers and facts to refer to, you can effectively demonstrate the progress you've made for your company.
Besides quantitative measurement, qualitative data is another crucial aspect to consider. When conducting activities like user interviews or engaging with customers, it's important to keep a log of all the positive feedback they provide about the work you're doing. Additionally, it's beneficial to review App Store feedback and pinpoint updates that have contributed to positive sentiment from customers. This qualitative feedback can complement quantitative metrics and offer valuable insights into the overall impact and success of your projects. Furthermore, if you're able to put together a highlight reel, you will truly resonate with your manager and team members and make stronger impact in their perception.
What excites you about being a designer in the next few years?
I am excited about the prototyping tool! When I reflect on the past five years, the tools we use have undergone remarkable transformations. My approach has completely shifted; the days of relying on Sketch and Photoshop for design are long gone in my daily work. The current prototyping methods have vastly improved, allowing us to incorporate motion, sound, and video into our prototypes, making them much more dynamic and engaging.
I am also curious about what Artificial intelligence holds for our future. The integration of AI into our workflows and processes is genuinely thrilling, and I can already witness its transformative impact taking shape. I think being in a subscription business like Headspace. We constantly encounter a dynamic customer base. The ever-changing needs and preferences of our customers keep us on our toes, requiring us to continually adapt our products to meet their evolving demands. It is never the same so in that way, the challenge is always exciting. I'm still really loving working on mobile apps. I believe that apps will still be a niche market in five years, but I think that there will be more connectivity between devices. I think this will be a major trend in the next few years. With the new generation, Gen Z and Generation Alpha, we're seeing much more skepticism around technology. Being part of the Headspace app, I believe we are aligning ourselves with the right side of history. It's important to strike a balance, acknowledging the challenges posed by our creations and their impact on society. As an industry, the era of hyper-growth may soon become a thing of the past, I believe we should carefully consider what we build and how we build it.
“I am excited about the prototyping tool! When I reflect on the past five years, the tools we use have undergone remarkable transformations. My approach has completely shifted; the days of relying on Sketch and Photoshop for design are long gone in my daily work. ”
