Sarah Sharara — Product Designer
Could you tell us a little bit about your role as a freelance designer? What are some of your proudest projects to date?
As a freelance product designer, I work with clients to help them solve business problems through thoughtful implementation of user-centered design. A lot of it is educating the clients on how design can help and aligning business goals with their user; that usually brings the point home. The current project I’m wrapping up has been a lot of fun to work on. It’s a pet insurance start-up in Chicago that created a one-stop-shop for pet parents. I was able to come in and help them see gaps they might have not seen before and gave them the tools and resources to succeed even when I’m no longer there. I find that to be my most important principle in how I work with clients, it’s one thing to just do the design work, but as a freelancer you aren’t there forever, you need to set them up for success so document your work/process and educate your clients.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about being a freelancer?
It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, at least not in the beginning when you’re just getting started as a freelancer. There’s a lot of stress and discipline you need to be ready for and acknowledge before making the switch. The biggest thing for me was the loneliness of not having a team of designers to work with and bounce ideas off of, but this is where having a design community is great, I was able to improvise and ask my peers for feedback when I needed it.
What was your path like to becoming a designer? Was there a certain point where you knew that design and product design itself was something that you were going to pursue as a career?
That’s a loaded question haha, mainly because my path is out there. I have a bachelors in Biology and was in graduate school earning a doctorate in pharmacy. I learned the hard way that when one isn’t passionate about what they are pursuing it becomes hard to motivate and stay focused on your goals. After, pharmacy school didn’t work out for me, I was in a scramble trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life, since I had always been on the tech-savvy side (I did honors computer classes and learned to code in high school and did design projects on the side) I switched gears into healthcare and tech. I started out doing more content management then ended up wearing many hats in one role from project management, product owner, working closely with devs on features that needed to be pushed and found myself doing UX research and design.
Of all the hats the design one felt right, I went ahead and joined a boot camp in Chicago, Designation, where I focused on visual design to keep building upon my design chops. From there the rest is history, I love what I do, I feel like I’m making the impact I sought out when I originally went down the healthcare route.
What were some of the challenges you faced getting started as a young designer and making a space for yourself?
I think coming from a career switcher perspective I felt like I needed to prove myself. I was older than other newer designers and peers my age were already deep in their design careers so I’d feel behind too. When I first started out looking for design-focused jobs that insecurity shined through in interviews where I overcompensated when explaining why pharmacy was in my resume. I eventually took a step back and reflected on my path I pinpointed my strengths and aligned it to why I chose design and how that outside the box path aligned with what makes me a great designer and ran with that. It helped me gain confidence in pursuing what I wanted and doing my best design work.
Are there any productivity tools and/or methods you use to keep organized?
Before design was a career, I was the organization queen haha. Not to sound cliche, but of course, I like sticky notes, they are great for day to day todo lists. I’m old school in the sense that I like writing things down, so I always have a notebook to write thoughts and notes down and the feeling of crossing it out or crumbling it makes it feel like I finished it. I do still keep organized digitally. Google Calendar is a must, I have personal to freelance labeled and color-coded. I put all my meetings, events, etc on there and even tho it can be overwhelming to look at the colors are nice to see haha. Trello, especially since it’s free is great when working with clients. And I’ve recently adopted Notion into my flow which has been nice keeping everything in one place.
What are some of the best pieces of career advice you’ve been given?
“The worst they can say is no.” I think this is what drives me to reach for the stars and not block myself from reaching for goals. Imposter syndrome is rough and debilitating if you let it be, especially when you’re first getting into design and even mores a career switcher. Realizing the worst that can happen is a “no” usually helps ease those moments of panic because if no then you go back and iterate on that thought on another way to get to the solution…just like in design. ;)
Who is someone else you’d recommend we feature on the Break into Design blog?
Caitlin Brisson– http://www.caitlinbrisson.com/
She’s a career switcher like myself that did the Designation boot camp, she was a great mentor for me right when I finished as she went through the same things and she’s been rocking it out in the Bay Area as a Product Designer at Gusto.
Mick Champayne– https://mickchampayne.com/
Designer in Chicago that I met at a meetup she presented at about design ethics, I love her quirky and fun style and outlook it’s refreshing.
Taylor Dunham- https://www.taylordunhamdesign.com/
Oh man Taylor is amazing. I can’t say enough how great she is as a person and a designer. She’s been a full-time freelance designer for a while and a HUGE mentor for me when I first got into freelance. Highly recommend featuring her.
