Investing in your career — and in your portfolio
Interview with Shawn Park about shaping and investing in your career path.
Leading with Craft is a limited series of articles where we shed a light on stories of designers with successful careers as individual contributors.
Curating and publishing hundreds of articles every month at the UX Collective, we have noticed an abundance of resources for designers switching careers to management, but a gap for those who want to continue to focus on their craft.
This series highlights professionals that never let their seniority move them away from their practice and their passion for what made them great in the first place, such as Shawn Park.
Shawn Park is a Staff Product Designer at Discord. Before that, he led design at companies of various stages, taking a seed-stage esports startup from start to finish at Blitz, and designing the next generation desktop client at Box. There is a good chance that you have seen his portfolio: since 2013, Shawn redesigns his portfolio every year as a way to grow and reflect on his craft.
Finding opportunities to shape your career path
What makes you passionate about design?
I believe design functions as a bridge between humans and technology. It draws people to be intrigued about technology with aesthetics. It lowers the barrier for people to use technology by making it easier to use.
I want to use design as a means of bridging the gap between humans and technology, but also the various gaps within our society: education, health, wealth, and more.
Tell us about your career progression so far. How did you come to where you are today?
I believe that there are three goals in product design — pursuing aesthetic delight, delivering product value, and achieving the business goal. Each point in my career was an opportunity for me to level up in each of these areas.
While I was studying at UC Berkeley, I worked on a startup called Iris (TLDR, think Medium) with my best friends Rachit and Abhi. I’m grateful for the experience because that’s how I got into product design. I self-taught user interface design by looking at other well-designed apps and asking myself why they were so effective. I’d consider this as a point when I developed an eye for visual design.
After I graduated, I went on to work at Box as a product designer. While working on products that serve millions of users in enterprise companies, I learned about how to balance between function and form. In particular, designing with accessibility in mind, working with existing design systems, and working with cross-functional orgs are all valuable experiences I took away from Box.
Only a year later, I left Box to work on a startup called Blitz with a few of my friends from college. I’ve been an avid gamer myself all my life, so I was excited about the opportunity to help gamers keep up to date with the latest in esports. I thought I was joining a rocketship, but little did I know I would go through one heck of a rollercoaster ride.
Designing at an early-stage startup meant I had to think broadly — not just design and product goals, but also the business goals. In a way, I was a product designer but also a product manager, brainstorming about what is the next feature we should build, prioritizing decisions that would most benefit both our users and the business.
How did these experiences influenced you to become a staff designer?
Working in an early startup honed my skill set to deliver 80% of value in 20% of the time. That’s how I approach design at Discord as well, creating a rapid prototype of a product in a few days, run experiments, and iterate fast.
My mother used to tell me to be more than just a “consumer” but a “creator” of something valuable. To this day, my passion has always been creating and designing products that make a positive impact on people’s lives. I believe the best way for me to do that is by getting my hands dirty and focusing on the design and craft, which an IC track can offer. I believe my niche is in taking a somewhat nebulous user problem and turning it into a beautiful and functional product that benefits both the user and the business in a short iteration cycle. I want to see where my career will take me, but for now, at least, that’s where my passion is.
What were the biggest differences you noticed in your craft as you progressed in your career?
At Blitz, I was a jack-of-all-trades. Aside from the usual product designer role, I was a part-time product manager, front-end developer, user researcher, graphic designer, investment deck designer, business card designer… and more.
At Discord, I get to focus my craft on product design, designing and delivering delightful and functional experiences. Because Discord is still a small-to-medium size company, we keep meetings to a minimum, especially for individual contributors (ICs), giving us an ample amount of time to focus on design.
I get to focus on my craft and learn to leverage cross-functional supports rather than trying to do everything on my own.
I’m fortunate to be around so many talented people from across the org who can support my job as a designer, such as having data scientists and user researchers who can help me validate my hypothesis. Having other product designers give design critiques is also something I’ve missed dearly as a sole designer at an early-stage startup.
Some might wonder if as an IC designer, the breadth of impact I make might be smaller than as a manager — I’d disagree. Even as an IC designer, you can still make a tremendous amount of impact by delivering a key business-driven project, and launching an organizational initiative. Because we still have a small team of twelve product designers, each designer gets to own a large project. For example, I’m currently responsible for the entire text chat experience and communities on Discord, and the new user research focus group that we recently launched.
As an IC designer, you can still make a tremendous amount of impact by delivering a key business-driven project, and launching an organizational initiative
Even though I became an individual contributor at Discord, I didn’t lose my tendency and passion to think about the problem on a larger, business-level scale, and I’d say that helps me make an impact as an IC designer. There are many, many more talented designers who are better than me when it comes to the actual “craft” of design. I can’t illustrate for one, and I don’t think I have a perfect grasp of typography theory either. But what I can say I’m good at is thinking about the product strategy on a higher level, and executing and iterating fast. Just because you are an IC designer doesn’t mean you’d have to focus more on design.
Creating space for individual contributors designers
Do you see your role evolving to be a staff-level designer if you were in a startup that wasn’t acquired?
This is a great question. Honestly, if Blitz wasn’t acquired I don’t think I would be a staff-level designer. I see myself pursuing either an IC or a manager track, and I just think at Discord, an IC track will give me the most growth for myself and provide more value to the company.
There aren’t many opportunities in your career you get to be a design lead for critical projects for a company serving more than a hundred million monthly active users. At Discord, I want to get my hands dirty and focus on actually designing solutions that help people’s lives. I want to push myself as an IC as much as I can, honing my craft and delivering impact before I explore opportunities as a manager, and Discord is a perfect place for that.
