When Simon was deciding what to do after school, he googled "highest-paying profession." This straightforward curiosity led him to UX design, from which he worked his way through the tough school of freelancing all the way to the COO seat at a global startup. In its first year, Clipster paid out over $5 million to creators and generated 120 billion views. Today, Simon views the entire company as a machine, where design is just one of many gears. He argues that if a business is tied to its users, investing in design is a necessity. However, you must approach it pragmatically and constantly strike a balance with the needs of the business.

In this episode, we talk about why a designer's work never ends with exporting designs, because no real user lives in Figma. Drawing from his own experience as a Chief Operating Officer, Simon explains why external consultants will never solve your internal problems, why the future belongs to product generalists, and how the AI era will propel top talent extremely far forward while ruthlessly wiping out the average from the market.

🚀 Key points:

• Design is just one of many gears in the company machine. The key skill is continuously evaluating the current needs of every department and investing only as many resources as it takes to move the business forward at that exact moment.

• Teach C-level management to understand design. Leadership rarely understands its value automatically; it’s the designer's job to relentlessly communicate the business WHY.

• Ditch unnecessary handoffs. It makes no sense to design a single copy change in Figma. It's far more efficient to make small, quick adjustments directly in the code.

• Product isn't a Figma file. None of your real users live inside Figma, meaning your work isn't done until it hits the final device.

  
  

Who is Simon Jun?

Simon is the COO at the tech startup Clipster. His professional journey from a UX designer to executive leadership, combined with hosting UX Monday and authoring a book on Figma, has made him a prominent figure in the design and startup ecosystem. Today, he helps scale a global platform, teaches Figma, and shows how design thinking can transform day-to-day business operations.

💼 LinkedIn: Simon Jun
📖 Book: Design Beyond Limits Figma
🔗 Web: CLIPSTER