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Owing to its recent rise in popularity, you've likely heard of design tokens.As a concept, understanding design tokens is quite simple: A design token is a code-based way to maintain how design systems look.For a designer, that means:Faster design changes Improved communication Reduced documentation headache More cross-platform consistency Easier handoffs to developers And while, for the right teams, design tokens can do wonders, it would be a mistake to get into it and try to implement design tokens without the right knowledge or practices.What Are Design Tokens?In essence, design tokens are variables.Think X = Y, where ‘X’ is a design attribute and ‘Y’ is the value.It’s important to note that there is much more to these values than reducing them down to “variables”, but for the sake of understanding design tokens better, this analogy will work for our purposes.For example: ‘borderWidth = 8px’ means that a border’s width will be, you guessed it, 8 pixels. (Pixels are what we see on our devices. These words you are reading right now are being displayed as pixels by your device.)These variables or “design tokens” can help to speed up the design and development process by automating updates, removing guess work, improving documentation, and documenting design decisions.For the right teams it can boost productivity and efficiency by removing some of the tedium that comes from maintaining design systems and documentation.Why Use Design TokensI’m sure you can already see how design tokens can improve your design system:Rapid design changes: Designers and developers can quickly change the look of the design by manipulating the token’s values. Consistency across platforms: Design tokens help ensure consistent design elements across platforms, reducing the need for back-and-forth between designers and developers. Reduced documentation headaches: Documentation can be updated automatically with design token changes, reducing the likelihood of errors and inconsistencies. Future-proofing your design system: Design tokens provide a flexible, modular foundation for your design system that can be easily updated and adapted over time. Additionally, design tokens are gaining in popularity.As I am writing this, there is a W3C community group working to establish a set of standards for the industry to use.The W3C or The World Wide Web Consortium is responsible for creating and maintaining the standards for the world wide web. It’s thanks to them that teams no longer need to spend hours ensuring web apps appear the same across web platforms.This is something that you are going to want to consider with your design systems.Developer Hand-offAh, the joys of handing off design tokens to development!While design tokens offer immense benefits to the design process, communicating and implementing them across platforms can be a daunting task.The first challenge is understanding and communication.Designers and developers need to be on the same page when it comes to naming conventions and values to ensure consistency in design. Here’s an interesting video to understand how design systems help improve and speed up the development process.Secondly, implementing design tokens across platforms can be tricky. Different platforms may require different formats, and converting design tokens can result in discrepancies in values.And if that wasn't enough, managing design token changes can be a headache.With multiple stakeholders involved in the process, keeping track of changes and ensuring everyone is using the most up-to-date design tokens can feel like a game of whack-a-mole.But fear not, there are ways to overcome these challenges and streamline the handoff process.For a deeper dive into how designers and developers collaborate, be sure to catch this insightful conversation between our developers and design teams: Ask A Designer Round 2: Questions For Designers, From Developers.How To Navigate the Challenges of Design TokensHold a workshopResearch! Learn about how design tokens were created and how organizations are adapting them to their needs. Look into the W3C Design tokens community group to understand the standards that are currently being developed. Bring together your stakeholders, developers, designers, and other key personnel Ensure that everyone understands the goals and intent behind adding design tokens to a design system. Make sure to document your decisions! Discuss a naming convention. This step is trickier than you may think. Designers and Developers need to create a common language for discussing the project. If thats not a common practice already, it will take some time to get everyone on the same page. Document. Your. Decisions. Agree on an implementation plan, start small and with a few components to work out any process gaps. It is easier to adjust 3 variables than it is to adjust an entire design system. Consider the future of the project as well, the work you do will have a direct impact on the results in the future. Again, make sure you are documenting this work. DocumentationDocumenting the decisions that build the foundation of your design system is ALWAYS the prudent thing to do.After all, who hates leaving a meeting and realizing you cannot remember key decisions?This opens the team up for misinformation to creep in and disrupt the flow. Were we using a 8pt system or 10pt system? Designer A says 8pt, Developer 1 says 10pt. It's anarchy!Make it easier with