I Don’t Know How to Become a Senior Product Designer

Alex Pour
Alex Pour
Sep 3, 2018 · 6 min read

I’m currently hired as a Mid-Weight Product Designer. However, when interviewing other Mid-Weight designers it became apparent to me that I’m somewhere in the top end of the Mid-Weight bracket.

In fact, I’m probably a senior. At least for what my company needs. However, as the sole designer at my company, it can be hard demonstrate when you’re doing everything including design delivery.

So I decided to set myself a checklist of things I need to demonstrate in order to move up to a senior level.

As I understand each level of seniority

Junior Product Designer

Someone who focuses solely on solving the problem at hand. They have a granular view of the product and pay attention to the details more than the big picture.

They think about their users in general terms rather than specifics and can explain the reasoning behind their decisions.

A Junior Product Designer utilise online resources for inspiration and advice and is always looking to pick up and develop new skills.

Mid-Weight Product Designer

Someone who can assume the user’s point of view and can design with them in mind.

They know how to write user stories, map user flows and perform other commonly used UX methodologies. One of which is how to test their designs online and onsite.

They communicate confidently and efficiently and understand and work towards the business goals.

Design starts with research and exploration before producing prototypes in order to validate assumptions.

Senior Product Designer

Someone who is now in a position where they can stray away from rules and convention when called for.

They know how to create and maintain an enjoyable experience and have earned the trust of others through consistent high quality of delivery.

They still constantly look to improve themselves and their abilities, but also look to improve internal processes.

They highlight problems through research and observation and then come up with, test and deliver solutions.

They also use their knowledge and experience to help other designers with their own work.

The Challenge

Being the sole designer means that I am doing all design related tasks. From high level strategy to putting together high fidelity screens.

This puts me in a position where I am limited on the time that I can spend doing more senior level tasks. So I have highlighted some things that I need to adopt, continue and or demonstrate within my company.

Manage projects alone

Although developer resource is allocated by PMs, I have been making a point to deliver data driven solutions to problems that aren’t widely known or talked about.

This means discovering and defining problems our users are having, through the use of data analysis, interviews and user testing. Then, coming up with a tested solution which includes written tickets with assets attached.

When required I should be able to demonstrate the value of the solution to the business and get the work prioritised by the PMs.

Rapid prototyping & data informed design

Something I’ve learned over the past few years is the difference in efficiency between trying to figure out all the problems up front and rapidly prototyping. Testing prototypes with 5 users after coming up with an initial solution usually highlights 80% of the problems.

It also gives me data to backup my decisions which helps to gain the trust of my colleagues and the company. This data can also be used to measure the effectiveness of my solutions.

Holistic View of product

When exploring design solutions I make sure to think about how it affects everything. How it fits in with other products, the lifecycle of the product and the user’s relationship with the product.

Before I joined there was no real overview of our product and as a result, decisions were often made out of context. Resulting in a disorientating user experience.

Upon joining I put together flowcharts of all of our products. Showing all journeys and decisions along the way. I also included the user’s emotional state.

Trust the in process

I often get overwhelmed when starting out a particularly complex project. “Am I good enough to be doing this?” is an all too familiar thought.

I have since learned to trust in the process. It’s worked so many times before, so why should I doubt it this time? I now head into new challenges with the confidence that I my process will result in a solution.

Own the design

We don’t have a front end dev. We also deliver extremely quickly, which means that adding small things solely to make the user experience a bit nicer, are often left out.

At first this really annoyed me, but I got to a point where I stopped pushing for these things because I knew what the answer would be. However, I’m now in a position where I’m fighting to get them in.

It comes back to data at the end of the day. If I can prove it, it’s not a problem. But the change that happened was my ownership of the design. I take sole responsibility for everything design related, which means, I have committed to delivery things I am proud of.

Understand the business and market

Understanding the market and the job we do for our users is something that I am starting to double down on. Up until now, I only had a basic knowledge.

I thought I knew why people used our product and our place in the market. However, since then I have taken a step back and started to find out what our users actual motivations are.

Speaking to users is the only way to truly understand why they are using our product and the effect it has on their lives. As well as finding out user needs and requirements.

Personas that are kept up to date, are a great way of distilling the information gained through these interviews. It allows the product team to actually build features that our users want.

Design as a pillar of Product

Since joining, I have outlined and implemented a design process where before there was none. It’s a thorough design process that can also be scaled back to deliver quickly.

I have communicated the value of each stage of the process to my team. Making them aware of what I am doing, how much time it’s likely to take and the value we get from it.

Demonstrate forward thinking

Something I’ve always done is think about where our product is headed and what I need to do in order to be prepared for when the change eventually does come.

This can be things like thinking about how multiple products sit within our site and how we can keep a consistent navigation across all products.

I enjoy doing this kind of thinking in my spare time and look forward to the times when I can present these ideas as fully tested solutions at the point we need them.

Don’t accept solutions without defined problems

A number of people in the company with a decent amount of product experience, like to jump straight to solutioning without fully understanding the problem from the user’s perspective.

At first I wasn’t confident enough to challenge this and often ended up delivering what they had asked for. Once I noticed I was doing this, I called myself out on it.

So now when someone comes to me with a solution, I take the time to backtrack and fully understand the problem we are trying to solve.

Sometimes I come up with the same solution, but more often than not, I come up with a different solution that is easy to implement and a better user experience. AKA my job.

Fight Design’s Corner

As I mentioned, design doesn’t yet play a major role in our company. So I learned to compromise early and not fight too hard for the design.

This was an awful position to adopt. Now I always speak up for design and the integrity of the user experience. If I don’t who will? I am still learning to do this, but it was a much needed switch in the right direction.

With tight deadlines and limited resource, it can be an uphill battle. But I have seen how it snowballs out of control if it’s not done. To the point where we’re delivering things that I’m not proud of.

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Alex Pour

Written by

Alex Pour

Product Designer & Co-Founder of tinytracker.co

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