Mobiconf 2018: Prathana Johnson, Shopify
summary
Shows ethnography in China and California that segments users into family, romance and shared interest groups and finds routines and needs; notes 2 billion minutes per day on Skype as the baseline; prototypes by forked the Skype code into ugly UI demos and runs a 7‑hour London review; launches products that split—one bundled with Exchange and growing, one rolled back as a failure; runs a diary study 30 days and later at a startup tracked all events and built algorithm but runs out of time and money.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and early impact
- 3:13Researching shared interests
- 8:10Building Skype X and teams
- 10:38Lessons from Skype update failure
- 13:06SoundCloud vision and challenges
- 17:43Joining Hubrick and pivoting
- 21:18Hubrick beta and influencer growth
- 24:24Reflections on leadership and impact
- 26:53Connecting design to user needs
- 28:36Q&A session
related talks
33mMobile && Me == It's Complicated
01mInterview with Ankur Jain
25mDesigning around people’s lives to unlock sustainable growth
51mJosh Morales | Compass UX Session 2025
39mOpening Keynote: Between JOMO and FOMO: You are reshaping communication.
12mMichelle Brownstein 🎙 Front End Design Conference 2019
42mKeeping It Human in A World of Automated Everything
41mEffective User Interviewing