In this Q&A with frog Technology lead Mark Freudenberg, find out what makes frog different from tech as usual.

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Making the Impossible Real: Being an Engineer at a Design Firm

<p><strong>Today I’m interviewing <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfreudenberg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Freudenberg</a>,</strong> our Executive Technology Director in our San Francisco studio, who has been with frog for more than seven years. I am newer to frog, but I have already realized that while many creative professionals know who we are and what we do, that’s not always the case for technology and engineering professionals, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m on a mission to provide some perspective to tech professionals so they can understand what makes frog a unique and special place to be. There’s no better place to start than with the leader of our Technology practice to articulate the frog experience from an engineering perspective.</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendianemcdonald/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kristen McDonald</a>, Associate Director, Talent Acquisition</p>


<h2>What attracted you to frog and why have you decided to stay despite the tempting opportunities in the tech space within the Bay Area?</h2>
<p>Really, it comes down to the work. Seven years is a long time as a consultant, but frog continues to evolve and adapt itself over time. The one thing that remains the same is the diversity of work we get to engage in, which is unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else I’ve worked. frogs truly do things that can’t be done and have never been done before. Since we are a human-centered design company, we focus on experiences that bring enjoyment and improve interactions that we already interface with in the real world.</p>
<p>I become bored with anything I do repeatedly. Luckily, that doesn’t happen here. Our programs tend to be quick and intense, and the next program will be completely different than the last. Not only is that challenging and exciting, it lets us have a clear vision across industries so we can see larger trends and technological evolutions. That said, there’s always something new to learn. When exploring new terrain, we’re challenged in learning new skills and techniques.</p>


<h2>What type of person would be attracted to frog Technology?</h2>
<p>We’re not a classic engineering operation, so a heads-down, isolated coder type would struggle here. When on the hunt for a new team member, the first thing I look for is passion. I want to delve in and discover what they’re truly passionate about and what makes them tick. If their passion intersects with the type and style of work we do here, that will pique my interest. If they’re into rapid prototyping and experimentation, that’s also a key indicator they would enjoy the frog environment.</p>
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<p class="large-text"><em>“We are continually learning new things and pushing the boundaries of what can be done. That curiosity to ask ‘why’ and not just ‘how’ is key.”</em></p>
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<p>The other major question I ask myself when interviewing engineers is, “Does this person have empathy?” As we design and build things for humans, our teams need to think, interact and collaborate with their human-ness at the center of their work. We are constantly collaborating, and as consultants, we all have to engage with clients and partners external to frog regularly. Everyone at frog needs to be a consultant at their core, and not everyone is cut out for that.</p>
<p>Lastly, our people need to be curious! We are continually learning new things and pushing the boundaries of what can be done. That curiosity to ask “why” and not just “how” is key.</p>


<h2>How is frog different from traditional tech environments?</h2>
<p>One thing to know is that we don’t create our own products and services and nothing is branded with frog on it. So, we’re not really a product company. That can be frustrating for those who want to take a product all the way from inception to end of life. On occasion, we do build out and release our concepts into the product-world through our clients.There’s also the fact that the clients own the products and the IP. So, even when we build something out, we have to hand it over as we don’t own it. That sense of ownership that “this product is mine” is blunted here and that can be challenging for those who care about getting credit for the awesomeness they create. We trade bragging rights for the ability to have our hands in a variety of projects.</p>


<h2>What are the biggest challenges and rewards as an engineer working in a design-centric environment?</h2>
<p>Ah, one of the things I was most concerned about when I came to frog is that I wouldn’t fit in. I’m an engineer and this is an established design company. Would I be an outcast? A freak? Was I cool enough to be here? I was worried about that a bit since I’ve only worked in engineering-heavy environments prior to coming to frog. What I learned is that everyone here is as nerdy as I am; they just tend to dress a bit better (and never care that I don’t). One of the benefits of an environment like this is that different viewpoints and ways of thinking are embraced here, and in fact expected!</p>
<p>So, my fears were unfounded and it’s a great environment if you have respect for other points-of-view. Ultimately, this is frog’s secret sauce. Our strength is our diversity of backgrounds, the empowerment we have to express our points-of-view and the ability to hit problems strategically, creatively and technically. That said, if someone is used to being “top dog” at their company because they’re in the engineering team, they will struggle here.</p>


<h2>What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on?</h2>
<p>This is a tricky question to answer. A lot of our work is confidential and I can’t speak about it in- depth publicly. What I can tell you is I’ve worked on a large number of very high profile projects in the past with companies like Disney, GE and Google. I would say that my favorite work was with DARPA. Some of the DARPA work, Plan X, was published in Wired magazine in <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/08/plan-x/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2012</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/05/pentagon-cyberwar-angry-birds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2013</a>. I’ve never had such synergy with a client as we did with Dan and his team at DARPA. Designing how to visualize cybersecurity when you are dealing with something the size of the internet—well, it’s a massive challenge. As with all challenging efforts, I was a little nervous when it started, but I’m damn proud of what we did together and the outcome of all that hard work.</p>


<h2>How do you describe what you do to people outside of frog?</h2>
<p>If someone has never heard of us, the first thing I need to do is make sure that they know I’m not kidding that our name is really “frog.” If they know what we do, I tend to say that I’m the one that has to make sure that the crazy stuff we dream up is something that actually can become a reality. Well, actually I’d say that that’s my team’s job. Things like time-machines and faster-than-light spaceships are a bit tough to realize in a few weeks, so I’ll steer our teams away from that. I manage the crazy group of badasses that create all the insane software and hardware hackery. And even though I’m an Executive Director, every once in awhile I get to do the hands-on work and help make some of the unbelievable stuff myself. As long as I get to continue learning new things, working with great people and get to be a part of fascinating and challenging work, I’m good.</p>
<p>To view frog’s open technical and engineering positions, please either visit our <a href="https://www.frog.co/careers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">career page</a> or check out the following positions:</p>
<p><a href="http://grnh.se/ob64201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Solutions Architect – San Francisco</a><br />
<a href="http://grnh.se/ni06lm1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Solutions Architect – New York</a><br />
<a href="http://grnh.se/eu2wmh1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senior Experience Analyst – Austin</a></p>
<p>***These positions were posted in August 2017.</p>