documentation tokensWhen it comes to documentation, Design Tokens for Figma can expedite the style documentation thanks to its handy documentation tokens.But what it cannot document is the reasoning and structures that go into creating the style guide.Adding design tokens to your system gives you and your team an opportunity to look at what is currently serving your design practice and determine if it is still serving you.Best Practices To Introduce Design Tokens To Your Design SystemIn order to offer the best chance at organizational adoption, here are a few best practices that will help navigate the nuances of design tokens:Create and enforce clear naming conventionsEstablishing a common language between all involved in a product isn’t always an easy feat. Even in the design community, you hear different terms for the same design patterns: Modal aka pop-up, overlay, or ********dialogue box. Consider the experience a new team member will have onboarding into this system. Use naming conventions that are intuitive and that work for your team. Avoid abbreviations and again, document the decisions that went into it. Be kind when reminding someone of correct naming conventions. Habits are hard to break, so as you start implementing design tokens don’t expect 100% adherence from the start. Maintain a centralized Design Token LibraryConsider using a cloud-based 3rd-party platform such as Storybook as a repository for your design components. This will allow team members to access the design system components from anywhere increasing visual design consistency. Create clear guidelines for how design tokens should be organized within the library to ensure naming and organization consistency. This can also help stakeholders and developers navigate through Figma using wayfinding. Regularly update and review design tokensSet a regular review schedule to ensure that design tokens are regularly audited and updated as needed. Solicit feedback from team members and stakeholders to identify areas where design tokens may need to be updated or added. Document any changes made to design tokens to ensure that all team members are aware of updates and can access the most current version. If you find that you aren’t making much headway with design token adoption, I find it helpful to take a step back and ask “why”.Sometimes you will need to tweak your approach or perhaps your organization lacks the design maturity to support design tokens.Once you have a clearer understanding of the underlying issues, you can begin to address them.When NOT to use Design TokensWhile design tokens can be a valuable tool for maintaining consistency and efficiency in the design process, they're not always necessary.If you're working on a small project, a project with constantly changing requirements, or a project with highly unique visual elements, it may not be worth the effort to create a full library of design tokens.In those cases, it may be more efficient to define visual elements on a case-by-case basis.The key is to evaluate each project on a case-by-case basis and determine if design tokens are the right choice.Real-World Examples of Design Token ImplementationDesign tokens are the secret sauce that many companies are using to create consistent and cohesive design experiences across their products and platforms.From IBM's design language to Salesforce's Lightning Design System, these tokens are being implemented in a wide range of products and services to streamline the design process and ensure visual consistency.Even companies like Shopify and Airbnb have jumped on the design token bandwagon, using these powerful tools to create a consistent look and feel across their websites and mobile apps.So if you want to stay ahead of the design curve and ensure a consistent user experience, it's time to start incorporating design tokens into your design system.TakeawayLet's wrap up this informative piece on design tokens.Design tokens are like the MVPs of the design world, enabling rapid design changes, consistency across platforms, and future-proofing your design system.However, implementing design tokens can have its challenges, such as communicating and implementing them across platforms and managing design token changes.To overcome these challenges, hold workshops, document decisions, establish clear naming conventions, and maintain a centralized design token library.So, start implementing design tokens like a pro today!

UX, UI and Product Designers work within a space of continuous learning. The very nature of what we do is iteration!In a highly competitive field, good designers look to expand their knowledge and keep up with the latest tools in order to best serve their users.So I asked designers from our team about how they stay sharp and what methods have worked best in their experience.Question 1What suggestions would you give to keep up with the latest knowledge and advancements in technology?Name: Adriano RenziTitle: UX ResearcherResponse:I try to check how technology may evolve by attending scientific conferences and reading scientific journals and being part of discussion panels related to interaction, information architecture and AI. Many presented researches anticipate by 2 to 5 years what will come in the future.Name: Rahul JacobTitle: Product DesignerResponse:As the tech industry evolves rapidly, attending conferences, tech events, and joining online or in-person communities can help with gaining knowledge and adapting to new