Design Your Dream Career: A Guide to UX/Product Design

Creating seamless experiences for users, crafting interfaces that feel intuitive and delightful, and leaving a positive impact on how people interact with the digital world

UX/Product Design & Designer Roles

UX/Product Design: Ensuring products offer positive user experiences and meet business objectives. Involves user research, wireframing, prototyping, and iterative improvements.

Responsibilities: Designers aim to make products intuitive, useful, and engaging, focusing on user experience.

Industry Views

• Google: Prioritizes simplicity and user-friendly designs.
• Apple: Emphasizes collaboration, aesthetic consistency, and user-centered principles.
• Lyft: Involves designers in all stages, focusing on user-centered solutions.

Requirements

• Craft: Mastery in design processes and tools.
• Communication: Strong in collaboration and feedback integration.
• Business Acumen: Understanding user needs and business context is crucial.

Pathways: Traditional degrees or bootcamps; agency or startup experience beneficial.

Product Design Glossary

Planning & Execution

• Agile: Iterative development focusing on customer feedback.
• Scrum: Agile framework using short sprints for development.
• Kanban: Visual project management tool for continuous delivery.
• Gantt Chart: Timeline chart for mapping project stages.
• Sprint: Time-boxed period for completing tasks in Scrum.
• Milestone: Key progress points in project timelines.
• Retro(spective): Reflective meeting post-sprint or project.
• Waterfall: Sequential development process, less used than Agile.
• OKR: Goal-setting framework for objectives and key results.
• KPI: Metrics for measuring project or organizational success.
• Technical Debt: Consequence of expedient but imperfect solutions.
• Feature Creep: Uncontrolled expansion of project scope.
• Scope: Defined project boundaries and deliverables.
• Dependency: Tasks/projects reliant on others’ completion.

Roles

• Product Designer: Focus on product design and user experience.
• UX Researcher: Specializes in user behavior and needs research.
• Technical Lead (TL): Leads technical project delivery.
• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): Ensures site/service reliability.
• Technical Program Manager (TPM): Manages technical project aspects.
• Product Manager (PM): Defines product strategy and roadmap.
• Product Analyst: Analyzes user data for product decisions.
• QA Engineer: Tests product for quality before release.

Product Terms

• A/B Test: Comparing two product versions to find the better performer.
• Beta Test: Pre-release phase with a select user group.
• CTR: Clickthrough rate metric.
• Early Adopters: First product users providing feedback.
• Low-hanging fruit: Easy improvements with significant impact.
• Pain Point: Problems experienced by potential customers.
• ROI: Measure of investment efficiency or profitability.
• UI: Interface for human-computer interaction.
• Use Case: Scenario describing product interaction.
• UX: Overall user experience with a product.
• Value Proposition: Product’s benefit to users.

Articulating Your Design Process

Design Process Nature: Combines artistic sensibility, product thinking, and user empathy in a methodical way, crucial for tech company interviews.

Expectations: Demonstrate a consistent, adaptable process that reflects problem-solving skills in tech environments.

Key Questions

1. Serving User Needs: Validate designs with user feedback.
2. Making Trade-offs: Showcase informed decisions based on user needs.
3. Collaboration: Share clear narratives of teamwork and project learnings.
4. Unique Strengths: Highlight your design preferences and strengths.
5. Unique Approach: Reflect on personal experiences shaping design skills.

Design Thinking Framework

Phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, Implement.

Enhancements

Include specific examples, feedback mechanisms, collaboration details, and insights on continuous process improvement for a fuller understanding.

How to Ace Whiteboard Design Challenges

Objective: Assess design skills through live observation of design process, communication, and collaboration.

Format: Use a whiteboard or digital tool like Google Jamboard for a 45-minute design challenge.

Key Focus Areas:

1. Problem-Solving: Efficiently scope the problem for logical design decisions.
2. Design Process: Prioritize process over perfect solutions.
3. Collaboration: Engage with the interviewer for guidance and feedback.

Interviewers Look For:

• A logical design process that addresses user and business needs.
• Ability to be decisive in ambiguity and showcase teamwork skills.
• An approach that simulates real-world problem-solving.

Steps to Success:

1. Set Context (7–10 min): Define goals, metrics, platform, scope, and constraints.
2. Create a Persona (7–10 min): Identify user demographics and behaviors.
3. Design the Experience (20–25 min): Outline a user flow and sketch key screens.
4. Summarize (2–6 min): Reflect on the process, mistakes, and potential improvements.

Author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivam-ross/ | https://twitter.com/BeastofBayArea | https://www.instagram.com/sup.its.shiv/