A Day in the Life of a Product Design Intern @ SAS — Part 1
As a Manager of User Experience at SAS, I often receive questions from students about UX design, career opportunities, and what they can expect from a design internship with our team. These “FAQs” commonly arise during recruitment season at career fairs and via LinkedIn networks.
Being a former design intern who started my career with the company and transitioned into management, I can easily answer these questions. However, my internship experience was over a decade ago, and our program has since evolved. So, to best explain what the internship experience is truly like in this day and age, I interviewed our four incredibly talented summer 2023 Product Design interns: Kathleen, Cameron, Ellie, and Lauren.
In this blog, our interns will not only tell you about who they are and what a typical workday is like, but they will also walk you through the skills that they developed, tools used for their projects, and offer advice to future design interns who aspire to work at SAS.
Tell me about yourself and why you decided to intern with the Product Design team at SAS?
My name is Kathleen Anderson. I am going to be a junior this fall at Cornell University where I study Information Science and English. What drew me to intern at SAS was the four values that SAS has. Those values really resonated with me and are things that I value heavily in my personal life as well as my professional life. In addition, there was a direct quote from the internship description that said, “Our interns aren’t coffee runners.” Those two things set SAS apart from the other companies I was considering. — Kathleen
My name is Cameron Kelly. I attend Shaw University. I’m in my second year. My major is Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. When I got to North Carolina, I kept hearing about Red Hat and SAS, and one day SAS came to my campus. I really liked what I heard. They told us about this internship to apply for. So, that’s what I did! — Cameron
My name is Ellie Kim. I’m a rising sophomore at UNC. My pronouns are she/her, and I’m studying Computer Science. Coming into college, I had no idea what UX or product experience was, but I did a good amount of graphic design work in high school like playing around with colors and fonts. At the time, I had no idea that fell under product experience. As a Computer Science major, I began to realize how important it is that you create your products with intention and design. So, when I was looking for internships this summer, I fell upon this team, and I really fell in love with it. — Ellie
My name is Lauren Lowery. I’m an incoming senior at North Carolina A&T, and I major in Computer Graphics Technology with a concentration in UX. My concentration in UX was the main reason I decided to intern with the design team. I really love UX because design is something I enjoy. I also like learning new things, and I knew I would learn a lot in this internship. — Lauren
Tell me about the project that you are working on this summer. What are your responsibilities?
The project I’m working on is a Corporate Sustainability Reporting solution. EU laws and regulations require about 50,000 companies in Europe to start reporting on their Environmental, Social and Governance impact as a company. The solution we’re designing is a kind of one-stop shop for corporate sustainability reporting. I get to go through the whole design process with this project. I’ve started with the very beginning stages of research and brainstorming solutions all the way up through — hopefully — very high-fidelity prototypes. So, I’m truly getting to do a lot of everything which has been great! — Kathleen
My current project is to see if we can incorporate AI tools into the work environment. The ultimate goal is to make a website, and in order to make the website, we have to do the site map, wireframes, and design briefs. Can we do those things using AI tools? For example, ChatGPT taught me how to write design briefs, and there is a plugin in Figma for wireframing called uidesign.ai. There’s another AI tool in the Discord app called Midjourney. You can type in a prompt, and it gives you 4 images. It’s really good. We are exploring AI tools to figure out how to best integrate them into our design work. — Cameron
I’m doing a project with Cameron. We’re doing website design and development for a fictional company. We started with a design brief, went through user journeys, wireframes, and this week we’re working on high fidelity prototypes and style tiles. A big emphasis is on the use of AI tools. We’ve been doing a lot with ChatGPT. All the images on our website are created from Midjourney which has been a super fun tool to work with, and we’re using a lot of Figma plugins and websites that use AI to help us with our colors. We’re basically determining how beneficial these tools are because AI is on the rise within design. — Ellie
My project involves creating a design concept for integrating workflow with Intelligent Decisioning. It’s focused on guiding the user through the various steps involved in their work from displaying tasks that require attention, allowing them to claim tasks and work on them, and track work and object status changes before finally completing the task or tasks. I design in Figma and get feedback from my team and others to see what kind of features they would like to see, and what they would like to change. So, my role is doing internal research and design while getting a lot of feedback as well. — Lauren
What tools are you using for your summer project?
I use Figma for a lot of the designs. I’ve done some stuff in Excel just to keep track of the data and the research. I also like Procreate® on my iPad to do the design sketches. — Kathleen
We use Figma and Jira. We use ChatGPT, an AI tool. We use uidesign.ai, the design tool that lets you create wireframes by typing in a prompt. We also use Midjourney that creates photos, pictures, and images. — Cameron
We use AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Midjourney) and Figma plugins. We’re using a lot of Figma — going in-depth with components and playing around with auto layout, etc. We’re also using GitHub and VS Code. — Ellie
Primarily, I’m just using Figma. I also look at websites with different designs to spark some ideas, but it’s mainly Figma. — Lauren
What is your typical workday like? Do you work in-person, remote, or hybrid?
