📽 Transitioning between design mediums and teams

On March 28, 2017, I presented at a design event in Seattle. The event was organized by Zillow design and IxDA Seattle. Since the presentation was filmed, I thought it would be fun to share the video and (loose) transcript. Hope you find it useful and relevant.

Hello everyone! My name is Melissa. Today, we’re going to talk about transitioning between design mediums and teams.

Our design careers

To begin, let’s talk about our design careers. What do our career paths look like? Where did we begin and how did we get to where we are today? To help answer these questions, I’m going to share some of my journey and what I’ve learned along the way.

Although I’m currently a Product Designer, my story begins in college where I studied architecture. At the time, I learned how to become a licensed Architect in 5 steps.

undergrad → masters → intern→ exams → Architect

I remember thinking this path was a bit daunting since it takes many years to complete and includes some big steps. That said, I loved the path because it was so linear and direct.

I followed this path until my junior year when two unexpected things happened. In the fall of 2008, the recession hit and the economy fell apart. At the same time, the iPhone was born in 2007 and the App Store launched in 2008.

What did this mean for me as an architecture student? In short, the recession made it difficult to become an architect. On a more positive note, the iPhone App Store created many new and exciting design opportunities at tech startups. When it came time to graduate, I decided to pause my architecture career and try a tech startup.

At the time, I didn’t have the hard skills to become a product designer. As a result, I leaned on my soft skills and entered the startup world as a Content / Community Manager. I then became a Project Manager and made lots of gantt charts to manage teams and tasks.

Just when I thought my career was back on track, another unexpected thing happened. Deep down, I started to notice something felt wrong. I reflected and realized managing makers wasn’t the same as being the maker. Because I’ve always been a maker at heart, it was time for me to try designing products at tech startups.

I wasn’t sure how to transition from manager to maker, so I asked my friend Matias for advice. He recommended an apprenticeship and I distinctly remember him telling me,

“Learn from someone you admire.” — Matias Corea

That night, I went home and cold emailed Khoi Vinh. I asked Khoi for an apprenticeship and ended up joining his startup, Mixel. During my time at Mixel, I learned the foundational skills for product design. After Mixel, I moved on to design at Loverly, then Percolate. Just when my product design career started to stabilize, another unexpected thing happened.

Percolate decided to expand their design team from NYC to SF and asked if I would move to help build the new team. Although this was very unexpected, I was excited, said yes, packed my bags and moved to SF.

Once I was in SF, I grew interested in design teams at larger tech startups. In September 2016, I joined the Dropbox design team where I’m currently a Product Designer.

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Looking at my last 8 years, you can see my career path was not what I had expected. It hasn’t been linear or direct. Rather, I’ve experienced 3 big career transitions that were all very unexpected.

architecture → product design

smaller startups → larger startup

NYC → SF

Earlier in my career, these transitions felt a bit abnormal because I didn’t know other designers on a similar path. I then began blogging about my transition from architecture to product design, and started to meet others like me.

Once I recognized the role of transitions in my career, I started to pay more attention to how other designers were experiencing career transitions. Over the years, I’ve noticed it’s becoming more and more common for designers to transition between mediums and teams. At this point, I believe,

Our design careers include a lot of transitions.

Sheryl Sandberg has a great quote about her career path. Although she’s not a designer, I can relate and think you might too. She says,

“A jungle gym scramble is the best description of my career. I could never have connected the dots from where I started to where I am today.” — Sheryl Sandberg

When we think about this type of career path, it’s interesting to consider why we transition or move around the “jungle gym.” Some of the key reasons why I’ve transitioned are timing (i.e. graduating in the recession), curiosity (i.e. interest in different types of startups) and growth (i.e. learning to build a bicoastal team). If we listen to our gut, it will lead us in new and exciting directions.

Since transitions are an important part of our design careers, it’s helpful to understand transitions in general. The book, Transitions, describes them as having 3 key stages.

ending → neutral zone → new beginning

While the ending and new beginning are more obvious stages, the neutral zone is when we’re letting go of the old and acclimating to the new. Emotionally, it’s often a confusing and uncomfortable stage. When we think about design transitions, we ask, how do we navigate the neutral zone in new design mediums or teams?

Additionally, it’s useful to consider Tuckman’s Model about how teams come together. In this model, there are 4 stages.

forming → storming → norming → performing

Forming is when a new team assembles. Storming is when the team starts working together, but isn’t in sync. Norming is when the team starts aligning. Lastly, performing is when the team has gelled and works well together. Although this is about teams, it’s similar to how designers feel in transitions. We ask, how do designers get from forming to performing in new mediums or teams?

How to navigate design career transitions

In response, I’d like to offer you a framework for navigating design transitions based on my experience.

absorb → digest → research → respond → reflect

Absorb

When you enter a new design medium or team, it’s often a bit overwhelming. New people, new process, new tools and more. At this stage, the best thing to do is be a sponge and absorb all the things.

I recently experienced this when I joined Dropbox. It was my first time working with a larger design team with many different roles including; Product Design, Brand Design, User Research and UX Writing. In the early days, it was important for me to be a sponge and let it all soak in.

