3 Things I learned working as a Solo UI/UX Designer in a Start-up
As I sailed a team of one as a UI/UX Designer for a startup, my day-to-day tasks can start from quiet sails and then suddenly get sucked into a cyclone out of nowhere.
Whenever you go through in-depth insights about your career, you certainly become more aware of what you want to establish in the long run and it becomes evident as you go along…
One of the many things I am fortunate to explore was working for start-ups. Wearing many hats was somehow an equivalent of a triathlon for me; I could be running meetings half of the day, maneuvering my way through virtual rooms for workshops/testing, and finally ending the race somewhere presenting to stakeholders to get approval on designs that needs to be on the development sprint the next day.
I wish there is a better system in these start-ups I’ve joined but unfortunately, as I reached my 5th startup, I started to see a pattern.
1. Everything is rapid fire
I was a team of one in the design department and this usually equated with me scheduling my own meetings for the day to understand the product better or asking how component behavior works or how the team has kept a UI Inventory or if there was a design system in hand (in which I’ve always gotten a resounding ‘no’). So, if you’re used to ‘ease your way in’, chances are you won’t get that in start-ups.
How have I tackled this?
There is simply no better method than to initiate. You have to observe… and observe some more. How does your team work? You can’t just simply barge in and tell them what you want, you need to be empathetic. It’s like forcing your ideals onto someone committed to their own beliefs. Give it time.
I’ve also always kept a personal inventory of a design system just to keep everything organized and efficient; this is usually just a set of components to asset usage that would be communicated, design versioning, labels, features, notes, process flow screens, or placeholders, element measuring, etc.
2. Keep the entire process to yourself
Your stakeholders won’t care if you know how to create ‘wireframes’. It matters if you can deliver high-fidelity versions of the screens.
I remember vividly, I watched this video on Youtube about a designer who never really share the entire process with his stakeholders and I was offended (lol). It was the beginning of my career and my advocacy for the UX process was pretty hard…it wasn’t until I experienced being rejected for showing wireframes only that I understood what he meant.
Remember…
It’s a start-up. If it makes sense, a feature will be kept, a particular spacing might change if there is an issue with touch points but most of the time, you’ll do your user testing when your product is launched.
There might be times when you can strongly advocate for the users but you need to understand now that the only way to win is finding the balance between your users and the business.
3. Learning to be Independent
This might be a broken record but most of the things you’ll need won’t be handed to you if you don’t ask for them. Learn to learn. Find the solutions and suggest what you have found, your design will never be perfect because UX is a continuous process. The worst thing you could get is a NO but at least you didn’t come to a meeting empty-handed.
In all honesty, joining start-ups was probably one of my favorites because of how freely I am able to explore ideas and how my growth skyrocketed.
Does the chaos get to me? Yes, of course, burnout is inevitable with this kind of setup but I have learned to manage my 9–5 under bearable pressure over the years.
This is my first article after going on a hiatus, hopefully, I’d be able to keep this at a good phase from now on.
Thank you!
