Member-only story
How to beat imposter syndrome
For Designers that (sometimes) feel like a fraud
After many months of not seeing my family, I’m finally sat down to have dinner with them. I’m still trying to explain to my grandmother what the hell a Product Designer does. If you have a similar job, you probably know that’s no easy feat. There’s a good number of loud conversations going on at the same time — as you’d expect from any good Italian family, and I’m struggling to cut through the noise to speak to her. Judging by the look on her face I’m not doing a great job, but I can tell she’s proud.
It’s the 4th of May and it’s almost been a month since I lost my job, but I’m excited to be just one week away from a new adventure as the only Product Designer at a SaaS startup. Having worked in a 1000+ people workforce before, this was quite the jump.
Grandma asks me a very innocent question after I’m done confusing her:
“That sounds really exciting, dear! Do you feel ready?”
I reply that I am most certainly excited and feel more ready than ever. I excuse myself and go take a break from the noise, take a nap, and wait for my inevitable death by food coma.
But to my surprise, I can’t drift asleep as easily as I thought. Grandma’s question keeps resounding in my head like a broken record…
