From End-User to Product Designer at Oura

Hi! My name is Veera. I currently live in Oulu (the fifth most populous city in Finland), but I am originally from Rovaniemi, above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. I like to do outdoor activities such as hiking, snowboarding, surfing, and everything fun in nature in my free time. I initially studied graphic design, as I liked drawing and art as a child, so it has always been a natural career choice to be a designer. 

Product Design: Love at First Sight

I got involved in product design a bit by accident, and it was love at first sight. I initially started my career as a graphic designer at OP Financial Group, Finland's largest financial services group. At the beginning of my career, I never got the chance to see how the users reacted to the prints I was creating. Only after I made the jump to product designer on the Pivo app design project, I was able to interact with the end-users for the first time. I immediately thought it was amazing to build something from scratch with the help of engineers, and I liked the interaction with the users. Being able to see how people react to your product and make iterations according to the feedback is really interesting to me. 

What I like the most in product design is participating in all the different phases of the product and working with different professionals from various fields. I really enjoy, for example, the discovery phase, where we try to understand the customers’ needs. I am also a very hands-on designer, so I find the development from initial ideas into a final product very rewarding. I love being part of all the phases.  

My experience in the banking industry taught me the basis of my knowledge on product design. I was a part of a business development unit, where we were constantly experimenting and discovering new design languages. As a result, I learned the “trial-and-error” work philosophy, which is an integral part of the early phase of the design pipeline. I loved this, and I found this type of culture at Oura when looking for my next challenge.

Designing a Product with the Users

Before joining Oura as a Senior Product Designer, I was a customer and Oura Ring user. My favourite feature, or collection of features, is the Oura Sleep Tab, which shows all your sleep details. I don’t get a great sleep every night, but when I do, it’s the best moment to see good scores and the Northern Lights visuals! It is a peak moment for me. I also closely follow my resting heart rate trend and the period prediction indicators. As a wearable product, it is really personal, and the Oura Ring looks high-end, both the software and the hardware.

As a Product Designer, I couldn’t help but wonder who the app and ring were being designed for. I always want to keep the user in mind. In addition to being an Oura Ring owner myself, I also heard about Oura’s culture and functionality from a friend. Ultimately, I wanted to put my creativity into use at Oura and be part of this amazing health transformation journey. There are some great innovations cooking at the moment, and I can’t wait to get them launched.

Senior Product Designer at ŌURA 

At Oura, I am part of the Health Squad. I have been working on projects like the Oura Ring Generation 3 enhanced sensor package to help you more accurately track and optimize your health. Most prominently, my time was spent on designing and launching the Daytime Heart Rate Monitoring feature—one of the most requested features from our users. 

Our team was given creative freedom on the design creation of the Daytime Heart Rate feature. After prototyping, user testing, defining specs with engineers, implementing, and improving, we launched the Oura Ring Gen3 ring last Autumn. The team and I added more meaning to the existing features by adding daytime heart rate tracking and restorative time metrics to help you recover, restore, manage stress, or improve your overall fitness. Previously, the nighttime sleeping heart rate tracking was the only indicator of recovery, but, as science shows, we also know that recovery happens during the daytime. It is actually recommended to take breaks, nap, or just relax during the day. So it really can help your recovery. The Oura Ring is capable of sensing that recovery time, and we wanted to enable customers to see their daytime recovery stats. 

It is an eye-opening discovery to help users see how their resting heart rate develops overtime and how their body responds to different external factors. I enjoyed working on the wireframing and final pixel perfect skin 40 for the end product on this project. 

I am currently working on the awaited SpO2 Blood Oxygen sensing feature, which is planned to launch in 2022. Powered by a new red LED sensor, the Oura Ring Generation 3 can sense blood oxygen levels, giving the user a new health metric and more information about their sleep quality and breathing regularity. It has been interesting to be part of the process of visualizing the data, so users can get the most out of the feature.

The Oura Ring is also a global success, and it’s cool to read reviews from big name publications in media around the world. But I really love to read reviews from 'real users'. It’s exciting to see how the features come to life and how my designs positively impact people’s lives.

Oura’s Culture Designs a Great Product Experience

The thing I like the most about working at Oura is that the management supports experiential learning. We have the freedom to investigate, explore possibilities according to the data, and leverage our passions and interests. We are encouraged to pitch ideas and are trusted professional employees.  For example, I am currently working on a passion project of mine to do with long-term ring data visualization. I love having free hands on development ideas! 

I really feel appreciated as a professional, and I can trust that my colleagues will do their work and produce great results. We are a bunch of very diverse people (with many perspectives, backgrounds, gender, and culture).  We have quite a nice amount of female representation in the company, and, having come from a male-dominated industry, I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work in a diverse environment. I think diversity in our team structures is what makes the Oura Ring as great as it is. And we represent the diversity of our end users as well. 

Diversity and cross-functional team work really help keep the process agile. The only way to create a great product is to work closely with people from different teams. At the moment, my closest workmates are from the product management team, followed by engineers and scientists. One of the most inspiring things at Oura are the very talented, dedicated people. It is a great place to learn more while your thoughts are being challenged. That is part of the fun! I particularly enjoy working with scientists, as I am always amazed how we are able to translate hardcore knowledge into an easy-to-understand format. It really is a team effort. 

For me, Oura’s product carries significance. The ring itself really brings feelings. The customers are so close to the end product, as it follows their body signals and builds up their personal data. What motivates me is seeing that the data really has an impact on people’s lives, and we hope for better lifestyle changes.   

As product designers, we like rolling our sleeves up and getting our hands dirty. We keep things consistent and aligned and the users feedback fuel our innovations; we really take the time to listen to the end users and understand their needs. With out that approach, I don't think I would have joined Oura and gone from end-user to product designer!

If you enjoy being part of the full product design lifecycle and have an interest in health and data visualization, Oura could be your next stop. Check out our open positions!