When you transition to a new design medium or team, absorb your new environment and let it all soak in.

Digest

Once you’ve absorbed for some time, you will begin to digest and make sense of things. A helpful way to start digesting is to compare your old and new design environments and look for similarities.

Early in my career, I did this exercise when I moved from architecture to product design. At the time, I made a diagram to explore circulation in both mediums. I realized moving between floors in buildings is similar to moving between screens in apps. Additionally, the stairs/elevators in buildings have the same purpose as tabs in apps. In both cases, they represent the primary navigation that helps people circulate the design system.

Additionally, I thought about the design process in both mediums and noticed architecture plans and sections are similar to wireframes in product design. Both are 2D black and white formats that focus on user experience rather than colors and textures.

In general, finding these similarities was meaningful because it helped me to digest a new design medium. Emotionally, it was comforting and stabilizing to quickly make sense of things in my new design environment.

Recognize similarities between design mediums and teams. Anchor on them for stability in your new design environment.

In addition to similarities, it’s important to look for the differences. Whereas similarities will give you comfort and stability, the differences will highlight areas of weakness or gaps.

I experienced this in my transition from architecture to product design, when I noticed a key difference in the end state of projects. Whereas architecture projects have a defined start and end, products have a defined start, but are never really done. This difference signaled a gap in my experience and led me to learn more about the cyclical nature of product design.

Recognize differences in design mediums, and teams. Search for ways to learn more and fill in the gaps.

Research

Once you’ve finished digesting, it’s time to dig in and learn more about things that are new or unclear.

Most recently, research was a key part of my transition to Dropbox design. Because it was my first time on a larger design team, I wanted to learn more about how things worked and why. As a result, I designed a small research project to learn about the design process. I interviewed 14 people across engineering, product and design. I asked each person 3 questions;

• How does your team operate today?
• What works well?
• What could be improved?

Thanks to these interviews, I quickly learned a lot about the Dropbox design process. Additionally, I documented the findings and shared them with the team. It’s been a really useful artifact.

Dig in and ask questions about your new design environment. Document findings and share with the team.

Respond

Once you’ve absorbed, digested and researched, you’re ready to respond. It’s time to raise your hand and join the conversation.

A nice way to start responding is to review your research, look at the opportunities and see if you can recommend a solution.

Most recently, I did this with the Dropbox design research. In our research, we highlighted the following opportunity.

How might we balance long and short term product thinking?

This was particularly interesting to me because I could offer a solution from past experience. At Percolate, we referred to projects as “vision” or “version” to help balance long and short term product thinking. A “vision” project meant that it was more blue sky and longer term. A “version” project referred to the next iteration. In practice, we labeled projects as “vision” or “version” in the early stages. Often, we did a quick “vision” exploration before the “version” to better plan for the future. In general, it was a really helpful framework.

As a result, I responded to the Dropbox design research and offered the vision or version framework as a solution. It was a meaningful way for me to join the conversation. Since then, we’ve started to label projects as “vision” or “version” in the problem definition stage. It’s been fun to conduct research, find an opportunity, share a solution and see it help the team.

If research highlights an opportunity for improvement and you can share a solution based on past experience, go for it.

Reflect

Once you make it to the respond phase, you’ve made it from an ending to a new beginning. You’ve gone from forming to performing. You did it! Yay!

The best part about this stage is the clarity. In hindsight, your transition journey is pretty clear. As a result, it’s a great time to privately or publicly reflect and write down your experience.

Empty the thoughts out of your head and onto paper so that you can free up mental space. Additionally, write to help clarify your journey and document for future reference.

If your thoughts are particularly clear and they might be useful to others, consider sharing them publicly. At various points in my career (such as now), I’ve had a fun sharing my design journey. I’ve learned so much from other designers. By sharing my experiences, I hope I’m helping others.

Privately or publicly, reflect on your design journey. It’s a powerful way document, clarify and share your experiences.

Last but not least

Don’t forget to take care of yourself during transitions. They’re not easy. They’re often emotionally difficult and quite stressful. During transitions, I leave extra time for swimming, cooking and sleeping. Whatever keeps you healthy, be sure to make time for it.

Additionally, remember to give transitions time. They don’t happen overnight. Let it run it’s course. It will get better. It will all be OK.

Takeaways

In closing, I’d like you to remember two things.

First, know that transitions are an important and normal part of our design careers. It’s becoming more and more common for designers to transition between mediums and teams.

Second, the next time you find yourself at the start of a design transition, remember these 5 phases.

• Absorb: When you transition to a new design medium or team, absorb your new environment and let it all soak in.
• Digest: Recognize similarities between design mediums and teams. Anchor on them for stability in your new design environment. Recognize differences then search for ways to learn more and fill in the gaps.
• Research: Dig in and ask questions about your new design environment. Document findings and share with the team.
• Respond: If research highlights an opportunity for improvement and you can share a solution based on past experience, go for it.
• Reflect: Privately or publicly, reflect on your design journey. It’s a powerful way document, clarify and share your experiences.

Thanks for listening (and reading)!

Special thanks to the Zillow design team and IxDA Seattle for organizing a wonderful event.