to design at a startup you have to love the problem
to design in-house you need to love the product
to design at a consultancy you should love the process
Manager:
“Oooh a design system! We need one!”
Designer:
“Right! I’ll need a team dedicated-“
Nope.
“Ok one designer & a dev to build the-“
Nope.
“Ok a couple days blocked off-“
Nope.
“Ok I’ll try to do it when I can.”
Excellent!
*UI toolkit has only buttons, forever.*
Standard interview for designer:
🆒 initial chat
🆒 officially apply
🆒 technical phone call
🆒 portfolio walk-thru
🆒 take home challenge 😑
🆒 panel review & critique
🆒 presentation
🆒 impromptu challenge
🆒 series of 2:1s
🆒 culture fit
You’d think we were saving lives.
Me: I think I am a senior designer- I have my BFA & I’ve been coding & designing for 10 years but specifically in product for 6ish- maybe 8 if you count startup experience & launching my own product.
Man right out of college: I am an Award Winning Principal Designer.
just got a big ass bill to pay back negative PTO I had to use bc myself and my entire household got COVID. reminder to self, never work anywhere again that treats their people like shit.
What do you think about the culture around design that expects us to be passionate about it? To live & breathe design? Is this not workaholism masquerading as “passion?”
A judo move you should regularly make as a designer:
Quietly mock up or sketch on a whiteboard while everyone else is relying on words to hash it out.
“So this is what I’m hearing-“ ✨
@maiab
He overreacted for sure, but cancelling a date that’s supposed to happen right then for work stuff is also a red flag- I’d be pretty annoyed, too!
my cd once described two diff designers:
generator: turns nothing into something, inspires lots of ideas, iterates quickly, prefers the sprint
executor: takes a concept and elevates it, detail oriented, obsessed with the craft, prefers the marathon
they make an excellent team.
2017 I quit my full time
#ux
job, 2 months pregnant, while living in the UK, to focus 💯 on my own product with 2 co-founders. A year later, we failed. 🙃 I'm totally over it, learned a lot, & onto the next.
Been reflecting on it a lot lately, so AMA.
me in my 20s: cool sounds fun, when can i start? i need money.
me in my 30s: ok but first, how's the work life balance? what are the companies principles? is the work meaningful? will i make a difference and an impact in the world? is it worth my time?
every designer has had someone, at least once, assume you were a starving artist desperate for work and offer to connect you with their uncle who might need a website.
them: don't spend more than 10 hours on this design challenge
also them: be prepared to present research, sketches, wireframes, high fidelity designs, and bonus points for prototyping & animation.
in a deck.
Job interview q’s for companies: How did you handle hard times with your people during Covid? How did you support parents doing two jobs? How did you care for your working moms? How did you treat your working moms who felt no option other than to give up?
To all my juniors and mid-level designers, fellow senior designers not getting responses or interview opportunities– there are roles I'm 100% qualified for that I applied for & did not even get an initial call back.
Prediction: designers who have the skill & restraint to stay low fidelity, longer will become increasingly valued as remote continues to gain traction & collaboration thru digital design tools becomes easier
As I look back on myself as a full time designer, I wish I had been more collaborative with sales/support, more flexible on reqs and process, faster & scrappier to test & get it live, more focused on the business and delivering customer value. Hyper focus on solving problems
idk who needs to hear this but even
#ux
researchers I've interviewed from Apple, Uber, Google, etc. say "I'm still figuring out what my method & process is."
We’re just building software. If it breaks, it’s fine. Fix it. Hiring managers are so determined to prove incompetence rather than giving people a chance/benefit of the doubt & letting them prove themselves. It’s exhausting.
Most people are doing this with *multiple* companies at a time *while* employed. Not considering their personal circumstance, that’s an insane ask of people.
Startups are indifferent to process, not loyal to a solution, if it solves the problem.
In-house has a product that answers the problem, & avoid disruption by new problems & process.
Consultancies have a deep understanding of process, not devoted to any product or problem.
Career confidence isn’t a consistently upwards, trending thing.
So far I peaked at 23, again at 27, dipped at 29, and only now making my way back up at 31 after a lot of work.
It’s a journey.
2020: Designers who can focus & commit. Design as a tool for thinking & breaking down problems. Empathy for everyone who can benefit from design.
So 2019: Designers designing for designers. Tool-centric. Design as a differentiator. Apathy for people who “don’t get design.”
While you’re here... 🙃
I just launched
@uxframeworks
last week 🎉✨- a resource to find methodologies & activities for design research, synthesis, & ideation. 👉
Join
@BAMarieFuller
and I on Wednesday for another UXR Watercooler with
@DougCollinsUX
to talk about building a
#ux
practice from scratch. ✨
We’ll also talk about adult ADHD: what it’s revealed about his personality & how it’s affected his career. ❤️
I’m a professional designer but an amateur gardener and decent cook. I’d rather be tending to my plants and experimenting in the kitchen than spending 5 more hours a day behind the computer.
Designers, don't wait for an invitation or permission to write content. Don't wait for the PM to do it. Just do it. Suggest words.
How you facilitate a conversation with users *is* interaction design. Own it!
Hiring wrong is expensive but subjecting your team to perpetual interviews and losing out on people bc your process and standards are insane are also v expensive
Like, I really like design & I’m good at it. But I also have no problem shutting off after 10 hours and doing other things I’m not as good at but want or have to. Does that make me less “passionate?”
This company exists somewhere, and I want to work for them.
🚀 Product is live & has users
💰 Company is profitable
🔮 Decisive & focused vision
👩💻 Diverse & experienced leadership
🌿 ~50-300 people
🎨 Design process in place & improving
✨ Design permeates culture
🏝 Remote
filling out a research survey via
@figma
that looks like a journey map and hoping she will let me share a screenshot bc it is sooo clever & creative! 🙌✨
#ux
I’ll never work somewhere that doesn’t value research and also give the space & time to properly synthesize it.
None of this lean, “just enough research” crap.
I’m shocked thinking back on how little research was done by designers at previous companies I worked at.
sometimes I think about a company I used to work for as a user experience designer & wasn’t allowed to talk to users so I had to go rogue & find people to talk to outside of work
"i design digital experiences for humans"
-boring
-overdone
-doesn't actually make sense bc implied
"i design digital experiences for extraterrestrials"
-fresh
-also doesn't make sense but idc
-sets your ethos statement apart from every other design portfolio
I've noticed this trend professionally lately, where everyone wants to jump to a video call right away without any email or written correspondence whatsoever. slowww it down.
Looking to expand my network of
#uxresearch
folks with 0-3 years experience. especially if they are transitioning to
#ux
research from a related field but not necessary.
where ya at 👀
@Shpigford
This is disappointing to read. It assumes so much about the person and takes no consideration of the circumstance or company. Esp startups that can launch, pivot, and die inside a year. Maybe you could have been the one they stick it out with?
The best design process is no design process. Research and talk to people first, obviously. But after that it's a jumbled mess of building and creating until things start to look decent or become useful.
Some personal news I can finally share… I'm moving to Charlotte, NC in a few weeks.
It'll be our second cross-country move (in addition to 2 int'l moves) and 4th state in 6 years. 😅😅
it’s *interesting* how some people get a celebratory sendoff when they quit to move on & up and others just get kinda, quickly silenced & cut out when the narrative doesn’t look as good.
I’m literally in shock a company during a pandemic would not support their employees with sick leave (this co has 0), and make people use PTO, then encourage them go into the negative until the employee has no choice but to leave... and then asks them to pay it BACK?