technologies. It is also important to spend some time every day following news from technology focused publications and online tech news sites. Connect with tech Influencers, tech companies devoted to technology and emerging trends through social media.Name: Osama NadeemTitle: Product DesignerResponse:I have subscribed to many designers/content creators on youtube, blogs and I follow tech leaders on platforms like linkedin where I get many updates regarding what’s happening in the tech industry.Name: Umer FarooqTitle: Principal DesignerResponse:I used to look around articles especially on IDF and try to find if it’s timeless. Trends come and go but there are certain workflows, behaviors you can learn by participating in communities. I can relate to Figma as I lost the train because of my too much involvement with Adobe XD. A lesson well learnt and now catching up well with Figma, the best design tool.Name: Dana MitchellTitle: Sr. Product DesignerResponse:Step one would be to identify what technology you want to keep up with. Go with what you are passionate about or technologies that pique your interest. Step two is figuring out how you want to keep up to date. I leverage videos, audiobooks, and podcasts for my learning. Lastly, step three, use that knowledge. Write articles, design flows, edit a video, whatever format it takes! By using your new knowledge you will anchor it in your mind and create a personal design process that is dynamic and designed to grow with you.Name: Cordelia FongTitle: Sr. UX DesignerResponse:I tend to actively keep up and devote time to reading the tech news daily. Attending conferences and workshops, networking with designers are also a priority, following great leaders and participating in online communities.Question 2Are there design leaders or blogs you regularly follow?Name: Adriano RenziTitle: UX ResearcherResponse:I like to check what is happening in projects from Ben Schneiderman, Floridi, Resmini, Benyon, Agner, Nigel Cross and Resú. They are usually very active in continuous publications on technology. I do not look for design blogs because they usually present no reference of their facts.Name: Rahul JacobTitle: Product DesignerResponse:I consider Don Norman to be one of the most influential design leaders when it comes to user experience and usability research. In addition, I find John Maeda to be a true inspiration since he is the pioneering voice of simplicity that encourages people to use technology to simplify their daily lives rather than complicate them.Dribbble, UX Collective, Medium, Smashing Magazine are all excellent resources for finding great articles, stories, content, inspiration, research, as well as for thinking critically.Name: Osama NadeemTitle: Product DesignerResponse:Among many designers that I follow, I admire Don Norman, Anudeep Ayyagari, Eric Keneddy and Joe Natoli. I like how Don Norman has a very simple yet effective way of explaining things, Anudeep Ayyagari has a rather funny tone which is also pretty interesting. Eric Keneddy’s UI course that I took a couple of years ago was very impactful and is still very relevant and Joe Natoli has a very unfiltered and impactful way of explaining things.Name: Umer FarooqTitle: Principal DesignerResponse:My all time favorites are Normans, Nick Babich, Mark Hassenzaal, Frank Spillers. The guys are so expressive and communicate ideas in a seamless fashion that you don’t feel burdened.Name: Dana MitchellTitle: Sr. Product DesignerResponse:Not a blog but podcasts! While not specific to emerging technologies in design, there are a lot of podcasts, like The Way of Product Design, Design Better Podcast, 99% Invisible, etc. have helped me to build a better design practice. Hearing design leaders speak about their problems or projects and the solutions that came with them helped to expand my knowledge of what is possible in product design.Name: Cordelia FongTitle: Sr. UX DesignerResponse:My favorite design leaders are Luke Wroblewski (Mobile First), Steve Krug, Don Norman and Kim Goodwin. I followed a few blogs when I started as a UX designer: CareerFoundry, JustinMind, UX Mastery, UX Matters. They provided such great depth of information on UX careers.Question 3What are your main sources for continuous learning?Name: Adriano RenziTitle: UX ResearcherResponse:Conferences (HCII, AHFE, SPGD, FTC), Journals (Ergodesign Journal, Philosophy and technology, Design de Informação), Theses (Esdi, PUC-Rio), Books (Mihaly Csikszenntmihalyi, Resmini, Nielsen, Rosenfeld, Morville),Name: Rahul JacobResponse:Every once in a while, I check if there are any tech-related crash courses, webinars, online tutorials, and networking events occurring. In addition, I reach out to my friends, coworkers, and colleagues who have the most knowledge on a topic for recommendations: articles, books, lectures, or other resources.Name: Osama NadeemTitle: Product DesignerResponse:I consume lots of content on youtube and I’ve subscribed to many design specific channels there. I also read articles on medium and have followed people on linkedin who post useful design learning resources. Whenever I come across some content and I don’t have the time to skim over it right then, I save it in my Notion workspace and revisit it later. I also try reading books, but that doesn’t happen too often.Name: Umer FarooqTitle: Principal DesignerResponse:I prefer watching rather than reading. There are many channels out there to follow and everyone is doing some