365 Days of Digging: What I’ve Learned as the First Product Designer at a Startup

Last month I celebrated my one year anniversary with Sysdig. It was commemorable for many reasons: it’s my longest job post-grad, my technical and facilitative skills have increased dramatically, I saw multiple features go from paper to code to released pixel, and hey, I didn’t burn the company down with my decisions (phew!).

Throughout the journey, I wrote small notes to Future Me and, in light of meeting many folks who also fall into the bucket of “first full-time product designer at a startup,” I wanted to share my notes from Day 1:
The people you work with matter.
Einstein once said that “creativity is contagious,” and frankly, so is everything else. When you have colleagues who can healthily push you in your role and trust you (even when you don’t trust yourself), you really produce your best work despite not having a team. In my case, running the first “design thinking workshop” (ohhh buzzwords!) was absolutely terrifying, but hey, I got results that were worthwhile and lead to a great redesign of our Dashboards page. Furthermore, having people who understand and value the same things as you outside of a product standpoint (i.e. company culture and genuine desire for diversity) makes finding a like-minded community to Get Shit Done much easier.
Showing the value of design is just as, if not more important, than the design itself.
While this is definitely a requirement of mid and senior level designers, you have an obligation as the first design hire to show the value of all design (yours included) and what the return on investment is. Highlight your design jargon and explain “why” in a language that sales, engineering, product, and marketing can understand, even if it requires you to translate the same statement four times. I can’t tell you how surprised I was to hear a salesperson say, “Wow, I didn’t know designs started on paper,” when I first showed my process in a meeting. It’s a high order, but your return is equally high.
Designers don’t need to know how to code, but should know of code.
I have bias here as I was formerly in the engineering department and always been outnumbered by devs, but when you don’t have QA, being able to speak in HTML and CSS makes life much easier and helps uphold a good dev/design relationship. To be clear, this doesn’t mean you should go learn ten languages overnight. Grab the basics, then see where you want to take yourself.
Pick and choose your battles, but be flexible.
Guess what? To a certain extent, product roadmap and prioritization in a startup is a joke. Don’t take it personally when you have to stop everything and pick up some random project that now must be completed in a fifth of the time that you’d like. All your other projects will still be there when you come back, promise.

It’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.
You can imagine my face when my VP told me this a few months into my job, probably because he was tired of me asking if I could do this thing, that thing, should I, could I? Honestly, get like that waffle iron and just do it. No user research? Start e-mailing customers, or get sales to give you an intro. No way to show designs internally? Set up an open weekly design update meeting and invite anyone who’s interested. Can’t decide on a UI before specs are due? Print out your designs, throw some stickers next to it, and Slack your coworkers to go vote (Pro-tip: It’s especially effective during lunch time). You’ll waste a lot less time than waiting and hey, if you make a mistake, embrace it, learn from it, and move on. The only time I had to ask for forgiveness was for not being prepared enough for a user research session I set up, not the fact that I didn’t ask to host one.
Constantly seek to learn and improve.
This is a core value at Sysdig, which I adore and is especially true for the first designer. Why? Because you, not anyone else, are the expert and representative for design in your company. Take the time (or make the time, however you want to spin it) in your schedule to slow down, shut up, and listen to someone else, be it a client, presenter, mentor, etc. Also, your learning does not need to be technically related! Presentation, facilitation, and management skills are equally important to your role as a designer and storyteller.
Seek internal and external mentorship.
During my interview process, my CEO encouraged me to “learn from others who aren’t designers, because we will be looking to learn from you.” I was surprised — why would stakeholders want to learn from someone younger and less experienced? While the idea of interacting with strangers outside your department (or company) is terrifying, getting out of your silo and seeking opportunities to collaborate with others helps you to understand not only design’s role in the company, but how a company actually works.
Remember to unplug….
When you’re the only person repping the design team, the worst thing you can possibly do is burn out. Why? When you’re sick or out of office, production comes to a grinding halt. So take care of yourself.
…and don’t mix self-care with guilt.
I recently had food poisoning that left me working from home on the first day of a hackathon (my first too)! I cried at 3am while slacking my boss about how sorry I was and that I would try to get into the office as soon as I could hold food down the next day. Her only reply was, “No worries…just stay home until you feel better.” While it seems like a no-brainer, I still feel guilty for not being in the office. Your health — be it physical, mental, or emotional — should never be neglected for work.
Be grateful.
More than anything, as the first design hire, take the opportunity you’ve been given and run with it. Being the first product designer is the most terrifying career choice I’ve made, and only recently have I begun reconciling with my imposter syndrome to be my best everyday. But remember that someone took a chance on you, so take chances back.
That being said, thank you Loris, Davide, and Chris for giving me this opportunity, and Payal for being an inspiration to me everyday.
Thank you to every customer who’s responded to my messages and let me run user sessions to try to solve your frustration.
And thank you to the front-end team, past and present, for being the most compassionate devs I know. Your time improving my code knowledge and treating me as a true equal does not go unnoticed.
So here’s to another year of digging, because who knows what’s inside?
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Alexis Lucio is a designer at Sysdig who seeks to learn and improve in the weirdest of ways thanks to Designers + Geeks, Eureka! Comedy show, Shipwreck, NightLife, and Hoodslam. She was not endorsed as they’re actually badass events that she loves.