Mark Fredenberg

Kristen Mcdonald

<p>Mark is an Executive Technology Director at frog SF. Focused on the technology side, he brings designs to life, embodying the “make it real” mantra. As an aerospace engineer turned software developer, he has an eclectic background he leverages in design to see trends across industries. He loves to work with his hands in physical-digital engagements to help do things that no one has ever done before.</p>


<p>Kristen is our Associate Director of Talent Acquisition at frog SF. She’s developed her career around every element of creative recruitment, ranging from gaming, advertising, mobile to now human-centered design. She’s worked either at or with Google, Activision, Microsoft, Supercell, Essence Digital and many start-ups. In her free time, she goes on urban hikes, travels and cooks at home like a Chopped champion.</p>


Authors

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With the explosion of hardware devices to support the quantified self, mobility has moved beyond its communication roots. Each new touch point represents both an opportunity and a risk. For all of their potential added value, the plethora of available devices often translates to inconsistent design languages and interfaces.

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Going Mobile: Trends to Watch

<p><strong>As designers work to link these design languages together</strong>, they must also consider how to effectively combine existing mobile services. One example is frog’s <a href="https://www.frog.co/designmind/mobile-design-will-enhance-the-lives-of-smallholder-farmers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partnership with GSMA</a>, which is focused on bringing Human Centered Design to mobile agricultural products and services in emerging economies. This project will use mobile technology to increase access to information, financial services, and supply chain solutions for over 500 million smallholder farmers, in an effort to create a positive impact on the entire agricultural value chain.</p>
<p>Whether through seamless technical integration or a focus on the holistic human experience, the future of mobility is convergence. The following are areas to watch as we anticipate this future.</p>
<h2>Connected Car</h2>
<p>The car is the quintessential mobile device. Although the automobile R&amp;D lifecycle is much longer than that of mobile phones, we are finally seeing digital connectivity within the automobile extend beyond GPS navigation and infotainment. Mobile operating systems are beginning to natively include automotive APIs, creating the connection points for cross-device connectivity. This allows the car to leverage the capability of multiple devices while maintaining and, in some cases, increasing safety.</p>
<p>Companies such as CloudCar are taking interesting approaches in this direction by integrating applications and services across mobile platforms. The key here is not to replicate the apps and app store model from cell phones but extend the system and design the devices to work together and share information.</p>
<p>This distributed computing model needs to be designed from the system level; where the car is part of a larger ecosystem and not as an isolated system where applications designed for the cell phone user experience are merely replicated. By leveraging the already established capabilities and considering how these augment each other while also working in isolation, a more user friendly and capable experience can be established. Failing to do so will exacerbate an already disparate experience for users and potentially even compromise driver safety.</p>
<h2>Wearables</h2>
<p>Right now wearables are synonymous with health trackers, but they will soon extend beyond this simplified use case to become the backbone of the Internet of Things. From our clothes to our jewelry, we will wear a variety of objects that collect data about almost anything we care to track. Meaningful interpretation of this data is the key to unlocking the potential behind wearables.</p>
<p>To unlock the potential, rich context and meaningful and beautiful visualization is needed understand the quality of these quantities. We can look to games for these visualizations, as they try to display complex information to users in a concise and meaningful way. Some fellow frogs graphed sleep data recorded by a FitBit, but tracked activity against Netflix activity, cycling habits, and the birth of a newborn to transform this data into a qualified story. Transposing these types of graphs in a compellingly visual manner is what is where we will truly see wearables shine.</p>
<h2>Payments (again)</h2>
<p>Mobile payments are certainly not new. Some countries like Japan have been handling mobile payments, using technology like the FeliCa RFID smart card system, for more than a decade. But globally mobile payments are still in the early stages of growth. Google Wallet and Apple Pay are opening the tap-to-pay capability, which will extend into micro markets where individuals will be able to trade payments with each other using a variety of devices. Mobile payments require a specific focus on security. Companies like Barclays have already introduced biometric capabilities that improve upon fingerprint readers by scanning finger vein patterns, which are hard to replicate. The future of mobile security will leverage advanced biometrics (think eyes, voice, and even enzymes) to enable secure access to a variety of connected services across the Internet, including mobile payments.</p>
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<h2>Distributed Capabilities</h2>
<p>As mentioned above, mobile devices of the future will get better at interacting with each other. They will distribute computing loads and leverage physical hardware capabilities in order to provide us with better experiences. One place we see this exemplified is in smart home technologies like the NEST. The NEST has its own intelligence to replace your existing thermostat and improve the climate controlling experience. It does not have it’s own large display where you can analyze the data. You use your other devices to unlock that element through the web. And, the <a href="https://nest.com/works-with-nest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Works with NEST program</a> is the start of an integrated device ecosystem where things just work together.</p>
<p>Looking at this from a different perspective, technologies such as <a href="https://ifttt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IFTTT</a> allow applications to link together and perform actions disparate applications. IFTTT leverages each application or service and uses its actions to support other applications and services. There is no need to recreate solutions across mobile devices, but instead leverage the mobile ecosystems around the device and add new specific elements from that device to the ecosystem to enhance the overall experience.</p>
<p>The future of mobility is extensibility over replication, with mobile experiences building on one another, instead of replicating themselves in different locales.</p>


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