Next stop?
Finding the right job is harder, but it's out there.
Point
Having the freedom to choose what projects you work on and with whom you work is the ultimate form of freedom in work life.
I wanted to try out something new by being a designer, and that’s why I agreed to join a UK-based startup at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022. And to this date, I enjoyed it at every point.
Simply saying it’s like riding a roller-coaster :)
Many people (literally everyone) believe that a designer's role is limited to design tasks. However, in my opinion, being a designer involves developing a mindset that is focused on organization and attention to detail. This skill set is useful in a variety of situations.
To create a system all over the company: A system that works and gradually adapts to the people without pressing them. Learn from mistakes and iterate, iterate and iterate.
Designing practices: Like document everything not because we said so, but because you felt so. It’s a very important step and needs to implement in a very simple way.
Designing teams: Never say, we’re like a family here! That’s just a school-level mediocre branding. We’re employees/colleagues, so we need to act like it, never pressure them to do anything, simply get to know them at a very reasonable pace and you’ll get the gold at the end.
Designing organizations: To create an efficient and effective system that allows the organization to function smoothly and achieve its goals is not easy and simple. It is a complex task that requires careful planning and consideration of various factors, such as the size and scope of the organization, the industry in which it operates, and the needs and expectations of stakeholders.
Designing businesses: To create a viable and sustainable enterprise that meets the needs of its customers and generates profits for its shareholders, we need to learn from market research and product development to financial planning and fundraising; also a complex process.
Typical Work Environment
In the corporate world, everything is a rule or “policy”, which creates the impression of modern slavery. I mean, at least to me, it’s like that. “You may do this, but you can’t do this. You must not do this while you do this. You must do this when you don't do this.” I mean, I know that a certain set of policies are required to run a big organization. I’m not a fool to believe otherwise. But it’s not built for human beings. It’s like the if-else statement in the programming world.
Following these legally binding rules and policies will eventually lead to burnout for everyone, as there is no room for adaptability. Again, I’m not talking about replacing everything with a “Utopian” system.
Burnout is when you feel very tired and stressed for a long time. It can make you feel like you don't care about other people anymore and that nothing you do matters. It's important to take care of yourself so you don't get burnout.
Product Designer
Being a product designer is not just designing screens every day.
Designers should create designs that are both easy to use and have a practical purpose or solve a problem. This is especially important because useful designs can often be monetized. Product managers can help identify monetization opportunities. Sometimes, however, organizations only ask designers to create designs that are easy to use/looking beautiful, rather than also being useful.
The above graph is another thing to consider when you work at a startup or an organization. Both atmospheres are different. The startup world is agile and agile only. We may never get time to validate our research, copywriting, first draft, second draft, final, final and final, last final, etc. But there is a median that we can look up to and we can perform well in that range. And slowly we can improve the quality. Because the startup motto is to beat the competition in the market. And to do that we need speed. Of course, we will be irritated :)
Sometimes when applying for a job, we get rejected because of our "years of experience." Companies use this as an insight to perform the first level of filtering. I have seen people with a lot of years of experience doing mediocre work in a mediocre style at a mediocre speed. I'll never say that experience doesn't matter. It is efficient, but at the same time, also consider that time and the internet are changing, and people are starting to explore earlier. They also know a lot of things that might bring something to the table, but you have to dig deeper in a friendly manner. I realized this when a recruiter said something about me. They had an issue with the solution I offered during the test, but they liked my approach, so they gave me a chance, but I said no, which I regret to this day because I joined a corporate company, which was also a regret, but more like a turning point... which brings me back to the point I made at the top.
Craft the Details
Extra care about all icons and their states, all button, and other component states, tooltips and popovers (must), after and before spacing, etc. Every detail matters in the long run. Because that’s how we care about people. They can be frustrated for a simple reason, like nothing else showing while a loading animation is taking too much time.
Also, one other thing, if you're a designer, which means you ask a lot of questions, sometimes problems. Maybe consider some answers too, which will surely help us as a team.
