A little bit about my career
Tags: product, ux, productdesign
Published: 2022-08-12 22:01:22

A few days ago I wanted to write an article about my experience as a UI/UX Designer and then how I got involved in Product Design.  
**Let’s get cracking!**

In 2018, I started my career as a UI/UX Designer in a small consultancy where I had the opportunity to work with a UX Manager. I remember that at this time I didn’t know how to do information architecture. I learned to do it. We designed apps and dashboards 😊

Then I had my first opportunity to work in a startup where I learned the difference between consulting and startup. In this team I collaborated with the Product owner, UI/UX Designers and Developers. Although my experience there was limited, I learned what the key points are to take into account at the moment of designing a product, but I didn’t know what the role of the product designer was. 

In my last experience, I worked in a startup that provides online therapy. When I joined them I started as UI/UX Designer. 

At the beginning I designed an agenda. I remember this project was big and I took a lot of time to do it. I ran some remote tests with users and I improved the design. At this time I was disorganized. I never completed my deadlines and I felt lost. I recognized that and I started to work on it. 

The first thing I [did] was define a template for projects. It helped to me have the information in one place. I use a Shape up template in my own process. 🚀 [[check it it out]](https://www.notion.so/gabrielamunoz/Design-template-e395794ebbb2492982b3bd2bec289393)

And well, every day I worked more in Product Design. I started to understand some key points: 

- Psychologists: Experience, technical abilities, ages, how to talk with them, etc.
- Patients: Who are they? How are old they? What difficulties do they have?

For few months I gave customer service that helped me to understand what problems users have on the platform. 

I had the opportunity to manage the product in this startup. Also I collaborated with other teams and together we did a product. 🤘🏻 
I think the best ability I developed in this product was to see the entire product as a big picture. 

## What I do as Product Designer?

I’m thinking, thinking a lot! As a mentioned above Product Designer is more strategic, as much of my day is dedicated to product planning, doing roadmaps, next steps, launches, and **evaluating** products.

At the beginning of each project I started with a plan. In other words, a general document of the project which anyone can consult. 

**What is the plan?** 
The plan helps us to describe user needs and how we will satisfy their needs. Sometimes designers think it is not necessary to do it, but If you have a plan you save time in the future. 

In this document I describe the following: 

- Articulate vision
- Conduct user research
- Write product requirements document (PRD)
- Write critical user journeys (CUJ)
- Establish service level objective
- Draft landing metrics
- Write design docs
- Create schedules and plans
- Test using prototypes

In this phase I add deliverables such as customer journey, user personas, insights, research plan, etc. Additionally I like to add pages for the rest of the resources such as: content, images, planning, etc.

**Develop and test**

- Create development schedules
- Document dependencies
- Make mockups
- Do instrument tests
- Plan integrations
- Start product evaluation
- Start approvals (security, privacy, legal, etc.)
- Run documentation usability studies

In this phase I add deliverables such as mockups, diagrams, wireflows, usability test. 

**Launch & land**

Get approvals, do gradual rollout, and earn happy users.

- Launch into alpha, beta, or general availability
- Regularly review how customers use the product
- Nurture growth and check on adoption goals
- Track success metrics
- Add and launch new programs or features as needed

As you can see the work of a Product Designer is very broad. Of course, the tasks you will do depend on the project, time and resources. 

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I want to give advice: In my last experience I worked a lot a lot… for me it was difficult to stop working or delegate a task to someone . Please don’t do that! I had burnout. I learned my mental and physical health is more important than any work. 

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading me! 

Gabs :)