The ace up your product designer sleeve — your digital persona
This is a personal reflection on investing in networking and building a digital presence, for the benefit of those early in their careers and equally anyone who may have yet to realise how a strong networking game will boost their career prospects.
In the digital world, we present ourselves through our digital profiles be it on Facebook, TikTok, Teams, Slack, LinkedIn etc. To each of these platforms, we can present a slightly or completely different persona depending on how you use the platform and how you wish to be perceived.
We know that some of these platforms are more formal or informal depending on their nature and type of content you create, consume and interact with so you likely adjust your communication style and types of content to suit.
Navigating change through digital
Through our careers in digital design, it is rare to stay in one place for any great length of time. Whether we like it or not, that’s our reality. Our influence and the impact we have can be big or small within our immediate sphere of influence, but that is of limited or no use to us when we move on.
We hear phrases such as “don’t burn your bridges”, and from experience I can say that’s a solid piece of advice. We often take parts of our networks with us where they’re of immediate value, potential future value to us, or maybe we genuinely like some of our former co-workers — added bonus, right?!
Your work profile and influence in your current place of work is limited to exactly that bubble. If and when that bubble bursts, the influence you created goes with it if you don’t take the useful connections you’ve made with you.
“It’s essential to have a professional, digital, external presence that you build over time, throughout your career and importantly one that is intrinsically linked to you only as a professional.“
The parallel universe of LinkedIn
LinkedIn may seem a little contrived and often in-authentic (which social media platforms aren’t?!). It primarily serves recruiters, job hunters, agencies, contractors and professional influencers but we should all engage with it and invest energy in it continuously, as a tool to serve our current and future career needs.
“If you’re not on LinkedIn, you don’t exist externally in the digital workplace.”
Ensure you have a fully populated and up to date LinkedIn profile, with featured links, relevant career history, ideally some recommendations and importantly some recent activity so you will be consistently visible to your network. Without this, you‘re unlikely to have a reputation externally and won’t be visible to recruiters and the vast majority of potential employers.
Having recruited designers and sifted through tons of applications, the first thing I do if I get past a CV and portfolio is snoop on an applicant on LinkedIn and I’m sure that’s not unusual.
Maintain and build new networks
If you’re further into your career you will no doubt have built networks and strong relationships with lots of useful contacts from past and current workplaces and projects. That makes it easier to get traction and engagement with your networks for future engagement and interactions.
If you’re earlier in your career, then get networking! Make connections, build relationships and reach out to fellow professionals in your current and other businesses and take the time to make your LinkedIn profile really ‘POP’!
Be found by the right people at the right time
LinkedIn is the shop window to your professional self. It is a sales pitch, and equally needs to be findable through recruiter search algorithms.
Use key words in your LinkedIn work summary which target you and your skills and strengths, and avoid words that mislead or get you targeted by the wrong search algorithms.
Set your profile to visible to recruiters only if looking for work or open to roles, and register your interest in working for any companies that seem a good fit — a relatively new LinkedIn feature of which I’m yet to see how it can benefit, but it’s easy to do so worth a shot.
Create to be seen
It might seem obvious, but worth re-iterating that we’re not seen in the digital world other than through content we create and our interactions.
Responding and reacting to posts, online chat, writing posts, having a genuine and insightful opinion or just showing you care about something is all part of the cocktail. Be brave and the more you do it, the more confident you’ll become and it becomes your norm and a signature of your digital personality.
Gain confidence from your passions
When interacting with subjects we care about you’ll find you’re likely less phased by it and begin to find new confidence. Confidence comes from experience and through practice, so the more you create, present and engage, the more natural it will become to you.
If people expect it of you to be outspoken and always have an opinion, you’ll be more comfortable in your own skin (and you can get away with much more also 😉).
“Being outspoken and visible to your peers at work and externally is something that comes natural to some, and for others something they really need to keep pushing themselves towards and practicing.”
Being comfortable projecting your genuine personality in a professional setting is a powerful and endearing quality too. Learn where the red lines are, avoid inappropriate slang and terminology and you’ll naturally project your authentic self, but with a professional twist.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone
It may be another cliché, but it’s so relevant here. Significant events that gave me confidence have been presenting to heads of departments and CEO’s internally, doing recorded interviews, panel discussions and getting up in front of people I don’t know and talking about something I’m passionate about. By saying “yes” and putting ourselves forward for things that are pretty much as daunting as it gets, everything after that feels like a walk in the park.
“Presenting in front of a room full of strangers at a high profile UX event was particularly terrifying, but I can say I’m more confident and self assured for the experience.”
Through these experiences, I perceive that I have some level of reputation internally and externally which at the very least gives me greater confidence.
Define your digital personality
You can choose how you want to present your personal persona, or perhaps you’d prefer to truly understand how others perceive you and play up to that perception. It’s important you acknowledge, or give yourself some key personality traits which shine through in your interactions with your networks.
As a design lead for example, I’m mindful to be seen as self assured, relatable and authentic. This subconsciously guides my communication style.
Be resourceful
Use your current networks, and build new networks. If you live in a big city you’ll likely be blessed with a plethora of in-person events you can attend, blog about and use to network. Similarly there are many remote conventions and events you can attend and allow you to connect with hybrid and fully remote workers. You can then blog about what you learnt.
Do you have Whatsapp groups with former co-workers? Keep those relationships going, it will more than likely serve you well in the future.
It has benefitted me to have a wide network of people I’ve worked with, or people I’ve engaged with either in person or remote. They say “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, well in reality both is a great combination for your success, but I can absolutely vouch for that saying.
Stay in touch with agencies and other third parties you’ve worked with. That includes contact with the third party as well as the individuals you had a connection with even when they’ve moved on. Most of my own external exposure was through a high profile UX agency during the time I worked with them, and even years after I worked with them. It was mutually beneficial for me to help them with content to promote our work, and for them to give me a platform for my own exposure.
Now go and create your impact!
To summarise, the more waves you can make in the industry and amongst your peers, outside of your place of work as well as in it, the more robust you’ll be through your career and your networks may well be in a position to help you when you need it.
Think of networking and your digital presence as an insurance policy that empowers you to have more options, gives you more value and freedom throughout your turbulent and constantly changing journey through product design. Put yourself out there and people will admire you for it and want to engage with you more.
Do my experiences resonate? Was it helpful, or do you disagree with anything I’ve said? Let me know in the comments below or on LinkedIn 🤘
