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Day in the Life of a UX Designer.

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HOPE: Hi, I'm Hope Armstrong, I'm a product
designer and teacher at Treehouse.

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Today, I'll be interviewing
a couple of designers, so

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you can get a sense for
what it's like to work in UX.

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ALEX: Hi, I'm Alex,
I'm a UX designer at Finastra.

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MICAH: Hey, what's going on everyone, my name
is Micah Carroll, my pronouns are he/him.

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I live in Boston, Massachusetts, working
in a wonderful place called Teikametrics.

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And thank you, once and foremost, for

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taking the time to learn
a little bit about my day.

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I'm hoping to share more
about mine with you,

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and hopefully it's pretty constructive,
nevertheless.

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So there's a few questions
that I am gonna go through.

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I'm gonna make sure that the formatting
of this video is pretty cookie-cutter,

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one would say.

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And just make sure that if there's
something you wanna pause on to get

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the information, you can.

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And no longer ado,
let's jump right into it.

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HOPE: What are your main responsibilities?

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ALEX: My responsibilities do vary by week,
but I'm currently in the process

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of redesigning our Move Money feature for
our mobile banking app.

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Our Move Money feature consists
of transferring money.

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So we wanna make sure that we get it right,
so then we can go ahead and

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test it out with users.

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So I've also been helping
out in crafting questions.

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So when we get into user testing,
we have all those questions ready, so

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that we can get insights
from our real users.

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MICAH: So in my day-to-day life, I would say,

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the majority of my role as a product
designer here at Teikametrics

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covers the typical end-to-end
level as a product designer.

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So I'll give you a little
more explanation on that.

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End-to-end typically means from concept,
all the way till development,

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and no, that doesn't mean I'm
developing everything, but

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it means that I'm
hand-holding the developers,

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giving them the assets that they need,
and just making sure everything is great.

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And then going back to the concept side of
view, sometimes I have presentations with

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stakeholders, and those can be a little
nerve-wracking from time to time,

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but nevertheless, you wanna make sure
that you have your stuff pretty on point

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in terms of, if they ever ask you, "why is
the reason you chose to put the button up

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here in the navigation?" You should
always have some sort of explanation.

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And in simple terms,
that's my day-to-day basis,

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in terms of my roles and responsibilities,
depending on the project.

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HOPE: What's your favorite part of your job?

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ALEX: My favorite part of working as a UX
designer is being an advocate for

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the user.

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Every design that I implement,
and that my team works on,

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we make sure that we are always
thinking of the users.

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We do this by doing research,
by conducting interviews,

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just always getting their feedback, and

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keep in mind that every product that we
design focuses on them and their needs.

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HOPE: What's the most
challenging part of your job?

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MICAH: Now, in terms of the challenges that,
 me personally,

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as a designer working at this company?

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Given the whole isolation and whatnot,
coming from working in an office

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environment, and having those people
right away to collaborate with,

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or just whenever you feel like you're
lost, you can maybe talk to your manager.

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But I feel, once we went into
this very isolated point of view,

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I needed to start becoming
a little more autonomous.

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And I realized that that's a huge, huge,

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huge pro in terms of being a designer,
right?

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So a real-world example,
let's say you're a UX designer, right?

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And if you're given a project, right, and

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it's like, okay,
you know what you need to do.

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But if there's nothing in terms of,
let's say there's no due dates or

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anything like that, and you need to
set your own timeline and set up,

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your own user research meetings,
and your own user interviews.

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A lot of that, I would say, something of
a challenge of mine is being autonomous,

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and knowing how to just take action.

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And being very declarative, especially
when it comes down to explaining to

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the others within the team,
why we're doing this, and

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then just running through it,
huge challenge for myself.

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I feel like as a designer, a lot of us
come from a background of doing work

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by ourselves, okay, here you go,
just kind of signing off on stuff.

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But that is the great wall
that I need to conquer,

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as a designer,
is learning how to be more communicative,

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be more autonomous, and
just not to be so much to myself.

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Make sure to get feedback quick,
and just keep talking,

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keep talking, and
be very clear as I go on.

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And not be too scared of just asking for
feedback,

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or taking charge and writing my own goals.

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HOPE: How long have you been in UX?

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ALEX: I have been a UX designer for
two years.

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MICAH: So the question is, how long have
I been in UX or product design?

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And I've been a designer for
about five to four years now.

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HOPE: Why did you get into UX design?

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ALEX: I actually got into UX by accident.

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While I was working as
a front end developer,

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I was thinking that maybe web design
was something that I wanted to explore.