seriously amazing work.A recent addition was a guy from Canada called Faheem.Name: Dana MitchellTitle: Senior Product DesignerResponse:My source changes based on my intent. I find that, as a designer, any social media algorithm will eventually serve me design-focused content. You like one of Zander Whitehurst’s “Supafast” videos and the algorithm will serve you more like it. This is a fantastic way to take small “sips” of new knowledge, which makes learning more approachable. However, I do have a more targeted approach when it comes to learning specific skills and I will seek out anything that can help me achieve my goals. Articles, tutorials, videos, documentation, whatever!Name: Cordelia FongTitle: Sr. UX DesignerResponse:LinkedIn learning, courses, books, blogs and attending events.Question 4What design books do you recommend?Name: Adriano RenziTitle: UX ResearcherResponse:Information Architecture by Rosenfeld, Pervasive Information Architecture by Resmine and Rosatti, Arquitetura Pervasiva by Luiz Agner, Lean UX by Gohelf, Seiden, Flow by Csikszenntmihalyi, Les Technologies de l'intelligence by Lévy, Designing Interactions by Moggridge.Name: Rahul JacobTitle: Product DesignerResponse:The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk, and Start With Why by Simon Sinek.Name: Osama NadeemTitle: Product DesignerResponse:The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, Just Enough Research by Erika Hall, Giving A Damn about Accessibility by Sheri Byrne Haber, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, and Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger.Name: Umer FarooqTitle: Principal DesignerResponse:Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug and The Design of Everyday Things.Name: Dana MitchellTitle: Sr. Product DesignerResponse:Inspired by Marty Cagan, The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall, Think Again by Adam Grant, Actionable Gamification by Yu-kai Chou, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.Name: Cordelia FongTitle: Sr. UX DesignerResponse:Many of you may have known these books, but these are still my top 3: 1) The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman 2) Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug 3) The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond by Jesse James GarrettQuestion 5Do you find your personal interests influence your professional space? What inspires you as a designer?Name: Adriano RenziTitle: UX ResearcherResponse:Not really. But I find my enthusiasm and learning interest to influence people around me.Name: Rahul JacobTitle: Product DesignerResponse:Looking back at my childhood, I’m glad I was exposed to Music and Art because it taught me valuable lessons that I don’t believe I would have learned otherwise. Through music and art, I learned how to think outside the box, discover better ways of doing things, boost confidence, productivity, self-esteem, and well-being.Name: Osama NadeemTitle: Product DesignerResponse:I’ve always been fascinated about how things work, that mindset has enabled me to look at problems keenly and that is always my approach when it comes to design. My personal interests such as music and gaming always keep my brain creative because both of them allow me to think outside the box and be creative. These two are among the attributes that keep me motivated as a designer.Name: Umer FarooqTitle: Principal DesignerResponse:I prefer to spend time watching seasons especially with the backdrop of WW2 and keenly observing the culture, the food, the language and how people use to behave in certain circumstances etc. A good designer can always get inspired from whatever content he digests every day.Name: Dana MitchellTitle: Sr. Product DesignerResponse:My inspiration as a designer is to creatively solve problems to improve the lives of people. With my personal interests being balanced between mentoring new designers and expanding my skills as a novice potter, I find that these interests feed directly into my professional work. Mentoring has improved my ability to speak about design and to convey my ideas more effectively while pottery has taught me to let go of my work and accept that not everything is going to make it out of the kiln how I want it to.Name: Cordelia FongTitle: Sr. UX DesignerResponse:Curiosity and finding your passion. I tried things that interested me. Find out what I am good at, and I experimented with Illustration, Sketching, Painting, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Jewellery Design, Advertising Design, Website Design, and which led me to where I am

When was the last time you considered “team happiness” as a KPI for yourself?As a manager, it’s vital to be very aware and conscious of how your team feels at work. Are they happy with what they’re doing? Do they have enough opportunities to grow and develop their skill set?Having a culture of open and transparent communication within any team can have very positive effects on its function.Open communication helps foster trust among team members by creating a safe environment where they can share their thoughts and ideas.It can also boost the team’s productivity, creativity, and innovation. Above all, if practiced regularly, this can create a continuous feedback loop that can help the team to improve, leading to better decision-making and smoother achievement of their goals. Combined with values of honesty and support, this can enable managers to build hyper-successful