Your first month as a Product Designer & how to make the most of it (Remote worker friendly!)
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So you’ve finally landed your first dream gig as a product designer. You did it! You’re on cloud nine because all your hard work has finally paid off but now what? I remember feeling a bit lost the first few months I started a new role so here’s a list of a few things I wish someone would have told me before starting a new product designer role.
Start thinking about your professional development goals
Growth is essential for any role but especially as designers and creatives. We are curious by nature and feeding that curiosity is inevitably going to lead to growth. What are the ways you see yourself growing professionally in the short and long term? Many of your goals will be directly related to your concentration as a product designer. At Spotify we review these goals every 6 months so a good short term goal can be accomplished around then. Knowing these goals and then making your manager aware of them lets them know where your going but also lets them think of ways of helping you get there.
2. Schedule 1-on-1s/coffee chats with other designers and cross functional roles throughout the month.
You’ve probably already met with your manager and have recurrent 1-on-1 meetings with them but meeting with your wider team and other designers you may not work with directly is a great way to be more visible and make others aware of your presence. This is especially the case if you’re working remotely. You may meet a new mentor or learn about a new opportunity to collaborate. I got the opportunity to work on a couple of really interesting projects at Spotify just because someone who I had met before had thought of me-so you never know what can happen.
3. Take advantage of your newness by asking lots of questions
This one is pretty self explanatory. Especially for those of us who are working remotely. It’s even more important to make our presence known in meetings. I heard someone say that if you don’t have something to contribute in a meeting, then ask questions. Your first month is an especially pivotal time because no one expects you to know everything at this point.
Important caveat: Try to ask questions specific to your team that you can’t easily google. Asking too many questions that you can easily find the answers to can read as you being unprepared.
4. Start looking for a design mentor/sponsor outside of your department to advocate for you.
This is a follow up to the 2nd point. Meeting many colleagues also lets you meet coworkers who are where you want to be career-wise. Finding a mentor and career advocate is a great way to kick start your professional development. A mentor can help you identify ways you can grow and make connections and introductions you may not have made on your own. Mentors are different from sponsors so its important to identify potential candidates for both during your first month.
5. If you haven’t already, start thinking about what your focus area or ‘T’ will be.
The last thing you should do during your first month as a product designer is to define your “T”. I won’t elaborate on all the focus areas of product design because then we would be here all day and all night but as you meet other designers in your company, you’ll start to notice that they all have 1 or 2 things they specialize in whether it be prototyping, motion design, strategy, the list goes on. So start thinking about what excites you about design and start putting yourself in the way of opportunities that help you improve on those skills.
Conclusion
These are just a few tips to help guide your first month an entry level product designer. But this advice could really benefit designers at any level starting in a new role. What other things would you suggest a new designer do during their first few weeks in a new role?
Written by Victoria Ayo, Product designer at Spotify