5 things I would tell myself if I were starting a new job as a Senior Product Designer today
I am a Senior Product Designer with more than 8 years of experience. Today, I want to share 5 things I’ve learned through my career.
👉 Knowing your product better than anyone else is very important.
Once you start a job, it is crucial to understand your product, your customers, and how they use it. Keep going until you have all your questions answered. You should be the person to whom your colleagues turn when they have a question. The more you know, the more your company needs you, and the more trust you inspire.
👉 When you start your job, create exhaustive, visual documentation.
Identify all the gaps and collaborate with your team to fill them in the UX documentation — formalize everything that hasn’t been formalized yet (e.g., Value Proposition, Business Model Canvas, User Journey, Empathy Maps, Competitor analysis, CSD Matrix, etc.). This collaborative effort will enhance communication with stakeholders and your team, making everyone feel valued and part of the process.
👉 Start talking numbers.
Our work serves financial goals. To be good at your job, you have to start talking numbers. Create a document with all the statistics you run into while learning. This will be a significant asset that you can use in the future for your proposals and general communication.
👉 Gain a thorough understanding of the codebase and the developers’ workflow.
Your design should be easy to implement, iterate, and test. That’s why, in my opinion, understanding a codebase and existing design system implementation is a MUST for a designer. Doing it right will speed up your team’s work and the implementation of new features.
👉 Always learn new things.
As a Senior Product Designer, it’s crucial to stay updated with the latest trends and insights in the design field. Follow industry leaders on LinkedIn, read insightful books, and explore online resources. The design community is constantly evolving, and there are always new discoveries. If you find yourself content with the work you did a year ago, it’s a sign that you need to learn more and keep growing.
