Jr. Product Designer? Here’s how to level up!

Tips to up your game to move up to a mid-level role

In 2019, I began my first full-time role in UX as a Junior Product Designer at Zalando Lounge, a multinational e-commerce company in Berlin. In 2021, I leveled up and dropped the junior from my title!

When I first started out in my career in UX, I asked others in the field “How many years does it take to become a “mid-level” product designer?”. Answers ranged from 3 to 8 years, which seemed like quite a marathon. What I realized was it’s not the length of experience in the field that counts, but the quality of experience gained in that time.

Thus, I’m grateful for the various projects I worked on in my first two years at Zalando Lounge and for the growth I’ve seen in myself as I moved from junior to mid-level product designer.

(This article is based on my own personal learnings, I am by no means an expert, but I hope some of these tips can help you too!)

1) Have a method to your madness

As you gain more experience, you should begin to understand your design process better. Early on in my career, when faced with a new project, I would start by jumping in right away at the first step, without thinking about the entire roadmap or how each piece of the puzzle fits together down the line.

🗓 Start with a plan

Now, as I have more tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines, I need to start with a plan. So, I create a UX Design Brief with the purpose of scoping the UX design work needed for the project. This brief could include the following:

• Background of the project
• Goals (for both the customer and business)
• Scope and timeline
• Design activities (with descriptions, RACI, links)
• Deliverables and definition of done
• Team setup
• Open questions (to be answered)
• Research questions
• Relevant documents

The brief outlined above could be tailored according to your projects need and breadth, but the point is to have a place where you can plan for your project and stay on track. Just be flexible and agile, as plans may change.

It’s also useful to share within the team so your PM and others are aware of where they may be needed to support you as well.

🗂 Organize your work

As you progress with your design activities, the number of Figma/Sketch files, documents, and other links may become jumbled. There’s a few ways I try to keep it tidy so I know where to find things and to make it easy for others too.

• Ensure similar naming conventions: Name every file related to the project in a similar way, so it can be found easily. (For example, “Project Name: Activity Name-Date”)
• Have them all in one place, if possible: Create a folder in your team’s Google Drive or Confluence with all related files.
• Add “Relevant Links” to the top of your documents: Make it easy for yourself and others reviewing your documents. At the top of your “Research Plan” could be links to the Figma file of the prototype, the research brief, and interview guide. That way, anyone coming to that document can get all the relevant information they need.

Regardless of your seniority, having some type of plan and organizing your activities will keep you, your team, and your project sailing smoothly. Bumpy waves may come along, but you can only try your best; be open to change course as needed. 🌊

2) Communicate effectively

Once you’re able to structure your work more clearly, it’ll make communicating it to others a whole lot easier. I found that as I moved up in seniority, I needed to communicate my design rationale and ask for feedback more often, because my work would have greater impact internally (within the team/department/company) and externally (on our customers).

Communication comes in different forms, and I’m not talking about just verbal or written. Depending on your company/team/project, these types of communications may be helpful:

👁‍🗨 Share user research insights

Spread empathy within the team, especially with your more technical colleagues that may not get a chance to interact with users. Team members working on other projects could also find these insights to overlap with their projects too.

How? This can be done by sending a link to a report of insights, or by having a share-out meeting where you can also show video clips of users interacting with the prototypes.

📥 Ask for feedback

Seek feedback early and often from your cross-functional team and/or design team. Be clear about the type of feedback you need so the team can focus and not veer off about the color choice; or simply share your design and ask if there are any risks. This helps the team stay aligned and will provide you with challenging questions to better help you defend your design decisions in the future (like to management or stakeholders).

How? This can be done in a meeting where you walk the team through the context and design and either ask for comments/questions directly in the document or Figma file or they can pose comments/questions to you one after another. Another way to get feedback is asynchronously, posting a thread in your team chat channel with context, the link to what you want feedback on, the type of feedback you’d like, and by when you’d like the feedback.

🙏 Ask for help!

It seems simple now, but when I was battling imposter syndrome earlier on, I felt like I had many questions and didn’t want to “bother” others with them. Now, I’ve learned how useful proactively asking for help is and how it’s not a sign of weakness (at least in a non-toxic work environment).

I’m lucky enough to be working with colleagues with so much great experience, that when I need another perspective or advice on how to approach a task, I’ll ask.

How? If there is a relevant topic in a meeting, see if you can add your question/need to the agenda. If there’s one specific subject matter expert you seek advice from, ask them directly. You don’t always need to ask for help if there’s a problem, but maybe you’d like to leverage the hive mind by asking others to help gather inspiration on eye-catching landing pages.

I just finished a book written by the CEO of IDEO, there was a good quote that reminded me to seek more collaboration with my colleagues.

“There is a popular saying around IDEO that “all of us are smarter than any of us,” and this is the key to unlocking the creative power of any organization.” ― Tim Brown, Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation

3) Embrace new challenges

When you feel more comfortable with your role and responsibilities, it’s time to push yourself out of your comfort zone. I found that taking on new projects or activities I haven’t experienced before were essential for my growth.

💪 Be more proactive & independent

Thankfully at Zalando I have the pleasure of working with more senior designers, so when I was a junior, I definitely relied on them heavily for direction and guidance. Of course, I still do now, but I take more ownership of my work because I have a stronger sense of my design process and ways of working in the company.

In my article Learnings from my first year as a Jr. Product Designer, I mentioned the importance of leaning into your strengths as well as knowing your areas of improvement as well. Having a clear understanding of yourself will help you better select the challenges you want to take on.

For example, I used my organizational skills to plan a design sprint for an initiative. They also needed someone to facilitate the sprint, so even though I’ve only attended two in the past, I jumped at the opportunity to improve my facilitation skills. I researched a ton about design sprint facilitation and planned an agenda accordingly. It was really well received by the participants, but of course there were some hiccups along the way where I was unsure about the best way to approach some activities. Thankfully, the group was patient and understanding and we came to agreements together.

🗣 Be willing to challenge the status quo

Finally, one of the harder lessons I learned was how to vocalize my concerns and challenge a decision or process. This took time for me to first develop my perspectives, then practice how to finesse a conversation constructively.

When I was more junior, I tended to accept most decisions that were made because I assumed the more senior folk were always right. As I grow more confident in my understanding of our users and my craft, I want to ensure that we try to be as user-centric as possible in our solutions.

Now, I raise my concerns in a non-critical manner, by reminding the team of our users mental models/goals/pains and ask if this is the best course of action. Of course, there are often either business or technical constraints that may not make this easy, so it’s helpful to “disagree and commit” — as long as there was a fruitful discussion and everyone is aware of the rationale behind the commitment.

🌟 Ready to level up? 🌟

You can do it, just don’t forget to:

1. Have a method to your madness — Understand your process and create a structured plan, so you can help others can understand it too.
2. Communicate effectively — Share insights and ask for feedback/help during meetings or asynchronously to spark inspiration and alignment. Being able to express your design rationale clearly is key.
3. Embrace new challenges — Be proactive and take on challenges that can help you grow. Also don’t be afraid to push back and dig deep so you can be the best advocate for your users.

What did you think about these tips? Comment below if you have some to share as well!