5 ways to keep being a productive Experience Designer during bench time
By: Silviya Berry
Tags: Productive Tips, Ideas, Experience Design, Designer, Inspiration

“Time off in between projects”, “Bench time”, “Being in reserve” etc. all relate to the time period when an agency designer is not engaged on billable projects.

As an agency Experience Designer, when benching you’d probably be included in all regular design team meetings, and remotely have coffee with your design mates, which is cool and keeps you on track with everything design-related within the company. However, as you might not be having a design problem to solve for some time, you might start feeling bored, unaccomplished, and even afraid you are not providing enough for your company.

The first thing you need to acknowledge is that bench time is a regular thing you’ll bе gоing through. And that’s good. It means you will not always be in a problem-solving state of mind.

Sometimes benching could be a week, other times it could last a month. And that’s also normal. That time will allow you to take a break, zoom out and look at the bigger picture. It could also be full of opportunities for self-improvement, knowledge sharing and actually simply being curious.

Nevertheless, sometimes these are also dark periods for some of us. You might start feeling lazy and bored with your day. And that’s the last thing we want.

That’s why I thought of 5 ways to fight laziness, boredom, and feelings of unaccomplishment etc., and keep feeling useful & productive during bench time.

1. Look for some internal company projects or processes which need improvement

As an Experience Designer, you’ll surely feel good if you take part in improving your and your mates’ experience within the company.

Having worked for the company you probably already know which processes are slow and ineffective. For example, you’ve noticed that the handoff between the presales team and the delivery team is broken and creates problematic situations later on. You could initiate a conversation about improving the handoff or presales processes so that the delivery team feels comfortable with requirements during execution.

If you are just starting in the company, ask your manager/lead if there are such internal projects and declare your willingness to participate in them. That will also help you integrate faster and get to know your new colleagues.

2. Upskill. Upskill again.

Think of what skills you have and if you want to improve some of them or you would like to get new knowledge and skills.

Make a list of everything you are good at and everything you think you don’t know or don’t feel confident with. This exercise will help you better visualize and choose how to upskill.

Example of a skills diagram

Once you have visualized your strengths and weaknesses, you can go ahead and prioritize what you need to work on in the future.

3. Help a mate, start mentoring

Surely, you can sign in for a mentorship program within your compny, or initiate it yourself.

Talk to your manager and share with him/her your desire to help with the growth of junior designers.

If you are a junior designer yourself, you can ask for a mentor to help you get into experience design real-world faster. Your mentor will share with you some project examples and will walk you through important processes and information sources.

4. Share some knowledge — write, vlog, speak

Another way to share your knowledge and experience is by writing articles, creating some vlogs, and signing up for some internal and external presentation events.

Creating content under your and your company names has several gain points:

You expand and confirm your knowledge

You learn to confidently express your thoughts

You improve your relationships with your company

5. Volunteer to help your company mates on a project

Similar to the mentoring option, this option calls for your proactivity. Simply let your manager/lead know that you are willing to help on а project. Surely, there are some challenging client projects which call for more manpower and you could be a valuable helping hand.

All in all, make the most of your bench time. It could be pretty beneficial for you and your career.

I’m a lucky one, working for a company that supports me in all the above and cheers me up along the way.

I am Silviya, an Experience Designer in Softserve. Hope I helped with some ideas to get you out of boredom during your bench time.

How do you feel during bench time? Do you have other suggestions on getting out of the rut while you’re in reserve? Let me know in the comments section below.