How turning 30 changed my design career
My journey to Social Impact Design
Exactly a year ago, to the day, I turned 30. In the months leading up to that pivotal birthday I felt…unsettled. I knew that my life’s work — the sum of all my years of study, labor and achievement — didn’t amount to much. I was searching for purpose.
I don’t think I was alone. For many people, their 30th birthday is a milestone marked by self-reflection. In astrological parlance this is called the Saturn Return. “Saturn takes approximately 29.5 years to complete one full orbit around the Sun and literally return to the same zodiac sign it was in when you were born. The first Saturn Return, which can happen between ages 27 and 30, is a bit like a cosmic bar mitzvah, quinceanera or communion if you will: a rite of passage welcoming you into your more mature role here on Earth” (source). I’m not particularly into astrology but anecdotally and culturally, 30 is a big birthday.
For me the rite of passage was about finding and doing meaningful work.
My first question was: “What do I find meaningful?” I look up to people like Scott Harrison, who is working to solve the water crisis, and Bill & Melinda Gates, who are improving the lives of all individuals through global health and development initiatives, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, who are using technology to improve the lives of the next generation through science, education and justice. The common thread I have found is doing work that improves individual lives and benefits society.
My second question was: “Do I need to change careers?” Almost 10 years into a career in Product Design and I like to think I’ve gotten quite good at it. Not only that, but I love it. So I determined my best option was to use my skills as a Product Designer to make social impact.
With these two questions answered, I had the constraints I needed to move forward, as well as a pretty cool statement about myself:
The following is about 2019, my 31st year of life, finding social impact design, and finally feeling like my work means something.
What is Designing for Social Impact?
In my search I learned about a community of design professionals that focus explicitly on social impact design.
But what is social impact and how do you design it?
Social impact is the effect an organization’s actions have on the well being of the community. For example, Habitat For Humanity has a positive social impact on communities by providing housing for the poor. And like any other organization, Product Designers are needed to help with everything from identifying human problems to branding to service design.
I once heard this type of design referred to as “Design Activism” by Francesca Desmarais in her talk about climate adaptation at Design Matters 2019. Francesca said that for her, design activism is a marriage of her passions and her work. In another talk that same day, Sydney Banta defined activism as “Giving a shit so passionately, you do something about it”.
I don’t think designing for social impact is particularly different than designing in any other space, other than that the stakes are higher. If you care more, and you know the work you do will positively affect lives, then you will naturally do better work.
Social Impact Design in the Real World
Designing for social impact takes many forms and a lot of companies do it.
There are nonprofits like Charity:water, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative whose missions are to create social impact in sanitation, health care, education, criminal justice and more. The products they design are at times simple, like getting more people to donate more money. Others are complicated, like using artificial intelligence to glean insights from data to help scientists more quickly perform and analyze life-saving research.
Either way, to accomplish their missions and to have real-world impact, these products need world-class designers.
Then there is big tech. These companies are using their enormous reach and unique platforms to help local and global communities. Because they can, and they should.
For example, Airbnb created their Open Homes program to allow homeowners to offer a place to stay to those in need during times of crisis. And of course there is Google’s AI for Social Good initiative, Salesforce’s Salesforce.org product which provides it’s products for free to nonprofits to accelerate their mission, and Twitter’s Twitter for Good which focuses on freedom of expression, equality and internet access among other things.
These programs are opportunities for talented designers within large organizations to use their skills to improve lives and make the world a better place.
And that’s exactly what I got the opportunity to do almost a year ago. In March of 2019 I joined the Social Impact team at Facebook.
Designing for Social Impact at Facebook
I’m sure you’ve seen a friend host a fundraiser on Facebook to celebrate their birthday. This is one of many efforts on Facebook that has helped 45M people raise over $2B for nonprofits.
You may have also seen a friend mark themselves safe during a natural disaster or maybe even a terrorist attack. This is the entry point into our Crisis Response product which not only helps people check on friends during times of criss, but also allows people in those communities to request and offer help. It is a tool to help communities be resilient in times of crisis.
And there are many more products including Mentorship, Civic Engagement, Blood Donation, and more.
In my short time on the team I’ve worked on Crisis Response, I’ve helped people connect with local nonprofits to volunteer in their community, and I’ve empowered people to spread the word about missing children during AMBER Alerts.
These products have real world impact and are improving the lives of individuals and benefiting society.
I’ve always enjoyed the work I do as Product Designer, but I’ve never been this excited to go to work each morning. I hope everyone is able to find work that brings meaning and purpose to their lives.
And if you’re currently interviewing or just getting started on your job search, check out my Product Design Interview E-Book at www.uxinterviewtraining.com. Also download my free Product Design Portfolio Template that’s compatible with Keynote and Figma.
