Joi Jetson shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Joi, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
I launched the Claws x Code podcast because I kept having these deep conversations with designers and software builders—the kind where you’re both tapping furiously in Figma while solving problems in real time. Body doubling, but public. Each episode felt like inviting people into those late-night creative sessions where the best ideas happen.
The technical quality? Struggled hard at first. Audio was rough, my setup was whatever I could cobble together, but the conversations were real. I realize now, that that mattered more than pristine production.
Getting Miggi from Figma on the pod was surreal. Here’s someone whose work shapes how millions of us design, and we’re just… talking shop. No script, no corporate speak. Just a couple of pixel pushers passionate about making tools that help others create. Those moments—when you realize your heroes are just as excited about lowering barrier to entry as you are—that’s what keeps me recording and making art.
Season 2 has been a beast. Life gets in the way, priorities shift, and suddenly you’re six months past your planned drop date. But I’m learning that forcing content just to maintain a schedule kills the magic. I’d rather take my time and bring conversations worth having than rush episodes that feel hollow.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Joi—a lead UX designer, full-stack developer, proud geek and the person behind the keyboards, nail day vlogs, and hot pink beanies at Claws x Code. I’ve been banging at the keys since the tender age of nine, shipping product across retail, cybersecurity, fintech, legal and for hundreds of startups over two decades.
What makes me different? I’m not interested in the polished narrative. Most designer show you the highlight reel—the finished portfolio, the successful launch, the big company role. I want the messy middle. The failed interviews, the imposter syndrome, the actual barriers that keep talented people stuck.
Right now I’m focused on collaborating, mentoring and interviewing people at different career stages about what actually moves the needle; workflows, career moves, and breaking into tech. How do you get unstuck? What does momentum look like when you’re not on a linear path? How do we build systems that help more people break through instead of burning out?
Designing pixel perfect screens comes naturally to me, but the industry is trying desperately to find balance with agentic and generative AI. I hope to demystify it, and support others to embrace new tech as it evolves.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
It took over a thousand projects to have the confidence to actually call myself a web developer, and it took me another hundred projects to feel comfortable calling myself a designer, and it took another hundred projects for me to feel comfortable calling myself an artist—even though I started out as an art student in New York City.
My pathway was not only through reading all of the source code, but in mentorship. I devoted a few years exclusively to mentoring, initially at Alpha Lab in Pittsburgh. After working with the cohort there I started to create mentorship sessions on Twitter Spaces, as well as letting new founders and creatives the ability to book free time with me to talk about whatever bottleneck they had before them.
In one of my group mentor sessions, one of my mentees actually became my mentor. He made a few very sarcastic remarks about me being a “WordPress developer” and doing “WordPress sites.” Ranjan Pathak said, “Do you realize that you have the skill set of a senior user experience designer? You know how to code, you understand user flows, you are building design systems and coding them, and you should really leverage all of those skills to pivot into UX design.”
Well, a few hundred job applications later, I was a senior user experience designer at a unicorn. I really thank Ranjan for bullying me, helping me build the capacity and bandwidth for understanding how to apply to a wider net of positions and how to not lose hope or the willingness to pivot, whether it’s a title or in an industry.
Is there something you miss that no one else knows about?
Yes, sugar cookie dough. Always sugar cookie dough.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
That AI will take our jobs. Truth is, it’s just another technological leap like the fax machine or email.
Every generation panics about automation. Email didn’t eliminate office jobs—it changed them. The designers who thrive will be the ones who treat AI as a tool, not a threat. AI handles grunt work so we can focus on strategy, empathy, and the human decisions that actually matter. The job isn’t disappearing. The job is evolving.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. How do you know when you’re out of your depth?
Sleep becomes a challenge. Waking becomes a challenge, and the world starts to seem really gray.
I rarely share battle stories or communicate about challenges with work to friends. This is because I’m always so hyper-focused on the solution, and I am so positively motivated by empathy for the problem and wanting to be constructive that I keep my head down. I know when I feel like I need to vent to someone about the problem, that I need some support, a new perspective, a new tool or sometimes its time to learn a new skill.
Fact is—pushing through in these moments is where true mastery happens. Growth happens when you’re honest about what you don’t know yet. The gap between where you are and where you want to be? That’s not the problem—that’s the work. It can feel strange but be frustratingly beautiful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clawsxcode.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/joijetson
- Twitter: https://x.com/clawsxcode
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JoiJetson
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@clawsxcode
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Image Credits
© 2025 Joi Rogers
