Mews R&D Check-In

Mews R&D

Hosted by Jan Meissner, our R&D Community Lead, this podcast takes you behind the scenes with Mews' engineering, design, product management, content design, data science, and more. Explore the stories, collaborations, and insights that fuel innovation across the company.

  1. Sofía Santos: Service design is more than just workshops

    MAR 4

    Sofía Santos: Service design is more than just workshops

    — A Mews R&D Check-In on service design, organizational systems, and the art of intentional discovery at scale. In this episode, our host Jan Meissner sits down with Sofía Santos, Staff Service Designer in the Growth Tribe at Mews. Sofía shares her unique perspective on what it means to design for the entire customer journey—from the first interaction with a brand to the complex onboarding and support systems that keep a product running. The conversation explores how a service designer's way of thinking bleeds into everyday life, including Sofía's habit of prototyping her own kitchen to optimize human interaction with space. She unpacks the common misconceptions of the role, explaining why the real value of a service designer lies not in the "sticky notes" of a workshop, but in the deep discovery, visual mapping of pain points, and strategic alignment that happens behind the scenes. They dive into the challenges of designing for a massive ecosystem, the importance of "signals" in mapping a vision for 2026, and how to balance structured experimentation with a sense of playfulness. Sofía also shares how she leverages AI as a "critical thought partner" to stress-test ideas and build high-fidelity narratives for future-state journeys. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay To learn more about Mews R&D team, check out our: websiteLinkedInInstagram

    16 min
  2. Richard Schäfer: We’re not just listening, we’re understanding

    08/29/2025

    Richard Schäfer: We’re not just listening, we’re understanding

    — A Mews R&D MiniPodcast on building developer experience, tooling, and and improving how teams work together Welcome to the Mews R&D mini podcast series! Bite-sized conversations with the people behind our tech – short interviews, fresh insights, and more guests from across Mews R&D. Stay tuned for stories, ideas, and a peek behind the curtain of how we build. In this episode, our host chats with Richard Schäfer, Director of Developer Experience at Mews, about what it takes to create a seamless experience for engineers and how developer tooling can scale with a growing company. From his journey from engineer to DX leader to why small teams don’t always need dedicated DX, Richard shares candid insights on leadership, cross-team collaboration, and measuring the impact of work that often happens “behind the scenes.” They dive into Mews’ design system, how adoption affects the customer experience, and the ways DX balances listening to engineers with shaping scalable solutions. There’s also discussion on community building within engineering teams, the role of AI in speeding up development, and why experimentation and adaptability are key to a thriving tech organization. A reflection, hands-on guidance, and a touch of playful curiosity—showing that enhancing the developer experience can be just as creative and impactful as crafting the products themselves. --- Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay To learn more about Mews R&D team, check out our: websiteLinkedInInstagram

    17 min

About

Hosted by Jan Meissner, our R&D Community Lead, this podcast takes you behind the scenes with Mews' engineering, design, product management, content design, data science, and more. Explore the stories, collaborations, and insights that fuel innovation across the company.