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So I decided was, just researching online,
I landed on the term UX.

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I wasn't really familiar with what UX was,
so I started researching more.

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Then I realized that UX isn't
just focused on design, but

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it's also very user-centered, which kind
of drew me into this field right away.

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So what I did is,
while I was working at my dev job,

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I asked my team lead if I
could redesign our website.

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And that's kind of how I got started.

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I just started looking more articles
on Medium, doing more research,

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familiarizing myself with UX and
the process.

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So this was a great first-time project for
me,

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to kind of get a sense of how UX works,
and the process from start to finish.

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MICAH: Literally,
to sum it up in just a short-hand manner,

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it was just sheer curiosity.

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I actually was introduced into
the world of UX and UI design because

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I was looking to go down the path
of being a front end web developer.

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And while I was in school,
I was developing things, and

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we had no designers on the teams here and
there.

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And I was like, dude,
who's gonna do this stuff?

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So that's where I quickly
started finding communities, and

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one thing led to another, and
I guess we're here with this video.

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HOPE: What was your first job as a UX
designer? How did you get hired?

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ALEX: My current job is actually
my first full-time UX position.

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We moved to Texas about two years ago,

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because my boyfriend got
a position as a software engineer.

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So this was just a perfect time for me to
primarily just focus on my UX portfolio,

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get it out there, and
start looking for jobs.

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So when I was working on my portfolio,
I only had one case study which

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was a project that I did while
I was still a front end developer.

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Since I only had one case study in my
portfolio, I just made sure that it was

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very, very detailed, and that it explained
my design process from the start to finish.

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So, yeah, maybe I didn't have
as much experience as others.

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But my case study was solid enough that
it at least landed me an interview

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with my current company, and
then the rest is history.

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MICAH: Now, my first job within UX design
was with a company called Ring.

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At the time, we just did video doorbells.

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I got in through an internship,
actually, through a family friend.

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And that internship had nothing
to do with design, actually.

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It had everything to do with hardware, and

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it was going more along the physical
engineering side of things.

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Often, getting our foot in the door,
right,

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working somewhere with tech,
I did that hardware engineering QA stuff.

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And during the days, I would just talk to
the creative director and just tell him

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that, hey, I'm in school, and have you
heard of, at this time I was like,

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have you heard of Sketch, cuz he was
using Illustrator for everything.

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And not to get into details, but,
just through a relationship

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of coming around and just talking
to the creative director, just for

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fun, literally not ever
kind of asking something.

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And one day, I don't know if this is why I
got the job was, I had a class assignment.

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And I just was like, hey,

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what do you think about this poster,
I'd love to get your feedback on it.

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Literally simple as can be, right, and
then the next day, I ended up joining

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the team, in terms of the marketing team,
and I was the first generalist hire.

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So I did a lot of the video editing stuff,
and literally one thing led to the next.

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And three years go down, and

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eventually I became a product designer
on the team, on the Neighbors [product team].

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HOPE: How did you learn the skills?

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ALEX: Since I'm a self-taught UX designer,
a lot of my learning was done online.

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I did a lot of YouTube tutorials,
I also took some courses on Skillshare.

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I went on Medium,
I read a ton of articles.

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And I just kind of learned by doing,
I would go on YouTube,

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look up some really popular
designers at the time and

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I kind of imitated the way
they were doing their work.

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And once I was comfortable enough,
I kinda went on my own and

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just started creating projects for
myself so that I could practice.

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MICAH: Now, how did I learn the skills
of a product designer—or UX?

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I learned the skills honestly,
a lot of it was self taught.

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And there's a few cheat codes [LAUGH]
I would give someone that is looking

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to level up, if you're trying to
level up UX skill or UI skill.

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Find that particular zone that
you're really intrigued on,

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find communities around there, and that's
kind of what I did to get the skills.

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So I joined Slack groups and
I made friends.

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I shared some of my work,
I complimented others.

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It shouldn't be as transactional I feel,
in terms of like, hey, look at my work,

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can you look at this work?

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Can you do this?

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It was more of finding friends within the
industry, online, especially nowadays and

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with that I feel like we really
enter a snowball effect, right?

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You and your friends that you have online
are gonna talk about new ideas within UX,

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new methods, new programs.

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And then next thing you know when
you're on the job interview, or

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if you're talking to someone at work when
you get the job, you've already kind of

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covered a lot of these things and you're
just naturally very curious about it.

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So it all came down for me was finding
the right communities to be in,

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I can leave some of those down below or
however this video will be listed.

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But find the right communities and find
the right people to surround yourself in,

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definitely, definitely helped me
learn the right skills of the trade.

