Design Better Newsletter #2
Inspiration, taking the leap, and more job opportunities
Hello everyone!
We hope you’re enjoying the start of your summer, perhaps getting packed for a vacation—or if you’re like us—shuttling kids around to various day camps, friend’s houses, and other activities.
Before we dive into the newsletter proper, we’ve got some fun news to share. As you may know, we’re working on a design history series that will be airing this Fall. We’ve got some great guests lined up, including Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York), LLisa Demetrios (granddaughter of legendary mid-century modern designers Ray and Charles Eames), and Paula Scher (renowned graphic designer, and first female principal at Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design firm).
After that, we’re working on a series on the creative process, where we’ll talk to people in disciplines outside of design—authors, visual artists, cinematographers, magicians(?!)—to learn how to bring other creative techniques into our own work. We’ve already recorded our first interview for this series with the author and humorist David Sedaris.
If you’re as excited about these upcoming interviews as we are, could you do us a quick favor? Forward this email to one friend or colleague, or share one of your favorite episodes in Slack or Teams, and ask them to subscribe. Let us know when they subscribe by sending an email to contact@thecuriositydepartment.com, and we’ll be giving away a $100 gift card to Heath Ceramics (one of our sponsors for the upcoming design history series) for referrals to a few lucky subscribers.
Ok, on to the newsletter. This month, we cover:
An inspiring story from one of our younger fans.
A guest post on “taking the leap,” from Margaret Lee, former UX leader at Google, who is now an executive and leadership coach.
Another post from April Luelling about open design roles and tips for finding your next job.
Inspiration
One of our goals with the Design Better Podcast is to educate and inspire people who are pursuing design, no matter the stage of their career. Earlier this month, we ourselves were inspired by this message on LinkedIn from Rebecca Scarbrough, who has been a fan of the show since high school:
According to Rebecca, each episode of the show has “provided [her] with an incredible source of encouragement to pursue [her] passion for design.” Some of her favorite episodes include Seth Godin’s interview, where she admired his enthusiasm and emphasis on the importance of empathy in marketing, as well as Nir Eyal’s interview, where she learned how habit-forming products can be used for good.
It also sounds like Rebecca is benefitting from her time in the design program at Georgia Tech:
What I’m enjoying most about the Industrial Design program…is the culture that’s fostered here. There’s a strong bond between professors and students with a heavy emphasis placed on collaborating and helping others. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that design isn’t easy. It’s great having a strong support system of like-minded, creative individuals.
Have you heard any inspiring stories like Rebecca’s? Or would you like to share your own? Send us an email if so, and we may include them in a future newsletter.
Taking the Leap
We’ve got another special guest this month. Margaret Lee, who previously led UX teams and programs at Google, is now an executive and leadership coach. With the headwinds in tech right now, many of us have been considering big changes in our careers. Margaret brings us a timely guest post on taking the leap into your next adventure.
As a coach, I work with many seeking to make some sort of career transition. The cumulative slog of the past few years has many questioning what’s next for me? I partner with my clients to break down that deceptively complex question, creating the space that allows them to sort through what’s no longer serving them, and what’s missing from their fulfilled future. Here are a few prompts for when we find ourselves in that liminal space of not knowing what’s next.
What are my anti-goals? When we’re unhappy with our situation, we know what we don’t like about it. It’s useful to categorize what are deal-breakers vs manageable annoyances, so we can avoid negative patterns while remaining adaptable and realistic for potentially what’s next. But recognize them for what they are: anti-goals, things we don’t want. Examining our anti-goals is an easy warm-up before diving deeper to get to what we do want.
What part of my identity am I ready to shed? To embrace? Am I hanging onto an assumption of what I should be? A title, role, level, company? How important is it to me now? Is there a part of me that feels underserved and underutilized that I’d like to develop further? How might I be short-changing myself and others by holding on while holding back?
If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I do next? If I had no constraints, would I take the leap? What about that leap scares me? What about it gives me energy? What would help me move toward that type of energy (e.g. training, side project, coach, exercise, time off, quitting, etc.)? What question, if answered, would free me to take the leap?
In coaching, as the client’s wants come into focus, we create actionable experiments, to try things on, to see what insights emerge toward a possible future. While it can be uncomfortable to not know what’s next, it can also be a fruitful time to figure out what we do want. Whatever leap we want to take next, we can do so with courage and intention.
Margaret Lee believes we all have the inner resources to develop toward our greatest potential. As an Executive and Leadership Coach with Design Dept, she brings a wealth of prior experience leading UX teams and programs at Google. Margaret works with clients to identify obstacles and insights, and to clarify a path forward. Interested in learning more? Reach out at margaret@designdept.co
Job Opportunities
This month we have another guest post from April Luelling, who writes about design roles that she has found recently, as well as job application tips from a recruiter’s perspective (and from someone who is currently on the job hunt herself 🕵️).
Monthly Highlight:
Lucinda Burtt is currently hiring a Senior Product Designer to join the Amperity team. Amperity helps brands to unify their consumer data and explore insights to power customer experiences. This role will have a strong focus on advanced analytics use cases as well as how Amperity connects to other products (APIs, extensions, apps).
Amperity Sr. Product Designer Role
More amazing Design positions available:
Jessica Cates, Lead Product Design Recruiter at Intuit, is hiring a Principal Product Designer Intuit Principal Designer Role
Jami Cottrell, Principal Product Recruiter at Geico, is hiring a Senior Design Manager! Geico Sr. Design Manager Role
Tips For Applying To Jobs:
Let’s be real, finding a new job is hard…really hard actually! (Trust me, I am in this fight right now!) When the market is roaring, sending in your application may get you noticed and even get a callback. But in the extremely competitive market we have right now, your application becomes lost in the sea of thousands. I’ve seen jobs posted that within four hours have over 200 applicants. Wild times, y’all, very wild times.
It takes a lot of work, I won’t deny that. But if you put in the effort and follow a few of these key steps, your chances of getting noticed by those recruiters and hiring managers increase exponentially!
Network, Network, Network: The name of this game is networking. It’s about who do you know and who they know! Network with as many people as possible and in every way possible. Catch up with former coworkers, pick the brains of those you trust and admire, ask for connections, ask for advice, conduct informational interviews… Get out there as much as possible and buy all the coffee you can because it will pay off in some way!
Follow Up After You Apply: After you apply to a position you’re really excited about, follow up with the hiring team. Do some serious LinkedIn stalking to find out who the recruiter is, discover who the hiring manager or even folks on that specific team. Send them a connection request and fire over an email. This is the time to put your Sherlock Holmes hat on and get going!
Be Proactive: Being proactive can mean literally anything! Be active on LinkedIn, show up to networking events, continue your own education with LinkedIn Learning, or get a certification you’ve been thinking about. As you hunt for your next role, it’s the perfect time to do the things you never have time for.
A few interesting things we discovered this month
Maps Distort How We See the World (also a lively discussion of the article on Hacker News).
One of us (Eli) went to Figma’s Config conference this past week. In addition to running into some friends ( 👋 so good to see you Meredith Black, Bob Baxley, Adam Fry-Pierce, Diego Rodriguez, Pablo Stanley, Dana Pake, and Matt D. Smith) there were a few standout talks, including:
Haraldur Thorleifsson (Halli), founder of Ueno, gave a very emotional talk about his life and career which received a standing ovation.
Dan Mall gave a talk about design system adoption that will be helpful even if it’s not a design system you’re trying to get adopted.
The Youtube channel News Think shares fascinating profiles of brilliant people and timely technology topics.
Wondering if you’re in the right job? Maybe you should rethink the idea of “success”.