Be Like a Duck: 9 Suggestions for Designers
Written by Laurel Hechanova and Patrick DiMichele
We’ve teamed up on countless design projects in the 10+ years we’ve known each other. Our collaboration spans work at three different companies, has focused on a range of industries, clients and challenges, and has involved working both side-by-side and 2,000 miles apart.
In the time since we began working together, the responsive web became a thing, Figma dethroned Photoshop, and the world woke up to the idea that design can generate business value. And each of our roles, sometimes together and sometimes apart, shifted from “designer” to mentor, manager, director, instructor, project lead, product lead, practice lead, partner, and business owner.
Each shift in role required a shift in both perspective and approach. Some of those shifts came easily and some were really, really hard. Looking back, there’s lots of advice we’d like to give our younger selves. About who to emulate, what to do, where to focus, how to GTD and when to GTFO.
But it doesn’t work that way.
Since we can’t change the fact that we arrived in a very good place via the long, hard, and sometimes stupid route, we’re instead going to try to help you get to the same (or better) place the shorter, easier and smarter way.
