Personal Reflection on my time working as a Product Designer or UI/UX Designer
[DRAFT ONE]
I haven’t been very good at articulating a lot of my journey this year. I sometimes think it is from oversharing emotionally on the internet that guilts me to not write. I moved from a low paying job as a UX/UI Designer and Instructor in an Edtech company to another as Product Designer in a small team in a SAAS Fintech Company. Doubled my small salary by 2x.
[DRAFT TWO]
Listening to old Ghanaian music (Birth of Ghana by Lord Kitchener) really set the tone for this article. With everything going on currently, I find that I am trying to survive and not take things too seriously so I don’t get overwhelmed with this economy.
Every day work
I wake up 5:00am — 6:00am after losing quality deep sleep at 12:40am or around the midnight due to stress. I try to have a routine but mostly fail to keep it up for about a month then change the cycle completely.
So what do I do when I go to work, I listen a lot and jot down stuff.
What is the ask for each day?
Where am I in a project ?
What new design discovery have I found on twitter ?
The last one is mostly me scrolling through twitter looking for inspirations or trying to learn something that might have piqued my interest and spiralling into this deep enthusiasm through the day.
Afternoon and early mornings are my good hours. On 9–5 work hours I mostly use those hours to put ideas to paper or Figma preferably a digital sticky note.
My evenings are when I get ideas. I would be walking home and suddenly I get hit by the most interesting ideas on a design solution or even a general project. I sometimes jog for about 30 mins around the neighbourhood when I work remote. This also helps.
Working as a Solo Designer
Making time and staying consistent , those two things are what I keep hoping for each day. Time is so hard to come by as a solo designer in a fintech company. I have tried countless time scheduling apps including Pomodoro timers but I notice I get distracted by the timer once I am in the zone and this is a setback.
What works for me now is writing down daily tasks and focus on one at a time. I try to do as much work as possible till I feel distracted again by a call or a teammate interrupting. I know distractions again, how is that possible? I don’t try to avoid distractions in fairness. I take it in because chaos can create a different kind of focus that feels like a breeze. When I notice the distraction after a long hour of work, then I know to take a break.
Collaboration
I have always admired collaboration in a team, and wondered how it would be like. From my former role, I used to engage other departments to take part in design conversations and I really enjoyed those.
I am always an advocate for open team collaborations. I hope to work in a design team soon. ( if you are looking for a great designer, *wink). Apart from that, being a community advocate has really helped shape how I talk about design and how much passionate I am for designers to get their bread.
Finding my foot in all this
Finding clarity in my journey. One thing I have learnt so far is to build for me. Build the project for that money. Build your career for the team you would love to be in. Sit down with your intentions and think about where you need to be.
Understanding where you are, where you have been and why you want to go or where you are going is important. Also understanding that the future is a continuous loop, try and figure out where you exist within that loop.
😁 so the question is what kind of Time Traveller are you ?
As a tech professional, I pray for a better paying job with a great team.
Office business
I think it is weird if you don’t complain about your job. In fairness, sometimes a company may not value its workers so it becomes a constant to either keep bringing things up or deal with it. Well, the interesting thing is I have gathered a great amount of skill in office politics and trying to swing influence to understand what success means for my employer and myself.
Documenting your personal achievements at the workplace
Dealing with unofficial performance reviews (people’s emotions)
Escalate problems that make your job harder each day
I had a conversation with my boss about my place in his structure and goals for the team since as a solo product designer, I do a lot so it is good to know where I stand to communicate that value clearly next year in reviews. I was not surprised when I learnt I had :
“Impress your boss”
Well, I did learn a lot but I was glad I had that conversation earlier as it was my 6th month in. I feely lucky to learn from others and also build tolerance for these sticky situations.
For now, I hope to work on positioning myself as Digital Product Designer obsessed about the experience users get out of interacting with products on the internet everyday.
Recap
Take the day one at a time. Document your achievements and find resolve in the issues you have by asking others or confronting your boss about it.
That’s the few I could share as TL;DR . Hope you enjoyed this one.
