Being A Product Designer Today

2019–2021 • Caught between a rock & a hard place...

Who am I?
Am I doing the right thing?
Have I sold myself short?
Do I have another calling?

Recently this question; Am I following the right passion? — this has become a tyrant on my mind.

I am a designer / Creative

A “product techie” in the digital product space that I feel has had a major shift in the people involved. I’ve decided to bury my soul to the wold of medium.com on how i’ve perceived the technology world becoming. I’ve done a lot of self-checks and reflections as this has been heavy on my mind.

As being an observer in a “short” time of 15+ years, focusing on design, front-end development, and now primarily mobile apps. The industry has taken leaps n’ bounds with the type of people or personalities that have been ingested into this space and the mental models that have developed along the way. This might be a false narrative that i’ve manifested, but too be honest in a world of “Steve Jobs” wannabe’s. The hypocrisy of political correctness culture and inclusiveness is quite comical. We preach one thing on the outside and in the public, but we do another within the organizations and our fellow colleagues.

“The hypocrisy of political correctness culture and inclusiveness is quite comical. We preach one thing on the outside and in the public, but we do another within the organizations and our fellow colleagues.”

I would like to share three main personalities that I’ve discovered over the years, not to be prejudice or judgmental towards the “ivy league prestige fest” happening or narcissistic personalities.

1. The Leader — Persona takes up about 70%.
These individuals have played all their cards right, they’ve been able to see the vulnerabilities in people and how to deal the right hand. Perceived as a team player, but ultimately looks out for themselves. The value of others opinion is far less superior than the ideas they steal or adopt. That scatters across all departments including design.

We are all designers right? 🤷‍♂ 🤷‍♀

2. The informant — Persona takes up about 25%
The ones who for better words “brown nose’r / kiss ass” This individual will interact with the boss and inform them with anything taking place, but leaning into a fake persona with the other working individuals. This person operates in a fashion that they’re told to operate and pride feeling valued and praised by leaders and other executive team members. This builds their confidence and a taste of power that informs their habits.

3. The outlier — Persona takes up about 5%
These individuals study their craft and don’t typically take on the traditional or known approach of sameness, but by no means do they feel that making something unique for the sake of being unique is far from productive or a route to success. There are patterns for a reason, but they can see opportunity where the others can’t, but due to their lack of control, domination and ability to adopt sameness there is unfortunately a struggle. They are calm and collected, but most of the time feel devalued and ignored.

The biggest critique of the current climate, are the personalities in it; lots of people don’t practice or have a creative bone in their body and believe they know everything. They’re built on arithmetic and that’s what they know. Learn from a book, replicate, and speak on those books or documents they read. Every moment is “I read this, so we will do this”. I have rarely hear ideas based on explorations, experiences, intuition, feeling or instinct. That’s rarely the case of the information stream.

With product focused on so much of the psychological element and preying on people and really leaning in on weaknesses for monetary gain is very disgusting…

“The Modern Drug Dealer”

Now while i’ve witnessed people run rapidly on duplication and replication…because sameness is something that will eventually pull away from unique creative, human driven decisions and ultimately give us to automation. (some believe that this is great, but many believe this will cause destruction and divide among us as people, Brace yourself because here comes singularity at an extreme.) I’m not sure that is a world that prospers. We will Lack thought, lack physical and lack many human nature gratifications and growths. At what point then is emotion, intuition, and discovery even a factor in growing.

This is not intended to be a rant by any means…it’s about bringing light to many things, as we do bring light to other social and civil injustices. We are just tip toeing in what’s becoming for the digital space and working professionals in the space. More importantly to those who live outside of the space, and just take what we give them. We are the creators and they are the in-takers. We are in a position to be true, honest and not with ill intent just for the sake of money, valuation and revenue.

“We don’t all have to strive to be billion dollar businesses”

I want to challenge you to embrace the unknown, don’t just grab what they have or what they’re doing. Find your own value and your own approach, but I didn’t say you shouldn’t learn from what is being done by others, but I am challenging you to evaluate who you are or the brand you work for, those values and how you would approach a similar situation in a new fashion that fits for YOU!

Lastly, be kind, be human, be true, be you…