Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Vikram Aditya

An overview of my learnings while designing at @ Sprinklr 😉

One of my ‘Scratching the Head’ Moments.

Whatever be the entry point, you will be surprised by the magnitude of knowledge that comes with being in an industry environment. Graduating in the summer of 2017, at the age of 22, I joined Sprinklr at its R&D Headquarters in Gurugram, India. Sprinklr is based out of New York and has been killing it in the domain of Social Media since 2009 with its comprehensive solutions.

That would be an understatement in even introducing Sprinklr but for this blog, what you need to know is that Sprinklr is a very youth-dominated and a highly merit-based organisation. When I say, highly merit-based, I mean the only thing that decides how much you grow is the willingness and ability to deliver value continuously. And, reasonably so. Didn’t they say, ‘’Nothing succeeds like success’’?

1. It is all about your attitude.

Any company that you work for will have a positive set of advocates, and a negative set as well. I have realised, more than on one count, that the number of stressful situations you are comfortable being in, ultimately decide, how successful you will be. My motive: Going a bit further and delivering more than what is expected of you because doing what you are precisely asked to do is like vanilla. Everyone can do that. Also, at any point in time, there are ideas always flowing here and there. I believe, designers must start from the bits and pieces and explore the possibilities around that purpose so that they can weigh in if there is potential or not in one of those ideas floating around.

2. Listen More. Speak Less.

You can be an incredibly valuable presence when you speak to move the discussion forward, rather than putting in an opinion for the sake of it. Until and unless you can do that, be a magnet that absorbs everything.

3. Don’t be afraid to say Yes!

Doing things that you don’t want to is not fun but, good things rarely come the easy way. I read somewhere and always try to follow this: “A leader’s success on any front is directly related to the number of difficult one on one conversations that he/she is willing to have. The most significant cause of failure is quitting when it gets tough. Not out of bad habits or a lack of goals. Just straight up weakness and the inability to push further. Learn to handle a level of stress that breaks most people. At least, try.

4. Don’t be afraid to say No!

Short term compromises and pretentiousness are the worst of your enemies. It took me almost six months before I realised that I was losing a lot of my time on useless stuff. Most of all tedious gatherings often to please people end up leaving a big hollow in your world day by day. I would devote my time to activities that are fun, and I would work with people only if I want to work with them inside out.

5. Design in Industry is not like Design in Universities.

As students, we tend to battle our hearts out for stakeholders. In industry, a new narrative comes in. A company is a company, and unless you see things from that perspective, it’s going to be painful! That’s why seniors have a very different argument as opposed to juniors who are still not entirely out of university mentality. Realistically, project goals often get redefined as per business needs. Words like ‘adoption’ or ‘retention’ or ‘engagement’ dominate conversations, and there might be moments where these things seem right for users too. So what is correct then? Joel Califa beautifully addresses this in one of his articles.

6. The product is the real deal right now.

The power of product thinking has caught the industry’s attention off-late. Thinking regarding products comprehensively, balancing company and user needs helps build the right features for the right people with the correct results even for your organisation. User experience, interactions, visuals all are just small pieces of the puzzle, howsoever sacred they may seem. Oh and my favourite statement from last 3–4 months has been “Sometimes, subtraction is the biggest addition.”

7. The most significant asset: The art of pitching.

Like the title, this is the most significant section of my article, and it has mostly borrowed content. Presentations and the art of pitching are the most undervalued things today in my opinion, and that only makes me sad.

A very little of design is about coding or sketches. Everything including meetings when you don’t have a pen and paper in hand, you don’t have designing software on your screen and so on is all about design. Daniel Burka, one of the most influential figures in the industry today, says:

If you go and talk to your CTO or your department head and ask what is it that keeps you awake at night, what you might hear might not seem like a design problem, but it’s a lot about design problems. It is essential to understand what are the motivations behind success for each. Different stakeholders will have a different perspective, and if your design does not speak to their priorities, then the idea won’t succeed. Tie your story to a more significant point. Doing usability testing and complaining about things matter but working with business concepts is equally important.

I will also copy paste my notes from a video on the youtube channel, ‘High Resolution’ about the importance of soft skills here.

You can consistently produce the best design work in the world, but if you can’t get other people to see your perspective or want to help bring your vision to life, your impact will be capped. Once your hard skills are in the right place, work on your soft skills: communicating clearly; pitching a compelling vision, knowing what matters to whom; collaborating well with others. Those skills are critical for growing your leadership in every profession, not just product design.

