"Stop Crying, Be a Strong Man", Interview with Dana Kachan

The 2020 #Noonies are here, and they are both much greener and much bigger than last year.

Among the 2,000+ deserving humans nominated across 5 categories for over 200 award titles, we discovered Dana Kachan from Ukraine, who’s has been nominated for a 2020 #Noonie in the Future Heroes and Technology categories.

Without further ado, we present to you, our big techy world, from the perspective of Dana.

1. Which 2020 Noonie have you been nominated for?

Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - PRODUCT DESIGN

2. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi Hacker Noon!

I'm so excited to appear on the list of your top contributors, it's a great honor to me. Thanks once again!

A little about me:

I'm a digital marketing strategist serving product design and development companies based in the USA, Singapore, and Europe. I'm also an author of many articles on design, product development, business, and marketing.

3. Tell us about the things you make / write / manage / build.

Besides providing digital marketing consulting services for B2B businesses located in the USA, Singapore, and Europe, I try to be helpful and share my findings with other people via my articles.

I'm also a UX design researcher and the co-author of the book "Business-Driven Digital Product Design" created collaboratively with Fireart Studio. Recently, I've become a contributing marketing expert at the 7th edition of Global eCommerce Trends Report 2020 created by Divante in collaboration with Kantar.

After publishing my last article "What you need to know about digital marketing for the new normal" on E27, I have been invited to participate in a video podcast about marketing during the COVID-19 conducted by REL Communications (it's planned to be released soon).

My recent articles have been published on your amazing magazine, as well as other online media, such as Yahoo News Singapore, The Designest, Noupe, ReadWrite, Business2Community, Creative Bloq, Usability Geek, Speakyboy Magazine, and E27.

Networking with many product design&development companies, I often interview CEOs and Founders and include their opinions in my articles. So that I try to ensure readers always access tips and practices backed at my own digital marketing experience or experience of those incredible people who have grown their own products and companies.

4. What are you most excited about right now?

I am excited to combine my passions for Design, Marketing, Digital Transformation, and Business topics, and write articles about UI/UX and graphic design in the context of marketing, the importance of design for business success, and how design intersects with customer psychology.

5. What are you worried about right now?

My favorite Turkish food restaurant and clothing shop faced bankruptcy during the Coronavirus lockdown, so I am really worried about the future of all small businesses now. To support SMBs in these challenging times, I am now writing a articles on how they can boost their marketing to overcome a recession.

6. What's the most useful advice you've ever given somebody?

The most useful advice? Likely, it was "Stop crying, be a strong man!" given to my small brother. The funniest thing is that instead of by brother, it has been sent to my boss by mistake on the first my working day, right after the final interview.

7. How has the pandemic changed your life and/or career?

I have realized the significance of digital transformation for businesses even more than before since most of my clients have faced challenges related to it during a pandemic and were forced to adjust their businesses to new digital market rules.

8. If we gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?

I would organize a 2-in-1 company - digital marketing agency + media production house (like Red Bull's one, including own magazine, radio, video production, etc)

9. What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?

I believe in aliens. :) Since it would be too egocentric to think that we're alone in the whole Universe.

10. Which apps can't you live without?

LinkedIn app, digital wallets

11. What are you currently learning?

marketing approaches by Seth Godin

For much the same reasons Hacker Noon decided not to put good ideas behind pop-ups or paywalls — nor abuse your personal data to target you with creepy ads — we also decided that you don’t have to be a #thinkfluencer or have 50k followers on Twitter to earn the recognition that comes with a 2020 Noonie Nomination. 

Make somebody’s day and nominate them to be recognized in the internet’s most independent and community-driven awards: NOONIES.TECH.