I am fully remote this summer, and my day-to-day activities look different based on what stage of the process I’m in. I log in at 9:00. I do about 30 minutes to an hour of independent work, and usually around 9:30 or 10:00, I’ll hop on a meeting. After any meetings, I’ll log back in and try to get some heavy focus work done until lunch. After lunch, I usually do more design stuff in Figma or work on putting components together. SAS offers intern-wide meetings in the afternoon to talk about things like impostor syndrome, work life balance, diversity in the workplace, and privilege. These have been insightful and really help me connect with the other interns. — Kathleen
I’m currently working remotely. Every morning, I wake up around 7:00, get some cereal, log in to my computer, and start my project. Then, I take my lunch at 12:00. In my calendar, I have at least one meeting every day. It is not overwhelming. It’s pretty fun going to meetings and listening to what everybody is saying, because it’s helpful for my project. — Cameron
I’m based in Cary, so I go into the office about two days a week which is really nice. A typical workday for me starts around 9:00. I usually have some meetings scattered throughout the day. The intern program always has a bunch of events happening throughout the week. Then, I’ll have meetings with Cameron to talk about our project. I’m also working on a project called Tools for Schools, and I usually have meetings for that too. I’ve met a lot of people through that. It’s really great how SAS is connecting everyone. — Ellie
I’m fully remote, so I start off my day by logging in and checking my emails. For lunch, I like to go outside just to get some fresh air. I might take a little walk with my dog. I do my work throughout the day, and I think it’s important to take breaks so that you’re not just sitting in front of the computer all day. So, I give myself some brain breaks. — Lauren
What has been your favorite moment from your internship this summer?
Something that I really enjoyed was the design department activity we did a few weeks ago called “Sketch Me if You Can.” This was my first time being in a setting with the entire design department, and I felt connected with the team. I really felt like a product designer at SAS. It was great to see everyone and get an idea of who’s working at SAS. It made me feel like part of the bigger team and the company as a whole. That is a really great memory that I have, and it definitely embodies what the SAS Product Design team is to me. — Kathleen
My favorite moment is anytime I get on a call and learn something new. A lot of times I just listen, and I get it. But there are a few times when I ask questions like, “What do you mean by this? How exactly does it work? How would it affect this?” Every Friday, we have sessions where everybody on the design team shares what they’ve been doing for the week and how everything is going. I really like that call because I get to see everybody’s work for the week, and they explain what they did. — Cameron
I’ve loved everything. In addition to how much I’ve learned technically, I’ve also really loved the connections I’ve made with fellow interns. It’s always awesome to hear what interns on different teams are doing. It’s awesome to see everyone branch out in their own interests. I’ve also really loved connecting with people on my team and learning to be friends with them. — Ellie
I think my favorite moment might be the Juneteenth panel that I did with BIG (Black Initiatives Group). That was my first panel setting in a corporate world, and it felt good to be able to share my history and my experience with Juneteenth because it is a holiday that a lot of people don’t know about. It felt good to be able to share our culture with SAS employees and to hear their experiences about it as well. It was a great moment to connect with other people of my culture and share my experiences. — Lauren
What are the big takeaways from your internship experience thus far? What advice would you give to future interns?
The biggest takeaway so far has been the idea of adaptability and adapting to your circumstances. What I’ve learned in this role is that things are a lot more fluid in design. You have to be adaptable and decide “What can I do when pieces are missing?” It makes me think about the design process in a whole new light. A piece of advice that I have to future interns would be to ask questions. Design is not a one-person job, and if you have the resources, reach out and use them. Everyone at SAS is so willing to help and wants to make sure you succeed. — Kathleen
My biggest takeaway is thinking like a designer; understanding what my customers want, what they need, and figuring out ways to meet them in the middle. My advice to interns is don’t give up. Believe in yourself, and great things will happen. When I first got to North Carolina, I didn’t have much experience, but I still applied for internships. When interviewers asked me questions, I’d tell them this is what I know, this is what I’m learning, and this is what I’m doing to get there. — Cameron
A big takeaway that I would give to interns is that the greatest resources you have are the people around you. The people on my team know best. They’re never going to be annoyed with you because they understand that you’re an intern, and you really don’t know much. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know that’s what everyone says, but now that I’ve gone through the process, I can definitely attest to it. — Ellie
My biggest takeaway is to know that I can be myself. Coming into the internship, I thought that this is business, and I can’t really express myself. But I’ve learned that we’re all human. Just be yourself and be authentic. Also, I was afraid to ask questions. I felt like I had to know everything. My team has made it really easy for me to ask questions. They know that I’m here for an internship. I’m here to learn. So, it’s okay to ask questions. — Lauren
Ultimately, the SAS internship program is about providing meaningful real-world experiences, collaborative projects, and exposure to the corporate work environment to help students grow personally and professionally. As our interns reflected on their experiences, I hope that they were able to provide answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about UX design internships at SAS.
Happy National Intern Day to our summer 2023 Product Design interns!
If you are interested in learning more about our design team or internship opportunities? Check out UX Design at SAS and visit our careers site.
Thanks for reading and check back next month for Part 2!