teams.Then again, it is important to understand that communication is a two-way street, and sometimes, growing teams and managers fail to look at it that way. The team lead, or the manager would always be the one to provide feedback and consider it to be sufficient.Instead, managers should engage in open dialogue and actively seek feedback for communication with their team members. This will help them understand how they are perceived and identify any concerns their team members have.Not only will this activity make them more effective in their roles, but when each teammate feels that they have a say in how the team is run and that their opinions are valued, their motivation and commitment to the team will increase massively.Open collaboration is not just limited to the team and the manager, but it should also be encouraged amongst all stakeholders involved to ensure success of any project. To achieve this, be sure to check out this article on DesignOps.Focus Areas For ManagersFor managers, we can identify the following areas upon which they can measure their perception within their teams and seek improvement:Team Happiness: Do their team members enjoy working together under their management? Growth & Upskilling: Do managers provide enough opportunities for growth and development for their team members? Leading through an example: Do managers manifest the qualities in themself that they expect of their team members? Support: Do managers provide the right support to their team members in their work? Open to feedback: How open are the managers about their shortcomings or listening to their team members about their own mistakes? Transparency: Do the managers communicate proactively and transparently? Culture: Does the manager create an inclusive culture for everyone in their team to thrive? Recognition: Does the manager put an effort to recognize their team members when they do good work or just focus on the criticism? A lot of answers to the above questions can be found by simply maintaining open communication with your team, like in this candid conversation with designers.Feedback Form TemplateNow to put these in practical terms, here is how someone can use the following template to get feedback from their team members.Instructions for the respondents:Keep the survey confidential and anonymous, so people can comfortably respond. Illustrate the intent of the survey, which is to get feedback from people for self-improvement. Don't confine the responses to p options or a grading system. Keep the answers open and let people express their sentiments. Here is an example:The QuestionnaireFor the questions of the feedback survey, it is a good idea to give examples of positives and negatives that can help the team members understand better what they should be looking for in terms of support from their managers. It is also a good idea to enable the shuffle option in the questionnaire if possible to randomly sort questions to remove fatigue bias for some questions.Are you happy or proud to be a member of your squad/ team? Do you feel connected with your peers? Does <> provide you with enough opportunities for growth and advancement in your career? Examples can be discussion around opportunities or asking you to practice certain things that can improve you as a professional. If this has happened, highlight something that you disliked or liked about this. Does <> inspire or motivate you to do your best work? If yes, How? Example: Either by his example or sharing inspirations or talking with you or something else. How would you describe the level of support offered by <>? Example: Does <> support you in your well-being, work challenges, work-life balance challenges, growth challenges, etc.? You can also mention areas where you may have felt a lack of support from <> and would like that to improve. How comfortable do you feel in giving feedback to <> or sharing anything that you don't feel good about? What is <>'s general response when you have shared something difficult with him before? Do you feel that you are treated fairly without bias? How would you rate transparency in terms of messaging, policy sharing, and general communication from <>? What could be improved? Describe your squad's culture in fewer than 20 words. You can also mention if you don't see any culture or a culture you would like the team to strive for. Are you encouraged to lend others a helping hand if they are stuck with some task or take help from others and be comfortable about it? How strongly do you feel valued at work? Does <> recognize your good work or exclusively focus on criticizing? How likely would you recommend a close friend, family member, or someone you care about to work in the <>'s team? [BONUS Question] What is something <> can start doing, do more of, or stop doing to support you to continue doing great work? TakeawayConstructive criticism that doesn’t discourage, but in fact motivates team members effectively will always prove to be a successful method.And as great as achieving effective communication can prove to be, it’s vital to make conscious and tangible efforts in the way of doing so.With the feedback form template and questionnaire provided above, you should find it easier to actively contribute towards improving communication and collaboration within your team.For a more in-depth guide on how you can enhance the growth and performance of your design teams, read this detailed article on Designer Career Ladders.

