228 - Matthew Moore

Matthew Moore leads design at Lime. His work’s been in the ‘physical meets digital’ realm for over a decade now. That includes early WeWork, Uber, Sonder, and now at Lime.

He finds a lot of satisfaction in using technology to help improve real world experiences. At Lime, that goes beyond just making it easy for people to adopt micromobility into their lives. His work is also to help make cities more people-first.

He is from the Sierra Nevada foothills outside of Sacramento. Now he lives in the SF Bay Area with his wife and two girls. They try to make the most of all that Northern California offers by getting out and exploring often. Most weekends you’ll find them camping in their 88 Vanagon somewhere on the coast or in the mountains.

His dad was an automotive machinist by trade, so he grew up doing very hands on projects. Although his professional work mostly happens on the computer, he tries to create in the real world as much as he can.

His workspace is an expression of that.

Over the pandemic he kept plugging away at creating his own ideal workspace. He started with the shed in his backyard, which he built in mid-2020. It was a very basic shell that he's kept iterating on and now feels like it’s finished as of late-2022.

It features a standing desk, custom plywood shelves and cabinets, and a bunch of tools he uses to do his work. Now that he's been working in it during every season, he has added lighting and heating/air. These help make the space comfortable and usable at all times of the year.

It brings him a lot of joy that he's gotten the space built out exactly how he likes. That rolls into the work he does every day.

Twitter → twitter.com/matthewcmoore

Hardware:

• Apple M1 14” MacBook Pro: This machine is another huge lever in getting things done more efficiently. It seems to handle everything I throw at it, instantaneously.
• Apple Airpods Max: Quality headphones that just work on wireless.
• Opal C1: Nice camera from some old Uber friends!
• Time Timer: Simple tool that helps me drive focus on projects.
• LG 32” Ultrafine Ergo: Great monitor with lots of ports and flexibility. Love that the arm connects to the desk and doesn’t eat up desk space.
• iPad mini with Apple Pencil and Procreate: Doing forward looking work often means sketching out some ideas. I cheat and trace photo composites I put together using a iPad/Pencil/Procreate workflow. It’s a great hack for someone that can’t draw all that well.
• Muji Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser: Turn this on when I need some scents and vibes
• Audiotechnica Turntable: This is probably 20 years old and works fine for my occasional vinyl needs. I replaced the needle recently but can’t tell if the quality improved :P

Software:

• Figma: Yup
• Illustrator/Photoshop: There’s a good amount of print work we need to do at Lime to improve the customer experience. I love Figma, but Illustrator is still where it’s at for print projects.
• Premiere/After Effects: Video is an important part of the customer experience at Lime. I work on some customer facing projects, but also like to find opportunities to use video for internal storytelling as well. Putting my film school education to work!
• 1Password: A game changer. I found myself burning time and building anxiety with passwords. Last year I finally set up 1Password and can’t stress how great it’s been. If you haven’t, try a password manager.
• Cleanshot X: Great time saving tool that helps with communication and storytelling. Capture screens, make quick gifs, get things off your screen and able to be communicated to others, rapidly.
• Apple Notes: Every time I veer away, I inevitably wind up back in Notes. It’s the right tool for my productivity management.
• DuckDuckGo: I’m for a free and open internet and try to align my choices with that belief. DuckDuckGo has great privacy standards and the quality of the results is as good as the alternative, if not better and more customer-focused.
• Tidal: I started using Spotify in 2009 but recently have been using Tidal more. I appreciate their singular focus on music and that obsession is clear in their product.
• Pocket Casts: Love this dedicated podcast app. At minimum, I go for a 30 min walk everyday and catch up on podcasts. I’m a political and civic junkie, so the pods are generally in that vein: NPR, NY Times, Vox, SF Chronicle, etc.

What is your favorite item in your workspace?

I like the sitting chair and ottoman because they were my grandparents and sitting there always brings back memories to me of my childhood. I get to think a bit about my journey through life when I’m there. I also appreciate the plywood shelving that my father-in-law and I built. The space is more comfortable and functional because of those shelves. Software is so temporary, so it’s nice to see and use something I’ve made in the real world, every day.

How do you spark creativity?

The majority of design work is the prep: gathering/reviewing insights, looking to see what else is out there, and just thinking about the problem space for a bit. Once that’s done, it comes down to blocking out uninterrupted time, turning on some music, and putting one foot in front of the other.  Paint in broad brush strokes initially and go wide. I keep in mind the areas that’ll need more love and attention in future passes on the work and not let those distract from getting the bulk of the direction fleshed out. This approach works no matter what you’re creating in the world.

How do you keep the work-life balance with so many projects going on at once?

We’re all responsible for creating our own boundaries. I frequently question the boundaries I’ve drawn between the different parts of my life. I’m grateful for many things: the problems I work on, the incredible people I get to work with, and most importantly: my family. They’re the team that’ll be with me as long as I’m here. Understanding that helps with how I think about how I spend my time. I block my calendar aggressively including plenty of DNS time for family or non-work events.