Transcript of Interview With Ryan Leffel

Interview With Ryan Leffel

This interview features Ryan Leffel, vice president, head of design at Priceline. You can watch it on Ryan’s profile page.

Transcript

– All right, well, it’s time for me to talk to another one of the many speakers that will be at ConveyUX ’24 at the last week of February in Seattle and online. And so right now, I’m talking with Ryan Leffel. Hello Ryan, how are you today?

– I’m doing great, how are you?

– Yeah, it’s pretty good. I’m talking from my home in Bellingham, Washington, which is north of Seattle, where Blink’s regional headquarters office still is. Where are you talking to us from?

– I’m in northern New Jersey, so I am about 15 miles west of New York City.

– Well, it’s great to have you as part of the program and for contributing to this interview series. Probably the best place to start is if you could talk a little bit about your background and the type of work that you do.

– Sure, so I’m currently the… Excuse me, just getting over a little cold. I’m currently the head of design at Priceline. So Priceline is an an online travel agent. At Priceline, I oversee the product design, marketing design and user research team. So really, if you come to Priceline, what you see on the desktop site, M-website, iOS, Android, my team is usually the designers, researchers behind those. Also email and social, and, you know, some different marketing touchpoints for kind of a long story prior to Priceline, started off I thought I was gonna be a developer and that wasn’t really the right thing for me. Moved into the design space, visual design, doing UX design. I went to graduate school at NYU, at directive telecommunications program where I studied design and programming. That brought me to RGA, which is a large interactive agency. Spent a little over five years there, went to Yahoo, left Yahoo and started a business. So pivoted a career somewhere along the way. Went into the gym business, did that for a few years, didn’t really work out, back into design. Started working at a company, actually I did a lot of freelance work then, a company called Corra, which is a digital commerce agency, overseeing design and strategy. From there, spent a little bit of time at a company called Pearson, which is in the at tech space, and eventually landed a Priceline where I am today.

– Well, I imagine it’s been quite an eventful past few years for the travel industry and kind of the portion of it that you’re involved with. Are there any particular challenges that you may might wanna share? You know, either from your own work or more generally about the industry?

– Yeah, I think one of the bigger challenges that I face, and I think, you know, a lot of people, especially today relate to this are, there’s just so much going on in the world, you know, whether it’s concerns about the economy, we just came out of a pandemic. There’s different world events and they all have an impact on what we do and how we operate, and how businesses think about their outlook. So there’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of ambiguity, and a lot of change that we all have to have to deal with. And, you know, I’d say that is certainly were one of the biggest challenges is, but it’s also something that I think over time I’ve kind of, it’s a space where I kind of… I think I thrive in that space. I’ve, you know, just through a lot of my background and different things that I’ve done in places that I’ve been, there’s always these moments of unknown and uncertainty. So, you know, just being able to lead myself through those times and manage a team through those times are really, I think where, you know, where there’s a lot of challenge today, but also a lot of opportunity.

– And are there any particularly exciting or difficult things that you’re working on today, or in the future that you’d like to talk about?

– Yeah, I mean, it’s always exciting. I mean, we do a lot of testing at Priceline, which is just really, you know, it’s always exciting to test different pieces of design and design thought to, you know, see what’s gonna perform well. I think, you know, there’s been a lot happening in the AI space this past year, which has just been really exciting to be a part of as well.

– Your topic mention that is connecting the dots, career changes the unknown and building a culture.

– Yes.

– Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you came around to that topic and why you think it’s important to share with others?

– Yeah, so I came upon that topic. So I’ve done a lot of talking in the past just about, you know, design and conversion and building products. And I really wanted to talk about something that was, I think, more personal to me and unique to what I’ve been through in my career. So kind of going back to what I talked about earlier with change and ambiguity, it’s something that I’ve just been through a lot and I think we’ve all been through a lot, and I think over time, I’ve learned how to get myself through these uncertain times and also help lead teams through those uncertain times. So I started talking about that because it was something that was unique and it was personal to me, and I was able to put my own twist on. And that really got me thinking about when you talk about connecting the dots, and there’s this quote from Steve Jobs about you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. And that quote has always been very meaningful to me. And if you stop and unpack your story and really think about where did you start and how did you get to where you are today, there’s so many lessons and moments that are just incredibly meaningful to understand. When I think about my own story, you know, I started off thinking I wanted to be a developer and it wasn’t really the right place for me. I found my way into design, which brought me to graduate school, being at graduate school helped me land my first job at RGA and that brought me to Yahoo, where after, you know, a little over three years, I got laid off. So went through, you know, went through layoffs. I decided at that point I’m gonna try to start my own business. So I went through a career pivot, which is I think something else which is, you know, relevant and people think about jumping around, and how do you go about doing that? I learned that it was really hard when that didn’t work out, I thought it would be very easy to get back into design because I had a lot of experience doing it, and I learned how hard it was to get back into design after I took time away from being in design. Eventually, you know, started at Priceline, starting at a travel company three months, four months before a pandemic hits. So now you’re in an industry which is, you know, the headlines weren’t pretty starting off at that time. So there was, again, a lot more change and uncertainty that I had to get through. And, you know, when I kind of took a step back and looked at where I’ve been and how I got there, it was just, you know, like all these dots and connection points and whenever really think about it, there’s so much I learned along the way that helped me get to where I am today. So I think this is a really important topic for me because I think there are a lot of people who have gone through these moments, whether it’s dealing with layoffs, whether it’s thinking about, you know, taking some risk and trying something new. You know, whether it’s pivoting careers, or just trying something different that you haven’t done before, or being faced with a situation and you’re just, you don’t know which way it’s gonna go and what’s gonna happen, and just how do you keep a good positive mindset to help, you know, make what you think at the time of right decisions and push forward. So hopefully, this will resonate with people who are going through any of those types of things. And I think it is really important for people to step back and think about what are their own thoughts, what have I experienced along the way that I might not have even thought about or realized the value of that particular moment that helped me get to where I am now.

– Well, as a person who’s just expressed, you know, all this lived life and work life experience, do you have a tip or a thought that you might wanna share with others, you know, that might help them with their career become good leaders?

– Yeah, I mean, you know, trust your gut, trust your instinct, don’t be afraid to take some risk if, you know, failing is okay. You hear a lot of people say that, but the thing about it’s perfectly fine and it’s okay to fail. It’s how you respond to it and what you learned when you do it. So don’t let the fear of the unknown hold you back from trying something different.

– All right. Well, one of the elements we have at the live conference in Seattle is a bookstore. And so I always like to ask our speakers if there’s any interesting read you’ve had lately?

– So I am actually just finishing a book right now called “The Leader’s Journey,” which I think has been a really interesting read for me. And, you know, part of what I’m gonna be talking about is looking back at your own story and how do you kind of connect those dots and put those pieces together. And that type of theme is very much embedded in that book. Just the importance of people understanding their own story and how to interpret your story and, you know, how do you think about lessons you’ve learned along the way and how to identify the things that you’re really good at and the things that you can use improvement on, and how do you pull all those things together. And so it’s been a good book. I’ve enjoyed it.

– Well, thanks for that recommendation and also for taking the time to chat with me and sharing your ideas with the people who may be attending the conference. So thank you so much and I really appreciate your time.

– Yeah, thanks a lot. Really looking forward to it.

– Right, thanks a lot Ryan.

– Sure thing.