The only workaround i can suggest is get the official design guidelines if possible and ask whether the designs provided adhere to those . May or may not work.

Software Engineer

that's it, that's the post. i believe non technical product designers shouldn't exist. i hate myself sm after working with this guy. he claims to have 10 yoe, gets paid 1.5x more than me and have 0...

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

that's it, that's the post. i believe non technical product designers shouldn't exist. i hate myself sm after working with this guy. he claims to have 10 yoe, gets paid 1.5x more than me and have 0 technical knowledge. every single design he makes which i have to code is filled with insane things that makes me want to bash my head on the desk.

working with non techincal product designers is a hellish experience

working with non techincal product designers is a hellish experience- Grapevine

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

In early startups specially in b2b, product designers are not designers they're rather design support. Always restricted to reach till minimum viable ux.

Though whatever gets shipped at the end is better from past but power of shaping product is largely placed at PM's table and engeneering table (feasibility). 
Now you can avoid complaing and show high agency, partner with PM in defining Product but the default power house is still PM, not the designer. Also you don't have time for this because designs need to shipped to add to next sprint.

At the end you just take a deep breath and sigh because you made something better, bit better if not far from what existed before.

I guess high impact/ product definition work gets done by designer in big orgs only not only early age startups.

Product designer rant

UX/UI Designer

Field is saturated and you will seriously struggle to find work. Not gate keeping, just laying out the reality. If you're up for the challenge then good, if not then you should look at some other fields.

Product design is kind of weird now and is tougher than you think. It is no more a creative field where you can come up with unique ideas or have fun creating stuff. It is intoxicating, tedious and requires constant fighting with the stakeholders, listening to your micro managers and implementing stuff they "ordered" you to do disguised as feedback. Did I say, it is mostly copy work nowadays and portraying it as a whole new feature/design that is unique to your org/team?

It’s 1% creativity, 99% stroking the ego of your managers and bosses just so you don't get laid off.

(Not at capgemini, burner account)

To all the new Product Designers/UX Designers thinking this field is easy to get into. This is the reality of our field

Looking at the sad state of UX market in India makes me think about the scene few years back. In 2018-19 many folks who found coding or other roles a little difficult switched to UX. 

UX design was glorified even more by few design influenzaaas as if its the only coolest job left in IT.

Most of the experienced designers we see today are earning good but shit in their pants when asked to do good visuals. They are good at talking, use lot of UX jargons and give gyaan on Linkedin comments and constantly ridicule designers who are good at visuals to sound intellectual.

We don’t see talented illustrators, motion designers, vfx folks get the appreciation they deserve. Also these skills are difficult and takes hell lot of practice to master and has a high entry barrier as well.

Market ruined because of low entry barrier in UX Design? 🤔

Business Analyst

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

What the devil is PMs business in search solutioning man? They talk to engineers from another team to understand the solution and then explain that solution to another set of engineer/ds team and brainstorm on what the solution should be. The disconnect is massive in this communication gap.
Why d fck should PMs discuss a search solution? Their job was done if they connected 2 engineer /DS team.

Don't get me wrong, they are putting in hard work to build something, but the disconnect is massive. 2 engineers or Data Scientists can identify the problem in a jhalak. God these PMs sitting in between communication makes things go in useless circles and is a massive unnecessary kachara. All because you are trying to earn ur food in a place u barely belong. Fckin mess

PMs in search

Founding Engineer

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?

Product Designer

Anyone who works there/has heard something about the company about its culture/product market fit/runway etc?

Any leads would be appreciated 😄

Does anyone know about the product culture at Jar?

Product Manager

Got my first product design internship, have never been more disappointed

I've recently had more conflicts with the Engineering Manager in my team. This EM tends to want to influence the specifications of the product, even its design style. While I think having opinions is good, it's often hard to convince him.

An important principle I believe in is "do not step outside one's role." I do not interfere with the details of their implementation, such as the database schema, API design, or even choices of system databases and infrastructure design.

I use my technical skills to help drive the product forward.

This kind of EM, or rather, this kind of engineer is quite common. They feel that having learned computer science, they assume designing or product management is relatively simple and want to get involved. This is a very unqualified situation.

It also creates a challenge for PMs who don't have technical skills to counter such behavior.

