Team Spotlight: Kaimin
A deep thinker who’s continually getting to know herself better
In this issue of our Team Spotlight, we’re excited to feature Kaimin, a UX Researcher here at 55 Minutes.
Q: Hi Kaimin! Let’s start off with — what is your role at 55 Minutes?
A: I’ve a hand in UX research (my area of growth), and a hand in business operations (my area of expertise); which I personally find to be a good balance in work, because I believe our weakness sharpens our strength, and our strength informs our weakness. The caveat of course is that you should be interested in both to make it work for you, and it doesn’t come without a constant tension, and the discomfort it brings.
Day to day, the work feels… very administrative, yet very intricate.
On the business side, it requires me to look at the perimeters of operations in rules, regulations, and good (I don’t believe in best) practices, as well as the fine lines between when the people come into the process — that’s when an overt process becomes covert, often hidden in company culture, shared values, dynamics, preferences, or even fears.
When it comes to UX research, it is more of a playground experience where you’re encouraged to be divergent in thinking and curious in exploring, yet very critical when it comes to analysis and synthesis of findings, which is something I am still learning to be better at.
Q: What thoughtful answers! Can you tell us more about your background and what you were doing before 55 Minutes?
A: I was a business analyst in a non-profit sector on the one hand, and on the other, played a strategic function role in the youth department. You can probably tell by now that I enjoy a variety of experiences, and I diversify my portfolio of work experiences enough to be considered a generalist!
As a business analyst, I invest my time in simplifying and digitizing workflows that help employees work better and be more “productive” (it really depends on how organizations define “productivity” – what they value, and that's a win to them).
With the youth, anything from budgeting to planning a youth camp really! There is no clear definition, but if I were to define it, it will be to strategically position myself to fill gaps. Often after filling gaps, you can design a process out of it!
Q: What a cool sentiment. And what’s the thing you value the most at 55 Minutes?
A: A key tenet of work for me is about the relationships that are forged. Having people around me whom I can call friends (in and out of work context), make work meaningful to do, and I’ve always believed that if one walks away from a job having made a friend you can call outside of work, it’s a WIN–not just at work, but in life. Granted there are varied expectations of friendships that we resonate with, but the one thing I value most and look out for is authenticity.
So the fact that the folks at 55 Minutes are highly empathetic and open makes it a non-bureaucratic environment for relationships and ideas to thrive, and that’s what I value.
Q: What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
A: I would say… question library for our upcoming product TeamTalk! It’s cool to me because it draws on different bodies of research that are both art and science, but also, it keeps me second-guessing the content daily while paying more attention to workplace interaction–that’s dynamic and exciting.
Q: Let’s move on to some fun questions. What are your favorite books of all time and why?
A: No offense to the prolific writers of centuries past… but I am sincerely drawing a blank. I think different books spoke in different ways to me in different seasons, and because I am so erratic internally, I find it hard to land on a favorite of all time.
But if there was a writer I admire that has inspired me in a multi-faceted way, it would have to be C.S. Lewis. I feel like his writing is an amalgamation of philosophy, theology, allegory, auto-biography, and enough fiction to put you in and out of reality. Fascinating!
Q: If you didn’t have to work, what would you do with your time?
A: I’m keen to say nothing, because the absence of something is such a difficult, foreign and counterintuitive notion to grasp.
The mental image I have of that state is silence, warm sunlight, a gentle breeze, and a mirror in front.
Q: What’s one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned in your career?
A: It pays to know yourself better.
Q: If you could go back in time ten years and tell yourself something, what would you say?
A: “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
Q: What do you like to do out of work?
A: “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.”–Ecclesiastes 2:24a (NKJV)
I think there is much wisdom in that statement, in that life and work at its best are not antithesis. So the idealist in me struggles to answer what I like to do out of work, although out of this same struggle… I would give an answer: I really enjoy hanging out with friends agenda-less over a good cup of coffee.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Kaimin as much as we did! Kaimin is a UX Researcher and Operations Manager at 55 Minutes who considers herself to be a generalist, given her diverse experiences. In her free time, she enjoys sipping her favorite coffee on the east side of Singapore thinking about life as a wayfarer.