At an early-stage startup, however, I’d most likely be the first designer who created the first product and the brand. Since I would have the most context for the evolution of the product and the business, I believe I’d provide more value as a manager who can provide the team with this context and help the team grow while keeping it aligned with the company’s mission. I’d also be responsible for scaling the team from just a single designer. I’d probably make a lot of mistakes, but, honestly, that’s the best way to learn. If I were to be at an early-stage startup, I’d love to be a manager who can grow as a manager as I grow the team as well.
I don‘t see anyone’s career path, including mine, to be a straight line. You can be an individual designer and then transition to be a manager, or vice-versa. The key is to find what path would provide the most growth for you.
Is there space to grow for designers that want to be focused on their craft outside being a staff designer in a larger org?
This depends on the definition of “craft.” If by craft we mean, say, pure user interface and user experience design, then honestly I must say it’s difficult outside being a staff designer in a larger org. Starting out as a manager, you can spend roughly 50/50 on actual hands-on design work and caring out your duty as a manager. But as you progress as a manager, you will spend significantly less time working on the project on your own, and rather focusing more time on the growth of your team members, scaling the team, and communicating with other teams on behalf of the design team.
However, you will be continuing to grow your “craft” as a design leader. You might not have much time for “hands-on” design work, but your eye for design can help other designers in your team by identifying areas to grow in visual design and product experience. You will grow your sphere of influence in an organization by working on your communication skills and brainstorming organization-level strategies. These are all valuable skills that will help your career in the long run.
This is not to say if you are an IC, you wouldn’t have room to grow in these soft skills, or if you are a manager, you wouldn’t have room to grow in hard skills. It’s not mutually exclusive, but rather which area you’d want to focus on. As an IC, you can still help other designers grow by giving design critiques and offering insights from your experience. As a manager, you can still contribute to design by occasionally doing some hands-on work. Either way, however, you will have significantly less time growing your “secondary” craft.
I do hope that more organizations advocate for the IC designer track. Even as you grow as a designer you should be given the opportunity to excel in your expertise instead of becoming a manager. More designers should be recognized for their craft.
Turning designers into managers is almost like taking stellar surgeons and giving them the responsibilities of running the hospital.
Investing in your career — and in your portfolio
What advice would you give to designers who are at a senior/lead level and want to keep focused on their craft and not necessarily move to a management position? What should they be thinking about as they continue to take more responsibilities?
- Figure out your niche. As an IC, everyone is unique in their skillset and unique in their career path. You are on your own to figure out what you are passionate about, what you are good at, what you want to grow in, and what kind of a designer you want to become. What makes you unique as a designer? Maybe you are a maestro in both art and product design, and can use both as a means of delivering a delightful experience. Maybe you like to think about the product strategy on a high-level and use hi-fi design as a way to take an idea from 0–10 in a matter of few days. Whatever your value is, continue to hone in on your strength and become the one-of-a-kind IC designer.
- Step outside of your comfort zone. It is important that you continue to increase the level of your impact and your sphere of influence as you level up as an IC designer. Think about not just your own project, but also how your project can influence other projects your team is working on. Think about the design on a system-level, and how it influences the product and the business. Brainstorm product strategy along with your product owners. Even as an IC, soft skills like communication and product strategy are just as important. You’d want to be a master of this field as an IC product designer, so it’s critical that you step outside of your comfort zone to continue to grow in areas that you are weak in.
- Learn to sell yourself. One of the things I feared when pursuing the IC track is that maybe I wouldn’t get as much recognition as a designer. For people outside of tech, they see the title “Director of Design” or “VP of Design” and might think they would be the ones who designed whatever app they are using. This is true if you don’t make any efforts to sell yourself and work on your brand as a designer. To increase your value and clout as an IC designer, you should work on growing your own personal brand as well. Write a blog post about the project you worked on. Share insights and tips to the design community. Work on a personal website or a side project. Think about ways you can give back to the community, both within and outside design and tech. Recognition doesn’t just come naturally — it’s earned.
I love how we can follow the evolution of your portfolio and how you keep an archive for it. How do you see your craft evolving with you as you grow in your career?
I see multiple versions of craft that I’d love to work on in my career. As an IC designer at Discord, I want to continue to design products and brainstorm strategies that bring value to our users and the business. Growing myself as a “designer” — improving my eye for visual design and product experience — is my priority. At the same time, growing soft skills like communication and product strategy are equally as important. I want to think about ways I can contribute not just to my own project, but also to the team and the organization as a whole. How can I help other designers grow as well? How can I improve the product development process on an organizational level?
I do see myself going back to the early-stage startup world sometime in the future. My passion has always been solving a nebulous, undefined problem. I’m still soul-searching for what kind of problems I want to pursue, but once it sticks to me and once I’m at a point in my career when I want to move on, I’d definitely work on another startup as a designer.
My experience as an IC designer would contribute to an early-stage startup environment, where execution is of utmost importance. But as the company (hopefully) grows, I can see myself evolving as a manager and growing my craft from a different angle.
Ten years ago, I’d love to have all my options and plans laid out. But now, I like to keep my career path a bit open-ended. Right now, I might be an IC, but a few years down the road, I might not. Heck, a decade from now who knows if I would still be in the field of design. Sometimes uncertainty is a blessing because that means I get to keep my opportunity for growth open. No matter what it is, I want to choose an opportunity that would help me grow the most, and help people around me the most.
Check Shawn Park’s amazing portfolio and follow him on Twitter.
More about this series on craft.uxdesign.cc
