Principal Product Designer

Should a designer work under a /non-designer manager/team lead?

Graphic designer

Should a designer work under a /non-designer manager/team lead?- Grapevine

been working at a product based startup as the only ui/ ux designer for over 6 months now. work is usually solving for and designing new features, or thinking redesign from user grievances. the products were already designed for them by an agency before my joining and feel poorly designed to me, but does the job for the users. decisions regarding usage and the how-tos of implementation are taken by the product leads.

in such a scenario, i don't see myself taking product decisions, but i try to suggest my ideas (mostly accepted) when we frame the requirements and solutions. how do i grow from just largely only designing what my leads tell me, to actually making an impact with the products we have?

background- i'm an electronics engineer, landed a design internship at a startup a little before graduation and they offered a full time role after. accepted it over my placement and it's been over 6 months in this role.

thanks & cheers :)

Growth as a designer?

Visual designer

Our team has grown organically in the past couple of years. We have 2 senior designers, 1 mid level designer and 4 junior designers. Have been finding it difficult to find time for each of them. Senior designers who are mentoring junior designers are finding it difficult to complete their work.

What’s the idea ratio between senior and junior designers in a product design team? Design managers, are you also facing similar issues? How are you working on it?

Please share your thoughts and feedback.

Product Design team- ideal ratio between senior and junior designers

Product Designer

I don’t feel confident in terms of my skills as a product designer. I want to work on startups and I’ve seen folks from 10K joining companies like Cars24, Razorpay etc.
I feel I need some guidance and mentorship with respect to how to think as a designer. 
Is the course worth it? If no, what’s the best alternative you’d recommend?

Is 10K designers course worth it for someone with 3 YOE?

I just joined a semi government organisation in delhi as a Senior Graphic Designer. Prior to that I have worked for early stage startups and been a contributor to their growth story. But in my current organisation they don't like If I do things on my own or create something different from their existing designs. They even tell me what colors or font to use in designs particularly the assistant content manager who assigns work. Anything I make is rejected and replaced by their old ideas which they are following. How to deal with this?

How to deal with this nightmare? 👻

UI/UX Designer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Not from product design, but brand and marketing side? who works alongside brand head

Do you have a creative director in your org?

Bhai Mai DSA kru yaa nhi. Figma se jyada scope dikh rha xD

Corporate Rizz

I just want to know how designers and pms are placed in a company? 

Because where I work I feel the PM is really dumb and she doesn't understand ux or even a bit a sense of visual design on how ui should work. She says "I don't really care how a button looks as long as it's there on the page". 

And I keep her in loop for feedbacks and she just doesn't understand the problem statement. Initially I thought maybe I'm not explaining it correctly but it's almost a year now and I feel she's dumb. 

She's actually a friend of the CEO so she agrees to whatever he says and he's kind of similar so I don't really know what to say. 

Also, I always work on a new project without having a PRD in place. So again is that how it's supposed to go where I do the PMs job and a product designers job or how is it? 

Any comments or thoughts are appreciated 🙏

PMs and Designers collaboration

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I’m a frontend developer, got an opportunity from another org, to work on their design system. Is that a good opportunity??

Working on a company’s design system

Software Engineer

Mostly so called "Design Leaders" "mentors" are always spewing gyaan in my office, LinkedIn, social media but actually fail to implement those stuff. Every other week we have this call where designers are supposed to talk about a topic and every designer comes with such complex presentations, use big words as if they are saving the world or something. They unnecessarily complicate such simple topics and then go on to call themselves designers 🤡

Why are product designers so pretentious?

UX/UI designer

Have you had experiences working with UX Designers which made you want to pull your hair out and smash your keyboard into the screen?

Have you instead worked with designer unicorns who made your life easy?

UX Designers who looped you in from the very start of the engagement, understood your tech stack and developmental constraints, reviewed designs with your team before pushing them to production, who crafted well-organised design systems and components which were updated in real time, making life easy for your FE developers and in time for each dev sprint?

Do you believe such designers even exist?

Please share your stories.

What do you hate about designers?

Hey guys, I'm working as a UX designer in an Design agency. So over there i used to work from research till wireframes for each projects, like i don't have hands on experience doing the UI part. Is it okay if i  just learn how to design stuffs using existing design systems?
And also could anyone suggest me some good companies which have good design culture in hyderabad or remote!

Thanks in advance 😄

Should i be a UI design expert to get into good product based companies as a product designer

I have been talking to a few companies, across different size bands.
Only Indian startups seem to obsessed with full week WFO/Micromanagement.

A few years back, startups were known for being more flexible, now it just seems to be the reverse.

Why are Indian startups so obsessed with Micromanagement? i.e. WFO

Founder

Welcome to Confessions's Private Community

And no, the debate isn’t whether tech hiring is tough or non-tech hiring is tough - all I’m saying is ... design hiring is the trickiest of them all.

Think about it:
- There are only so many keywords to focus on. How do you even begin to filter out the right talent?
- Subjectivity of Aesthetics: Defining what looks good vs what is “really” good. What might look good to a recruiter is not what might appeal to a hiring manager
- Communication Breakdown: What looks good to a hiring manager needs to be translated to the recruiter on the grounds and factors why the design made sense. Tough - hell yeah!
- Every designer has a portfolio, but how do you differentiate between genuinely innovative work and something that’s just flashy or just showed his inclination to one theme/style or is the portfolio screaming love for one sub section - neobrutalism anyone? Today’s trendy designs might be tomorrow’s outdated trash. How do you hire for timeless design skills?
- Technical Skills vs. Artistic Vision: How do you balance or filter on either - the need for technical proficiency with the necessity for artistic vision
- Client-Based Variability: Designers often tailor their work to what the ask was. How do you discern their true skill level when their portfolio is a mixed bag of client/customer whims? + how do you know X's work is not Y inspired or even better.. a rip off?
- Designers are creative people. How do you access real Cultural Fit? This breed needs to be protected and let them be. But then how do you ascertain designers work style gels with your company’s culture?
- Without assignments you cant get to know them or their depth and dimension of work, and assignments (in general) carry a bad rep in that circuit - cause a lot of work is passed off as a screening assignment.

IMHO, design hiring is like assembling a rocket ship with Lego pieces - it’s complex, nuanced, and the stakes are incredibly high. If can either get it right or F UP real bad.

Design hiring is the trickiest

Human resource

We have had new designers recently in the team which have made our life hell. Only thing they want is pixels perfect design to be made due to which our projects deadlines have stretched a lot and bothered our work life balance. 
Introducing new designers to a team can bring fresh perspectives, but it seems these individuals might be focused heavily on perfectionism. Their insistence on pixel-perfect designs is causing delays and affecting our team's workflow and deadlines. While their dedication to detail can be commendable, I think it's essential to strike a balance between quality and efficiency to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Also these folks are making everything so design heavy that we also have had CVR drops. New design looks flashy and barely good to use for normal users. Thoughts?

Frontend Engineers, how are you able to manage never ending design reviews?

What are your views on moving from an Individual Contributor role to a Design Manager role? Good move? Pros and Cons? Please comment below, especially creatives ✨

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