@ableton

Barbara, Denise, Linus, and Yulka - it's fantastic to have the opportunity to interview a group of designers from Ableton. Please tell us more about yourself. Who are you, and what's your job at Ableton?

I’m the Head of the Web UX Design Domain. We are a team of designers, user researchers and a content strategist, responsible for the user experience of our web-based products like ableton.com and loop.ableton.com. Our domain members are embedded in cross-functional teams that focus on specific parts of the user journey, and the domain looks after the common elements such as the design system and research hub. In my role I take a creative leadership approach with an emphasis on collaboration. This year I celebrated 20 years working in the field of design, and 30 years as a DJ, so working at Ableton is the perfect opportunity to combine my experience as a designer with my love of music.

I’m the Principal UX Designer for the Live Team. In my role I support the design team on overarching design topics, help develop design standards and resources as well as future product directions. I am also part of a multidisciplinary team that builds features for Live. It’s important for me to work hands-on on the product and be in close communication with music-makers. Music and the electronic music scene have always been a big part of my life. Throughout the years I’ve collaborated with musicians as a video artist and organized music events in Berlin. For me Ableton is the place that allows me to work on things that really matter to me.

I joined Ableton as a working student during my bachelor studies in visual communication a few years ago. After I finished university, I took on a full-time position as a UI Designer in one of the teams working on new features for Ableton Live. Whilst I feel my musical background helps me understand some of the problems we’re trying to solve with our offerings, I reckon that *breaking* the limitations of my own bias towards music making is actually one of the most rewarding aspects of working here. Not only do I learn a lot about different workflows and backgrounds, it also helps me develop my perspective on my own music making and design decisions in my day-to-day life.

I have been doing user research for hardware at Ableton since 2020. This means that I investigate how people make music with MIDI controllers and hardware instruments. A big part of my job is learning about how people integrate Push into their music making practice. The studies we do about Push help us learn how to improve features and the interface of Push so that it becomes easier for people to make the music they want to make. I started this job with almost zero knowledge of music making, be that electronic music or music made with any other instruments. This helped me a lot to enter this field with as few assumptions and preconceptions as possible. In the meantime, I’ve been learning a lot about music making with Ableton products and I’ve been trying to make music, too. It was a very precious moment when I started to recognize the music maker’s perspective within myself.

For those of our readers who don't know Ableton yet. What's it all about?

Ableton is a company that builds products for music makers to start and then continuously develop their music making practice. The one product that you might have heard of even if you’re not super interested in music making is Live which is software that is an instrument in itself. Ableton makes Push, which is a hardware product specifically designed for Live that brings music making closer to a physical instrument. Ableton supports people who would like to start out with making music (check out learningmusic.ableton.com and learningsynths.ableton.com), those who are curious about the horizon of what’s technically possible (Max for Live) and the wider community of music makers as well (Loop).

How did the pandemic affect you and your team? How did Ableton adapt to COVID-19, and how are you planning your business life post-pandemic?

Early on during the pandemic, we realized that many more people turned to making music as a way to find joy and relief in these uncertain times. There was a sense that our mission became even more critical. Personally this feeling motivated me to keep going and do even more.

On a team level an abrupt shift to remote work certainly posed additional challenges. In a physical space, you would run into your teammates at a coffee machine or meet new colleagues at social events. Remote work is a setting where ad hoc conversations don’t happen as often, so it becomes harder to share knowledge and create meaningful human connections.

The first problem - of knowledge-sharing - is being addressed by many great services, from video calls to shared design tools. It was during the pandemic that our design team made a company-wide shift to Figma, which had a positive impact on collaboration and sharing early stage designs.

The other aspect - of human connection - is still a larger problem to be solved. Ableton is a company that understands the importance of it and has provided a lot of support to employees during the pandemic. I believe that in post-pandemic times there will be more focus on bringing this interpersonal communication back, whether via technologies like VR, new services or other concepts like hybrid work modes and ad hoc meetings in local neighborhood spots. We are social beings and such connections are crucial for our mental health and well-being.

At Ableton, you work at the intersection of music, design, and technology. Please tell us more about the unique nature of designing and researching musical instruments/creative tools.

Coming from a web design background, I was intrigued by the complex design environment offered by Ableton Live as a problem solving space. Rather than thinking of it as just a shell for a certain type of content, we treat Live as an instrument on its own, which is always a fascinating concept to me when I think about it. This is a stimulating approach not only from a UI perspective, but throughout the whole development process of coming up with ideas and watching artists use our software, to actual feature development and implementation.

I think one unique aspect of those who work at Ableton is the passion for music and technology. This passion drives curiosity and leads to new ideas and insightful discussions. So in a way, design at Ableton is not limited to those who are designers by role but rather it is open to anyone who is willing to contribute and engage.

We also work very closely with a community of music-makers. They are the participants of the design process as well. Sitting next to artists in their studios, observing them work and exchanging ideas in a rather informal conversation, often sparks new insights that later make their way into our products.

You have quite a few exciting job openings. What does the recruitment process at Ableton look like?

For each position we create a tailored role profile that is posted on job boards and our website at ableton.com/jobs/ - candidates are asked to submit their CV and in the case of a design role a link to their portfolio. Our hiring team will look at each application carefully and those that are a good match with the role profile are requested to send a case study outlining their approach and process. There is then a video interview where candidates will meet some of the designers/researchers to get to know each other better. Successful candidates are invited to the final stage in the process - a workshop day where they will meet their potential future team mates. Some design roles include a design exercise that we compensate for. We understand that a recruitment process can be stressful so we aim to create a relaxed environment that emulates what it’s like working at Ableton. We encourage candidates to give us feedback so that we can make improvements to future hiring rounds.

What tips would you give to potential candidates applying to Ableton?

My tip would be - take time to reflect on what excites and drives you and what you consider important. We are always interested in learning about people and the perspectives they would bring to the team.

Perhaps this is an obvious one, but my suggestion would be to spend some time researching our company and our products. We want to know your impressions and would love to hear your ideas on what could be improved.

Many people who work at Ableton make music but it’s not a hard requirement to be considered for a role. We are looking for people who have the skillset to design for/do research about music making and have interest in the field.

Since I worked in web design before joining Ableton, my portfolio mostly consisted of examples of websites, web apps and some branding projects I'd worked on. During my initial interview here at Ableton, I showed a website for a type foundry that I had worked with, which had a lo-o-o-ot of whitespace; while I was talking about how much I liked working on this project, someone jokingly said, "There ain't any whitespace left in Ableton Live to play with." So be prepared! 😀

What would you like to tell us about Ableton that is not written down in your job descriptions?

Ableton offers a self-driven learning environment in which you’ll have the opportunity to discover what interests you the most and become an expert in that. If you join Ableton, you join a company where people really care about each other and invest in learning about themselves as well. At Ableton you'll be encouraged to cultivate your growth and skills as a UX practitioner so that you can contribute meaningful work while staying inspired.

Ableton is a purpose driven company that is motivated by helping people from all walks of life at every stage of their musical journeys. This approach creates a positive environment that makes Ableton feel like a wonderful place to work.