Building a design career that aligns with your values

My journey to product design

Caroline Luu
UX Collective
Published in
7 min readJul 14, 2020

Venn diagrams shifting to be more aligned with similarities.

OnOn July 4th, 2019, I made a decision that would change the trajectory of my career. I remember sitting at the edge of my mattress staring pensively at a countdown timer with 3 hours left on the clock. Designlab’s month-long Design 101 course sign-up deadline was nearing, and I was conflicted.

At the time, I worked full-time as a CRM Marketing Analyst in a corporate office. It was the first job I got after moving from Southern California to the Bay Area. Though I adored my colleagues, the work I was doing was not challenging, compelling, nor aligned with my values. I did not care for promotional emails about the latest sales as much as creating a positive impact. I was yearning for a leg up, a higher salary, and a more fulfilling day-to-day.

I had been thinking about shifting into design and technology, as it made the most sense with my skills and values. It was those years in a startup designing an iOS app that ignited my love for building products. The idea that digital products could scale, equip and empower people with better tools, especially those with less resources, motivated me. As an adult who grew up without quality tools, I became passionate about building high-quality yet affordable tools that could benefit people in any income bracket.

Four hundred dollars and faith flying in the wind with a speech bubble of the Universe saying “I got you.”

With all this in mind, I grabbed my credit card, sent those $400, and began my journey in design.

The course curriculum covered the first principles from general color theory to UX / UI fundamentals. It was the prerequisite for Designlab’s immersive UX Design Academy of which I was still contemplating enrollment. While completing projects, readings, and group critiques, I would have surreal feelings that I had arrived at the right place. The people I met and the work I was doing aligned with my need to make an impact.

One month later, I passed the course after submitting my first high-fidelity mock-up redesigning Spotify — the ultimate UX design cliche but I was incredibly proud.

My first high-fidelity wireframes, a Spotify redesign.

Hungry for more, I immediately enrolled in UX Academy which would span the next 6 (more realistically, 9) months. Part-time at 20 hours a week while keeping at my day job. It was grueling — cyclical burnouts, existential crises, and many tears. That balance between boot-camp, work, and social life took a toll on my health, but it also gave me an opportunity to build my grit. I learned to quickly learn, apply new knowledge, and approach learning with fearless Day 1 Mentality. I became comfortable with frequent constructive criticism on my creative work. I attended events, met designers from a variety of backgrounds, and took deep dives into books that improved my design strategies. Fast forward nine months to May 2020, I graduated the course with 3 projects under my belt and full portfolio ready for applications.

Pros and cons of the design bootcamp I attended called UX Academy.

By June, I had finished out with Macy’s (Macy’s SF relocated to New York and I love California too much) and began looking for new roles. Job hunting midst a pandemic and recession is tricky to say the least, but also a great opportunity to dig deeper into your Why and where you want to take your career.

During this pandemic, I began exploring emerging technologies like chatbots, voice UI, and the world of AI. While completing an IBM introductory AI course, I became deeply fascinated by AI. I often think about the intersection of design and AI and where designers belong in relation to this powerful technology. I believe that designing human experiences must continue to be at the forefront of decision-making when building new technologies. Although I am still job hunting, I now have clarity of what problems I want to work on and where I want to grow.

My latest high-fidelity wireframes for an app called Stock.
My latest high-fidelity mockup. View full portfolio here.

This past year expanded my worldview like a Cambrian explosion with new species. It was the leap in enrolling in Designlab, reassessment of values, and child-like pursuit of curiosity that catapulted me into the world of design and technology. Thank you to the people I met along the way who have helped navigate its vastness.

Why Product Design

In college, I majored Psychology and Social Behavior and double minored in Biology and Management. I always loved understanding how things, especially people, worked. TED talks, psychology and business books, and podcasts like How I Built This with Guy Raz and Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman filled my free time. Those startup days ignited my love for technology and crafting meaningful customer experiences. Also, I made art on the side — storytelling through photos, video, and writing.

A timeline of my stepping stones to product design.

Although I love user research and analyzing user stories, I also feel great satisfaction in seeing a product grow. Moreover, though I do enjoy owning a product, I love craftsmanship more than the people management needed to make projects happen.

Product design is the perfect marriage of all the things I love: psychology, technology, business, storytelling, and the beauty of crafting human experiences.

How do you build a career that aligns with your values?

To those looking to change their careers, I am here to say, it is possible. With the right intentions, persistence, hunger, and patience, the achievement is a matter of time. Get curious and ask questions.

This thought exercise helped me set my intentions leading me to design.

A mental model diagram of how to find an aligned career path.

Reflect to understand what matters to you.

I invite you to dig deep, ask questions, and examine what values are most important to you in a career. List and rank your values. Do the same for your non-negotiables, or qualities to avoid.

For example, it is important for me to work in a role where I am making a positive human impact while, if a company is undermining data rights, I would not want to work there.

This reflection helps to sharpen your perspective which will lead you towards potential jobs with stronger alignment.

Analyze to find patterns in your likes and dislikes.

List what you have done in the past, think about the positives and negatives of each, and see if you can find patterns or themes of what exactly you liked or disliked. This can include personal interests, volunteering, or internet rabbit-holes. These are all clues.

For example, based on how I interact with people, what I loved from my work experience, and what I do for fun, I found that I continuously love understanding people, personalizing experiences, and supplying useful tools that help people grow.

Research to gather then narrow possibilities.

Research an array of potential careers that may fit your criteria then weed them out one-by-one. Repeat this process until you find a compelling path forward.

“Weeding them out” can mean conducting more research to understand day-to-day responsibilities, what upward growth looks like, or reading a case study of someone who currently has that career. I also invite you to message people on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. to hear first-person accounts, get a feel for the industry and how roles differ per company.

Pursue it wholeheartedly.

I learned there is a difference between struggling because you are still learning and struggling because the work is not aligned with you and your needs. Persist the path until this distinction is clear.

Helpful Tips

This process will test your emotional maturity, patience, grit, and ability to adapt. It will also empower you, create personal alignment between work and life, and connect you to people who will inspire you.

Things that have helped me through this process included immersing in the community, upholding routines that regulate my mind and body, and accepting the ebbs and flows with grace.

In our lifetimes, we will pursue multiple careers. Many of us have decades until retirement, so if you make a choice and realize a role does not fit you, it’s okay. This does not define you. It is how you persist through the difficulties that define your future. Go back to the drawing board and try again. As the icon Charles Eames said, in the end, “Everything connects.”

Pursing a career that aligns with your values is a bold and risky move, but also:

“Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

— John Anster

Caroline Luu is a product designer exploring life and design questions to better understand humanity. She is currently open to career opportunities and collaborations. Explore her portfolio.

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published in our platform. This story contributed to UX Para Minas Pretas (UX For Black Women), a Brazilian organization focused on promoting equity of Black women in the tech industry through initiatives of action, empowerment, and knowledge sharing. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.

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Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Caroline Luu

Designer, runner, artist in San Francisco who focuses on systems, creativity, and relationships

Responses (1)

What are your thoughts?

I love this post, Caroline. Ethical design is so important to me. As UX Designers we have so much power and need to make sure we are creating things for the right reasons, and right outcomes. Good luck with the job search! I'm in the same boat myself.

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