Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Eliza Stribling

Four months ago, I started my very first ‘real’ job as a Graduate Product Designer. It’s a terrifying, exciting, nerve-wracking, incredible experience.

I had an idea of what this would be like, and what a ‘designer’ was before I turned up on my first day. Inevitably, I was wrong, and I’ve had somewhat of an epiphany in this short amount of time. I think it’s the sort of epiphany a lot of people have when they first begin full time work in the field they’ve trained for for years, but it’s a hard thing to think about before you find yourself in the right situation. Reading other people’s articles on their beginnings in the product space has helped me feel more at ease that I am going along ok, and I wanted to share my thoughts in the hope that it might do the same for someone else.

Firstly, I’ve realized that I know very little.

To quote the old cliche, I used to be a big fish in a little pond. I was in my last year of university, taking on more self-initiated projects and coming up with more original and well-thought out ideas. I also had my first job that was vaguely in the right field — there, I was the only one with a design mind-set, and was considered the expert on all things Adobe. But then I joined a grad program, and all of that went out the window. It turns out, learning theoretical design thinking does not mean you are immediately able to hold your own in a large product company. I spent at least the first three weeks of my new job reading and figuring out the space I had somehow got myself into, and I am still trying to absorb every bit of information I can. Books and blogs were (and still are) my best friend in gaining an understanding of what a product designer actually is, and how that applied in my day-to-day work and life.

This understanding was something I definitely lacked in my university days. Reading articles from the design world was something purely restricted to theory classes, and anyone who wanted to do that outside of class was crazy. Any articles or books I did read were very theoretical, often based on ideas from the past that didn’t seem to apply to my personal practice. Since then, I’ve realized the breadth and richness of design knowledge that there is out there, and also how easy it is to access. I was in a state of unconscious naivety, where I didn’t even know that this type of information was available to me, but now I have begun to branch out and explore new concepts, something that I wish I had done earlier and would highly recommend.

Design is not the only player in this game.

I had never worked in a cross-functional team. I had only ever presented my work to people who were on board with the importance of design. While I was familiar with the idea of critique, I simply hadn’t come across the type of push back of someone with a completely different way of thinking. When you work in a product team, there are a lot of other stakeholders involved. While the voice of the user is important, the business and development teams have just as large a say in what gets to happen next. It’s taken time for me to accept that sometimes my opinion as a designer is not going to be valued as highly as others.

You will have to spend time convincing people why certain things are important. Non-designers will not take your word for granted, and nor should they. I’ve discovered that it is extremely important to keep all the stakeholders in the loop with your work, whether that be research, interaction design, or visual design. It’s important to vocalize what you are working on at every step, and to hear what others are working on, rather than present your finished design in a sort of ‘ta-da’ moment. When the team is on board from the beginning, everyone is working towards a common goal, which ultimately will result in a better product.

My ideas are valuable.

Saying all of this, it can be easy to slip into ‘imposter’ mode. In fact, I think I’ve even done that in my writing, and I think it may be a product of my being so fresh. But the thing is, as little as you do know and as little as you think your opinion may be valued, there is something that has drawn you into this world and something that you are able to contribute. New and diverse voices are what keep products growing, and it is important to speak up. I’ve been faking the confidence, and along the way, I’ve realized that at some points it’s not even fake. Designers have a unique way of thinking that will help the team move forward and build valuable products.

I’ve also discovered that it’s ok to set your own path and goals within a large organization, even as someone new to the industry. As you grow and learn in your team, you will realize what works and what doesn’t, and your instincts will tell you what to do. You are an expert on you, and no one else will be able to help you unless you actively vocalize and work towards where you want to be. I started off expecting that someone would give me things to do, but really this is about me creating my own tasks and developing my own method of learning.

There have been many more moments of learning throughout this short time, and I hope they continue to present themselves throughout my career. I feel incredibly lucky to have landed in this space, and I hope that others can learn from my experience.

Realizations of a Graduate Product Designer was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Realizations of a Graduate Product Designer

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