Being a solo designer is hard and almost impossible, especially when working from home in today’s rapid growth. 10 years ago the job requirements were different from today and the responsibilities have changed:

When you are required in today’s age to do research, wireframes, design, QA, prototyping, marketing materials, sales decks, partner with product managers and engineers, distill complex problems and propose simple, elegant design solutions, multitask on several projects at a time and many more — the odds are against you. Since the world is shifting from print to digital — you are expected to deliver more from almost the beginning as a designer in our industry.

Several years ago I started working as the first (and only) product designer in a 30+ people startup company. During those years I managed to show the management the value of design, recruited another designer, evangelized UX in the company, and worked days and nights to deliver new features to clients while considering development tradeoffs and roadmaps risks. I encountered many challenges during those years that I didn’t know how to solve and unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way how to deal with them.

Three years later I took an unplanned journey and found myself moving to Imperva — A cyber security company with leading industry products. But more importantly, for the first time, I was part of a design team.

Working with additional designers in various seniority levels on a daily basis had a major impact in the short and long run on my path.

Looking back — I believe junior designers should strive for a place where they can learn from someone else (company/studio) and not to be the single function in an organization.

But unfortunately — in reality, junior designers often find themselves as the sole person in charge of advocating user experience. If you are the only designer in the company, and you are early in your career, take a deep breath — because it’s not going to be easy — you will have a lot to handle, but I wrote some key insights I wish someone would have told me.

I formed a list of the cons of being a single designer and the pros of being part of a team. The important thing to remember is that these cons are well known — and with several methods and the right mindset, you can overcome them to become a solo designer in your company, which leads design forward.

The cons of being a solo designer:

• Imposter syndrome (a lot is written on Imposter syndrome — my 2 cents is to just be aware of it) but here is an article by Julie Zahuo (Facebook ex-head of design) about it: https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-imposter-syndrome-9e23e2326d88
• Lack of design specific feedback
• Lack of deep feedback regarding your work & progression
• UX and UI inconsistencies may occur in the system you build
• Vague career path
• No proper methodologies for solving problems
• Lost product vision — working on low impact projects — a sense of wasting time
• Working for all departments (product, HR, Marketing, Sales, CEO)
• High-stress situations occur occasionally — a byproduct of it is compromised solutions

The pros of working in a team:

• Collaboration with additional designers
• Wide knowledge base
• Proper training is usually available
• Balanced workload
• Wider error learning margins
• Ability to focus
• Structured intervals — working in well-defined sprints with minor last minutes changes gives the ability to see how an initiative is growing and act to maximize the impact

Grouping all these pros and cons to a topic-related table will look something like this:

I know what you’re thinking, and despite all the cons I want to outline that by utilizing a few techniques your day as a solo designer could be much better (or at least similar to a team player). When I started working with a team I noticed that some pains I had, could have easily been dissolved if only someone had shown me the way:

1. Find your design compass/mentor as soon as possible

Designing alone has its pros and cons. one of the pros is that you have freedom on your own — but then again — design is never meant to be in silos. We are not artists — we communicate a story by assisting our user seamlessly get her job done. Finding a colleague, using social platforms, or even a teacher you can discuss decisions and directions is a valuable understanding that can give you a fresh perspective and insight regarding your work and in the long run — build your ability to critique yourself and others. some suggestions to mentor can be a Facebook group with product design orientation, Slack channels, ADP list also provide mentoring assistance.

2. Learn to say no (but make sure you have a reason)

Why? Because work is endless — but time is finite — mastering your time management skill will push you to keep thinking about what matters and what can be delayed.

When you are the only designer it is tempting to say “yes” to all kinds of requests. “The CEO needs a presentation for tomorrow”, “HR planing a social banner, can you give them a hand?”, “Sales want you to take a look on their deck and do your magic”.

As a solo designer, your time is 10X precious. Any distraction can easily hurt your “flow” and increase the time required to create complex flows, solve usability problems, or create compelling designs. The business-savvy designer Chris Do has a remarkable approach — “Just say No” and then add the reason — “No, I can’t help you with X because helping you with X now will hurt our goal as a company with me not working on my priorities”. Of course, there are always exceptions but try to identify patterns (sales always push hard on Q4, events will have the same template with some modifications, and so on). Anticipate, and make sure you are ahead of the curve (send an email to Sales in mid-Q3 and suggest a meeting to understand their upcoming needs for example). This can have a double impact — it lets you prepare and prioritize, and it changes how others perceive you, your time, and your role in the company.

