A bonus episode of the Reversing Climate Change podcast. You can listen on Spotify (subscribe there for ad-free), Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you listen.
Alexsandra Guerra and I describe a role that was filled years ago at a company I no longer work at. The honest pitch for publishing it is that it is ten minutes of two colleagues talking about how a carbon marketplace was organised internally, which is a more durable subject than the vacancy it was built around.
If you are a UX designer listening to this in 2026, I am sorry, and also the job market has been through some things since.
Are you a UX Designer? Love what Nori is doing? In this episode, you'll hear more details about the position from Nori cofounder Alexsandra Guerra, as well as the general philosophy of hiring, application design, etc.
The book Ross mentions is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.
More from the show
Ad-free episodes and other benefits come with a paid subscription.
Carbon Removal Newsroom, the news show that ran alongside this one, is over. Its episodes are still up, on the feed Climate Workers Anonymous now uses.
Carbon Removal Memes is still goofing around.
The books that come up on this show are collected on my Bookshop shelf.
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Full Transcript
Ross Kenyon: Hello and welcome to the Reversing Climate Change podcast. I'm Ross Kenyon here with my colleague Alexsandra Guerra, Nori's Director of Corporate Development. Hi Alexsandra. Hi Ross. Hello. We are doing another bonus episode like we just did with Paul and you to discuss another role that we are hiring for here at Nori. Maybe you could lay out what exactly we are looking for.
Alexsandra Guerra: Sure. Another role and another one. Okay. This one is a UX designer. I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but we're looking for someone to come in, join our product team. By the way, you can find a lot of information about Nori's team culture. [Nori promotion cut from the transcript. It’s still in the audio, but it no longer applies.] We have a ton of information if you want to dig deeper, as well as the actual job posting at the bottom of that page. But yeah, we're looking for a UX designer to come join the product team. I mean, you'll be responsible for designing a beautiful UX experience for all the types of users in the Nori marketplace.
This includes the buyers of Carbon Removal. This includes suppliers of carbon removal, also internal tools. We need internal tools to manage this marketplace. I think it's a fun role because you get to be pretty creative. We are looking for someone who has experience in concept validation and testing, someone who's conducted user research before with gathering insights and turning these into actionable work items and requirements for the product team. This person will be working closely with me as well as an internal stakeholder for the Nori sales and customer development team. So we're looking for someone who knows how to think with the end users in mind. Who are your customers and what are you designing for them to meet their goals?
And I do this a lot for the buyers on the demand side of our marketplace. But you could also be working with internal stakeholders who are like the lead of supply teams and talking to farmers and what exactly are they looking for? How are they thinking about their management practices? How should we design a process or an enrollment platform that would be most efficient and straightforward for them? That's all I can think of in terms of the role specifically.
Ross Kenyon: That sounds pretty good. I'm not sure who this comment is for because you're either a designer and you know this already or you may have skipped this episode because it's not relevant to you. But I've enjoyed my work at Nori in working around designers because I haven't worked so closely or in proximity to them prior. Good UX is something that you sort of take for granted these days. Like you only notice it when it doesn't work very well and then you hate them because we're all spoiled. And it's amazing how much thought and care goes into making something a joy to use, beautiful, intuitive, et cetera.
Alexsandra Guerra: It's like almost like good UX design is like when you don't even notice how good it is. You're just like streaming through it.
Ross Kenyon: I think that's a sweet spot. They had me read a book because I was curious about how they think and what they do. And I read Don't Make Me Think. Did you ever read that? Pull that off the shelf here?
Alexsandra Guerra: No, I
Ross Kenyon: did not. You can probably get it from the title, but if you have to stop and think about it. And also that book I love because if you ever try to open a door and you push when you should have pulled or vice versa, that's bad design. It's not your fault, Alexsandra. You can let it go. The designer failed to inform you intuitively how to do that.
Alexsandra Guerra: Oh yeah, definitely.
Ross Kenyon: So we love designers and we think it's really important is what I'm trying to say.
