5 things I learned in my first year as a designer in the business world.
Or: Apparently, I’m a design consultant, what now?

So, a designer walks into the management consulting industry…
In my case, I actually first gained some experience in a big management consultancy and then became a designer. After a year of navigating through this new hybrid world, I feel it’s time to share some well-meant fresh advice with my fellow baby design consultants.
Despite the beginning of this article, I do hope you won’t treat it as a joke.
And if you do, I hope it’s a good one!
5. Stay humble
Consultants often pretend they know everything. They are experts on a topic after 30 minutes of “sorting through the deck” and another 30 of “extensive desk research and market analysis.” A good designer knows that they don’t know everything. Often even knows what exactly they don’t know.
How to make sense of this juxtaposition?
As a great warrior poet* once said, be humble.
You will come across projects that are out of your comfort zone. Do some research but don’t pretend you are an expert in something you are not. You have lots of tools at your disposal to help you get the knowledge out of the people engaged in the project and shape it into something useful to work with. Play with these tools, experiment with them and learn from every single experience.
4. Never assume, always be curious
As the old saying goes, lack of curiosity killed the designer.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming to know the answer even before the question is asked. I already know the preferred solution to this design challenge said at the beginning of projects is a phrase that often kills them in the crib. Why are you even going through the design process if you are ready to jump to the end instead of taking the first small step and actually discover? And if that finish line is so well visible, obvious and easy to get to, why wasn’t it reached yet? This a priori justification is a completely wrong attitude. Talk with people, ask questions, research your field, look for inspirations in the least obvious places, enjoy the journey and stay curious.
Don’t assume you know something. And never assume you know everything. People’s needs change quickly and the source of their fears and motivations is rooted deeper than one could suspect. Always ask why and always question your own convictions.
3. Don’t rush things, have patience
When I was just about to start my career as a designer, standing before one of these “life-altering decisions”, someone with more experience told me that working at a big corporation as a designer is often like working at a funeral home when what you really wanted was to be a doctor.
It’s okay to start in a small agency. It’s okay to take the time you need to learn the essentials. You might feel like you are not challenging yourself enough if you are not working for the biggest players on the global market. The truth is, corporations are sometimes hard to navigate: they are restrictive, hierarchical and your ideas need to go through at least a few departments before they actually can get implemented (if they even get implemented at all). It’s easy to get discouraged.
That’s why small agencies might be a better playing field for beginners. You will be working on similar projects, but it’s likely that you will be actually doing even more. You will be jumping from challenge to challenge to challenge. You will be changing your role on projects quicker than in a corporate structure. You will have to learn skills that in a big company would just be found in someone else. It’s much harder to constantly “fake it until you make it” if you are working with only a few people. And that’s the best thing that can happen to you — that way you will avoid the infamous impostor syndrome.
Take it step by step and don’t take shortcuts. It might take longer, but you will learn more and meet a lot of interesting people. The goal is to grow, gain the experience and be the best you can be in the place where you feel good. Right?
2. Be true to yourself & design good recklessly
One of the main questions for those working in the consulting industry – trust me, I have asked it and I’ve heard it – is: how do you keep your soul?
Apart from the whole philosophical debate this question could probably start, it’s actually a great showcase of how consulting is perceived in the world and how it’s somehow conflicting with the perception of designers as these mythical beautiful artist-ish unicorns-freelancers.
So, how do you keep your designer soul in the consulting world?
It’s imperative to just be true to yourself. There’s no “one answer fits all” solution. You will make decisions with regard to the lifestyle, resources, use of products and interactions between people. You will navigate to achieve both business and user needs. Through all that, you have the opportunity to embrace the dimension of socially responsible ethical design and to improve the world a little bit. Design good recklessly.
And remember, you can say no to some projects. You should say no to some projects. Ultimately, don’t try to be someone you are not and fit in a place you will end up being uncomfortable.
1. Don’t be afraid to → get out of your comfort zone → fail sometimes
With your design and your work, don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to create for the user you want to get, not the user you will most likely get.
Have faith in people, they might surprise you. It’s important to stop limiting yourself with ah, no one will want it, no one would buy it approach. Some time ago most of the gastronomy industry thought no one would buy veggie burgers and now look at how many you can get — the vegan and vegetarian sector is booming. Safest solutions are rarely remarkable, and well-planned and risk-free services rarely make history. You have to aim higher, look further, be inspired and inspirational. Simulate possible futures, think
through upcoming experiences, unfolding events and potential obstacles and solutions.
But do remember about the other side of this coin. Always have in the back of your head that not everything will be peachy all the time. And… it’s okay.
I personally learned it the hard way: sometimes, no matter your efforts, projects will fail. Your visions won’t be shared, you won’t get along with the team or the client, you will get overwhelmed with responsibilities and disparity of expectations, you will have bad day and the workshop won’t go as well as planned. It’s okay as long as you learn from it. And I know, learning from mistakes is hard. You will dread the retrospective and dissection of every mistake you have made on the project. But without it, it all becomes kind of useless. Get your insights on how to get stronger from the weakest moments.
Plus, your fails are actually great things to talk about at conferences.
A lightning talk about your biggest failures? Sign me up. Be truthful about the imperfections. People love hearing about failures. It’s something we all share.
0. So what now?
I’m looking forward with excitement to all the insights my second year as a designer is going to bring. I have already identified one homework to tackle – how to better juggle the work and the personal, the necessary flexibility and the need to have at least the bare minimum of consistency in my daily life so it doesn’t affect my mental and physical health?
Hybrid challenge for the hybrid world.
*Kendrick Lamar