For any organization where design is a core part of the service portfolio, building a design team is a gargantuan task.While filling in the designer roles and laying down designer responsibilities is one big part of it, there lies another immense responsibility on the organization: to provide promising designer career paths for its people.This means building something strong from the ground up, but at the same time, creating a solution that is flexible to your organization’s distinct needs and goals.What is the Career Path for a Designer?When deciding the career path for a designer, the first step is to start by building a career ladder for all designer roles within the organization.At this stage, your objective should be to make sure that the ladder answers the following questions:How do we offer our designers opportunities to grow as individual contributors and people managers? How do we make sure that our titles are standard with the best practices in the industry? How do we ensure consistent titles across all designer roles? In the search for answers to these questions, we came up with the following career ladder:The Dual-Lane Designer Career LadderAlong the product and design career ladder, there are multiple elements and steps that the designers go through.And understanding the hierarchy of these designer roles and their impact is step one.What is the hierarchy in designer roles?Every designer starts as an associate, learning and growing their way to mid and senior levels.After the senior level, designers can decide to pursue either the individual contributor or the leadership path as both offer very different levels of designer responsibilities and role expectations.Of course, designers can opt to switch their paths: An individual contributor can always become a manager and a manager can go on to become an individual contributor at any time of their career.But, with that being said, this usually comes with a big change in their day-to-day responsibilities — and that’s what’s important for designers to understand.Transparent role expectations and designer responsibilitiesNext, it’s important to give designers the tools they would need to succeed in their current roles and help managers have better conversations with designers around the subject of growth and development.In our quest to learn from some of the best standards and examples from the design community and defined clear role expectations for every role.For each designer role’s expectation, we tried to include a good mix of hard and people skills.Below is an example of our product design role expectations.Annual assessmentsNow to add accountability and dialogue to the mix, we’ve seen that running skill assessments once a year is a good way to take first-hand input from every designer, key designated client-side stakeholders, and the team leads. This feedback is then assessed against the designers’ role expectations, and key designer KPIs.We also have the designers fill out the same skill assessment for their own selves when they join the team.In these assessments, we urge designers to be as honest as possible:Ranking as ”Improving” (low) anywhere is seen as an opportunity for growth and not as a sign of weakness.This is the same principle you can follow when discussing the results of yearly assessments that are done from clients and other stakeholders.For the rating of each skill, we use the following grading system that we learned from our amazing friends at Salesforce.The word scale makes a lot more sense than the number scale and reduces subjectivity when it comes to rating designer skills.The assessment results from different stakeholders are received, aggregated, and shared with each designer and their design leads. This process end-to-end is duly managed expertly by our Design Ops team.The leads then engage in conversations with designers to help them better understand the expectations of their designer roles.It helps to break the expectations into achievable goals and help the team members get better at what they do in their designer roles.The leads are also responsible for creating opportunities for designers to help them polish their skills in areas where client-side opportunities are not sufficient.This conversation is carried over to the weekly one-on-ones between the designer and their lead and they both work together for the designer’s career growth.Above is a hypothetical example of what a designer assessment result looks like. Different colors represent scores from different stakeholders.The further a point is from the center of the radar determines the level of proficiency in each skill. 0 in the graph is mapped to Non-Scoring, 1 is improving, 2 is achieving and 3 on the graph is excelling.In the above chart, the designer is perceived to be excelling in visual design by one stakeholder and perceived to be achieving in visual design by their other stakeholders.Looking at the assessments, we commend the designers for being great at so many things.Then, for the following year’s learning and development program, we start by focusing on areas where we see our designers not excelling or fully achieving expectations and define priorities from there.Seeing designers excelling at multiple ends also gives us an indication that the designer has started to outgrow their current role.For example, in the above evaluation, we would want to work with the designer on their Product Thinking, Mentorship, Culture, Design Thinking and Facilitation skills as starters and then move on to strengthening their other skills.One of our key learnings when we implemented this at our organization in recent years has been that transparency and good communication are the key to any initiative’s success. With these assessments, we also try to create an opportunity for open and clear conversations.Case in point: Here is a recent communication that I shared with my team on how they can make the best of their assessments in a very positive way and use this information to their advantage.TakeawayDeveloping such processes within the organization is an achievement in itself:It feels amazing to look back at all that is achieved along the way, and while this is by no means complete, it’s an opportunity to always take feedback from people all over the organization and use it to improve our processes.For us, the next step is replicating the same model for other roles of Designer, Research, and many more across the Product-Design career ladder. This is also an opportunity to build a model where designers can give feedback on the leaders of their team, thus maintaining a healthy atmosphere built on constructive criticism and focused towards design success.