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HOPE: Briefly describe the company
you work at, what's the product?

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ALEX: I work at Finastra,
a global FinTech company, and

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I work in the digital line of business,
which focuses on mobile banking.

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MICAH: Okay, the company I work
at is called Teikametrics.

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In a short little synopsis going on here,

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we pretty much help out e-commerce
sellers that utilize Amazon and Walmart.

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And we help them utilize certain
tools to help ad optimization, and

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we do a lot of machine learning stuff,

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so there's a lot of dashboards on my end,
but that's where I work.

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HOPE: How many employees are at the company?

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ALEX: There are about 10,000
employees globally,

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at my company
MICAH: In terms of the company size there's

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around 300 or so employees, we just
recently had a worldwide expansion.

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HOPE: What's the structure
of the design team?

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How many designers are there,
and what are their roles?

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ALEX: My team consists of five UX designers.

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Since we are a very small team,
we don't have any specialized positions,

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so our team wears multiple
hats when needed.

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We do designs, we do information
architecture, we do research,

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we do a little bit of everything
pretty much since we're a small team

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MICAH: There's around five or

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four product managers, and
then there's three designers.

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And there's much more engineering,
but in terms of the ratio for

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that we typically have around,
I would say,

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four to three engineers per
designer working on a project.

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The way it's all working out is there's
two main engineering teams, and

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the product managers get a certain
scope of assignments one would say,

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and they're pretty much in charge
of the engineering teams, right?

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For example, one of our engineering
teams' name is Pinwheel and

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then we have like our PMs and
they essentially get whatever concepts

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that they need to accomplish for
the quarter.

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And they have their own engineering team,
and then the designers,

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we work in between different
engineering teams.

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HOPE: Who does the design team report to?

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ALEX: My design team reports
to our team lead,

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who then passes along any
progress to our manager.

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HOPE: What's the designer to developer ratio?

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How many designers per developers?

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MICAH: There's typically one designer
per three engineers on team,

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and then the PMs, they vary.

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They come to the designers
whenever there's a task, and

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then we get tasks based on my manager,
it's very simple, actually but

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that's how the structure
the design team I work at is.

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HOPE: What types of user research and
testing does your team do?

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ALEX: Since we're in the process
of redesigning our banking app,

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we initially do A/B testing just to
see what interfaces our users prefer.

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Once we have that down,

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then we move onto unmoderated testing of
every new feature that we're putting out.

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We utilize UserTesting.com to
conduct all of our testing.

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And when we do unmoderated testing,

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we provide our users with high fidelity
mockups of our new features, and

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kind of have them go through different
tasks that we write for them.

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And since it's unmoderated at the end
once a user has finished, as the team,

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we take notes and we review the videos
to see what were some of their likes,

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what were some of their pain points.

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And from there, we set up a meeting, we
kind of go back to the drawing board and

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adjust our designs as needed.

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HOPE: How do you collaborate with
others outside of the design team?

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ALEX: I collaborate with a lot of teams
outside of my design team daily.

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So what happens is that, whenever there is
a new feature that needs to be designed

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from scratch or redesigned, we get
a project manager assigned to us and

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this project manager then
also assigns a dev team.

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So since...at my job, we work with three
different platforms. We work with web,

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iOS, and Android.

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We get three developers assigned for
a specific feature.

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So the project manager
assigns us the feature,

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but also schedules weekly
meetings with us and dev so

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that we can go over the mockups and
devs can tell us their updates

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to see if they can
implement their designs, or

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if we need to modify our designs
based on their feedback, so

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there's always constant collaboration with
other teams outside of my design team.

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HOPE: Do you use a design system?

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MICAH: So the way things work
here at Teikametrics is,

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we do have a design system.

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And we all like to think of a design
system as a living and breathing thing, we're

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a little bit of a smaller company,
in terms of the way that things go.

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And in a startup we do have a defined
style, and things that you shouldn't do,

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it's like yeah,
the background shouldn't be yellow.

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So going back to the design system,
it's living and breathing and

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we're constantly working
on it as a design team, and

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growing it day by day as we
introduce maybe a new navigation.

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And it's like,
how is everything else gonna be affected?

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In terms of a component library,
we do have certain

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components we pull from in
terms of the design system.

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These are all definitely very dynamic,
I would say the way the process and

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the design system works is very,
very dynamic compared to a company like

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Slack or someone that has
a design system that is public.

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So that's something I would
definitely leave note on.

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I'm sure whenever we go into small
companies, those design systems won't be

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fully grounded and fully concrete, and
there'll be a lot more room for change.

