My name is Esko Lehtme

Professional

I am the Product Owner of UX in SEB Baltic. I focus on leading UX area strategy and managing the product design backlog. I have an extensive background in creating customer-centric design processes in organizations. My career started as a front-end developer, continued as a designer in multiple disciplines, and transformed into a UX researcher until I took the lead of the UX team in SEB. Before joining SEB, I consulted Estonian and Finnish governmental institutions and corporations on UX design.

Personal

I grew up on a small farm surrounded by forests. And even now, I am proud of being a country boy. Even though I have a sister and brother, for most of my childhood, I was alone. To fight the boredom, I read books. Even my literature teacher knew that I had read most of the required reading and asked me to write essays about my readings at this moment.

I love books. At university times, I bought most of my physical book library of classics. Now it feels like a bargain. At that time, I celebrated every occasion by saving several EEKs to afford more books.

Somewhere between my bachelor’s studies and high school, I was a musician. I played in multiple bands and orchestras until I decided not to become a professional. And only now, thanks to my children, have I returned to play and practice—just a little.

I am cycling, cross-country skiing, swimming, and hiking lover.

Digital

tsoon

Tsoon means zone in Estonian. I bought this domain in early OOs. At that time, I didn’t know the meaning of being in the zone. This space has been my digital playground, where I have been tinkering with different web technologies and projects.

My first experience with the internet was around 1996. I saw a blue table with numbers, and my friend proudly explained with pride that this was the INTERNET. I tried to act encouraged and interested, but inside, I questioned if that was all. Until I saw a webpage with pictures, links, and animations that sealed my interest and future career. I didn’t have a computer at home, so I printed out screenshots and HTML sources of exciting web pages and deciphered the art and magic of building websites at home. I wrote my HTML experiments in notebooks and typed everything into computers at school. I had only 2 hours of internet time per week.

In less than a year I was approached by a teacher who asked if I could create him a personal website. I answered yes, but explained that it would cost - 400 Estonian kroons. He walked away with deep disappointment, to find me once again next week and agree with the deal. The whole project took one weekend.

I had worked as an construction worker in summers and earned around 2400 in 3 months. And then earning 400 for one weekend made clear where to focus.

That was the beginning of tsoon.com.