I am 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.

A big part of my professional career, I have facilitated trainings and workshops. I have taught hundreds of colleagues and students about service design in classroom and virtual settings. This is where I charge, learn, and prosper. My stories, shared experiences, and engaging explanations are valued the most in received feedback.

Personal

I grew up on a small farm surrounded by forests. Even now, I am proud of being a country boy. Although I have a sister and brother, I was alone for most of my childhood. To fight the boredom, I immersed myself in books. Even my literature teacher recognized that I had completed most of the assigned readings and asked me to write essays on my current readings.

I love books. At university, 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 pursue it professionally. And only now, thanks to my children, have I returned to play and practice—just a little.

I love cycling, cross-country skiing, swimming, and hiking.

tsoon

Tsoon means zone in Estonian. I bought this domain in the early 2000s. At that time, I didn’t know the feeling of being in the zone. This space has been my digital playground, where I’ve tinkered with various 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 that this was the INTERNET. I tried to act encouraged and interested, but inside, I questioned if that was all. However, when I saw a webpage with pictures, links, and animations, it sealed my interest and future career. Since I didn’t have a computer at home, 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 a personal website. I answered yes, but explained that it would cost 400 Estonian kroons. He walked away with deep disappointment but returned the next week to agree to the deal. The entire project was completed in one weekend.

I worked as a summer construction worker and earned around 2400 in 3 months. Earning 400 for one weekend made it clear where to focus.

That was the beginning of tsoon.com.