Eunice Sari on being a trouble maker, pioneering new ways, and building society

Dr Eunice Sari is the CEO and Co-Founder of UX Indonesia, the first UX Research, Training and Consulting Company based in Indonesia, among many other ‘first’ roles and achievements. She has more than 15 years of experience in academia and industry. In this conversation Eunice shares her career trajectory working and studying in Indonesia, Denmark, Finland and Australia. A common pattern is, as she calls it, making trouble and seeing new possibilities, whether this is applying participatory design methods to service design before it was a thing, or starting a UX company in Indonesia where people had never heard of UX previously. What also comes through are culture-specific aspects, whether it is about working around career expectations for her as a girl in Indonesia or having to re-think management strategies that work in western contexts but have to be re-thought in her company. Eunice makes trouble though to make a difference and she is passionate about service and what she calls building society. She also shares her personal routines and strategies for managing all that she does and how having to work from home because of COVID is a blessing in disguise.“In Indonesia or in Asia, you can make more impact to more people if you have enough education.”“I always make trouble because I want to start something new, I want to break the norms, I want to go outside the box. And if I don’t have this PhD thing, it’s not about myself [or being called doctor] but in this region that position is very important. It actually helps you to make a difference and to change a lot of things. A kind of enabler.”[Service/volunteer work] “builds society and when society is built, the impact is to you as well as you can have a better conversation.”“My [management] style is to give you a goal you need to achieve and you sort it out for yourself. That’s more western minded and I’ve had to learn from my mistakes and give more specific instruction.”Full Transcript available here (thanks to Claudia, Personal Research Assistant of Eunice Sari!)Overview (times approximate):02:10 Current COVID experiences06:20 From a study/career for an Indonesian girl to starting a company21:15 Doing her Masters and working in Denmark35:11 Starting a PhD in Finland41:00 Doing service, making a difference47:10 Managing people, building a company57:20 Family and COVID times01:03:50 Final comments1:06:00 EndIn more detail, she talks about…02:10 Current COVID experiences2:10 Eunice discusses the impact of COVID for her personally and for her work and company; and that her people in Indonesia do not like working from home06:20 From a study/career for an Indonesian girl to starting a company6:20 Eunice talks about wanting to be a doctor but it being difficult in Indonesia, the complication being a girl – girls were not expected to have a high career. Also interested in doing something with technology but also not supported as a girl. Instead she was encouraged to learn English and become a teacher. Loved working with people. Also always likes to raise difficult issues.10:45 One thing she was really interested in was CBT computer-based teaching and learning. Worked as a research assistant to try to get connections and also looking for opportunity to go overseas. After several years, got a scholarship to study in Japan. Studied culture and language in Japan and also created two research projects for herself when only one needed....

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