Mara Lantz: Making art & playing games with a missing mind's eye

Mara Lantz: Making art & playing games with a missing mind's eye

Mara Lantz is a Bay Area-based artist and product design leader. She holds a BA in psychology and fine arts from Hampshire College, where she designed her own concentration at the intersection of psychology, studio art, art history, creative writing, and theater. Most recently, Mara worked at Pinterest as a design leader in the monetization sector. Her acrylic paintings and mixed media sculptures [https://www.maralantz.com/] have been exhibited at galleries across the US, including KNK Contemporary in San Francisco, After Time Gallery in Portland, and Artworks Downtown in San Rafael. In this episode, Mara talks about growing up in a family of game designers. Her father Noah Falstein [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Falstein] is a veteran of the industry, her husband James and father-in-law Frank run their own studio, and together the family created Hey Robot [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/292350/hey-robot] , a card game that made it onto The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7thUnP0my7U]. She shares what she looks for in a great game and why the best ones let you practice life skills in a safe, low-stakes way. Mara also opens up about her return to making art after a long break, sparked by watching her young daughter draw, and what it's like to be a visual artist with aphantasia, the inability to conjure images in your mind's eye. She walks us through her painting process, her black hot-glue sculptures made from thrifted glassware, and how she finds beauty in objects other people walk right past. Along the way, we cover Vancouver recommendations, the power of naming things, and why she never wanted art to be tied to her livelihood.

Nina Chan: From building products to helping others build strength

In this episode I'm speaking with Nina Chan, a Strength Coach and former Growth Product Manager. After studying creative writing at Brooklyn College, she spent 16 years as a Product Manager. First at Ask.com, then at SurveyMonkey, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently she changed her career to be a strength coach.

Sarah Eckenhoff: The impact of trends and how they are forecasted

In this episode, I’m speaking with Sarah Eckenhoff [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-eckenhoff/]. Sarah is a creative director and aesthetic trend analyst with a background in both graphic design and product design. Quoting the tagline from her online bio "she's been making things thoughtfully pretty for over 20 years”. Sarah has curated trends for thousands of seasonal Starbucks drinkware products, including collaborations with Disney, Universal, and Stanley, and has designed co-branded CPG gift packs sold on shelves of Fortune 500 clients including Target, Macy's, and Costco. If you've ever bought a Starbucks mug, chances are, that she helped bring it to life. In our conversation she explains what trend forecasting is and Sarah talks about her process. In 2024 Sarah established her own trend consultancy called Docent [https://docent-co.com/perspective]. Docent helps retail brands transform aesthetic insights into standout, consumer-driven products. Links to things we reference and talk about in the podcast * Sarah's favorite Starbucks mug [https://www.walmart.com/ip/Starbucks-2015-Golden-Scales-Anniversary-Mug-10-Fl-Oz/198344796] * The Devil wears Prada monologue [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rDTRuCOs9g] * Sarah's Trends for Autumn/Winter 26/27 outdoor apparel presentation [https://drive.google.com/file/d/18q_-bQACX5WNaf-toJ4d7aFfSQZuo4uY/view?usp=sharing]

Patricio Echagüe: The value of trusting your convictions

In this episode, I'm talking with Patricio "Pato" Echagüe [https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricioechague/], one of the founders of Split.io [https://split.io]. Pato shares his path to starting a company in Silicon Valley, all the way from his roots growing up in a small town in Argentina and starting to code on an i386. He talks about how he kept his motivation over the 10-year existence of Split until it got acquired in 2024. We talk about how they started the company, how funding changed over time, and the importance of culture in a startup.

Katharina van Zeller: Bildung, Ausbildung, and starting businesses

Katharina van Zeller [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharina-van-zeller-ordnungskunst/] was born in Vienna and grew up in both Vienna and Hamburg. She studied Social Anthropology and Sinology at the University of Vienna. She is a professional organizing coach and the founder of Ordnungskunst [https://ordnungskunst.at], a consulting practice that helps small businesses and private households create and maintain order. She also co-founded Dreikreis, an agency dedicated to placing agile IT freelancers with purpose-driven companies.  In our conversation we dive into why and how she started a recruiting agency, what business lessons she learned along the way and how she eventually sold the business successfully. We also talk about how Kathi helps people as a professional organizing coach and how well studying sinology and social anthropology complement each other. Bonus: Kathi gets into Chinese characters, explaining the difference in meaning between 1 woman under a roof 安 and 2 women under a roof 奻.