Going right to designing screens at a new job sets you up for failure, what to do instead

As long as you are reviewing documentation, you can use that awkward time at a new job to gain a real understanding of your new company. Photo: me doing a noun foraging exercise on Unsplash’s About Us page :)

If you are a UX or Product designer, the first few weeks at a new job can be awkward. You have already gone through the interview processes, your future co-workers have told you that you are excited that you are finally there, and then… often nothing. After an onboarding process that involves crappy internal sites for onboarding and timekeeping and usually watching mandatory training videos, the silence can be deafening.

You decide that you are there to CHANGE THINGS NOW, and for you, this means creating a bunch of screens for whatever new app you’re assigned to work on. You immediately start creating screens because this is how your worth has been measured throughout your career. Because you are left alone with minimal if any direction, you may design dozens of screens, all throwaway work.

You do this even though you have limited information about your new project. You may have already tried to suggest doing some research and contextual interviews and got turned down by the company’s gatekeeper, whoever that is.

Does this sound familiar? This happens constantly in companies, especially companies new to design processes. Yes, there are MANY of those still out there, as well as many developers who, still, have never worked with a designer…