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HOPE: How does your design team communicate?

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MICAH: Now how does the design
team communicate?

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Since quarantine,
we've had to find new methods, right?

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You can't just get everyone in
the room and talk about design stuff.

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So first and foremost,
we all use Slack like most people I feel

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nowadays use Slack unless you want to share in
Amazon or anything of that sort.

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But we use Slack and then we also use a
combination of a program called Loom, and

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Loom allows the user to screen share
a video, add voice overlays, and just send

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it out on a quick link, literally takes
less than 30 seconds to record in Loom.

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So the design team we have
our own little Slack channel,

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where either one of the designers
will send images or a flow and

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just @ everyone,
as in everyone, the three of us.

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@ everyone, get quick feedback, and
then if it's a little more complicated,

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we'll do Loom or if it's even more
complicated than that [LAUGH] then we'll

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just use something like Zoom and
have a whole meeting around it.

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But very simple;
Slack, video recordings, and

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if it's more complicated then
we do your typical meeting.

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HOPE: How do you determine
the success of a project?

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00:19:32,990 --> 00:19:37,854
ALEX: I determine the success of a project,
by the end result and

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the quality of the end project.

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So I like to ask myself, did we meet
the scope, did we meet the deadlines?

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What were some of the challenges along the
way, is this a project that I'm proud of?

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00:19:51,844 --> 00:19:56,552
By asking myself these questions,
I tend to quickly get

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an answer of what I thought
of the success of the project

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00:20:02,170 --> 00:20:06,400
HOPE: How are pain points and feature
requests identified and prioritized?

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00:20:07,750 --> 00:20:08,830
MICAH: This one is a fun one.

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00:20:08,830 --> 00:20:11,250
So how are pain points identified?

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As someone on the design team, typically,

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I would like to split it into,
we have two rows, right?

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So on one side,
there will be the really big problems,

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00:20:27,536 --> 00:20:33,325
really product centric problems,
like how do we reduce user

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drop off within a certain onboarding flow,
right?

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00:20:38,337 --> 00:20:42,526
Or we have another side of the problem,
which is a little more visual,

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00:20:42,526 --> 00:20:45,579
something that the designers
are just like, hey,

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we need to update the design system
components, this is an issue.

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And sometimes we have to fight for
those things.

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00:20:52,410 --> 00:20:57,440
But in terms of how we pretty
much prioritize the big things,

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I would say it typically
starts from the top down.

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00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:06,680
So we have our weekly all-hands meetings
throughout the entire company, right?

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Where the CEO, he sits everyone down and

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00:21:08,662 --> 00:21:12,637
we kind of talk about what's going right
and what's going wrong in the company.

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Then, from there, that trickles down.

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Those messages trickle down into
when we have a product all hands or

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we have development all hands.

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We typically are given a direction.

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So it's like, okay, right now we're
doing a lot of redesigning and

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00:21:26,923 --> 00:21:28,721
a lot of reformatting of stuff.

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00:21:28,721 --> 00:21:31,847
And we're heavily in
the direction of that,

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simply because that's something that
the whole company is taking on.

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00:21:36,797 --> 00:21:41,814
And then at that same time, the design
team is also working on things that

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00:21:41,814 --> 00:21:46,517
are a little more in the future that
we definitely know will come up.

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00:21:46,517 --> 00:21:49,734
But to sum it all up,
how are we prioritizing and

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00:21:49,734 --> 00:21:52,317
choosing what to do and what not to do?

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00:21:52,317 --> 00:21:58,241
Sometimes it just goes by the sheer
communication with the CEO and

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00:21:58,241 --> 00:22:00,077
keeping an eye out.

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00:22:00,077 --> 00:22:05,033
There could be hot fixes that come
through that engineering may mention that

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00:22:05,033 --> 00:22:06,201
we missed out on.

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00:22:06,201 --> 00:22:08,730
But yeah, it typically just comes to,

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what is a company trying
to accomplish as a whole?

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00:22:11,959 --> 00:22:16,268
And that could be around just checking
out what the users are doing,

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the pain points that users have,
user interviews.

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But yeah,
it's pretty straightforward I would say.

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As we have our all-hands,
we all kind of figured out, okay,

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we'll be working on this for
the next few quarters.

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That's how that's done.

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HOPE: Do you have any advice for
new and aspiring designers?

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00:22:38,503 --> 00:22:41,990
ALEX: If I have to give advice to new or
aspiring designers,

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I would suggest to join as many
design communities as you can and

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also, just reach out to
your favorite designers.