8. Edit people who are in your circle.

People who are not learning most of the time are toxic. Look for people who are confident in their abilities. Pre-conceived notions about what can or can’t be done are some things you should stay away from. Listen out why such people believe that something might not work but do not outrightly accept it. Also, folks who will speak the most obvious things for the sake of it are equally dangerous in my view.

9. Chaos and Uncertainty is good at times.

Often, founders are comfortable in the chaos and disorder and these two can be the most valuable combination of a learning environment. The practical world is a lot about good approximations. Uncertainty isn’t a condition to be avoided, but a tool for better decisions. The concept of Parallel Processing is defined as the ‘ability to track multiple information sources in an environment and hold them all in our mind’. The best designers can keep a genuinely daunting amount of information at the ready and offer it as insight on demand.

10. Do homework properly. Always, start together.

Ideas mostly get shot down when you pitch in things which do not already align with company values and perspectives. ‘Cool ideas’ have this ability to deviate you, but more than often, different people working on the same project have different views about the end goals as well, and you never realise it because all of them are speaking things in their way. That’s a perfect recipe for disaster. Here at Sprinklr, we are trying to solve that through making a Product Story to get everyone at the same starting point for any new project. More on that some other time but make sure you and your peers have the same starting point.

11. Last minute flips are a thing!

In my starting days, I used to get frustrated a lot when new arguments would pour in as soon as approvals started going south. That’s similar to people trying to dump a sinking boat to save themselves. The solution? Over time, I have realised that if you are through with your research, you can always land back on your feet spontaneously. Personally, I have an added advantage; I grew up in a Gurukul which almost makes me inert to a lot of things and helps me in unusual ways practically and almost daily.

12. Learn the Language.

Metrics for success in business are very different from what we are trained to in theory. If you use the language of the people you are talking to, a lot of time gets saved. Conversion metrics, Selling widgets and so on. Building credibility is easier if you demonstrate the measurable aspects of your design. Numbers matter to everyone high up, and it’s up to you to translate everything you do to numbers. Be Data Aware. Do it as you like it but gain perspectives of people who understand it better. It helps.

13. Speak Code. Learn Code.

Before putting in my own thought, here is a beautiful article recently written about designers and understanding of code. What’s my perspective? Knowing a bit of backend and understanding terms from code goes a long way in making your life easier. First, you would not design ridiculously fancy things. Second, Product Managers and Developers do tend to listen to your arguments if you communicate the way they understand. Vice versa applies to them as well. Learning code comes in handy when you want to start with semi-functional prototypes, and you would want to have that skill in the bag sooner or later. If you have been having a tough time communicating ideas, the chances of approval scale up exponentially with a prototype.

14. Start solving problems by Writing.

Start writing things down. Often at the start, most of what you think is cool would be of no value, but it clarifies your vision before you hit the screen. It helps communicate your ideas, and you must have read that 80-90% of design happens away from the computers.

15. Be Patient.

As a company grows, things and processes change. It takes time before you start getting noticed. Rather than being sad about it, learn new things which no one around is good at, help your team whenever they need, and situations will align themselves to help you out. Don’t always worry about big projects in the first few months especially. It’s not easy, but patience is a skill worth perfecting. And, when someone will give you a shot, do whatever it takes to Make it happen.

16. Tiny Wins can strengthen your business.

Joel Califa in one of his articles tried to communicate the idea that large projects are essential. If a company wants to continue innovating, tiny iterations don’t entirely cut it, but these things don’t happen overnight. So, whereas, ambitious projects should lead the way, small changes are equally important and they ensure that there is no stagnation while big things mature over time.

17. Imposter Syndrome is Real.

Especially in a work environment where promotions come real fast, it is easy to get lost and end up in a situation where you feel like an imposter all the time. If design as an industry was not ever changing, I think I would have died of boredom. Personally, those occasional hiccups, the feeling that things are still not smart, have pushed me more than anything else. If you were to stop learning, the world is changing so fast; you will be swept off in a moment. The key to surviving in my view: Think less about yourself. Endurance and greater effort often result in good things.

18. Accept feedback with open arms.

In my case at Sprinklr, it’s usually feedback coming in directly from the CTO or the VP who also overlooks the designs. Regardless of whether it is a casual or a formal critique, a person has made time in their busy day for you. Now, in a matter of 6 months only if I can see my priorities and concerns changing, it’s only obvious that in their daily routine, giving design-feedback is one of the zillion other tasks. Initially, it might feel that your ideas were not heard correctly, but what I have also realised is that trying out all the inputs that you receive might take an hour more of your time, but it’s usually for the best. Also, people of such stature speak through their experiences which might not be visible to your in-experienced eyes but they are the best way to learn. Fail, Repeat, Fail and Succeed. Early feedbacks, if possible can be a great thing.

