This week I got some fantastic news. Two people that I referred to H&M as product designers received offers! I still can't understand it. This week I will focus on the story of Stefanie and what you can learn from it.
What was holding her back
Stefanie currently works at online sales at H&M and reached out to me on LinkedIn to learn about how to transition to UX. There were three things holding her back which are common for entry-level and junior designers:
Her confidence
Understanding her unique selling point
Communicating her process
If you can relate, I want you to stop reading right now and find a mentor. You can find plenty of design mentors on ADPList.
Giving Stefanie the push
Long story short, I told Stefanie to apply for the product design role at H&M in November. She originally wanted to apply after the New Year so that she felt more "ready". But if you're gonna wait until you feel ready, you're gonna do things too late. I convinced her to apply and she got called in for a case study presentation. I helped her iterate on her slide deck, giving her pointers on how to show her value and how to show off her case study well. Fast forward to this week - she got an offer.
Can you imagine if she had talked herself out of applying in November? She'd still be working on her portfolio wondering when she'd get a UX job.
The takeaway
What is standing between us and what we want is often ourselves. We're afraid of making mistakes or failing. If you couldn't fail, what would you attempt? Why haven't you attempted? How do you know you'll fail? Does it matter that you fail if you learn what you need to succeed? I hope this story inspires you to take a leap of faith!
Design thought of the week
Career Framework Pilot at H&M
At H&M, we're piloting a new career framework with the product designers. An interesting expectation that comes with it is that, by the time you reach Lead Designer, they want you to be an expert at one of the design skills. Meaning, you're the go-to person for it. It's made me reflect on what that means for me.
Future Expert in...
The skills I have considered are user research, prototyping, and workshop facilitation because I believe these help you solve problems in powerful ways. I ended up choosing workshop facilitation because I want to become a "problem-solving and decision making expert". This is one of the articles that convinced me that this is the way to go.
My favorite things this week
Video: I've had many arguments with people about when you should shower - in the day or in the evening. Thankfully, I don't need to make the argument and over again, and I can instead send this video instead. Don't @ me.
Book: I've been reading Made to Stick to improve my storytelling and I'm loving it. It's helped me focus on one message at a time, and being concrete with examples in order to make things stick. For example, I've started to use a lot of examples in this week's Medium article, mentioning how having a follower count goal wasn't helpful or fulfilling. Books are really awesome, aren’t they? (Yes, this is an example of an example.)
Video: I don’t know how to explain this one (nor their outfit choices), but it’s a BOP.
Quotes of the week
If you don’t try to create the future you want, you must endure the future you get. - John C. Maxwell.
I got to the top the hard way—fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way. - James Thom
No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you doing something. - William Danforth
What great accomplishments we’d have in the world if everybody had done what they intended to do. - Frank Clark
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell.
Article of the week
I wrote this article based on The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell.