Hi! I'm Femke, a Senior Product Designer in British Columbia, Canada working in tech. On this channel i'll be sharing my learnings and experience being a designer, which will cover everything from UX Design to User Research, Prototyping and Product.
As a graphic designer aspiring to transition into product design, I don't find this video particularly helpful for beginners like myself. For instance, I keep encountering a lot of advice that emphasizes the importance of designers stating the impact of their project. However, how can you effectively communicate the impact of an academic project or a fictional case study?
Hello! Great presentation. I wanted to ask that I am currently a college student and have worked only with small startup but do have some hypothetical UX case studies made. How can I add those in my portfolio highlighting the impact or the changes those would bring in the overall experience.
Recently subscribed your channel and I am currently binge watching all your amazing videos🎉. I am curious to know that is building a portfolio website necessary as a UI/UX designer applicant or a portfolio in pdf format or Behance projects also work?
To avoid sounding generic, find your unfair advantage: Passion + Talent + Designer Skills The overlapping themes can be your narrative to explain your value proposition. For example mine is: New Ideas + Design Fast + Ship Products So my one-liner is: I help startups ship MVP to market, FAST
Great video! I’ve got some real experience on small projects and few websites, but I’m starting to lose hope I’ll ever get a company role. To be clear, you need your website portfolio and a presentation style portfolio with slides for when or if you get an interview?
Thanks for the great insights on what to look out for in a design portfolio. For the designers who don't have any developer experience , would it work to provide a portfolio link that's designed in Figma? Fully functional design portfolio but not developed.
I don't have any developer experience either! There are so many tools out there that make it easy to build a portfolio website, without requiring use or knowledge of coding. I use and recommend Webflow: webflow.grsm.io/1125819 In the mean time, I think it's ok to link to a portfolio presentation in Figma.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks @shrutikatkar6028 for asking this. I'm not sure why the industry expects a fully blown portfolio website from a designer instead of a portfolio created on Figma (or any design tool), which can help them assess their design skills. Anyways, great content, @femke. Thanks for your time and effort in creating valuable content for this community.
Today I'd say very important as it's the best way to showcase your skills and experience. I recommend Webflow if you're looking for a tool to get started! webflow.grsm.io/1125819
You just gained a new subscriber. To your question, I'm glad to hear hiring managers are looking for standout storytelling and I'm going to work harder to emphasize how my past experience informs my design decisions. Thanks for the concise, distilled advice.
I hear so much negativity regarding product design roles now like - gen ai will eat a lot of design jobs and this won't get better even after fed cuts the rate. what do you think?
I’m changing careers. I would love to hear more on ways to incorporate past experience and examples…at an older age/mid to late 40’s. I’m going from being in the electro-mechanical field to the design/developer field. I’ve always been an artist. So I’m into design & tech.
Gonna be straight with you - your chances at landing an entry level design job at your age and lack of relevant experience is near 0. Anyone who tells you otherwise are always referencing anecdotes and unicorns to support their toxic positivity. What I've learned from hundreds of applications is that "transferrable skills" simply don't compete with direct relevant job experience, not to mention a degree. Age-ism is also unfortunately a reality as it relates to job culture. Recruiters don't want to hire a middle-aged employee and toss them into a work culture full of 20-somethings.
I don't know much about the electro-mechanical field - but I struggle to see any adjacent or transferrable skills. My recommendation would be to go out and get some real world experience, however you can. Start a side project, freelance for a friend, volunteer. Nothing beats real world experience.
Following on from the current replies; pivoting is possible but it may feel like starting again. Shillington gives a decent education (though their locations are limited) for people of all different ages looking to get into design. Other avenues within the design-space could work as stepping stones, project management, research & analytics and client services, though if you can code already then you may be able to move into design engineering easier.
I find it crazy that designer like Femke think they are Senior after only 5 years. You're not even a good designer until you hit 7 or 8 years and senior at 10. 5 years is mid level at best.
I don't "think" I am - my job title literally is Senior. Growth and levels can differ hugely across industries, companies etc so everyone has a different journey! Thanks for sharing your opinion on the topic :)
I don't get WHY you liked Walker's webpage. the reason why I emphasize 'WHY?" is because you work on a TEAM and walker's 3rd bullet point is 'independent creative'. hmmmm... very confusing. Why? don't UXers function as a team? I could swear many designers, hiring managers, and recruiters would say that 'teamwork' is important...so WHY did you pick Walker's? not to bash the designer, it's just ... misleading, don't ya think? just wanted clarification why you chose it cuz 'if ' I was a hiring manager, I would not waste my time interviewing the designer. thanks.
I showed Grace's portfolio as a good example of a design portfolio - not necessarily as an example of someone that is a good candidate to hire into a full-time role. I see a lot of companies hiring contractors lately, so I do believe hiring managers could be looking at Grace's portfolio and considering her for a contract position on their team. Irregardless, Grace still has to position and market herself to find clients, so it's not too different!
Great tips, fem! For someone who’s applied to 50 applications with 7+ years and $XXm in impact as a growth designer, would you say it’s my resume, portfolio or both not standing out? TIA 🙏
I'm a newbie transitioning to UI from the illustration-art world, and I must say this opened my mind! I didn't know this toolset, I'm self-taught designer and loved all the insights and points to take into account when taking this approach. Thanks a lot, super clear and helpful. I already have a case study in mind for my portfolio and would totally apply some of these steps to explain it. :) Cheers from Spain!
Although old this video is the best video on how to structure a case study for interviews specifically. Regardless of your level as a designer, I am a senior and I will be taking inspiration from this. Thank you so much Femke for everything you do for the design community! 🖤
So, I'm an academic researcher and all I have to say is WOW! Thank you for showing tis tool - I am going to try this ASAP for my qualitative research projects! There is so much overlap between customer research and academic research, just a slightly different vocabulary - yet, I haven't heard mention of this tool on the academic side! Thank you!
Did you made it up? The whole "Product Thinking Designer"? It seems it's just junior/mid Product Designer vs Senior/Principal Product Designer and working in feature factory vs actual product team.
Great point. This reminds me of the CanUX conference where a lot of design leaders were promoting service design & strategy design, which would be the goal of any designer, but also seems to be a higher level of design than a typical UX design role would require. Especially at more junior level.
Hey femke, I just watched your video and I must say that it was really informative and well-made. I was wondering if I could help you edit your videos and repurpose your long videos into highly engaging shorts? I can also make high CTR thumbnails for your channel
