Five to inspire with Brendan Fagan
Product Designer @ Intercom
Who are you?
I’m currently a Product Designer at Intercom. We just finished up shipping our brand-new messenger. I’m now leading design for our mobile apps. Before Ireland, I lived in San Francisco for a couple years working on mobile travel apps such as Expedia and FlightTrack. I’ve a degree and a background in Graphic Design.
I usually wake up early to have my coffee and attempt keep up with the news coming from home (I’m American). Then it’s a 20 minute bike ride from North Dublin to our office near Stephens Green. Our team within Intercom starts the morning with a stand up where you state what you’re working on for the day (usually 1 large item and 2 smaller ones). The rest of the day consists of talking with my team, making sure the engineers have everything they need to continue building, finding some focus time to whiteboard, prototype, finalise visuals, etc. — whatever stage the current project is at.
We’ve two design crits a week at Intercom, plus the ability to sit down with our Director of Product Design, Emmet Connolly, and go over where we’re at, what feedback we’re looking for, etc. It’s a fantastic way to keep everything moving fast.
Outside of work, well I’ve an entire culture and country to explore. I moved to Ireland over 2 years ago and I’m still as in awe of it’s countryside as I was when I first arrived. It’s seeped in a deep and complex history. There are stories everywhere. I love it.
Also pints.
We are full-spectrum product designers at Intercom. In that we embed ourselves in the problem from the beginning (research/product planning) to the execution (high-fidelity prototyping, visual design, motion design).
Good design is a solution which adheres to a high bar set throughout that spectrum. A stellar visual language is meaningless if your miss the mark with the entire feature because you don’t understand your user’s problem. Likewise, that understanding is useless without the ability for you to execute, and execute well.
Good design is also based on a solid understanding of the platform for which you are working with, which is why being pals with your engineers is absolutely key. No need to know Swift (yet). But know the capabilities and limitations of the medium.
Live in Galway — the job market
Start a history podcast — nerves
Seeing Intercom grow from 30 people in the Dublin office to…200 or something now. It’s been incredible to witness. I’d love to make that happen one day.
Koen Bok
Mike Matas
Paul Stamatiou
Jeffery Veen
Erik Spiekermann
Frank Chimero
Loren Brichter
Brandon Walkin
Where can we find Brendan Fagan?
Website: www.wordstoshapes.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bfagans/
Twitter: @BrendanFagan1
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/brendan_fagan
