Rich Designer, Poor Designer
Tips to Build a Product Team from the Ground Up
In a 10-year career in tech, I have been both. I currently have the unusual experience to witness both kinds side by side, working together. So I have a few tips to share with any designer trying to build a strong team without the luxuries they are used coming from a good product team or from working solo. It’s a challenge to say the least.
➡️ Working with modest requirements
Rich designer requires a full, detailed & reviewed requirements doc to start doing anything.
The king designer. This one gets the royal treatment; they understand the feature fully, have data to refer to, know what the goal of the design is before they even begin. They have someone to answer questions and takes responsibility when a feature gets slammed in a design review.
Poor designer takes anything and deals with it.
A poor designer takes a two-page wireframe in whatever format, with or without annotations, in any language & considers it a requirement doc. They improvise and take ownership for the seizure-inducing wireframes as the PM hides during a design presentation. They learn not to ask for more and never blame anyone in a tough review.
✅ Strategies: What to do to solve this issue??
- Do what is right for business and user; yes, override what you know is wrong and prepare data to back your decision. Explain why you made the change and even if they don’t like it, Keep it. Present both solutions in a presentation and let the higher ups make the decision.
- Be prepared to negotiate. Swallow the pill & let it go sometimes.
- Calm down. (Says the Incredible Hulk 🙃) I spend my days worrying about losing my job and trying and failing not to lose my mind. But it takes effort to educate and build a strong product team. صبرًا يا آل ياسر.
➡️ Getting A Seat at The Table
“Designers are stupid, they only draw shapes and understand nothing about front or backend” — every developer & PM in a poor-designer product team.
Rich designer gets heard because they have proven knowledge in development technologies.
This designer gets respect, they get a seat at the table where product discussion happens because they understand UI patterns and implementation technologies. When they hear a bull** time estimation for a simple component, they can actually call it out.
Poor designer is considered a graphic designer
A poor designer must show their worth. Never accept a anything without discussion. Showcase your knowledge, do you work efficiently but do not wait quietly as PRDs never get written and developers finish a five-minute job in two weeks. Call it out with proof.
A team is equal. Everyone has a job, and it’s up to this designer to get people to understand that they do have backgrounds that helps them relate and contribute to development process. They are not to be ridiculed.
Recently, this has changed a lot and design is getting more respect ❤️ I like to think it’s because of the following strategies, but it could also be because I went full-on Red-Queen on some people over the years after a couple shocking requests. But don’t do that, things are not solved that way.
✅ Strategies: What you should do..
Talk to your dev team. When I found a Grand Canyon of a gap between design and development I asked to speak to developers without having to go through the PM all the time.
Even though we don’t speak the same language, I found a PM who agreed to facilitate the conversation for that meeting, I asked to join their chat groups and let them speak in their own language. It takes so much effort to translate every message and keep up with the conversation but I finally found out what the problem was. And when I did:
- I arranged an education session for the dev team & asked a kind designer who speaks the same language to help me explain to them the technologies required to meet our team goals.
- I look for tutorials in their own language & share when I can’t explain something myself. I leverage visual aids, record videos, share live prototypes and so anything possible to get the message across.
- If I know a way to make something easier for the team, I do it even if it takes time I can’t afford.
- I intend to learn the language. It’s a huge challenge but I think it will be a nice gesture and maybe get them to warm up to this opinionated designer who came out of nowhere to make their lives difficult.
In short, even if you are struggling, you need to go the extra mile & do more to make everyone see your worth, respect your knowledge and learn to do their own jobs as best as they can to become one strong team.
➡️ Be your own PMO
Rich designer has a PMO, their tasks and priorities are laid out for them
They never need to think about their priorities, their workload is calculated and managed by someone with a bird’s eye overview of the team’s projects and resources.
Poor designer must manage their own projects for a while
They work on a task by task basis. They do not know how the priorities are laid out and just deal with what it comes when it comes until they can get the team to appreciate their need to manage their time to avoid crisis when something unexpected comes up.
✅ Strategies: What you should do..
- Ask business people frequently about priorities and manage your day-to-day activities based on the latest update. Don’t rely on anyone to update you without prompting.
- Don’t be pompous and ask for a PMO in the beginning, start by yourself and share updates to get people on the team-alignment-wagon.
And we soldier on, enjoy design for what it really is and try not to be put down by everyday struggles. And so should you, strong peeps❤️
‘Till next time, lots of love ❤ and #keepdesigning
