At FrankieOne, we believe in celebrating the diverse voices and talents that make our company strong. In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re launching our Women of Frankie series, where we’ll shine a spotlight on the incredible women driving change within our team. Today, we’re excited to feature Sara Chong, our Product Design Lead.
Let's dive in..
What do you do at FrankieOne?
I’m the product design lead, which means I own the direction of the overall portal and front end experience, and design this experience alongside my team of awesome designers. My job is a mixed bag of product design, experience vision, customer demos, interviews, and supporting various teams at FrankieOne.
What inspired you to pursue your career path?
Curiosity, collecting skills, experiences and peeking into the lives of different folk from all sorts of places. Generally I’m just a person who likes to design be it books, games, teams, the shape of a painting, conversations and currently, products. What and how I design has changed over time but for me it’s mostly about learning new things, getting into the thrill (and stress) of realizing how much I don’t know, and then having my own opinions and ultimately feeling natural about how I work with that thing. I simply rinse and repeat that across different fields of design and art, and its evolution over time.
What’s a challenge you’ve overcome in your journey?
Feeling like an imposter. I think this is pretty common, but it being a common topic never really makes it easier to handle. Everyone’s got a different way of dealing with imposter syndrome, in reality it’s about learning to be comfortable in your own skin no matter what the world throws at you or what you get yourself into. Having been such a chameleon in my working life, I got used to feeling like a newbie all the time. Eventually I learned that openly admitting that you know nothing is the best way to learn, even if that means admitting it to your team as a leader. There’s always something to learn, and everyone’s always learning no matter how experienced they may be, and that comforts me.
What advice would you give to other women in fintech/tech?
Be curious, be brave, and daunting change is good. Fintech can be incredibly complex at times, and it’s important to have strong opinions, loosely held. Fintech is always about complex systems and complex people, and making it all feel easy, and easy does not necessarily mean simple. Trust your ability to argue for nuance because that’s one trait I’ve noticed women do very well in strong decision making.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
It’s about taking the time to reflect on what it means to be a woman in today’s wild world, and to remember to check in on other women to see how they’re doing on their path.
A big thank you to Sara for sharing her journey. Your passion for design, curiosity and continuous learning are truly an inspiration to us all!
#WomenOfFrankie #InternationalWomensDay #WomenInTech #FrankieOne