Don’t Settle for a Small World!
Thoughts on Design Career Paths, Bringing Design & Business Together and Resilience with Victor, Product Design Manager at OLX Motors
Bad doors are everywhere.
Yes, we’re talking about actual doors.
“Why is it that one of humanity’s simplest designs is still inherently flawed?”
Well, whoever is making these bad doors isn’t paying attention to the end-user. This is a lesson Victor, Product Design Manager for OLX Motors in Lisbon, learned early.
“My father is a carpenter that fixes doors for a living. When a door works well, you don’t even remember it’s there. When it doesn’t, it can become really annoying. With simple interventions, my father fixes a clear problem for his clients by removing that pain out of their way. As a designer, I try to apply this same principle in everything I do,” describes Victor.
During our recent talk with Victor, we discussed a lot more about his approach to product design, as well as OLX Motors and his life. And he had lots of great insights to share.
Dive into the Culture
“I grew up in a small city in Brazil where access to the internet was limited. So, I didn’t get much exposure to the web as a young child. Only when I was 17 did I start interacting more with all that, and I quickly fell in love with everything digital,” tells Victor.
For Victor, that moment was the catalyst for all that would follow. It was one of the main reasons why he chose to study graphic design in college.
“Back in 2005, design blogs served as great sources of inspiration for someone starting in their careers like me at the time, and so I began sharing my early design work and illustrations as well. One website that inspired me a lot was http://www.ideafixa.com/. I was so invested in submitting my work to that digital magazine that at some point I started talking with the founders who ran the company and ended up working with them for a little while.”
After working for Ideafixa and a few small design studios, Victor worked as a freelancer Interaction Designer for different digital and advertising agencies in Brazil, doing design work for large companies in the automotive, energy, and cosmetic industries. Agency work helped him build skills and gain some professional visibility, but also opened his eyes to a frustrating fact:
“The advertising world was lacking care for the user,” states Victor. “Back then, agencies were all about making the brands (and their management) happy. But what about the end-user? The customers? Agencies weren’t paying full attention to real customers’ problems.”
The frustrations from his early professional years motivated Victor to deep dive into UX, Product Design, and Design Thinking. As he learned and applied more of these skills in his work, he realized that the same human-centered methods for solving problems could be used to accomplish much more. These methods could change the way organizations manage decisions, products, and teams.
Go Beyond Pixels: A journey
Victor got into product design because he saw the potential to do more than just make things look good. He believes design should have an important place in a company’s business strategy.
After getting his MBA, Victor opened a small Product Design & Development firm with two other partners in Brazil. Not long after, he was spending so much time working for one of his clients, a Venture Builder, that he ended up joining their team full time as Head of Product and Design.
“At the Venture Builder, I helped both startups and more established businesses build and execute their design strategies. Working with products in different lifecycle stages taught me a ton of lessons, especially, how to be resourceful. When testing and launching a new business, you learn how to do everything with a $1,000 budget. You also don’t wait for other people to solve problems for you. Finally, you must keep experimenting and challenging yourself all the time. Otherwise, the business may die in a matter of weeks.”
“Almost at the same time I joined the Venture Builder, I went to Parsons School of Design in New York City for my masters degree. There, I gained new and fresh insights on how to bring design and business strategy together. If you apply UX methods to defining a vision for the business, or to developing strategies that are really customer centric, you can achieve much more. Strategic design is a powerful discipline that can be used way beyond screens and interactions.” says Victor.
These and many other lessons that Victor learned are now being applied at the OLX Group.
OLX Group is part of Prosus/Naspers and owns products and platforms that serve over 300 million people every month across the globe. Its Lisbon hub is home for the Motors vertical, where the teams create Europe’s leading destinations for buying and selling new and second-hand cars, car parts, motorcycles, and much more.
Victor has big plans for the product design team at OLX Motors. He believes they can play a bigger role and help take the company to the next level.
“We have a lot of room to grow and a ton of design opportunities. Our team has grown three times over the last few years and is still growing. Our impact is growing very fast.”
This growth is precisely what makes UX design work at OLX so exciting. You can see your impact here.
“We’re getting better and better at measuring the design impact and our contributions to the OLX Group. If you’re really into measuring the impact of UX & Design , a huge opportunity awaits you here. We’re infusing a design culture at OLX,” states Victor. “It’s challenging. But fun work lies ahead. We’re putting the pieces of the puzzle together and taking on a bigger role at the company.”
Decode complex journeys
“I always think back to my father fixing doors that don’t open. Good design opens new doors for people,” says Victor.
That’s a wise point. If you ask someone what they want a door to do, they would say open and close with ease. Some may even say “transport me elsewhere”. Similarly, product design should provide a seamless, reliable, and delightful experience.
Victor’s team is on a mission to make buying and selling cars a breeze. The average car buyer used to visit five dealerships, according to McKinsey research. Though online research has changed the process, buyers still have to spend hours at dealerships before buying a car. And the negotiation process can get overwhelming. For sellers, hurdles exist for a successful sale as well. From knowing the true value of the car to finding potential buyers, many people encounter complex issues with selling a car.
As you can see, there are a lot of pain points in auto trading. The process can get incredibly stressful. Victor’s team is decoding these complex buyer and seller journeys in depth to make sure that the end user problems are clear and concise. This way, the team can design solutions that will indeed open true doors for people.
Find Inspiration Elsewhere
“Of course, not everything is about work, especially in these COVID times we are living now. It’s extremely important to balance your working hours to avoid burnout. Make sure you have a hobby to force yourself to stop working. Find inspiration and activities to do elsewhere — far away from your computer.”
“I play guitar, go on walks with my dog, exercise indoors, and cook while listening to music. Have you heard the band Toe? They’re great,” declares Victor.
A Final Word of Advice. Don’t Settle for a Small World
“If I could give advice to my childhood self, I would simply encourage that kid to follow the same path: Don’t settle for a small world. Keep thinking big and don’t let anyone rule your life”
Those are words to live by. So, what are you waiting for?
