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Myrto Papagiannakou
Senior UX & Product Manager, Human-Centered Designer and Design Mentor
Professional Background
Myrto Papagiannakou is a highly skilled and versatile senior UX professional with over 16 years of experience in designing and shaping digital experiences tailored for real human interactions. Throughout her impressive career, Myrto has successfully collaborated with agile teams, waterfall methodologies, and various hybrid approaches to create intuitive and effective user experiences. Her extensive expertise includes utilizing a diverse range of design, prototyping, data collection, and analysis tools. Driven by her dedication to value-driven work, Myrto prioritizes intentionality in her projects, focusing on outcomes that enhance the usability and accessibility of digital products.
Myrto's career is marked by her strong belief in the principles of inclusivity and sustainability within design processes. She strives to not only improve her skills but also to uplift her teams, fostering an environment where everyone contributes to designing for the betterment of society. Her roles at prestigious organizations and various projects showcase her commitment to human-centered design, ensuring that the users' needs are always at the forefront. Myrto's diverse project experience enables her to tackle a wide range of design challenges, proving her ability to adapt and thrive in different contexts.
Education and Achievements
Myrto boasts a rich educational background that underpins her extensive knowledge in UX design and related fields. She earned a Diploma in Visual Communication from Middlesex University, laying the groundwork for her design career. She further enhanced her skill set by completing a specialization in Agile Development at the University of Virginia and a Micro-Master in Design Thinking from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Myrto has also delved into innovation management, holding a specialization in Managing Innovation and Design Thinking from HEC Paris and a Professional Certificate in Business Model Innovation from Delft University of Technology. Her continuous pursuit of knowledge is evident through her participation in various workshops and courses, including the ThinkTank on the Ideal City of the 21st Century at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the Design Thinking Bootcamp at the Hasso Plattner Institute.
Additionally, she holds a BSc Hons in Psychology from Arden University, allowing her to apply psychological principles to user experience strategies effectively. This unique combination of education equips Myrto to understand user behavior and Design for human needs in a thoughtful manner.
Achievements
Myrto's career has been defined by numerous notable positions and achievements across various organizations. As a former University Lecturer at IU International University of Applied Sciences, she was able to share her knowledge and experiences with the next generation of design thinkers. Myrto also played an influential role in the Human Centered Design Network as a Chapter Lead, advocating for user-centered methodologies in practice.
Her experience as a Partner and Head of User Experience at notallbad underscores her leadership capabilities, where she was integral in shaping the UX approach of their projects. Furthermore, her contributions as UX Lead and Senior UX Consultant for various agencies, including Ray Sono, ERGO Digital IT, and Tabiya highlight her ability to drive strategic design thinking across different projects.
Myrto’s experience doesn’t end there. She has served in numerous external consultancy roles, specializing in UX and Service Design for notable clients, including Vodafone, Taxfix, and Tafel Deutschland e.V. Her work with these organizations not only reinforced her expertise in user experience design but also broadened her understanding of different industry needs.
In addition to her role as a consultant, Myrto has a passion for mentoring and coaching emerging design talent. Her experiences as a Career Coach at Designlab and UX Design & Research Mentor at Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) showcase her dedication to fostering the next generation of UX designers, emphasizing the importance of human-centered practices in the field.
Throughout her journey, Myrto has continually refined her UX design craftsmanship through hands-on roles. From her early days as a UX/UI Designer for Prinovis GmbH & Co. KG to her positions in various leadership roles with Vodafone and Friendsurance Germany, Myrto's trajectory has exemplified growth, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to user experience excellence.
Highlights
Dear friends and colleagues,
I just returned from the most surreal business trip ever. I wanted to share my experience and make sure no one in my network has to go through this terrible experience themselves. As some of you know, I have travelled extensively for work over the years and have spent a lot of time in hotel rooms, apartments, etc. I am familiar with different types of short-term accommodation and have had my favourites and my least favourites. Recently, I tried numa. What a terrible decision. Their faceless, entitled, and ableistic attitude made my last business trip the worst experience I have ever had. The end-to-end experience was a disaster, very taxing, and nerve-wracking.
