A few weeks ago, I applied for a senior role at a company that I really wanted to work for. After submitting my applications, I connected with the Principal Product designer on LinkedIn and asked her what makes a Senior Product designer stand out at her company.
She shared 3 qualities she would be looking out for when recruiting. I wrote them down and did some self-reflecting. Do I have these qualities to some degree? How can I improve on these qualities?
One question that comes to mind is how an interviewer knows that you possess certain skills they are looking for. Well, it would show by how you talk about your work, and how you answer certain behavioural and situational questions they ask.
I didn't get an invitation for an interview at the company (unfortunately..) but I got an opportunity to chat about the essential qualities a senior designer should possess to stand out at her company. Mind you these are not the only qualities or skills a designer should possess these are just some examples. And I want to talk about them in some depth.
Few companies have been able to map out and document what they expect from the different design levels. For companies that don't have their expectations documented, we have an idea of what they expect from the job description when applying and it can also be discussed further during interviews and onboarding. Figma and Intercom have been able to document their career ladder expectations for the different levels of designers based on certain criteria such as Strategy, Craft and leadership. We should look at them as a guide, not a hard and fast rule because each company has its own different expectations. (clicking on the Figma and Intercom texts would lead to the documentation on Figjam and Google Docs respectively).
So what are the qualities she shared?
Ownership
Communication
Collaboration
What does taking ownership mean? what does it look like practically?
I think we know what ownership means but the difficulty may lie in understanding how to apply that in the work we do and how we relate with the people we work with. Ownership for me usually means being proactive and treating whatever project I am working on with more intentionality. This is moving from just completing tasks and actually taking a holistic view of the project or product I am building or improving.
A practical example of what ownership would look like...
Let's say I'm a product designer working on a project that requires my team and I to build a new feature for a web application that allows companies to manage their invoices. Taking ownership would mean, I'm not waiting for my PM to dictate everything I need to do, I'm doing the research needed, keeping my Figma files organized and accessible, talking with the Engineers about technical feasibilities, keeping tabs on what they are implementing and I'm always keeping my team in the loop on what I'm working on. I am accountable and reliable.
When I am taking ownership of my work it means, I am invested in it, I have this mindset that "this feature I'm designing, I want it to be something I can be proud of." I believe when that mindset is there it's easy to take ownership because we are putting in the best that we can. When we present our work to stakeholders, we do it with intentionality and a level of excellence. For me, it's like buying a new gadget, you take care of it like it's your baby.
Communication should be easy right? I mean we all communicate...
It wasn't until I read Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever that I understood the importance and power of communicating well as a designer. I'm not trying to make it an unattainable skill, all I'm saying is that there are levels or depths to it. Sharing our updates with our teammates during stand-up is communicating, and being able to talk about why we made a certain design decision to a non-technical stakeholder is another thing. For example, explaining to the Sales team how changing a button placement could help improve conversion. The way we explain things to a designer is different from how we would an Engineer. As I said, it's a skill that can be learnt over time with more experience, self-awareness and intentionality.
Good storytelling (my favourite thing) is a key to better communication, especially during presentations. Asking a lot of questions, asking for help, improving how we hand off our designs and even organizing our Figma files are all some examples of how to improve our communication skills.
The better the Collaboration, the better the design...
I have read a lot of job descriptions and one of the responsibilities or Must haves is the ability to collaborate with other designers, engineers, PMs and other stakeholders. Teammates who can communicate well make very good collaborators on their teams. As a designer, Engineers are the people we tend to have difficulty collaborating with, I won't deny it for myself anyway. It can be difficult working with an Engineer especially when it comes to the matter of making trade-offs.
We have learnt that we should have Empathy for the people we are designing for; putting ourselves in their shoes. I believe we should also have empathy for the people on our teams. Understand why the engineers are having issues with a certain design decision, understand the technical limitations and find other solutions that work for them too. Empathy for our PMs, why is it so important to meet a deadline? Keeping them in the loop of what we are working on, progress, blockers, and findings. It's important that they know.
I have been on a team where a teammate encountered a blocker on Tuesday afternoon and didn't say anything till Stand-up on Wednesday morning. Probably they were trying to fix the problem on their own but I honestly don't believe that we are meant to figure out everything on our own, why then are we on a team? That's why collaboration is a powerful skill (in my opinion), a lot can be achieved when we work with other people. No matter the years of experience a person has, they shouldn't be expected to figure things out on their own.
I read an article on Intercom's blog (I pitched my tent here) about the importance of conflicts when working on a team, I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but conflicts can't be avoided ever. It's part of being better at collaborating, being able to deal with conflicts and working at resolving them. Let me share my major takeaway from the article, I'll also share a link so you can read the full article.
" Many people think of conflict as something to be avoided. After all, who wants to work with a combative asshole? But teams are relationships, and without a little pressure and willingness to push one another to do better, excellence can be an early casualty of collaboration. A team that's unwilling to hold one another to a high standard will quickly see that standard slip."- Emmet Connolly, Healthy tensions in Product teams.
I wish I could frame the entire article, it's gold!
There are a lot of examples of how we can practice these soft skills in our day-to-day work as designers. I am not speaking as one who has mastered them or knows all there is to know about these skills, we are all on the journey to becoming better at our craft.
So what other soft skills do you think are also important to stand out? Looking forward to reading your comments here or you can reach out to me on Linkedln.