My Name Is Raymond Galang — This Is Why I Joined Aha!

I consider myself a UX veteran. I’ve worn just about every hat throughout my career in user experience and design. I’ve worked for an award-winning digital agency, shot photography professionally, and co-founded an Internet startup company that is still going strong today. I’ve started my own UX design consulting business and been part of two successful acquisitions.

Prior to joining Aha! I managed a global team of UX designers and developers for the #1 education company in the world. I was happy and content. Then, life took me in a different direction.

It happened one day while I was browsing through LinkedIn. I came upon a post that struck a chord with me. I found the author and read another post — and then another, and then another.

When I got to his profile, I saw that he was wearing a road biking kit (aka branded jersey and shorts). “He’s a cyclist like me!” I thought. “I should get to know this guy.”

His name was Brian de Haaff — the CEO of Aha! I continued on to the company’s site. My interest was piqued and I wanted to know what they did.

“Wow, this product is amazing,” I thought. “I need to show this to our product manager!”

Aha! filled a huge void that our agile product managers desperately needed. We had been working on multiple projects and products with distributed teams using spreadsheets. These teams had critical dependencies that needed alignment and the ability to share their roadmaps with the broader team.

Aha! was their obvious solution — but I quickly became taken with it as well. As a UX designer, I found myself impressed with the features and design. I believed in the problems that Aha! was solving. And I wanted to get my hands on it myself!

As it turned out, they needed a UX designer. And although I was leading a large and productive team, I found myself at a crossroads. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to lead UX design for software that changes the way lovable products are built. How could I not be part of that adventure?

All the dots connected, and I knew that I had to apply. I prepared my resumé and designed an infographic that showcased my experience and design capabilities (and cycling prowess too).

I knew this was the job for me, so I created…

The rest, as they say, is history. I was fortunate to discover a proven founding team, a product that I could rally behind, a hyper-productive engineering team, and colleagues whom I truly connect with — often over long bike rides.

That is why I joined Aha! — and why you should too.