Hannah Ryu
Q What do you do?
“I run the client and operational side of our design studio and my co-founder Vee runs the creative and executional part of the business.”
On a day to day basis, I’m prospecting, pitching to new clients, handling HR stuff for our team, meeting with our client-side team to make sure all projects are running smoothly, recruiting for new team members, doing cold outreach, reaching out to mission-aligned partners … anything that falls under taking care of our team and growing our business.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I've always been driven by curiosity. I followed what I was curious about and did what I could within the resources I had to get to where I wanted to go. Sounds fluffy so put more tactically for example … at the last company I worked at (a tech startup), I started as sales op associate but wanted to figure out how I wanted to grow in my career so I asked to shadow the different departments at our company. I ended up enjoying the product side of the business but they didn’t have an entry-level role so I highlighted all the gaps within the org and how I could fill that gap and serve the department as an associate product manager. From there, I learned the trade of product managing a SaaS platform before starting my own UX/UI design firm.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I can’t speak for just myself, but as a team, we are a women of color owned and operated design studio in a very homogenous industry. There are a lot of folks who look like us on the ground floor but it’s rare to see one of us in the decision making room leading the company. As a Black and Asian American women founded company, we are pretty serious about centering diverse perspectives in digital design and to ensure that more of us feel seen in the digital interfaces that we use everyday.
Q What are you working on right now?
We’re working on a bunch of different projects … a branding project for a Black Professional organization, redesigning a program page at an established company to make it resonate more with the users … working with a neuroscientist at a university here in New York to brand her science lab!
Q What’s your style?
We love good aesthetics of course but our work is really rooted in the MVP-first and user-centered design approach. How can we make the user experience of the software interface, of the website, of the brand assets the most user friendly and seamless to use and enjoy?
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
UX/UI design is our bread and butter. As we grow, we are looking to invest more time and growth into the branding arm of our business.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Our social media marketing! We do very little marketing for ourselves and of course I know we need to. We’ve tried a few different ways (e.g. hiring a small agency, hiring a person, etc) to lead our marketing efforts but it has come up a bit flat. I think part of it is because as a startup studio, Vee and myself (co-founders) have to be more directly leading those efforts for it to reflect our voices and point of view. Or maybe we’re over thinking it, I’m not sure! If you have any tips for B2B social marketing approach… please, I’m all ears.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Creating an automated system or at least a daily process for prospecting leads.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I was really nervous when I was pregnant and expecting my baby last year. I felt grief as much as I did excitement due to the fact that we were only in our year two of our startup. I felt like I would be sacrificing our company growth because I couldn’t physically/mentally/emotionally be on as much pregnant and post-birth. If I could go back in time for when I was pregnant, I would tell myself that we can still make progress given my state of being and that I would end up relying on our amazing team who would show up and help us scale in ways bigger than what I could’ve imagined for myself. I’m a lucky girl because my business partner Vee had told me these things while I was going through it and she held down the fort while I had to step away for a few months postpartum. I’m very grateful for our partnership and for Vee.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
About scaling a self-funded studio/agency.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
We love working with up and coming startups and established orgs looking for more creative direction and perspectives on their branding, UX/UI, or web design work. We're currently looking to get more projects in healthcare, real estate, beauty, and general SaaS.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
We enjoy working with clients who see us as partners and vice versa. The ones who understand that we have their best interest and know that we will use our expertise to help set them up for success. Honestly, most of our clients have this perspective so we’ve been lucky. The ones who don’t and see us as another “vendor,” we usually don’t make it to the proposal conversation. Life is too short to have misaligned energy with a client!!
Q What is your rate?
We price out our work on a project-basis most of the time. For retainer type of work, our studio rate is around $180-$220/hr.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
An email to hannah@oaktheory.co with a short blurb about your project goal and realistic budget range is great so we can get right to the point!
Q Who is a creative you admire?
The team over at Creative Theory because they do culture focused work that is so needed in our world.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Make sure I get my workout time in and spend time outdoors and away from my keyboard and screens
This member profile was originally published in April 2023