Learnings from 1 year as a product designer
What I’ve learned from all the adventures and challenges lived along my first year working as a Product Designer
This text is not only for you, dear reader. It is also for me and to the future Designer I intend to be in the next years. Because all the following topics are my learning through my first year working like a Product Designer, but I know that I have to always keep them in mind. In fact, I’m still learning to put them in practice, so I promise to return here always and read again, to remember and keep improving. So let’s go to the topics!
Ask about everything — Don’t be afraid of being critique
There is a technique in UX Research called “5 Whys” which helps us get to the root cause of a problem quickly or to explore the users’ answers in interviews or testings, for example. Basically you can use this technique asking 5 times “why” a defined problem is occurring.
So this technique is good to understand not only user’s problems, but also to understand the business priorities. When I say “ask about everything” it means asking your stakeholders too. Every time someone come and say we have to work on something, ask “whys”:
- Why is it so important? Do we really have to do it?
- Why are the users being impact? What is the impact? Who are these users?
- Why is it the priority? Which data support this priority?
There are two words that every designer needs to be comfortable saying: “why” and “no.” With every project that crosses your desk, you need to ask “Why are we doing this?” Asking that question is part of the job. “Because I am telling you to,” is not an acceptable answer, and if there’s no answer beyond that, you need to reply with “no.” — Mike Monteiro, “Dear Designer: Your First Job”.
One year ago I was afraid of being “too critique” asking too many “whys”. But instead I was encouraged to do so, because it is part of my job: to understand the business and the real problem. Here it comes the second topic…
Study Design and really understand about the business
It’s important to be confident when asking so many “why’s”. In order to increase your confidence it’s necessary trying to really understand the core business of your company. Also how Design can help the company solve problems and grow.
It’s very important to have strong arguments so you can defend your ideas and the importance of researching something before hand. You will face people who don’t see value in the Design process, so the more you know about it and its business impact, the better you can explain and defend your work in the company.
But our work is not only defending the “design process” point of view. Being a defender of this question does not mean imposing our opinion, quite the opposite. It means you have to act like a facilitator sometimes…
Designer is a facilitator
I’m not the owner of the ideas and I’m not the only person who knows what is right or wrong about an experience. I’m a facilitator and my work is helping guide my team understand the users and also share their ideas about what we have to do. My job is search for data to base our decisions. All design decisions should be based on research and data, not on what I think.
Our work is essentially collaborative and to improve this sense of collaboration in your workplace…
Keep practicing constant feedback
Here in this topic it doesn’t matter if you’re a designer or not. Our evolution depends on feedback so be open, listen and give feedback to people who work with you. Try keeping feedback as a constant practice between people on your team, because it’s a great way you can progress together.
Seniority is about a behavior — Run from “impostor syndrome”
Being a “junior designer” doesn’t mean you have to accept orders only. You can assume some responsibilities by asking more questions. Be curious about everything: the product, the business, what people around you do at their routine, who are these people, what are our purpose and so on.
Besides that, don’t go and think you are in the wrong place when you don’t know what to do. You’re not an impostor. Not knowing about how to act or what to do in some situations is not an exclusive “junior designer” issue. After all, being a senior one doesn’t guarantee knowing everything, doesn’t it?
Getting better as a designer means valuing curiosity more than mastery and embracing what you don’t know more than fearing it. — Mike Monteiro, Dear Designer: How You Can Tell You’re Getting Better.
Design less and always write
Last but not least, this topic is something that I took from this text of Jon Moore: “The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Great Designer (Part 3 of 3)”. I really recommend reading all three parts of it.
When we talk about being a designer, everyone will think about interfaces first. But it’s not about it at all. Interfaces are important but before them it’s essential to really understand the problem we are trying to solve, what impact we want to make and how it can help the business’ goals. So it’s about planning, strategies, facilitating ideas and solving problems — with or without interfaces. So thinking that way we shouldn’t “only design” (literally focused on interfaces). We should go beyond that.
Everything should be documented. First, because it’s really important to share with everyone on your company. So write your process, organize ideas, don’t lose data from research. Second, writing is also important to share our learnings with the Design community. By showing our work we can help others while also receiving help from someone who can see improvements, which we were not seeing.
And yes, you do not need to be a senior designer to write about something. Moore wrote:
“Candidly, I felt like a bit of an imposter the first time I wrote about design. Who was I to be waxing poetic about topics my manager had just taught me days before? I didn’t feel like I deserved an audience because I didn’t have the “credentials” to back up my philosophies.
What I’ve discovered about writing is that when you first put pen to paper, you’re writing for yourself. It’s not about your audience, it’s not about claps, and it’s not about landing a book deal.
Writing about design is about reflecting on your beliefs, your technique, and your process”. — Jon Moore: “The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Great Designer (Part 3 of 3)”
That’s it! Those are what I’ve learned from 1 year as a Product Designer:
- Ask about everything — Don’t be afraid of being critique
- Study Design and really understand about the business
- Designer is a facilitator
- Keep practicing constant feedback
- Seniority is about a behavior — Run from “impostor syndrome”
- Design less and always write
I hope this article can be useful for everyone who works as a Product Designer (or UX/UI Designer, whatever the name you have in your CV). Also please feel free to comment your own learnings. I believe this way we can learn together — and that’s the best way :)
