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Podcast

Code and Emotion. Why Anthropology is Important for Creating Good Digital Products

January 18, 2022

Season 2 - Episode 1


Episode summary

Fork Pull Merge Push is back with new voices, new topics, and insights! The first episode of season two takes us closer to user experience and digital anthropology. In this episode, we talk about ego and bias, life and death in a digital context. We discuss how important it is for software developers to master their soft skills like empathy and communication in order to build successful products or services. Anna Haverinen, Design Anthropologist at Reaktor, shares her hard-earned lessons and puts some of the common ideas in the tech world into perspective.

This is also the co-hosting debut for brilliant Anna Fröblom. Welcome Anna! 🤟


Guests

Anna Haverinen is a Design Anthropologist and she holds a PhD in Digital Culture. She works at the intersection of design, technology, and business by providing strategic and qualitative insight into people, communities, and individuals. In her academic work, she has studied grief and death in online environments, and in the past years, she has worked with clients such as UPM, Suunto, Aarikka, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Her favorite thing in the world is Fazer chocolate.

Hosts

Anna Fröblom is a great programmer, problem-solver, hobby photographer, lego enthusiast, and simply a nice person.

Esko Lahti is an engineer who now works in the company that got him into Clojure. Now, his party trick at meetups is to rapid-fire through an extensive list of parentheses jokes.

References

  • Madjsberg, Christian & Rasmussen, Mikkel: The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems
  • Hasbrouck, Jay: Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset
  • Tett, Gillian: Anthro‑Vision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life

About Reaktor

Fork Pull Merge Push is a podcast created for developers by developers. It’s brought to you by Reaktor, a global technology consultancy that designs, builds, and scales transformative digital products for today’s most forward-thinking companies.