Chris Do have priceless advice in the business sector — check his youtube channel “The Futur”

3. Read and learn, a lot, and make it a habit

Read, read, read, and then read some more — when you are done reading — watch it on Youtube, hear podcasts, and return reading. Start with Don Norman’s “The design of everything days” and Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think”. Subscribe to the NNgroup newsletter and youtube channel to understand why and how, learn methods and techniques for basic analysis & research, tradeoff tools, UI guidelines (Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM), and read blogs on Medium — Now make it 5 minutes daily habit. (there are plenty of techniques for making a habit sticks start with looking at James Clear’s Atomic Habits)

The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition: Norman, Don

Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: Krug, Steve

Nielsen Norman Group: UX Training, Consulting, & Research (nngroup.com)

James Clear — Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build

The thing is that consuming data keeps your mind elastic and helps you to see the bigger picture and not just push pixels around.

Another 2 must-reads for me are “Measuring what matters” by John Doerr and “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek — the first helped me understand how to set objectives and define key results (OKRs) that deliver impact for both myself and my organization. The second helped me look beyond my day-to-day actions at work and connect them with a more broader and holistic perspective.

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs : John Doerr

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action: Sinek, Simon:

4. Practice focus & manage your time (my blindspot)

Arriving from graphic design studios fixed my working method to “always work” state — which can be good for some projects but can damage progress and finding the most suitable solution for the problem — it might even deflect you from solving the current problem. The best advice I got is to have at most 2–3 main tasks to focus on in a week — it will change and for some days it might be more or less but having a good anchor enabled me to use my focus bandwidth on a single problem rather trying to fix all the issues (and we already agreed that work & problems to solve will always be around).

We should always remember that multitasking is a deceiving term — even computers are not multitasking:

Brian Christian: How to manage your time more effectively (according to machines) | TED Talk

5. Set a plan for the future

Setting plans might seem obvious for some and might sound overwhelming for others. When I started my career path I had no plans for the future — I wanted to: go to work — have fun — make money — return home and repeat the cycle until the weekend. That held up for several months but soon got to a point where work became automatic — It didn’t challenge me as it used to. The usual path for this story starts with looking for meaning, talking with friends/spouse, speaking with your boss, considering other workplaces, being less productive, and more.

A plan gives you a sense of direction and something to strive for — if you make it public (or at least share it with your friends and boss) another 2 things happen — you start to own your daily/weekly actions to reach your goals and your surroundings can help you achieve your goals. Small note — plans can change over time and that’s OK. Prioritization also may change — so be obligated and persistent to what you set in the past but pay attention to what changed over time — the plan should fit you and help you evolve to a better version of yourself.

Look for your right path — as long as you take action you will get better results — progress before perfection.

6. Claim feedback for your work and your progress

Being the solo designer in a company can create a drifting feeling not only in the craft you do but also in your progression — am I on the right track? Do I focus my energy efficiently?

Speak to your manager or stakeholders and ask for feedback, not only about your designs but also about you as a member of the company. Not all companies have the capabilities to advance their employees — the most common is a yearly assessment — but you shouldn’t wait a year to hear if you are on track or not. Schedule a regular meeting with your manager — every week/month/quarter and ask for genuine feedback about your performance

7. Make writing a habit and reflect

One of the best methods you can own with minimum effort is daily reflection. On a piece of paper or in a doc file — in the mornings or the evenings — take only 5 minutes to decide what you will achieve today or list the things you have done and analyze what was good and what can be improved. Writing — especially for someone who is working in the visual area seems odd but trust the process — over time you will have a way to track your progression, highlight major achievements or failures, and reflect for the next sprint/work session. Even the act of writing compels you to make sense, break-down decisions you made, and try to inspect them in more detail

To sum up, being a solo designer in a startup won’t be easy and there’s a lot more to learn. Those are only the important things I wished someone had told me a couple of years ago. Try to remember that at the end of the day you can make a difference by focusing on your mindset to become a better version of you than yesterday and doing this by setting small habits or goals to support yourself and your company’s growth.

Did you feel the same? Don’t agree with what I wrote? give me a comment :)