7 Questions for a Design Lead
Bhupinder Hothi | Design Lead at Purplebricks
To kick off our brand new 7 Questions series, we’re letting our Design Lead, Bhups, sit in the hot seat to give us an insight into life as a Design Lead at Purplebricks.
1. It’s Monday morning, what’s the first thing you do?
With an 18-month-old daughter, most of my mornings tend to be fairly chaotic. This involves super early starts, nappy changes, spilt milk, nursery drop offs and a lot of crying — largely on my part!
This means that the start of my work week is usually a complete change of pace in comparison to the weekend. I tend to review how the last week went for the first hour of the day, noting down any tasks that may be outstanding, and where my focus needs to be for the upcoming week. This gives me a chance to write a list and prioritise tasks, even though quite often that can change very quickly.
2. Your role is a varied one. What would you say is the one thing you do most frequently?
Ever since the move to remote working, a large portion of my time is spent on calls, whether that be with management with peers, fellow designers, stakeholders or otherwise. The common denominator of all these calls is that they usually involve solving problems. As a design specialist, my thoughts naturally tend to focus on how best to define a problem first, before coming up with a solution.
Many stakeholders tend to come to calls with potential solutions in hand, but I like to fully understand the problem first to ensure the right path towards a solution is taken. I apply this way of thinking to all problems that come my way — be it design or otherwise.
3. If you could dispel the most common misconception about your role, what would it be?
An issue most designers will relate to is being seen as specialists in brand or generally just making things look pretty. This is actually just a small part in the role of a designer.
A more accurate view is designing delightful experiences that our users can enjoy without difficulty. This includes, but isn’t limited to, defining problem statements, validating user requirements, prototyping and facilitating user testing. It is my role to champion this methodology, communicating and educating other areas of the business along the way in order to create a much more collaborative and well-understood playground for design.
4. What do you think the biggest challenge is of your role?
As alluded to above, user research is fundamental to delivering successful products. Research can take many forms; however, it isn’t an activity that is ever completely finished. The insight from research builds up over time through continuous activity. Sometimes this can be seen as quite time consuming if it isn’t done in a lean manner, and so often one of the biggest challenges faced when it comes to research can be showing the importance of the function to the wider business, and subsequently getting the buy in for a user first approach.
5. How would you best describe the relationship between Product and Design?
As a Design Lead in previous roles, I often found the relationship between Product and Design could be somewhat strained. From stepping on toes to working in silos, an ‘us and them’ mentality was often the result, which does nothing to help the business as a whole.
Since joining Purplebricks, the Design and Product teams have gone through a transformation to bring both areas of the team together. Part of this is the introduction of our Product and Design Director, Anna Divers, who ensures both teams are always moving in the same direction — together. What also helps is having a good relationship with my counterpart in Product, Dan Tolster. We work closely together on the strategic direction of our Product, often being seen as one and the same. Some even go as far as saying he’s the Starsky to my Hutch! Finally, our Product and Design Ops Manager, Monica Chauhan, rounds off the Product and Design leadership team to ensure we’re set up for success and functioning efficiently.
6. It’s Friday evening, what’s the last thing you do?
The last meeting of the week for me is a catch up with Dan and Monica. This is an opportunity for us to discuss how the week has gone, if there’s anything we need to action the following week, and largely a chance for us to make each other aware of anything that may impact the team. Usually, this chat is over a beverage of some sort to round off the work week. My day then goes back into the daddy routine before I’m able to sip on a single malt whisky whilst watching the latest Marvel offering!
7. And finally, your favourite food?
I’m tempted to say some sort of healthy meal or fine cuisine — but that would be a lie. Embarrassingly, I could easily annihilate a greasy doner kebab and chips at any point in the day!
