How to become a product designer

Connect with our speaker on ADPList.‍

Notes

How’d you get started?

Someone tried to convince Gift to go into tech

• Gift originally didn’t want to - didn’t wanna be on a computer all day

Started as graphic designer

• Transitioned from graphic to UX

What is product design? Vs UX design?

Product design is way beyond digital products (websites and apps)

It can be a chair or whatever product you use

Before humans knew what UX (user experience) was, we implemented it - most comfortable way to do things

Product design - about building a product

User experience (UX) - how a product fits the need of a particular user

User experience goes beyond digital product design

• Physical products

How do you know if product design is for you?

For some people, they love art and link it to UX (general passion)

• You don’t need to be creative to be a designer

But others join UX because they want to make quick money

But if you come into tech with that mentality (thinking design is easy) - it’s not gonna work

Understand your why

• Why get into product design?
• Not wrong to choose it for money or bc it’s “easy,” but there are other things in tech that can get you money
• Do it for passion
• Some ppl go in Figma, learn tools, take course, then apply for jobs
  • But no call backs
  • So feel frustrated
• Some ppl put product designer / other roles on LinkedIn

Design is so broad

• Gift uses graphic, product, UX, motion design
• Tries to keep it unique

What’s a mistake you see many beginners make when trying to break into product design?

They think it’s just colours, text, icons

You can tell who’s a beginner when they jump into Figma right away

• Don’t do research
• They work so fast to impress employers but don’t take time to understand project
  • Understand users
  • It’ll save time, effort, money when you research beforehand
  • Research can take just 3 days
  • Most ppl are surprised w research and are glad it was done to disprove assumptions

What qualifications/skills are needed to be a product designer?

Gift was in software design - had no qualifications

You don’t need qualification to do design - good to have one but don’t NEED it

• Don’t let lack of a certificate stop you

Skills

• User research/usability testing
• Prototype designs
• Handoff
• Project management
• Communication with stakeholders (engineers)

Do you always need to research to validate an idea? Or are there some designs that you can just create that are backed by best practices?

Can depend on product

Example

• Gift worked with data analyst and user researcher to study user sessions / engagement
• This was research

Don’t always have to do research

• Sometimes there’s already a user research team - they do it
• When you’re building something and have a lot of questions - do research
  • When you don’t see eye to eye with a PM or a design - ask users (test and research)

How to get started as a beginner/someone transitioning into the field (step by step roadmap)?

People joining the industry (juniors) can make a lot of mistakes - companies know this so give them grace

Advice: question the project a lot

• Why building product
• Who’s gonna use it?
• What’s the market?

Gather as much information as you can

• At least understand more even if you don’t research

Sketch out designs

• Always test out wireframe (greyscale, low fidelity) with people (can be your team, family, friends)
• Easier to make changes

Collaborate with engineers

• Discover edge cases

What’s your day to day like as a product designer?

Gift works on product monetization, so focused on driving conversions

Wake up and prioritize what needs to be done - how to convert people

Example

• Help you write CV
• Get email
• Follow up emails with more offers

Check emails

Task from Jira board

Create customized pages

• When you tap on specific link, it goes to a specific page based on the link you click
• Ex) free website → instead of picture, it shows free website

Less entry-level/junior designer jobs nowadays - any tips to break in as a junior?

A lot of people go to Gift for portfolio review mentorship

Understand this: recruiter is under constant pressure - have a target to meet

• Need a software to pass resume through automatically

Resume is the first meeting point, not portfolio

Start customizing your CV or resume for your job (product or UX design)

• Use key words from job description

Involve numbers in your CV

Share your work/accomplishments/how you think (project process) online!

Any interview tips?

Don’t present your portfolio to people

Have presentation slides/deck - explain impact of your work

If you’re asked about XYZ, just talk about that

• Don’t get off topic → might tire or bore the other person
• Don’t talk too fast

How to stand out in the job search?

It’s not mandatory, but this might help you if you can do it

• Motion design can be a plus
• For 2 jobs, Gift got it because of motion design, not bc he was the best designer

When something moves, you stop and pay attention (on the website)

Have more pictures, headings, videos - less small text (not scannable)

• Involve motion

Example EntryLevel student who got hired after sharing his work online: https://twitter.com/blvckvisuals_/status/1571215155614081025

Some software:

• AfterEffects
• Lottie files
• JSON

But understand your audience

• If they don’t have high speed internet - don’t make site speed too slow (animation can slow it down)
• There are methods to load animations fast

Impact of AI?

Product design goes beyond digital design

• Includes physical products
• All about user experience (includes physical products)

So AI will never understand human emotion

• AI will assist you, not take your job
• AI can help with research

People’s needs and preferences can change

• Why research is important
• What people tell you is not what they do (why you can’t ask if people WOULD pay - they’d say yes even if they won’t)

Any other advice?

Spend time discovering what you actually want to do in design

Look out for that passion

‍

Resources

Take a quiz to learn which tech career is best for you: https://www.entrylevel.net/quiz

Free mentorship: https://adplist.org?ref=ADP-EN-BYM20

See salaries of different roles: Levels.fyi

Student success stories:

• Jennifer landed her first internship by standing out with her portfolio project‍
• Eric shared his work online and got hired by a recruiter
• Melvina shared her learning journey on LinkedIn daily and landed an internship in 4 months
• Christiana was persistent and used feedback from cold outreach to improve her LinkedIn, and got recruiters reaching out to her for jobs
• Michael landed a remote tech job by showing off his EntryLevel soft skill badges (on his certificate) during an interview

LinkedIn tips: https://www.entrylevel.net/events/using-linkedin-for-your-job-search

Remote job boards:

• ‍https://blog.entrylevel.net/p/find-remote-jobs-5-secret-sites-tips-applying‍
• https://blog.entrylevel.net/p/find-remote-tech-jobs‍
• https://blog.entrylevel.net/p/5-remote-tech-job-boards

EntryLevel's Discord community has job postings: https://discord.gg/3RpSSkCvux

‍

Portfolio sites you can use

https://tilda.cc/

https://uxfol.io/

https://carrd.co/

https://webflow.com/

Dribbble, Behance

https://gamma.app/templates/personal-portfolio-1K3WWlNGS5W8tutyagR5FN

Slidesgo - beautiful slide deck templates: https://slidesgo.com/

Pitch: more beautiful decks: https://pitch.com/

‍

EntryLevel's resources

Our website: https://www.entrylevel.net/

FAQs: https://intercom.help/entrylevel/en/

Contact: support@entrylevel.net, jennifer@entrylevel.net

‍

About us

‍

EntryLevel helps you learn and get experience so you can get hired. Our 6-week programs are taught by world-class mentors, so you can learn and build a portfolio of work.

You'll learn with a cohort of driven peers, and each lesson is unlocked after a set time so you stay accountable and finish the program.

‍

Follow us for more tech tips + resources

‍

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

TikTok

‍