If there's one thing all UX designers, product designers, and anyone working with design can relate to, it's the plethora of questions that they have to deal with on a daily basis.And our designers were no exception to this.So, in an open conversation with no holds barred, we decided to sit with five designers from our design team to discover:what these questions tend to look like, how designers deal with these queries regularly, and the uniquely distinct perspectives of each UI/UX designer in the field of user experience design. For the sake of this article, we chose three questions to ask each of our five designers:Question 1: What is the most common question you are asked by clients?Question 2: How do you negotiate deadlines with product owners and stakeholders?Question 3: What is your approach when presenting your work?Question 1What is the most common question you are asked by clients?Response 1:Would you recommend this approach based on UX? What is your UX opinion if we do this particular thing? Can we do A/B testing to make a final decision? How can we improve this particular journey based on UX? Can you provide some feedback on the current pages and let us know your thoughts on improvements? What is the best practice for serviceability check for user experience? — Ella Rabiei Senior Product DesignerResponse 2:"Typically, the most common question designers run into is, "When will this be ready for review?""I find that there are generally 2 kinds of questions that a client will ask; "What is the cost? (in time, funds, effort, or stress)" or "Can you explain your thinking?". While these questions may seem like an oversimplification (as it probably is), understanding the underlying intent of these questions helps me, as a designer, ensure I'm providing answers that are effective and concise.Being pedantic and looking at my typical question above, that boils down to "How much time with this cost the project". And why not? Time is as finite a resource as a budget is."— Dana Mitchell Senior Product DesignerResponse 3:"When can you have this done?"This raises an important point, which is that often the emphasis is placed on quantity/output rather than quality. It also highlights the client's lack of understanding of the UX designer's role, which is a weak link in the chain of product design."— Véronique Janosy Senior Product DesignerResponse 4:"How fast can you finish? Will it be quick? Can you do it sooner?"— Carlos Salguero Senior Product DesignerResponse 5:We want to do a redesign. Where do we start? We want to add a new feature to this page. Can you implement this solution? We have these requirements, and we are looking for this solution. When can you deliver this? "Clients need help to uncover problems. Like most humans, they are very good at communicating solutions. My job is to help them find the best solution by first identifying the problems. This is called problem-solution fit. A solution must fit a problem. If the solution does not fit a problem, it is not worth doing it. Furthermore, the solution must be appropriate and not perfect."— Amir Abura Lead Product DesignerQuestion 2How do you discuss and deal with deadlines while working with Product Owners (POs) and stakeholders? If the requested deadline is too tight, how do you negotiate?Response 1:"The POs mostly set a deadline and try to adjust it with the designer's capacity. Depending on the situation, there are several ways to deal with it:If the deadline is for "Tomorrow morning" and it is mid-day already, it depends on the task's value. If it is a small design request, like updating a specific page, I would do it while working on other tasks. If the task is a major design request, I'd let my manager know that I need to pause some of the work to deliver the task, and I would try to see how I can expedite the design process and, if possible, use some of the currently designed pages as my placeholders. To negotiate, I always try to look at the big picture and see how I can accommodate the client's request and my current capacity; I'd also ask to see if there is any possibility of pushing the deadline to some days in the future to avoid the conflict between the deliveries. I'd also ask POs what goals they are trying to achieve with the requested design and try to deliver it in semi-high fidelity mocks instead of high fid versions." — Ella Rabiei Senior Product DesignerResponse 2:"For myself, the easiest way to prioritize is to directly ask what the priorities are. When I have several tasks on the table and not nearly enough time, I start by giving each task a rough time estimate and lay out what I will be able to accomplish in the given time frame.Armed with this knowledge, the PO or stakeholders are better able to understand what my current workload is and decide what the focus will be, hence setting the expectations for the deadline and ensuring that everyone is on the same page.Alternatively, it could be agreed to reduce the amount of work involved; instead of creating a high-fidelity design, a wireframe could be produced instead. Concessions like this allow for the work to begin and start the iterative design process on its merry way."— Dana Mitchell Senior Product DesignerResponse 3:"I'm very up-front about it. If it hasn't been mentioned during the brief, I'll always bring it up; this helps me to prioritize and also to avoid nasty surprises later. More often than not, somebody's got some kind of date in mind–whether it's a hard date that developers need assets by or a more general one, like "sometime during Q2"– and that's a good starting point. Knowing the timeline helps me field questions like "when can you have this done?", since I already know what the projected timeline is. If a timeline is too short, I voice my concern to the PO, and then we work together to reprioritize whatever's on my plate. I always try to remember that there are only so many hours in a workday, and I try to be as honest as possible when it comes to my workload and capacity. When stakeholders are up-front about deadlines, then I can be better prepared to manage expectations."