3 Challenges Solo Designers Face and How to Overcome Them
How to stay sharp, confident and diligent.
Challenge #1: Self-Doubt
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” — Sylvia Plath
One of the biggest problems you face as a designer is self-doubt, which compounds when you’re the only designer. When you are a team of one, imposter syndrome can really intensify.
The underlying cause of self-doubt and imposter syndrome is fear. Fear will not only stifle your creativity but stop you from doing good work as you attempt to do perfect work.
How do you manage fear? Trust the process.
Having a strong process will limit self-doubt. When I was the only designer spread across three different teams, I came up with a very strict process which I diligently followed: a five-step process from problem to solution.
Define
First define the problem, not the solution. Make sure the development or product team is in agreement that the #1 problem is what you are working on. Create user stories, a definition of success, and a list of metrics.
Deliverable: Problem definition
Understand
Understand what’s around you. How are users solving this problem currently? What are competitors doing to solve this? What are the pros and cons of this product’s ecosystem? Understand the problem set and the solutions will start to manifest themselves.
Deliverable: Competitive audit
Sketch
Get away from the computer! Don’t think of details and instead focus on flows and experiences. Whiteboard ideas and questions, explore answers, then whiteboard again. I like to whiteboard the user diagram right next to a storyboard to make sure I understand the full experience flow a user is going through.
Deliverable: User story, user diagram, and storyboard
Iterate
Now that the hard part is worked out, you can enjoy the fun of iterating and exploring visual solutions. Getting back to the computer can feel refreshing once you have a clear understanding of what problem is and how you can solve for it.
Deliverable: Mockups
Prototype & test
Static designs focus users on aesthetics rather than function. Prototypes allow you to feel the full experience and test functionality quickly. Test your prototype and iterate again. Usability testing is a great way to get over self-doubt. Not only will you learn if your solution works, but you will grow as a designer as you understand the behaviors of your users.
Deliverable: Clickable prototype
The process can set you free.
“Give me limits so I can be free.” — Igor Stravinsky
If you follow a process you believe in, you will feel free to tackle any task. Documenting your process also gives you the evidence to back your solution, when questioned. Documentation builds your coworkers’ trust in you and your trust in yourself, knowing you did due to diligence to come up with the best course of action.
Challenge #2: Burning Out
Being the only designer sometimes means you have to wear a lot of hats. Juggling tasks, deadlines and self-doubt can stretch any person thin. As a designer, you have the added complexity of needing to innovate and creative every day.
Without the right support, being the only designer can push you to the brink of total burn out. How do you stay creative, focused and passionate when you feel overwhelmed? Matt Bond and Benjamin Earl Evans both wrote great articles on avoiding burnout.
How to Avoid UX Burnout by Benjamin Earl Evans · January 17th, 2017
Know the signs
Do you feel like you’re drowning in work and you just don’t see any way out of it? Have you taken a vacation in the last six months? Do you open up a new working file and then forget what you wanted to do? Do you roll your eyes and sigh every time you get an email with a design-related question or comment?
If any of these things sound familiar, you might be burning out. Now what? How do you stop yourself from totally flipping out?
Take breaks
You can’t do everything so sometimes you just need to step away. I had a painting professor who used to tap on my shoulder, whenever I was frustrated while painting and tells me to step back. He would explain, to better understand the part you were working on you needed to see the whole canvas from several steps back. Stepping away really enabled me to see the big picture instead of fixating in the section I was working.
In the same way, we can fixate on a small aspect of a larger project and become frustrated. Sometimes a long weekend or vacation can make all the difference in revitalizing your creativity and drive. For me, just going out for a walk can make a big difference when I feel like I’m hitting a creative wall. I promote trying to do more physical tasks like walking or going to the gym over snacking or web surfing. Sometimes working with your hands or moving your body just seems to shake off the cobwebs and really opens up your mind.
Talk it out
Find an ally: someone you can vent to. Sometimes you just need to talk about what’s stressing you out to really identify what the main cause is. An ally doesn’t have to be in your office; it can be a friend, family member or significant other. All you really need is to stop bottling up frustrations, concerns, and stress, and instead, start identifying the cause of your stress to overcome or remove it. If you’re on the verge of quitting and you feel like there’s no way you can continue at the pace you’re working in, talk to your manager.
Challenge #3: Laziness
Being a solo designer can be hectic, and the temptation to cut corners is always present. How do you make sure you don’t get lazy, not just with your design deliverables or process, but with your attitude?
Read
I have a long commute, so I subscribe to some really great design newsletters and read a lot of books. I find reading to be a really great motivator. There are so many great books out there from design classics like The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman to modern methodologies like GV’s Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz.
Share
Sharing your work can be scary. This is especially true if you’re the only designer and don’t feel like you’ve received the same amount of critique you might get on a design team. But that fear can increase laziness. Sharing, whether on Dribbble, Behance, or one of the many other applications available today, helps you learn to put yourself out there and deal with feedback from other designers or people in the field.
Build a community
Go to a Meetups, conferences and networking events. Building a design community, whether face-to-face or virtually, is vital to motivating you to be better and help fight the urge to be lazy. Don’t know where to start? You can start with me, @bree_lauren. I would love to give feedback, recommendations or just listen to your unique challenges. Message me on Twitter or comment below to start the conversation.
Have questions? Comment below and I’ll do my best to answer.
