AMA with RocketReach’s design lead Tyler Norton

Submit questions for future AMAs to ux@rocketreach.co

I’ve asked my team a bunch of questions about their career in various posts recently. I figured I should give them a chance to ask me anything they wanted in return.

Christine (Jr UX Designer): If you could talk to your past self, what advice would you give yourself when starting as a new designer?

“Try to figure out what makes good work good.” Full disclosure — I was terrible at design in college. I never took an art class in high school, and it showed when I tried to begin in college. It took until about 2 years after graduation before I started producing anything resembling good work. I think now it is because I wasn’t able or willing to surround myself with other good work and figure out what made it good. There was a lot of wandering around the dark room before finding the light switch.

Charles (Marketing Designer): If you had to be a different kind of designer (not UI/UX), what would be your first choice?

Interior designer probably. Once upon a time a startup let me pick the layout, decor, and furniture for their office and it was a lot of fun (and I think I crushed it to be honest). Jordan worked with me on that one and we ended up making a giant pac man post it art on the wall on week 1 while people were moving in. It would later turn into pixel mario.

Jordan (Sr UX Designer): If you could choose to use only one font for the rest of all time, what would it be?

If I’m making projects, it probably has to be Helvetica. Personally though? I love Baskerville Regular Old Face so much. I wouldn’t hate seeing all that serifed elegance everywhere.

Charles: What stage of the design process do you enjoy the most, and why?

Brainstorming. I like that it is less structured and there are “no wrong answers”. Throwing whatever we want against the wall usually ends with a few solid ideas to explore further, but also it ends with little pieces of success from the bad ideas that you can use to improve the good ones. I just like making a mess really.

Christine: What qualities do you think make a good designer?

Thick skin and organization. The two things I think designers struggle with the most are identifying the actual question/problem and handing critical feedback. There are virtually unlimited designers that can visually produce the hits. But figuring out what the task at hand is and what will make the client focused and happy, that’s the tough part.

Charles Chen: What’s the secret to building a successful design culture at a company?

Hiring good people with diverse backgrounds. Obviously you want to hire quality designers as well, but being a good person is what is going to make your team really tick. No rivals, no competition, everyone pulling in the same direction, and trying to improve each other’s skills. That plus diversity are key. Ideas coming from many different perspectives from education, to upbringing, to previous career experiences, to different skill sets.

Christine: What type of UX Research do you enjoy the most and why?

Surveys. I just love data. Any method where I can get a ton of data to take action on quickly will always be my favorite. Interviews are great, they just take time to put everything together. AI is making that slightly easier, but there is still no substitute for just taking time and talking to users.

Jordan: What is the one skill you wish you had improved early in your career?

Where to even start? I wish I had some fine art skills and learned things like visual balance and spacing WAY earlier. I was terrible at design for years before I was any good at it.

Christine Zoland: Do you have a dream puzzle or escape room to go complete?

Finally a good question! Yes. There is a magician named Chris Ramsey who solves puzzles on youtube. Every so often he has one of a kind puzzles commissioned from the manufactures of escape room mechanisms. Here is a good example. I don’t currently have 10–20k to throw around, but someday I would love to have one of these big commissioned puzzles that are one of a kind to solve.

Jordan: What is your go-to for inspiration?

BP&O, MadeByFolk, Muzli, and Brand New. I will also occasionally browse awwwards sites to pass the time and see what people are up to. I’m a fan of looking at some bigger firms like Sagmeister & Walsh and Interbrand, but those are usually slow to update compared to the daily write up blogs.

Charles: How do you think AI will affect the role of the UI/UX designer in the near future?

I’m aligned with Scott Galloway on this one: AI is not going to take your job. Your job is going to be taken by a peer who is effectively using AI to work faster and better. I think it’s a great tool, not a replacement. I also think the hype is going to go down slightly in the next year or two once people fully wrap their heads around what it is and is not good at.

Jordan Noeding: If you were woken up randomly at 2am and told you have to run 1 mile in under 10 min for $1 million, could you do it?

This is a nod to the fact that I am always asking a bunch of random hypothetical questions to my friends and coworkers. Yes. I can definitely do that even if I needed 30 seconds to get dressed. The question is, if you added a million for every 30 seconds you shaved off of that 10 minutes, what would I go for? Probably 8:30 for $4M. Anyway, thanks for reading. If you have a question for me or the team, submit it to ux@rocketreach.co.