In this episode, we speak with Jayson Hobby, Head of Design at Compound. Hailing from Stumptown, Oregon, Jayson has deep design experience, previously leading pro and institutional Product Design at Coinbase including Coinbase Custody, Pro and Prime. Before diving into crypto, Jayson cut his teeth on product on the founding team of Uber Freight by way of Otto. In his free time he's listening to obscure music or casting cardboard spells in Magic The Gathering.

Compound is an open-source, autonomous protocol built for developers, to unlock a universe of new financial applications. The mission of Compound is to unlock the significant portion of cryptocurrencies that currently sit idle on exchanges and in wallets, without yielding interest.

We dive into how Compound has leveraged great design to drive adoption and become one of the most prominent DeFi projects in the space.

Enjoy!

Notes

[0:32] Polyient sponsorship intro.
[1:12] Episode intro.
[2:19] Overview of Compound.
[3:45] Description of the target user types for Compound.
[5:01] Jayson’s background and the path that led him to Compound.
[11:38] The origin story of Compound and how it’s evolved over time.
[13:15] User research and discovery challenges within DeFi and how they overcome them.
[14:52] How Jayson and the team process the user input flowing from the various channels it comes from.
[16:35] Jayson’s design process and how the team uses the Compound interface to validate assumptions.
[21:31] The team’s approach to user testing and feedback.
[24:00] How Compound takes new products and features to market.
[25:24] The emphasis the Compound team takes to shipping code at the protocol level.
[27:00] Challenges the team faces on a day-to-day basis.
[29:21] Breakdown of the team and how prioritization decisions are made across the team.
[32:10] Jayson’s view on what skills are most important to have on a team to succeed.
[34:34] How the decentralized ethos informs Compound’s community development.
[39:03] What keeps Jayson up at night and how he thinks the world will be different five years from now with Compound in it.
[42:13] Early thoughts about decentralized governance for Compound.
[44:07] Where to go to find out more about Compound.

Links

Jayson’s Personal Website: https://jaysonhobby.com
Jayson’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaysonhobby
Compound Website: https://compound.finance
Compound Discord: https://compound.finance/discord
Compound Blog: https://medium.com/compound-finance