Automattic Women: Yvonne Doll
Interviews
“My team is a ton of fun. We’re all true friends and have created a very supportive work environment.”
Singer, guitarist, composer, oil painter, and Jetpack Design Director Yvonne Doll—a person of many parts.
Welcome to Automattic Women—conversations with some of the remarkable women working all over the world to design and develop Automattic software and make the web a better place. Today’s interviewee is designer Yvonne Doll.
Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Yvonne Doll. I’m an oil painter,
musician, and the Design Director for Jetpack.
I front a rock band called “The Locals.”
I have a B.F.A. from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
I started in tech as an interaction
designer/front-end coder a billion years ago (like, before CSS… gasp!). I was a
creative director for many years, then moved into UX and research. Most would
be surprised to learn that front-end coding was a big part of my job for many
years. In fact, it’s only been my last two director positions where I was not
in the code. (Honestly, I do not miss coding; props to all you devs
out there.)
What’s a typical day like for you?
I start my day by checking Slack and saying
hello to my team. Reading our private channel, I especially like catching up
with my colleagues in Europe on what happened when I was sleeping.
I’ve got meetings here and there, and lots
of P2 [Automattic work blog] pings
to attend to.
I try to catch up on projects, then hit Asana to organize the teams’ projects. Then I do some team planning. By this time, lots more pings have come in!
Yvonne Doll in concert with The Locals.
What drew you to Automattic, and what keeps
you here?
I worked remotely for a few years already
and really enjoyed it. When I decided to make a change, I started researching
remote companies, and Automattic came up. The thing that really struck me was
how positive the Glassdoor
feedback was, and the benefits!
I love to travel. So that was appealing to me. I was also excited to work on a
product that impacts many lives. What keeps me here? The people and the
benefits. My team is a ton of fun. We’re all true friends and have created a
very supportive work environment.
What’s your favorite non-work activity?
Playing gigs with my band
