What I'm looking for in my next role...

The answer is simple, perhaps a bit wordy, but simple. In my next role, I’m looking for a start-up that is design-centric, with a multidisciplinary team of awesome designers — where I can continue to learn, grow as a Product Designer and provide value for years to come. I’m seeking a role where I get to be innovative and autonomous, but also be able to collaborate and learn from other designers and those in product.

REFLECTING

In my years of experience as a Product Designer, I’ve gone from remote freelancing, to contracting at a large legacy company, and eventually, found my way to Reddit. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to how product teams function, the product development process, and, ultimately, what happens when there’s a lack of collaboration both within the design organization as well as across various product teams.

While it may seem as though I’ve hopped around by choice, I’ve actually been on the search for stability for quite a long time. However, without having a proper design education (academically), and having to make a major career switch — this hasn’t been the simplest feat.

In any case, I am proud of my experiences. At each place I’ve worked, I’ve learned something new about design, product in whole, and also, what leads to failure and/or success in tech companies. Every single career experience has helped me to both further develop my technical design skills as a Generalist Product Designer, as well as my soft skills such as communication and empathy.

LEARNINGS

At Gigster (2016) — I learned how to work remotely as the sole designer on MVP products with strict timelines, a full-on product team (PMs + Engineers), and clients with personalities that range across the board.

At eBay (2017 to 2018) — I learned how to work very closely on a single product team with PMs, Content Strategists and User Researchers.

At Designlab (2017 to 2018) — I learned how to mentor up-and-coming designers and act as a Design Manager by consistently providing feedback, both in-person and through weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) video chats — to ensure that process-driven projects are delivered on time with the best possible design solutions for real-life clients.

At Reddit (2018) — I learned the importance of innovation, the value of data, and ultimately, what makes a design team truly great. I learned how to be a Product Design owner on small product teams — balancing both my own design autonomy (with the projects I was working on), along with collaboration with the rest of the design organization and relevant product teams. With the guidance and mentorship of an amazing Head of Design, a tough-as-nails but brilliant Design Manager and a Lead Designer that believed in and stuck with me from beginning to end — I was able to grow drastically as a Product Designer in a rather short amount of time, developing my design, communication, and feedback skills in a fast-paced environment. The whole shabang! I will be forever grateful.

The Reddit Design team on an off-site — posing with (and later eating off) paper plates made with the face of our fearless (Head of Design) leader, Diego.

IN CONCLUSION

Becoming a Product Designer was the best decision I ever made, in life. And, I mean that completely. Despite the hardships, the tears shed when things didn’t worked out, and the bad days — the journey has been well worth it. I’m hoping that whenever and wherever I finally land, it’s at a place I’ll be able to stay for the long haul. I plan on continuing to grow as a Product Designer (IC) for the years to come, and perhaps, many moons later, design management will find its way into my future.

Design Challenge: "Uniform Distribution for Bob’s Burgers"

Prompt: “Design a mobile (iOS) application that handles the grand opening order and distribution of uniforms while allowing individual store managers to request additional uniforms for their new employees (or ones who damaged existing ones). “

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This one was a toughie — but, nonetheless, still lots of fun. Much of the details regarding the design challenge are confidential, and also rather lengthy. So, I’ll leave those out. In any case, the deliverables included a wireframe flow, as well as at least “one pixel perfect mockup to demonstrate what you envision the final product to look like.”

Being me, I focused far too much on the hi-fidelity mocks. I definitely should have spent more time on perfecting the flow. In any case, the hi-fi mocks got me some Dribbble love!

Design Challenge: "Design an interface for a dog adoption agency"

Prompt: “Design an interface for a dog adoption agency to view the dogs they have in their network. The user should be able to see dogs up for adoption, dogs that are in the process of being adopted and dogs that have been adopted.”

I worked on this design challenge about a year ago. To be honest, it’s probably the raddest and most fun design challenge that I’ve ever been given. And trust me, I’ve gone through dozens (and…you’ll probably see a few in this little blog in the coming months). Unfortunately, this particular start-up was lacking in funds. I suppose they probably shouldn’t have put out a job posting for a Product Designer at that time? In any case, I hope things worked out for them.

So — back to this assignment. I was actually employed at the time, but I wasn’t very happy with where I was at. I didn’t feel challenged enough, and things moved at a much slower place than what I was used to. I was applying left and right. And, if you’re a designer, you know how it feels right when you’re about to open up that document for a design challenge. On one hand, you’re incredibly stoked to have passed on to the “design challenge” round of the many interview phases, and you’re also insanely curious about what you get to work on in the challenge. On the other, you’re nervous as hell that it’s going to be…well, a prompt that’s terrifying and seemingly impossible. I definitely got lucky with this one. In fact, I geeked out so hard that I even visited the local SPCA to do some user research (despite the fact that the challenge was only meant to be completed in 6 hours).

In any case, it’s nice to have a place to share some conceptual work. Thanks, blog! I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.