Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

The Mindset of UI/UX Designers at Different Stages in A Small Design Org

As designers climb up their career ladder, they also changed their style of thinking.

I work for a small design team in a large company, where everyone is expected to know a little bit of everything (like a startup in a big corp). The HR service is much more familiar with structuring engineering roles than design roles and can often put too much emphasis on years of experience.

Among us designers though, the real thing being measured is the “mindset”. It is the most accurate indicator of design skills, regardless of what tools you use, or what design thinking methods you know.

The following summarizes my personal observations based on designers around me. While it is possible for a junior designer to think strategically from time to time like a lead designer, those thoughts do not linger long.

Junior Designers

“Just tell me what you want.”

Junior designers tend to have a passive mindset. Whether it is for product ownership or to defend their design decisions, junior designers tend to wait for others to pull the trigger. While they usually have the raw skills, the scope in their mind is fixated on the specific task given to them, and nothing more. Their primary motivation at work is what psychologists term a reward system.

Typical Mindset of a Junior Designer

• “I have to do this user testing here because this is a standard industrial approach I learned from school”.
• “I have to do this, or I won’t get my paycheck”.
• “This user story is ambiguous; I don’t know what to do next”.
• “That’s not what I’m paid to do.”
• Ego.

Typical Everyday Activities of a Junior Designer

• Quietly and silently sits in the back seat during a meeting. No question is raised until it’s directly related to the task right by their hand.
• Rarely suggests or plans anything new about next step activities. If they do, the suggestion is usually about something taking place in the next 2 weeks (as opposed to next quarter).
• Afraid to ask questions.
• Wait for things to happen. Do not seek opportunities to grow intentionally.
• Play with pixels and be happy with their UI arts (as opposed to UI design).

Achievements a Junior Designer Highlights on Their Resume

• Every single design research methodology they can think of, although this might also be a measure to counterstrike AI resume scanners.
• A long list of design thinking methods they used or design tasks they received for a particular project — usually you don’t see larger initiatives.
• Graphic design experience (“I designed the 404 page”).

Side note: I am not saying “don’t list these” — simply hiding these from your resume does not automatically make you more senior. An interviewer myself, I think these are all valuable experiences that can prove you qualify for the scope of work given to you as a junior designer. Whether I recommend hiring the person depends on if I see this person has potential of growing into a functional mid-level designer or higher.

Mid-Level Designers

“Here’s the plan.”

Designers at this level usually understand how their works fit into a larger schema. They understand how user stories are connected and how product requirements shall be prioritized. Mid-level designers can also take ambiguously written spike stories and propose their well-researched suggestions for the team to move forward.

Typical Mindset of a Mid-Level Designer

• “After this round of user testing, we will synthesize results and ready them for a buy-a-feature session with the stakeholders”.
• “This is a typical design pattern we see uniquely for products in this industry. It is part of our design system”.
• “If we want this by Q3, the high-fidelity prototypes need to be finished by the end of the next week”.
• Be more used to whiteboard critiques.

Typical Everyday Activities of a Mid-Level Designer

• Problem analysis. Breaks down a large problem into multiple bite-sized chunks.
• Not afraid to ask questions to clarify things. Especially not afraid to communicate the task scope and expectations.
• Ready to give demos confidently at any moment to anyone.
• During one-on-one meetings with their direct managers, they would share their visions about what they think for the future team strategies.
• Be conscious of good designs and automatically starts to analyze them, even when it’s outside their work.
• Learn new things that get them interdisciplinary and cutting edge. For UX designers, this might be attending release conferences like WWDC, Config, Google I/O, etc., to learn the technical boundaries; for UI designers, this might mean networking with Chief Design Officers on Twitter to understand their strategic moves or learning HTML/CSS/JS to know when something is truly technically impossible.
• Sit in job interviews.

Achievements a Mid-Level Designer Highlights on Their Resume

• Solo’d a side project / internal project, possibly covered every single step from the beginning to the end.
• Participated in a larger customer-facing commitment as a major contributor.
• Some might take program management roles like running design standups or prioritizing backlog items.

Senior Designers

“Hey, we can’t design it this way just because it ‘looks cool’”.

A key factor for designers at this stage is that asking “why” questions become one of their major ways of thinking. Senior designers are less obsessed with individual design cases and more focused on design principles. These principles, along with their interdisciplinary knowledge, shaped the form of communication with other teammates adjacent to them in the product development spectrum.

Due to their style of reasoning, senior designers often make their teammates feel “safe” — “Elizabeth is here; nothing can go wrong”.

Typical Mindset of a Senior Designer

• “How do I convince stakeholders about my design, explaining my design principles from their perspectives?”
• “How might we improve this process such that it is done more efficiently next time?”
• “The front-end dev might be concerned about these edge cases. Let me explain my design rationale so that they know how to think like a designer.”
• “This design does not work here, as it violates principles of affordability. That one might work, but that design comes from products designed for a different set of personas.”
• “If I am not renovating every week, then something must be wrong”.
• “I know what I want.”
• Secretly thinking to themselves “these managers don’t appreciate the true power of design; let me show them how this works”

Typical Everyday Activities of a Senior Designer

• Not afraid to ask the why questions; especially not afraid to question an internal process, and perhaps provide reasonable solutions.
• Mentor other designers — senior designers start to get a bigger responsibility for mentorship.
• Constantly pitching new ideas to those beyond their immediate supervisors; as a result, the designer is frequently involved in strategic discussions for cross-department conversations.
• Lead conversations during job interviews.

Achievements a Senior Designer Highlights on Their Resume

• Acted as a design lead for major consumer-facing (and possibly award-winning) products.
• Started several new design-related initiatives.

Lead Designer

“Here’s how I’d like you guys to think.”

Lead designers are doing what managers are doing but without the most annoying part :) In many other places, this role is considered to be a manager disguised as a designer.

In my company, those bearing this job title are the most senior design person who still works on individual projects hands-on. Lead designers are also often considered to be the rule-maker in the products and projects they are in charge of. They are frequent participants, if not the host, of discussion over their next major strategy.

Typical Mindset of a Lead Designer

• “I have to set the design culture of the whole organization.”
• “The buck stops here. I shoulder the responsibility for this design decision I made.”
• “That’s a good practice. I should introduce this to every designer on my team.”
• “My people need me. I am their last shield from management pressure.”
• “That person is great for this task.”

Typical Everyday Activities of a Lead Designer

• Make more PowerPoint slides than any other design seniority. A lot of times the lead designer is considered to be a de facto manager.
• Present to the C-suite frequently in a large company.
• Drive strategic conversations. Foster design thinking in the organization they belong.

Achievements a Lead Designer Highlights on Their Resume

• Conference speaker. Design literature author. Adjunct professor.
• Started a new organization with a significant impact on the company’s operation, both in terms of promoting the power of design and return of interests.

Summary

• Junior: I do what I’m told. “Just tell me what you want.”
• Mid-level: I break down problems and arrange paces. “Here’s the plan.”
• Senior: I communicate using principles. “Hey, we can’t design it this way just because it ‘looks cool’”.
• Lead: I make rules and perform strategic moves. “Here’s how I’d like you guys to think.”

Related Discussions

• This blog post is partially inspired by Oz Chen’s article Understanding design levels: Junior vs Mid-level vs Senior UX Designer.
• I also reviewed Kate Conrick’s article The designer conundrum: state of career tracks in our industry. Too bad my company is still doing a one-track-for-everything for designers 🥲
• Lisha Dai’s What is the job of a Design Lead? also drew an interesting leading role in senior designer and a team lead.