My Journey Starts Here
Hi everyone,
I have decided that these “what I learned” posts will be a sort of journal for my UX journey. I was going to produce a youtube channel, but I think this way is a bit more useful for now.
Last week was very intensive when it came to my training.
Sunday
I attended Grace Yeung’s Augmentor Chat (which was rudely interrupted by a racist zoom boom), which threw me off. Many things are going on with the BLM movement and racial injustices across North America, and it was disappointing to experience that mess.
Monday
I caught a small amount of Alexa’s “The Remote Internship” conversation. It is good to know how companies are handling remote internships and how some people are hired for them. I feel that the post-COVID world has shown companies that there are alternate ways people can work and don’t need to being exclusively in the office, which will open up more businesses hiring outside major cities.
Tuesday
Tuesday was very interesting. I met with Xander, a former Google employee, and discussed my UX design path. He was very encouraging and gave some great actionable advice. I will contact some senior product designers about the possibility of helping with UX projects on the side. It will help me build my new portfolio and hopefully get some hands-on experience especially with design sprints (Check out the book Sprint, by Jake Knapp, its the book I’m reading in June). Xander also gave me some awesome insight on the work I already have in my portfolio.
“Email marketing is a product” ~ Xander
I never thought about it that way. After that, I started an online UX conference called 24 hours of UX.
Wednesday
I did not sleep. The 24 hours of UX started at 10 pm local time and went right through the night. But it was exciting! I met so many new people and learned what other designers are doing across the world! It started with Jeff Patton, talking about design thinking, then moved to New Zealand for their presentation. (Fun fact, New Zealand is 100% COVID-19 free)
I was able to hang out with designers from Brisbane, Australia, and later with some people from the Philippines. Each hour, we were in a new timezone and country. Even Calgary was a part of it and interviewed a UX design lead from Shopify. It was an incredible experience.
Thursday
My alarm went off at 6 am. It was the start of another conference, this time broadcasting from Amsterdam called the Sprint Couch Conference. There we more UX design talks and speakers like Jason Fried (founder of Basecamp) and Satish Kanwar (VP of Product, Shopify). One of the conversations that stood out was the one with Trish Lamana and the team from Rangle. It was exciting learning about the work they do and the tips they gave for people like me transitioning to a UX designer. Also, Chris Messina, the inventor of the hashtag, also spoke. Crazy stuff.
Friday
Friday was finally a rest day for being up for almost 36 hours. I took this time to get caught up on reading my June book Sprint, by Jake Knapp. It is refreshing the approach Jake’s team takes when tackling a problem. I cannot wait to try these methods first hand. I also spoke to my UX accountability partner, Gillian, giving her updates on what’s going on with me and discussing plans about what we both need to focus on to get where we want to be in our careers.
Saturday
Saturday, I had a one-on-one with the director of UX design and Expedia, Marissa Louie. She is an incredible woman, doing her best to help people like me move forward in our design career. We had an emotional conversation about BLM, and some of our past experiences at companies. We discussed how we are treated, and some of the setbacks/negativity we have faced. It was refreshing to know that I am not alone on this topic. I spoke to Marissa about finding a black male that is in a position of leadership in design. It is necessary for myself to see someone that looks like me in these roles because it gives me hope for my future. She understood this and gave me great resources, including following Dantley Davis, VP of Design and Research at Twitter. It was really encouraging speaking to her and got me fired up for the next phase in my life. After our talk, she gave me the opportunity to attend the San Francisco Design Week.
“Create a feedback loop of a group of friends and colleagues.” ~ Marissa
I said this before; last week was intense. I learned a lot about UX design around the work and a lot about myself.
This is exciting :)
