Beyond the px — Zapier’s Stephanie Briones on getting feedback, open design, and ☕️

Luis Ouriach

Published in

8px Magazine

7 min readDec 17, 2020

It’s December! 2020 is almost up, but I’m really happy to close the year with an interview with the excellent

Stephanie Briones

, who leads the design systems efforts at

Zapier

She has a particular affinity with Figma 😀

Enjoy.

What do Zapier build?

Zapier provides tools to connect the apps we use for work and helps us create workflows to automate the repetitive, tedious tasks that otherwise take up valuable time.

What has been your design journey up until now?

I started my professional design career as an apprentice at a software development consulting company in Chicago, Illinois.
I always had a passion for art and design, but was never formally trained (I skipped college). Before I got into tech, I was always making things, both digital and physical.
It was somewhere around 2010 that I started digging in and teaching myself HTML and CSS by reading lots of books, and building and breaking things while I did.
Later, I worked my way through online courses with Think Vitamin (now known as Treehouse). In 2011, I sought out opportunities for apprenticeships or internships with companies in Chicago. It was actually a tweet that led me to the first major step in my career — an apprenticeship at 8th Light and a wonderful mentor.

What does your typical morning look like?

I make a pot of pour over coffee every morning while I feed our cat. I can’t do much before coffee, and she won’t let me do much before feeding her anyway, so it’s a ritual that’s likely here to stay. After coffee, I get ready, go to my home office and start my day by catching up on any important Slack notifications or feedback from the previous days’ work, then I dive into Figma.

What does your tool stack look like?

Figma, Figma, and a little Figma.
Seriously though, the tools I use have changed dramatically in the last 3 years. It used to be that I would work in Sketch, build prototypes in InVision, share designs in 2–3 different ways depending on the audience or situation, collect and process feedback from different sources, and then when it came time to iterate, the process almost replayed in that same way.
With Figma, there’s one place for designing, for prototyping, for sharing, for feedback, and for iteration, and that makes my work better.

Do you have any design hacks?

I feel like there are lot of designers that are aware of their favorite design hacks or smart processes, but I don’t feel like I’m that organized.
If I had to come up with one, it’d probably just be to always design in the open. I remember early in my career having a tough time sharing really early work, or my process with other people. I was always sure it would be wrong and being wrong at a stage when you’re trying to show that you can do the job well is so hard. But when I allowed myself to design in the open which naturally allowed others into the process, designing anything just became easier. Something changes when you stop seeing your work as “yours” (like it’s part of yourself and your value) and instead see it as “ours”.

Do your career aspirations encroach your life?

When I was earlier in my career, yes, definitely! Now, it’s so necessary to divide them because I understand that I need to recharge to do good work, and I best do that by unplugging from work on the weekends.
I’m not sure I ever really stop thinking like a designer though, nor do I think I can really help that! I think design has always been part of how I make decisions about fashion, music, and other things, but my style and tastes are always changing or being refined.

How do you design ‘for the future’?

That’s a hard one! Trends are difficult to avoid, but also, what’s original anymore? I’m plenty guilty of following trends, don’t get me wrong. I do my fair share of Dribbble research, but it’s not how I prefer to start on things.
I think my favorite thing to do to find inspiration in places outside of tech, is look through mid century books. The art styles, the typography, and the layouts are all so inspiring. What we did on paper back then is so beautiful to me. I think about how I can take those ideas and create them for the web.
If we look at other companies’ work for inspiration, although there is so much beautiful work to admire, we’re more likely to be followers of trends rather than trend-setters.

Can you explain the team dynamic?

Everyone I’ve had the pleasure of working with at Zapier is kind, smart, and open-minded. We love to collaborate on hard problems at Zapier. As a designer, I don’t know what more I could really ask for.
We have a small, steadily growing design team. We’re hiring now in fact!
In my current position, (Design Systems Lead) I work with everyone on the design team in some capacity, and often with Engineering, Brand, and others in Product as well. Every week is a little different, and it depends my top priority for the week who I’ll work with the most.

Will your product exist in ten years time?

I think so! I don’t think I’m great at predicting the future, but I do see Zapier around in 10 years. I’m not sure what it will look like, or how I think it should work, (for that we’ll continue talking with customers) but I think Zapier will be a larger, and more well-known company one day and I think the product will become more powerful, and very easy for all to use.

What advice would you give for those interested in kick starting a career in design?

Don’t be afraid of being wrong. Being “right” is not your job.
Get lots and lots of feedback from those that have been in the industry longer than you. Find what inspires you and use that inspiration to help guide and shape you as a designer, and the skills you uniquely bring to every challenge as you grow. Design is not an easy path. Practice your craft and stay humble, do your own research, ask questions. You don’t need to have all the answers, just be willing to dive in and search for them, and make sure you take time to have fun while you do!

What are your thoughts on burnout?

I’d say that it does depend a lot on where you are in your career. At my first job, I often worked extra hours because it took me more time to complete tasks, (at least to my standards at the time) especially when meetings took up precious time in the day.
Now, I’m lucky and very grateful that I can typically achieve what I want during my standard working hours, and whatever I can’t, (with very, very few exceptions) can wait until tomorrow. Zapier has a healthy work/life balance culture that really helps prevent the need for working additional hours, and I think that’s how it should be for all companies, especially the remote ones. It’s very uncommon to see anyone working outside of the hours they’ve set for themselves, and as a global, 100% distributed company, working hours are pretty flexible, as long as there is some overlap in the day with your teams to sync, you set your own schedule.
For the second part, I think that there are times in our careers where practicing design, and doing our own personal exploration feeds our souls and re-energizes us. Like when you get that itch to redesign your personal website, or make a new portfolio to share the work you’re proud of. I think it helps us reflect on what we’ve achieved, and that is a very healthy and powerful thing.

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