Beyond the px — Buzzfeed’s Kelsey Scherer
I’m happy to announce that I spoke with Kelsey Scherer, Director of Product Design ad Buzzfeed. Having studied a more traditional design education, Kelsey has successfully worked her way into a senior leadership position; she’s awesome.
Enjoy, and see you next time.
For those not in the know, can you explain who Buzzfeed are and what they do?
BuzzFeed is the leading independent digital media and tech company delivering news and entertainment content to a global audience. We publish news stories, investigations, lists and videos about identity and experience, quizzes, recipes, and cartoons across our site, our mobile apps, and most social networks.
What has been your design journey up until now?
I went to school for graphic design. While I had a handful of web-related classes, I mostly studied print design.
When it came time to get internships, I did one at a print magazine and one with a digital company. The digital work was so much more interesting to me, so that’s where I focused!
From there I did a little bit of visual design, a bit of brand design, then finally landed in product design.
What does your typical morning look like?
I spend 3–4 mornings per week taking my dog for a long walk in a park near my apartment.
I spend 20–30 minutes getting ready for work while either listening to a podcast or some music (lately I’ve been getting back into The Daily and listening to Taylor Swift’s new album, Lover).
After getting ready for the day, I head straight to work and eat breakfast there.
What does your design stack look like?
I don’t spend much time designing any more, so the tools I use day to day are: — Google Docs
— Slides
— Sheets
— Basecamp
— Slack.I’ll occasionally use Figma to communicate a rough idea, but it’s pretty rare!
Is it hard to define your career to your friends?
Nearly everyone I spend time with is working in a tech or media job of some sort, though, so there’s a lot of professional overlap between myself and my friends. Because most of my friends are in media or tech, it’s pretty simple to explain what I do.
My one sentence speech when anyone asks me what I do is “I lead the design team working on BuzzFeed’s websites and apps”.
Short and sweet!
Have you always wanted to work in this industry?
Because I studied print design, I had always assumed I’d end up at a magazine or some other legacy publisher. I didn’t know what it would mean to be in the media industry, but that was my assumption.
When I joined Vox Media and began working with their journalists, writers, editors, and product team is when I really dove into the media world.
What’s your team dynamic?
The Product Design team is about 8 people right now, and we’re currently hiring 4 more product designers.
Product Designers at BuzzFeed embed with cross-functional teams. They’re true partners with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Data Science leads.
In my day to day, I collaborate most closely with the folks leading the Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams.
What advice would you give for those interested in kick starting a career in designing for the market?
This one is hard for me because I feel like the tech (and even media!) industry has gotten really competitive over the last few years.
I had the privilege of going to an art school to jumpstart my career, was able to join a fairly new company in a high growth stage, and am white, so what works for me won’t work for others who are from underrepresented groups within tech.
The advice I do have is to share your work openly: write about it, Tweet about it, make your work easy for others to find. Also when applying to jobs that you feel you aren’t 100% qualified for, give some extra context to why you feel you’re a good fit for a role. Even if you don’t have many years of experience, take the time to understand what a company is looking for, and explain how you think you’ll make an impact on the team.
Kelsey’s advice for juniors is fantastic. We really do have the tools at our disposal to turn our ideas into projects and share them in front of potential employers. Initiative can get us a long way, and with the right drive and surrounding yourself with a supportive network, you can achieve your career goals.
Adios, amigos.
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