- They claim to be a 4-star property on Booking. Yet they have no lift. I had to drag my bags and dog up to the second floor. And as they had no reception, I had no help with my luggage on arrival. I have a bad knee, and the dog has spondylosis, so we both suffered during our stay. I checked their website several times, and they do not even mention having no elevator. What if I had a worse condition or disability and could not climb stairs at all? When I contacted them asking to make the lack of a lift visible on their website, as people might suffer on their permits, the response was that the maintenance company would come the same day to fix the lift - which was not there at all. They lied and refused to take responsibility afterwards. But that was not the worst part of my stay there.
- They claim to offer a kitchenette, but there is no window near the kitchenette. The window is on the other side of the room. And they have a sign over the stove saying that cooking without opening the window could set off the fire alarm. In that case, the guest should expect a fine of € 2,500. The main reason I decided for them was to cook myself and avoid eating out. Well, it didn't work. Still, it was not the worst part of my stay.
- The worst came after I checked out. They falsely accused me of smoking in the room. Well, I did not. I do not smoke and cannot handle smoke in the bedroom. I cannot sleep. Even if I were smoking, I would never smoke in a room where cooking could trigger the fire alarm. I wrote back to them, stating the above. More or less, they called me a liar. (Not in those words, see screenshot). Then they sent me some pictures - probably from another room - with items I had never seen. (Take some popcorn and see screenshot) After a lot of back and forth they waived the fee, but insist I smoked in the room. They did not apologise.
WTF? I seriously feel offended by being falsely accused. I deserve an apology. Instead, I got banned, as if I were ever going back...
If you work at numa, I hope you will sometime understand that scamming people, threatening people, falsely accusing people, having an attitude, and never apologising when being wrong are not very good business practices in the long run.
Falls jemand auf der Suche nach einer UX-Mitarbeiterin (Senior oder Lead Level)ist : Ich bin ab dem 1. April für neue Abenteuer zu haben.
🔎 Wonach suche ich in meinem nächsten Projekt? Eine höhere Komplexität, die ich möglicherweise vereinfachen könnte, und häufiger Kundenkontakt würden mein Herz sicherlich schneller schlagen lassen. Außerdem wünsche ich mir einen fantastischen Teamgeist, den einen oder anderen netten Lacher am Tag, etwas Bedarf an interner Abstimmung, um meine Workshop-Talente unter Beweis zu stellen, und vielleicht die Möglichkeit, dir beim Aufbau deines DesignOps zu helfen.
🚀 Was bringe ich mit? Jahrelange Erfahrung in verschiedenen Branchen, ein solides Verständnis von UX-Praktiken, gute Argumente und gesunden Menschenverstand, ausgeprägte Forschungs-, Design- und Workshop-Fähigkeiten und die Fähigkeit, mit verschiedenen Menschen zu kommunizieren und sie zusammenzubringen, um das gleiche Ziel zu erreichen - die Zufriedenheit der Nutzer und Kunden.
❌ Was ich nicht tun möchte? Als Designer von Leib und Seele möchte ich nicht in einer "Designfabrik" arbeiten, in der der Output Vorrang vor dem Ergebnis hat.
📢 Wie kannst du mir dabei helfen?
- Wenn du in deinem Team jemanden brauchst, der mehrere Hüte tragen kann und im Herzen ein Designer ist, melde dich. Ich freue mich darauf, mit dir ins Gespräch zu kommen.
- Wenn du einen Freund, Kollegen, Chef oder ehemaligen Arbeitgeber hast, der einen UX-Mitarbeiter (Senior oder Lead Level) sucht, lass es mich wissen - oder leite mein LinkedIn-Profil an ihn weiter. Ich freuen mich über jeden Hinweis.
Vielen Dank für deine Unterstützung und ich freue mich darauf, bald von dir zu hören! 🙏 😍
Liebe Grüße und bis bald!
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
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User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.