Humans on Video - Sander Kuypers

Hi, I'm Cecilia Boecha and this is Humans on Video, the series where we meet the visionaries, developers, designers and commercial minds behind shaping the video-first world at TwentyThree. Hi. Hi. How are you doing? I'm all good. Yeah, thank you. Nice. Would you like to introduce yourself? Yes. Hi, I'm Sander. I'm a designer at TwentyThree. And I'm excited to hear some questions from you. Nice. So you've been here at TwentyThree for over two years now? Yeah. What have been your biggest takeaways in your journey? Biggest takeaways? I think there is a massive demand for helping people working with video, right? Especially in a professional setup. We all know that we can create a video from our phones and all those kind of things. We're doing it more in a professional level. And that's super interesting to figure out, especially for businesses, what can this tool do for people? You must have some interesting memories from your time here. Is there anything that comes to your mind? The bigger one is, I think, like the summit, like the first summit where you try to figure out something that you haven't done before. During the first summit and also the second one, I was actually behind the scenes of the stage. And I was controlling the stage. And I was controlling the buttons between the slideshow, which is always scary if like a big presentation is happening and it's like, it's all live. Okay, if I push the wrong button and the whole theater is watching you, then it's a little bit scary. So on the moment that we passed like the first 20 slides, I was like, yes, I can sit and relax a little bit. But it was a really magical moment that everything starts to come together. And it's like, oh, that was scary, but exciting. That's like, then you start to get on that wave of excitement. It's like, yes, we did it. Yeah. And it was pretty magical and a great memory for being at 23. That's so nice. I'm so excited about the next summit coming along soon. Yeah. I don't know where I will be on the buttons or somewhere on the stage or somewhere in between, but it's exciting. It's always a surprise. Yeah. So in terms of design, if you could design something that you really admire, it can be like, well, something that has been created already. But if you're like, okay, I wish I had designed that, what would that be? I think there is always something interesting in the space of where the physical and digital kind of comes together. Like, how can you make something like physically, like, look amazing, function, functionally work, but also how can that have the extension towards digital? And I think there is a magical spot in there. You kind of create something like functionally beautiful, but also a little bit of surprising, right? Because then you want to keep using that product. Yeah. You touched on a very interesting point here, which is when you're designing something that is quite, what is the word for that? Like intangible. So here, this is a software company. What are the challenges working as a designer in a company that creates something that is, well, not material in any way? The key is that we want to start working with video, right? So how can I, as like a software designer, how can I make people move forward with that video? Okay, I recorded that video. What is the next step? Continue doing more with your videos. And that's, as well, like creating that excitement around it. Like one video can have like so many use cases or you can track the data or you can publish it on your website or you can put it in an app or you can share it with your colleagues or maybe I want to edit it and then use a tiny snippet and create a new video out of that. So how can we create this continuous workflow with that one video and getting more out of it? Do we make people move forward with their videos? If we create like new features or new ideas, it's like, oh, is this like a helpful tool to make you move faster? Or also, is it something where you can make it more professional? So what would you say that is what makes 23 stands out in terms of design and in terms of the software? There are so many ways that we provide what you can do with your video and we're still growing that, right? From like a first user, if you're starting with video, but also more if you're on a professional level. Design wise, we try to make it more. Design wise, we try to make it smart and make it work, right? That's always the challenge with software. Tech is always a thing and it's always challenging and some people are more comfortable with all the tech settings versus other people. So this is, well, like, well, we try to find that sweet spot. Okay, when is it like for people that start with video versus professional with video and they have both different needs, different needs, different needs, different needs, but we want to cater for all of those people. Nice. My last question for you. You have over 15 years of experience in design. Yeah. You must have some fun moments, some fun tasks or some projects that you designed that was quite unexpected. Do you have anything that comes to your mind? From all the projects? Huh? There's so many. Yeah, I did like once like a full like Times Square takeover. Okay. And then we built like a photo booth on Times Square. You went into the photo booth, you made a picture and all your pictures appeared on all the video screens in less than a minute. So we made the experience of like, okay, I'm making a photo and share that on Times Square. Okay, that sounds already crazy enough. We had it in a short timeframe and we had like a whole team. And then as processes sometimes work, the video screens got like a little bit cancellation from the client. So they gave some feedback last minute after the test run where you, I think you have on Times Square, you have a one minute test run. And then it wasn't approved by the client. And what we, they, part of the team was in New York. We were in London and then we got the feedback. And then we sent it to overnight to Singapore to get it back to London, send it to New York. And then the campaign was live and approved. So that's a crazy story. And but about process, like how long did it all take? I don't know. It was all happening magically overnight, but the story is, is pretty crazy. It is. I'm surprised. So yeah, that's one of them. I loved it. Thank you so much for sharing. You're welcome. It was so interesting. Thanks so much. Thank you.