19. Hiring New Faces: Best way to add value.

In the book, ‘How Google works’, the importance of adding value to your organisation by hiring the right faces has been highlighted. I was fortunate to be on the hiring panel after only five months at Sprinklr. Actually, before that, I never realised the amount of learning that came with hiring exercises as well. If you get a chance, definitely go for it and nail it completely!

20. Wear many hats but be very good at one.

Make sure you are the master of one trade at least. Oh, and practice all trades. Talk to as many people as you can. Why? Because almost everyone can always teach you something. Switching Contexts is not easy. Often people love the gravity around getting immersed in problems for long, but it’s really about your taste. I am more smitten by the startup culture which has fortunately persisted at Sprinklr.

21. Marry the Right Sources.

Stay on top of trends. Everyone pushing for reading more and more books might not be wrong. Other smart ways to grow are Twitter, Medium, Product Hunt, Podcasts, Reddit and so on. You need to follow the right people. Marry these sources before calling yourself a designer.

22. Learning Mode: Always On.

Being efficient and investing your time in the right area at all the time is a skill, not purely luck. And, it is challenging. I still struggle at that but so does Naval Ravikant or even Warren Buffet who says he is trying to improve at 80! If you would like to research on this, there is an idea of ‘intellectual compounding’ and even the best of intuitions finding their roots in something that we learned and stored in the back of our minds at some time. Here at Sprinklr, recently we have ‘learn on Fridays’. My suggestion if you can do this efficiently would be: Why only Fridays? It’s an always-on process, but from the perspective of a work-culture change, I love the concept of ‘Learn on Fridays’ to start with at Sprinklr.

23. Ask for help but exercise yourself first.

The best part about the B2B domain is that merely the complexity of the problems and the required scrutiny that you have to deal with trains you like a Ninja of sorts. Solving problems in groups is a great idea and even a recommended one but, in my view, before you ask for help, try solving it yourself first. Do you find yourselves getting stuck at something and don’t have a complete flow? Just start fiddling with designs, and the light usually starts to shine. Also, on a personal note, saying I don’t know is against my philosophy. So, when I don’t know, I say something like, “let me check and get back?”.

24. Ownership is very powerful.

If you can’t own things start to end, you probably should be changing your profession. Also, ownerships smells of confidence and confidence attracts success.

25. Time Constraint is bad. Is it? No!

Getting frustrated with the pace in which things get carried out is pretty standard. In the design industry, you will often hear complaints on the line of, ‘I don’t like the time constraint because I am not able to research things completely.’ That would have been a statement I would have agreed to in a big established company, but in a model where a kickass MVP followed by continuous iteration is the business strategy, your complaints do not make sense. Here at Sprinklr, we do not ship value all at one go because the competition doesn’t allow us that luxury. It’s always about continuously enhancing and expanding.

26. Have side Projects.

You will always be buried in a bundle of work. The key to not letting your work life seem monotonous is to keep a healthy mix of side projects. A dangerously awesome combination is a mix of things that you enjoy doing and things that help you grow as well. Do it when you are not at work so that you do not come up as not being serious about business professionally. I am not saying you shouldn’t browse through Netflix at all but don’t do that only or maybe watch things that teach you a bit once in a while. It’s refreshing.

27. Stop burning out. Put in a low effort but make a high impact.

Every once in a while, take a break. In my case, I miss traveling a bit. Take a short leave if need be but don’t burn yourself out. It only adds to your contribution because you can focus better on most important and impactful things, instead of things that add negligible value.

28. Think about future all the time.

The chance for design to work with business development is excellent in the not so distant future. There are such smart tools around popping up these days. Keep your head down in your work but have an eye on the future as well. These are probably the most beautiful times with enormous potential everywhere that any generation would witness.

29. Money Matters. Use it smartly.

Money may matter to just a tiny extent in life when you consider things that make you happy but be smart with it’s usage. Talk to people who have been doing a job for 4–5 years and they all regret not saving or investing a small fraction in their first couple of years. However, make sure you spend enough to enjoy.

30. Everything falls back into place.

Asking yourself ‘why you are making something’ comes before asking ‘whether you can make it?’ Don’t lose hope. Ever. Just make sure you are always thinking and acting on ways to make progress.

Keep smiling 😃, Be Awesome 🤟 and spread the love ❣️

And, if you feel like reaching out to me, reach out on vikramaditya2894@gmail.com or drop in a hi through my profile on twitter

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30 Lessons I learned in my first 6 months as a designer. was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

30 Lessons I learned in my first 6 months as a designer.

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