"Do not step outside one's role." Do not be a PM who interferes with technical decisions, nor an EM who interferes with product design.

What EM/PM Should do and should not do

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?

Is it just me or design culture in India is just becoming worse?

Saw a lead designer come in for work. Sit down for 5 minutes and make crass jokes and then leave. What even man. I am super disappointed. All the best people I have worked with have either left or are about to leave. All the women in office become uncomfortable with these jokes and it is visible on their faces. 

They then take credit for our work and speak really well to the senior management about "HE" has done. 

I transitioned to design to learn and grow in my career but this is the least ambitious field I have seen in my career.

What do you think?

Design in India is toxic 💩

Software Developer

Here is an incident that happened to me at my old startup. This literally gave me a wake-up call that shattered my "PM is mini-CEO" idea that all my mentors had told me about. 

During a heated product roadmap + prio meeting, the actual CEO, berated me a lot and made fun of my "vision" doc. He called my user research "overrated guesswork" and dismissed the Jira workflow as "a waste of time". He then laughed at my definition of product-market fit and all the metrics I had decided. Mind you, I was the first PM hire at this startup at that time and I used to report directly to the CEO.

When I tried to defend myself with data, he accused me of cherry-picking stats and that I manipulated the data. He then demanded that I learn to code and make use of my degree. I studied Computer Science in college btw. When I asked Why? he said that I needed to create a working prototype by next week. This was abviously a joke but he had made a point, he thought that I was not doing real work.

As I left the meeting room,  I realised two things: I'm not nearly as important as I thought, and this job isn't about changing the world, it's about surviving the brutal reality of business. It was a harsh reminder that in the end, the CEO and not me, calls the shots.

The CEO called me a terrible PM 🤡

Why: I know that with all the job layoffs happening, it's kinda stupid to quit but I just can't. After almost a decade in the startup scene I'm taking a break, probably for good. 

From AI to B2C to ed-tech and more I have worked with startups at every stage of growth and across sectors. Almost in every one of these w/o exception, I have experienced burnout, mindless pressure, and being underpaid because I'm not from an IIT or IIM. 

Context: I love technology, I have been a sci-fi nerd since school and I threw myself into the stories of startups changing the world. But because of family finances and the overall culture of startups I haven't taken a break in about 10 years and it's starting to show. 

I don't have savings to last me more than 3-4 months but at this rate I'll end up checking out of society. 

Unsolicited advice: 
1) Most startups and the VCs that back them know they're going to fail but don't internalise their failure as yours. 
2) Always, always take care of your mental + physical health. Doesn't matter if you're intern and you're expected to slog 12-15 hours in the name of learning. 
3) I missed moments with my ageing mom and dad, school friends and just time to read and relax because I was afraid of missing out on "networking" and "office night outs". Fuck all that, it is and it will always be family and frit first. 


Finally, Fuck all you hustle bro CEOs, they have done more to damage the mentor health of a generation more than any politician. I feel stupid and useless because you can't help posturing and creating panic in the name of disruption. Hope AI takes your jobs too. 

PS: See you on the other side.

I'm laying myself off. Indian start-ups have killed my sense of purpose

Product Marketing Manager

Job role of design technologist/ engineers in companies like Chargebee, Postman 
What tech stack should we know in order to get into such companies with 1+ year of product design experience
Which companies hire for these roles?

What is the role of design technologist/design engineer?

I’m interviewing at a bunch of companies and most of them want a generalist in the product designer position. Expecting to take on every responsibility possible, leaving no room for any sort of work-life balance. 

Founders/co-founders, listen up. You might be obsessed with the problem you’re solving. Do not expect others to be equally obsessed. With all due respect, we’re here to look after ourselves and our families. You disguise these additional responsibilities as “learning opportunities” which is absolutely bollocks. You don’t even offer to pay accordingly. 

Just needed to rant. If anyone else here has a different point of view, I’m open to changing my opinions.

What’s with these companies and their expectations from designers to do everything?

I'm a UX designer in an MNC with almost 2 years of experience. I want to work on a mid size / small design team with strong design practices. Does anyone have recommendations for companies I can consider?

I am looking for places where design contributes to product decisions, strategy, rather than simply executing the PRDs.

working with non techincal product designers is a hellish experience

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