A day at Ounass — Lead Product Designer Edition
Being a designer is one of the most exciting professions I can think of. We craft the experience that a lot of people get to interact with every day. It is fun, challenging and rewarding at the same time. On June 4th, 2021, I completed 4 years at Ounass, where I am presently working as the Lead Product Designer. It’s a great company with wonderful people, and my experience here has been pivotal to my design career.
What is your life as a Lead Product Designer like?
Let’s first define what a Product Designer does. The Product Designer is in charge of the entire process of creating products and usable experiences, starting with defining the problems of real people and thinking about their possible solutions — and also help the business achieve its goals 📈.
My work life normally revolves around -
My day-to-day is incredibly busy, there are so many projects I have to overlook and execute at the same time: manage stakeholder expectations, align with every function, mentor my team, etc. It may sound overwhelming but I really love what I do. Nothing is more gratifying than knowing the positive impact your product has in the daily life of others.
Outside work, I am a gaming enthusiast, addicted to Japanese anime and a foodie. On my time off, my wife and I make it a point to go to exotic destinations as we both love to travel. Hard work has its rewards 😀.
Do you work with a team?
Yes, I do! Let me take this opportunity to introduce my talented design team: Rola, Dawid, and Neha.
Together we use the right ingredients to create the perfect recipe. It’s amazing how much we have achieved together so far. I count on their support every day.
Give us a peek into your regular workday
Setting up the agenda for the day
First, I will prioritize the tasks that need to get done for the day. This includes my commitments i.e. meetings, aligning with each designer, current product tasks, research, etc.
Daily Meetings with the Tech Team
Product + Design + Technology teams have short 15-minute catch-ups to give updates on what each colleague is working on.
Alignment with the Design Team
Every Thursday we have an alignment meeting for an hour. In this meeting, we discuss current projects and have a transfer-knowledge session. We also discuss upcoming projects and which design team member can pick them up. For the remainder of the meeting, each of us spends time updating the design system.
Heads-Down Working Time
At Ounass, we use end-to-end stories as the framework to drive a better user experience for our features. An End-to-End (E2E) story is a narrative of people with goals performing tasks to achieve business objectives. To better explain this, together with a Product Manager, we document business goals, product focus & scope, define user goals by mapping their journey through various cases, create proto personas, discuss product & technology risks and lastly check our existing data. It’s very critical that we have all the necessary information before we deep dive into design. This process helps us achieve the best possible version of the product feature right off the bat.
Cross-Functional Checkpoint
For every project we work on, we have checkpoints before the project is made live for our users. After the Product Designer & Product Manager have completed the design and documented the requirements, we have a product walkthrough with the rest of the Product Team and our stakeholders. The goal of this exercise is to get constructive feedback related to missing cases, better solutions, etc… whatever helps us build an awesome product. Similarly, after our alignment with the product team, we have an alignment with the Tech Team. Together, we understand the risks, timeline for development and get their insights on the product feature itself. The Tech Team then come back to us to do a product demo, an interactive experience where the developer demonstrates various scenarios. The team of quality analysts gets involved, with whom together we do a complete quality check of the product feature. The design with the Product Team usually focuses on this step to make sure all the cases described in the stories are working, the designs are pixel-perfect and we communicate back bugs for the development team to fix. When everything is working as expected and signed off by the stakeholders, we release the product for our users to experience.
What’s something you’ve learned over time?
Take a trip down memory lane with me to see what was going on in 2008. When I first started calling myself a designer, everything I worked on was to make sure that things look good. Fast forward a few years, I began to focus on users: the folks who actually use the product. The purpose was to create something that helps them in some way. Today my opinion is a bit more evolved: I design with the intent to help users and, at the same time, help the business achieve its goals.
As a Design Manager, leading people can be challenging but it can also be exciting and gratifying. I am accountable for the growth of my team. One of my favorite quotes is by John Maeda,
“The qualities of leadership are simple…They have to do with being able to listen well.”
On Udemy, I enrolled myself in courses on leadership and managerial skills. They helped me structure how I operate within my team. I was able to apply constructive processes that I feel have helped me manage my team better, care about their growth, and helped me with my own growth as a leader.
Advice for the day-to-day life of a Lead Product Designer?
People are not resources
Make a real effort to be invested in your team as people, not just as doers. That means establishing a real relationship. Get to know them as people, as much as they are comfortable doing so. With the right level of trust and openness, it makes talking about everything easier. In the end, you invest a majority of your time with your colleagues, may as well make an effort to get comfortable with them 😁.
The Art of the One on One
Perhaps the most critical time you spend with your team is during their 1:1s. It should be meeting regularly at least every week for 30–60 minutes. It should be a safe space where you and your team can talk openly about topics they are driving. Have an agenda, document your meetings and be consistent.
Hands Off
You’re generally hired to take ownership of a problem, develop elegant solutions and then work with a team of people to execute. The more ownership of that problem you take, the more praise you’re given and the more you level up.
However, in the role of a manager, often, it’s not your job to own the problem, the solution, or the execution. It’s your job to coach the person who is doing those things. While it’s entirely okay for you to collaborate with your team along the way, provide coaching, resources, and inspiration, you should not be giving complete solutions to your team with explicit instructions. As much as this sounds ideal in theory, it can be really difficult if you’re as picky as I am. If you can’t let go completely, do it bit by bit and trust your team will deliver.
Take breaks occasionally
You’re always going to be busy. Make it a habit to disconnect, go on vacations, spend time with your family and loved ones, and recharge. Our profession is dependent on creativity & problem-solving. Don’t let yourself burn out.