Alexsandra Guerra: Absolutely. And then a few more things that came to mind. Um, you know, we are an agile minded team. Um, we are looking for someone with excellent communication skills, um, a passion for designing product. Um, but we'll really, I'm just highlighting that communication skill is key. Um, and that does not mean that you know how to communicate what you are saying. Um, Perfectly to someone else. That is only half of it. The other half of it, not more, is strong listening skills. Like, are you a good listener? Are you able to really understand what the other person is saying, understand what they're describing, where they're coming from, and then, you know, adopt that into the solution you're going to propose and communicate that back out.
Those are key skills that we need here at Nori, that we value here within our teams. Empathy is a good one, too, we like to say in our characteristics of good team members here. And it's always a plus if you have any experience in agriculture or farming practices. So if you'd like to highlight that in the application, please do. It will help.
Ross Kenyon: Okay, that sounds good. I think that's enough for now. Is there anything we're going to regret not saying? Please cut it here.
Alexsandra Guerra: I mean, there are benefits, but you can find that all online. [Nori promotion cut from the transcript. It’s still in the audio, but it no longer applies.]
Ross Kenyon: That's true. That application is, maybe it's worth explaining your philosophy around how you design that because the process is rather involved relative to other job listings I've seen.
Alexsandra Guerra: Oh, for sure. So, and that's, that's a good question. Thanks for bringing that up. We are very intentional. We are not Oblivious to the fact that this is not probably the best UX design, but the purpose for us was not to get as many applicants as possible. We want to find the people who are most passionate about the work that we're doing, who are most excited to read through, you know, what exactly all, there's a lot. Like Nori, we are a two-sided marketplace with like four different types of stakeholders externally, not to mention those internally. It's a complicated system, so we try to give you as much information as possible for you to determine whether or not this is a good fit for you.
And then we have, so that's like all the information that's included on the careers page and then within the job description. And then there's a pretty lengthy application. So, you know, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours if you're really trying to fill this out thoroughly. And we've actually gotten some pretty good feedback from people who we interviewed. It was our second time taking this process for hiring a position. And most people who we interviewed ended up thanking us like that was a really fun process. It was good for them to think about, you know, things that were key about what they were looking for in a job.
And really, it's all about fit. We're trying to find the right fit for you and for us. So I know it seems arduous, but... If this is really work you want to do and you're really looking for a job that is magic for you and makes you feel fulfilled and you're with a good team, then it's just best to share everything that you can in that application. We review them. We actually read all of them. We do our best to. And then if we read through your application and we find that this might be a good potential fit, we invite you for a screening interview, which is about 30 minutes.
And then after that, we decide whether we want to continue with a longer, more technical interview for about an hour or two.
Ross Kenyon: If you're listening, you probably like Nori to some extent, or maybe you just like our idiosyncratic, weird approach to podcasting, and you're listening to Nori. I imagine if you've listened to this part of this episode, you probably at least care about Nori a little bit. If you know of anyone who might be a good fit for what we like to talk about, what we like to do, what we think is important, please share it with them. Or if that's even just you listening, you should also apply. We're looking forward to finding really exceptional people to join our team. There are easier ways to hire people, but it's really important for us to find the right people.
And I imagine it's really important for you to find the right group of people to work with too. I don't know. I think it's really important. It's easy sometimes to just look for a job, but It should be more than that if it could be, I think, is what I'm trying to say.
Alexsandra Guerra: I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Ross Kenyon: Yeah. Well, good. Okay. Well, anything else? No. Apply. And share, please.
Alexsandra Guerra: And if this doesn't interest you, it's okay. Just share the fact that we have the UX designer posting up. [Nori promotion cut from the transcript. It’s still in the audio, but it no longer applies.] We also are still looking for senior software engineers. And supply account managers in agriculture. Those are our three roles. We're hiring two for the senior software engineers and two for supply enrollment and account management in agriculture. So share. That would be really helpful to us. Thank you for listening too.
Ross Kenyon: Yes, thanks for listening. Share it out. And I hope we find you. I hope we find it through the podcast so I can claim credit for it. That would be...
Alexsandra Guerra: It's like your favorite thing. This person came through the podcast.
Ross Kenyon: Just letting you know a podcast has legs. It's cool. Okay.
Alexsandra Guerra: Of course it does. Yes.
Ross Kenyon: Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for telling everyone about this, Alexsandra.
Alexsandra Guerra: Thank you, Ross.
Ross Kenyon: Okay. Bye-bye for now. Bye-bye.