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For example, Instagram is a great
way to network with new and

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00:22:53,647 --> 00:22:55,469
established designers.

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00:22:55,469 --> 00:22:59,444
And I would highly suggest for you to just
reach out to them, send them a message,

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00:22:59,444 --> 00:23:02,018
letting them know that
you're just starting out and

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00:23:02,018 --> 00:23:04,372
maybe you need some
guidance on where to start.

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00:23:04,372 --> 00:23:07,783
Or maybe you have a specific question,
just go ahead and reach out.

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Honestly, a lot of designers are willing
to help out those who are just starting

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out, so go ahead and just reach out.

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MICAH: What's the biggest line
of advice I can give for

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00:23:18,448 --> 00:23:24,099
someone coming into this industry,
someone that's looking to make a name for

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00:23:24,099 --> 00:23:28,910
themselves, have their work
could be distinguishable, right?

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00:23:28,910 --> 00:23:32,037
I feel it all kind of
comes down to curiosity.

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00:23:32,037 --> 00:23:35,782
I know going on the web,
going on Dribbble, going on certain sites,

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you'll see stuff and you'll be like,
I don't know how that could ever be done.

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I don't know how I can do that.

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But I think the biggest thing that I
could take back as a designer is being

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very curious, and actually figuring out,
okay, how is that done?

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00:23:52,705 --> 00:23:55,487
What programs do they use?

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00:23:55,487 --> 00:23:57,217
Who's doing this?

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00:23:57,217 --> 00:23:59,888
How can I replicate it?

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00:23:59,888 --> 00:24:02,463
And sometimes I'm just sheerly practicing.

355
00:24:02,463 --> 00:24:07,222
Sometimes it just means copying
a certain style trying to figure out,

356
00:24:07,222 --> 00:24:10,864
okay, how can I make a website
that looks like Slack?

357
00:24:10,864 --> 00:24:14,161
Or how can I make a website
that has a tone of Stripe?

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00:24:14,161 --> 00:24:18,234
And just breaking things down, reverse
engineering, and breaking it down and

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00:24:18,234 --> 00:24:21,359
learning, okay,
they had it like this for this reason.

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00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:23,758
Wow, the spacing is this way.

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00:24:23,758 --> 00:24:28,526
You'll discover a lot of things when you
start to try to recreate these things or

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00:24:28,526 --> 00:24:31,247
recreate these flows and
look through that.

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00:24:31,247 --> 00:24:32,909
That's my biggest piece of advice.

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00:24:32,909 --> 00:24:37,746
And I think with that you'll forever stay
curious in terms of the design industry,

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00:24:37,746 --> 00:24:40,731
because there's always
something new out there.

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00:24:40,731 --> 00:24:45,512
So with that, be curious.

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00:24:45,512 --> 00:24:49,061
But another piece of advice is to,
honestly,

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00:24:49,061 --> 00:24:53,978
be very self-aware, in terms of
what do you want as a designer.

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00:24:53,978 --> 00:24:55,488
Do you wanna become a design manager?

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00:24:55,488 --> 00:24:58,909
Do you wanna just go strictly into UX?

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00:24:58,909 --> 00:25:00,994
You wanna do more UI?

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00:25:00,994 --> 00:25:05,496
Just being self-aware and
checking in with yourself,

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00:25:05,496 --> 00:25:11,254
cuz I feel like we all change,
in terms of our likes and wants and needs.

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00:25:11,254 --> 00:25:15,798
So be curious, and
then always take the time to reflect,

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00:25:15,798 --> 00:25:17,848
in general, as a designer.

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00:25:17,848 --> 00:25:22,969
And I think with that, it'll take you
super far and wherever you wanna go.

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00:25:22,969 --> 00:25:27,343
So lastly, thank you for
taking the time to watch the video, and

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00:25:27,343 --> 00:25:31,490
thank you Treehouse for
bringing me on to speak to everyone.

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00:25:31,490 --> 00:25:34,454
And I hope that this video does you well.

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00:25:34,454 --> 00:25:35,361
I'll catch you guys later.

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00:25:35,361 --> 00:25:41,562
I'm sure you'll get my contacts
in the links below, but see ya.

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00:25:41,562 --> 00:25:42,568
Thank you.

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00:25:42,568 --> 00:25:44,703
HOPE: Great, that's a wrap.

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00:25:44,703 --> 00:25:49,581
Thank you so much for your time and
insights, Alex and Micah.

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00:25:49,581 --> 00:25:53,699
Check out the notes below to learn
more about what it's like to work as

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00:25:53,699 --> 00:25:54,630
a UX designer.