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5 exercises to level up your design skills
My design journey started four years ago when I quit my job at a children’s sleep clinic to become a designer. I would read books about UX on my commutes to and from work. Every evening, I would spend 6 to 7 hours taking web development courses and learning what it meant to design. Everything was new and exciting.
After working for a few years, I encountered many phases of rapid growth and phases where I felt like I wasn’t progressing as much as I wanted to. Upon reflecting, I realized that I could create the momentum I needed to grow by…
- Identifying my personal growth metrics — knowing where I wanted to be.
- Finding challenging problems that work towards those skills.
- Get results by taking action.
- Reflect & iterate.
These steps helped me become good at noticing why I was stuck so that I could make adjustments to correct my path. It helped me consciously work on skills that aligned with who I wanted to become.
Identifying Your Personal Growth Metric
Every quarter, I ask myself -“How do I get from point A (where I’m at now) to point B (me at my best 5 years down the road)?”. From there, I’d have a clearer understanding of which skills I needed to work on to get there.
Some examples of personal growth metrics might be…
- Task-Related: Do a UX lightning talk, speak at conferences around the world, host a design workshop, publish an article, write a book, teaching, mentoring, leading initiatives
- Career Direction: Generative & computational design (AI), UX research, interaction design, visual design, management
- UX Process: Solving important problems, deeper understanding of human behaviour, design rational, critiques, giving and receiving feedback, prototyping, user research
- Soft Skills: Storytelling, negotiation, building team alignment, managing conflict, verbal and written communication, leadership, coaching skills
Being in Motion vs. Taking Action
Career growth at any stage comes from practicing the skills that you want to improve in. These are the skills…
