My Experience in becoming a senior designer
Senior designer mindset
Learnings and Qualities will help you to build your designer mindset.
As a self-taught designer, my journey has one most common part, I never stopped learning and gaining knowledge, this is how I became a designer. And doing that is how I became a junior UI/UX designer to a senior Product designer.
When I was a junior designer I was more into thinking visually than thinking holistically and deeply.
So…let’s start with the most debatable part
Are UX Certifications, and Design Certifications will help you to boost your career?
I have seen so many designers working for big MNCs without having any certification, and many who have a certification but working on startups, what will be the answer to this question?
So, honestly as per my knowledge having certifications are cherry on top but it mainly works when you are in your initial days of career, nowadays UX and Product design are very trending fields for jobs so having certification somehow makes you stand out from other candidates but it is not a necessity to have one.
Now let’s talk about those qualities which will build the senior mindset
- Business understanding
- Product understanding
- Know your users
- Ownership
- Collaboration
- Take feedbacks
- Provide end-to-end solutions
- Team player
- Update yourself
- Soft Skills
I will try to explain every quality in straightforward phrases
Business understanding
It is important to understand for all the designers which type of business they are in, it will give a proper understanding of the market and user base, and also check your company’s vision, and what they want to achieve from the product.
It will help when you create a UX strategy, research and analysis for your product/project, whenever it is required.
Product understanding
Once you know the business, you will be having enough understanding about the product as well.
As a product designer, it is important to create a product which goes with the business and vision, to do that you have to think in this way, about what product will be useful for the customers and beneficial for the business.
User understanding
To build a good product you have to understand the people who use the product and the problems they face while using your product/ other products.
above points known as product thinking!
Ownership
Taking ownership is one of the most important skills to have in senior designers, You have to be responsible for all your actions, requirements and deliveries, and you have to be in touch with all others whose involvement is important in the project.
You have to be clear with timelines, timelines should be shared within your teams.
for example In the XYZ project if you need the Content and Visual team’s help inform them prior that you will be bringing this type of work for them and how much time they will take to complete the work, and tell your timelines as well with them so that they can align their work within the timeline.
Collaboration
Senior designers mostly work with cross-functional teams(Product, Data, Research, Creatives, Tech).
To create a successful product you have to collaborate with different teams.
you need to understand for which requirements you have to connect with which team.
You have to create a plan for that when do you need which team’s help is it data you want or do you need an understanding of the product/feature?
Take feedbacks
Senior designers have this mindset to ask for feedback from the beginning so that they can improve strategy/design in the initial draft only, it makes it easier to complete the whole design.
Provide end-to-end solutions
It’s very important to give end-to-end solutions when you are in working in a senior role.
from requirement gathering to tech hand over it is important to provide solutions which are self-explanatory, like with your design assets delivery provide your flows, design solutions along with prototype(including all interactions).
Team player
While you will be working with different teams, it by default makes you a team player where you know to whom you need to connect and how to tackle work within the team and with other teams.
Update yourself
When you reach out to the senior positions it is your top priority to update yourself in skills, and communication.
You have to do a self-critic of your work and yourself, and find out what skills are required to grow your career in design.
Soft Skills
Communication plays a major role in senior positions, how easily you communicate with others, storytelling comes when you have good communication, and how you narrate your story is very important.
Overall what I know is you have to evaluate yourself where you are and where you want to go, keep your mind open and learn what makes you a smart worker.
And designers have to be patient and good listeners those are the mantras which I am following!
TIP: Give time to yourself and relax, this will make you more productive.
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