— Véronique Janosy Senior Product DesignerResponse 4:"I explain the intricacies of the work and only negotiate if PO is being reasonable and understanding. Otherwise, UX requires a minimum of 2 weeks and a couple of grooming sessions to consider a wireframe "ready for sprint"."— Carlos Salguero Senior Product DesignerResponse 5:"There is no perfect solution. There is only an appropriate solution given the time and resources available. This is how I negotiate. What can we do now with the time given and resources available? And more importantly, is it worth it? Is there a problem-solution fit? My job is to provide this analysis, so the PO has more info to make a decision: let's do this now and iterate after or let's not do this now and spend more time on the problem."— Amir Abura Lead Product DesignerQuestion 3What is your approach when presenting your work?Response 1:"This question is a bit general when it comes to the audience; I'd try to respond in different scenarios:In General: I'd prepare a fictional or real scenario that includes the research data based on the actual product/design subject and gather the most common/potential pain points plus the written ideation on how to resolve the problems or create a better environment to avoid the potential problems. Then I'd prepare the low-fidelity mockup to discuss the user journey and the product's process path. And once I showcased it, I'd prepare the high-fid mocks to present the finalized idea with showing the details for the solved/improved path, and at the end, I'd present it to the client, including POs, Stakeholders, marketing executives, etc. To the POs and the Dev team: After updating the mocks on Abstract, I'd share my screen in our review session to present the changes/ ideas/ new outcomes on fictional scenarios. I would receive the feedback and comments and will apply them to the design before presenting to the stakeholders. To Stakeholders: mostly happens after the [presentation to PO's] session, once everything is updated, the POs would proceed with presenting the design." — Ella Rabiei Senior Product DesignerResponse 2:"Whenever presenting my work, the first thing I do is prepare myself for feedback. Feedback is a vital part of any design process, but it's not always easy to swallow. I prepare myself to stay grounded and receptive.Next, I consider the audience to whom I am presenting. The goals of each team within a project, myself included, will be different; the artifacts created will be used differently by each team, and I try to keep that under consideration. At the end of the day, my goal is to help set clear expectations to ensure that everyone knows what we are driving towards."— Dana Mitchell Senior Product DesignerResponse 3:"In my job, I don't have to do any kind of formal presentation. I'll usually present what I have to the PO, who will then bring back my work to marketing. The PO acts as a buffer between design and marketing because the interactions can get pretty intense. So when presenting to the PO, I pretty much just tour the component, noting where the design followed or deviated from the original requirements and explaining why. I may have a few different options to present, and the PO and I will usually discuss which one we align with.When presenting to developers, I start by introducing the purpose of the component (if it's a net-new component) or, if it's just a variant, I'll be sure to lead with that. I then talk about the various technical aspects of the component and how it may be similar to or different from either its parent component or a similar one. I then open the floor for questions."— Véronique Janosy Senior Product DesignerResponse 4:"I put myself in my audience's shoes. How can I make this easy for anyone to understand? I make flows, add arrows, include annotations, and, if time allows, create a prototype with all possibilities."— Carlos Salguero Senior Product DesignerResponse 5:"Present the problem, evidence, explorations, and the best solution that fits the problem with the time and resources available. Again there is no perfect solution. Only an appropriate solution that benefits the customer and the business in the present moment with the resources, technology, and time available."— Amir Abura Lead Product DesignerTakeawayAs with any designer, I, as a lead designer myself, have always been at the receiving end of the aforementioned questions, amongst many others.Therefore, this effort was made to not just bring these questions to light but to truly get to discover the perspectives and thoughts of other product and UX designers as well.After all, it's a designer who can best understand another designer, and this candid discussion with my design team provided an opportunity to uncover their unique, creative personalities that make them so good at what they do.FAQsWhat does a UX designer do day to day?In their daily lives, UX designers often work with Product Owners (POs) and other stakeholders to capture the project requirements, conduct research, ideate, design, and demonstrate how a new feature or product is going to work and why any design changes would be required.Does UX design require graphic design?Graphic design is one of the many aspects of UI and Product Design. Having a foundational understanding of graphic design is what drives good interfaces: understanding visual hierarchy, good typography, understanding how to use color, etc.Is UX design in demand?While it is a relatively nascent field, UX design is very much in demand with an exceptional career outlook. In fact, the demand for UX designers continues to grow, leading to the field of UX design being included in one of the 50 best jobs in 2022, according to Glassdoor, amongst other similar rankings.Is UX design coding?Coding is not required, but understanding HTML/CSS code is an asset as a UX/UI or Product Designer. It helps in communicating with developers to speak their language.