Designer, close Sketch! Knowledge of UX / UI is not a guarantee of a successful career

Last summer, I set a goal to improve my professional skills and establish myself in the company. After several months of hard work, I achieved this and began to listen to my opinion. As time went on, I worked in the same rhythm, but did not notice the former progress. Starting to analyze career breakthroughs, I found that the skills of a designer in these moments did not play a big role. They were only a necessary minimum, while success was determined by other things.



“About 80%” - AIC chief designer Sergei Popkov told me when I asked how much working time I needed to devote to design. And then what do you need to do the remaining 20%? I then immediately recalled the Pareto principle.



Several times I visited one of the best design studios in the country, and I had the opportunity to talk with art directors, designers, and managers who worked on famous projects. I talked with the employees of Mail.Ru Group, M2H Agency, Fantasy and, without asking direct questions, tried to find out what distinguishes a good designer from a successful one. To this was added the experience of personal reasoning, and as a result, a theory emerged that proves its efficiency not only in design, but also in any other industry.

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The foundation of a successful designer

Without professional skills anywhere. This is a necessary foundation on which you can build a career not just good, but also a successful designer. I already wrote about the main task of the designer, which is to understand and solve business problems. This is the necessary foundation that needs to be honed in practice.

“The basic design principles apply in every industry. It is not so important what the trend is now. If you solved the problem, and your interface is not depressing, you did everything right. ”

At some point in your portfolio will be some decent design solutions that will open your way to good companies with a salary of 120.000 ₽. But, as it turned out, intelligent designers are few, despite the fact that there are a lot of cool profiles on Dribbble and Behance. A good profile helps in the search for freelance projects, but to establish yourself as a strong designer who is able to deal with serious products, you need something else.



I have not updated my resume for more than a year, I have not actively led my account on Dribbble, but, nevertheless, I managed to get some decent offers (I dreamed to work in one of these companies three years ago). And such events were not an accident.



At the beginning of the summer I changed my strategy. Before that, I worked 9-12 hours a day, tried to do my job well, develop an account on Dribbble, but did not observe significant progress. At some point, an insight came to me, which is pretty stupid to wed in a battle with millions of designers from around the world, doing the same thing as everyone, while trying to achieve more. It may take years and not the fact that the result would satisfy me. I knew that there was a faster way, as I saw examples of other people who don’t work 50+ hours a week, but nonetheless earn much more. And I think I found it.



Most designers are introverts; they feel comfortable hiding behind a monitor screen and communicate with the world through social networks. I am the same introvert as many, but to stand out I decided to change my behavior and began to appear at events, to catch every opportunity to ask a question or be on stage. I wrote on Facebook and learned from the best designers in the world. I did not update the resume for more than a year, I almost abandoned Dribbble and Behance, but it was at this time that I began to receive offers from well-known companies. “How did you find me?” I asked, because I was wondering which vector of effort was the most effective. And the answer was that I had heard many times, but could not believe it. They responded “by recommendation”.

How to receive suggestions for recommendations

I used to think that only freelancers with dozens of clients and many years of experience receive offers of recommendations, but in my career there were no more than three customers and I worked less than a year in freelancing. It turned out that people can recommend you only a few times after talking on the sidelines or on Facebook. Most IT professionals are so closed that it’s enough just to stick your head out and you will be noticed.



Until you start talking about your work, no one will know about you. I created a resume at the age of 17, a portfolio at 18. For the first 1-2 years there were only fake works in it, but even they brought clients. At 19, I started a blog. He did this unprofessionally, but regularly, thanks to which he made friends with the best publishing houses of business literature “Mann, Ivanov and Ferber” and “Alpina Publisher.” From the same time, I started writing to Facebook and e-mail to writers, entrepreneurs, designers and asked simple questions “What to do?”, “How to develop?” And, thanks to this, it grew. Several years have passed since then, and I realized that this tactic works.



If you have ever tried to find a designer, you know what kind of work it is. I somehow looked through 200 portfolios and did not choose one, after which I found a person on the recommendation in 15 minutes. What is a recommendation? This is when you among friends look for the person who fits the task. And now the question. How many professionals do you know who can recommend you?

How to convey your idea to others

During the grocery work I started asking other questions. How to make the product better, easier? After that, he thought over the decisions and showed them to the management. If the idea was accepted, I assumed responsibility for its implementation. But initiative alone was not enough. One of the most important skills was the ability to convey your idea and prove its efficiency.

“If you have strong ideas, but you cannot bring them to other people and bring them to realization - what is the use of them?”

This phrase slipped during my communication with the head of the Mail.Ru Group design team, Yuri Vetrov , who knows from personal experience how important it is to defend his decisions, because a few years ago, Mail.Ru brought a smile to the experts, whereas now in the office Leningradsky Prospekt is held Moscow Dribbble Meetup, which annually collects hundreds of designers.



Beginner designers are often knocked down the phrases of customers “I don’t like” or “I was expecting another.” They begin to redo and receive even more comments, which is why the motivation and interest in the profession falls. This is not due to the quality of work. The key role in these moments is played by the ability to negotiate and sell your ideas.



The main thing in the presentation of ideas - strictly keep its line. The customer will periodically knock you down by asking “why is there such a color?” Or “can we increase the button?”. At such moments, say that you will return to this at the end, but for now it is better to concentrate on solving business problems. This phrase will clarify a lot about your work.



The second skill that is very important to the designer in his work is empathy, i.e. the ability to identify the emotions of another person and on the basis of this information to build a dialogue. Some need visual proof, others are well aware of the facts and logic, others like examples of famous brands, and the fourth they are annoying. Understanding other people's psychology comes with experience and through observation.



The topic of communication with the customer is well described in the book “Burn Your Portfolio” .

How to stand out

There are many designers in the world, and even if you are better than most, finding you among thousands of others will not be easy. You need new channels of promotion, because the methods used by the current top designers are no longer working.



Almost all successful designers at Dribbble / Behance started at a time when design was on the rise and lifted everyone with them. Now design is a separate industry, you can even say - fashion, and any fashion produces a system and millions of followers who live in it. It often seems to us that if millions say something, it is true. Nonsense. If millions of people have one point of view, this does not mean that each of this million independently reached it.



To prove yourself in the existing market is easier and, feeling the first income, it may seem that you are doing everything right. But at some point you want more, and you will not have free hours and you will be buried in the ceiling. It turns out that the tactic that led you to the current result no longer works.



You need other skills, including: the ability to negotiate, present your ideas and promote them. Without this, the designer will remain a good specialist who moves rectangles from morning to evening and draws interfaces to order. And I sincerely believe that any designer is a creator who, without creating anything new, is degrading and dying, like a professional, whose work can only write negative comments on other people's success stories, despite the fact that the hero differs from the Internet troll not the level of Sketch / PS, but a bold intention to stand out among others.