What’s Love Got To Do With Work?
Top 5 things to look for in your next Product Design role.
This time a year ago I was leading the design team at a small startup in Israel. Then Covid-19 hit, and suddenly I was out of a job. As a mother of 4 (5 if you count my dog), I was anxious to find my next opportunity and started hiring processes in several major companies.
Experienced product designers are a hot commodity in today’s booming tech scene, creating many opportunities while also making it harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. A common debate among job hunters is whether to go for big tech brands that offer stability (but could also pigeonhole you professionally and creatively), or whether to risk it and gamble on what you believe could be the next big thing, where professional growth could be exponential but you could also suddenly and unexpectedly be out of a job. My experience has taught me that there is more to it than this simple binary.
I ended up receiving offers from most of the places I applied to (Google included), and for the first time in my 12-year career I had the opportunity to take a step back and ask myself which job would make me happy.
The answers I reached at the end of this process led me to Simply, which a year on, still feels like winning the jackpot. Here’s my updated “dream job checklist” for experienced product designers weighing their next career move.
1. It’s all about the people
During the hiring process you get to meet some of the people you’ll work with. This is not only you auditioning for them — they are also auditioning for you. From the very first phone call with HR all the way through to the final interview with the CEO, I fell in love with the people I met at Simply. They were all passionate and enthusiastic about their mission to spread the joys of music learning to every home around the world — it was infectious. Being healthily suspicious, I assumed it was sales mode that masked a more complex reality, but then I met team members who’ve been with Simply for 6 years and longer who all spoke about the company and the people with a spark in their eyes. I knew I had come across something special.
Take away: Don’t settle when it comes to the people you work with. Look for passion, kindness and humility in those you meet in the hiring process. You should feel like you’re on a really good date. This feeling will tell you a lot about how happy you’ll be down the line.
2.Generalist design work
Being passionate about holistic design, I enjoy contributing to the entire lifecycle of the product: Strategy, prioritizing MVTs, UX research, usability testings, digging data insights, designing the interface, etc.
Having access to such a broad scope of areas is rare and I have often been compartmentalized in an area of specialty that didn’t give me the full picture I dreamt of.
At Simply, we work in small interdisciplinary squads called pods that each focus on a business goal and have a high degree of autonomy to allow us to move fast. Each designer at the company works independently in their own pod, enabling our professional voice to stand out and demanding high degrees of responsibility and ownership:
- We release new versions & tests on a weekly basis so we get fast learnings, basing all our decisions on data.
- We conduct extensive UX research: Surveys, interviews, usability testing, and more.
- We double down on tests, optimizing those that created impact and revisiting our failures (and there are many of them).
- The interaction with multiple disciplines enriches the design work so much. My work is 10 times better than before thanks to all the resources and people at my disposal.
Take Away: Don’t settle for jobs that focus on pixel massaging and turning wireframes into beautiful dribble designs. Product design is about solving problems, which takes passion and dedication.
3. People, not users
After many years working on B2B products, feeling distant from the end-user, I was looking for a company that would bring me in direct contact with the people experiencing the products I was building. The day-to-day interaction we have with our learners is our fuel. We are committed to our community of learners and communicate with them regularly. This makes me not only a better designer but also a happier one.
Take away: Don’t settle for a product that you have no passion for. If you feel like you’re building something that you truly love, you will love getting up in the morning.
4. Culture is key
Simply has a unique “flat” structure built of small cross-functional pods, as mentioned above, with 4–10 teammates. Within each pod we decide what we should build and how we should go about it. This type of responsibility and ownership are truly rare. We only hire experienced professionals because each and every one of us is expected to bring maximum impact and to be the end-to-end owner of their discipline. This fosters a healthy work culture, engenders trust, cooperation and true collegiality — we are a team working toward a common goal, and everyone shares in other’s successes.
Not just that, we aim to make mistakes. In fact, the faster we make them, the better. I used to hold myself back in cultures where I was expected to always “kill it” and now my creativity has got wings.
There’s also a profound acceptance that we’re not perfect, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. At Simply, people speak openly and honestly about their shortcomings, creating a truly intimate work environment that acknowledges the reality that we are people, not robots. For example, I felt safe to share my feelings of imposter syndrome right from the start. Yuval, our CEO and co-founder speaks with humility, stating openly when he’s unsure of something, asking for input and sharing his thought processes. This is not only reassuring, but builds trust and better communication and doesn’t detract at all from the mutual respect people have for each other.
Take away: Don’t settle for a workplace where you feel like you’ll be judged by your successes alone. Look for a place that views you, and everyone else, as human beings, with faults as well as strengths. Ask questions about how your work will be measured and about how people handle difficult situations.
5. Doing good and doing good business
This is a bonus — I didn’t know that this would make such a difference in my life, but I wake up happy every day because I am co-building something that aims to bring people joy. We don’t manipulate people into behavior that doesn’t serve them, we want to help them learn how to play music. I wasn’t looking for it, but it’s wow.
Take away: Don’t settle for any business, if you are in a position to combine positive impact in the world with your professional goals, you’ll feel more fulfilled professionally and personally.
