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This is the final in a series of articles, covering some less talked about designer traits that will be helpful for you as the years go by.

Here’s the first article.

Here’s the second article.

1. Learn to fire your boss

“A boss once told me he’d never seen me do anything ‘creative’. What he thought I lacked in creativity, I made up for in courage — I quit on the spot. Bad leaders are the best teachers, and he taught me about the type of person I didn’t want to be, and the type of person I was determined to become.” —

Chirryl-Lee Ryan

If you’ve got a painful boss and it looks like you’ll need to stay with them for a while, you may want to make a calculated get out.

Having a bad boss will hinder your growth and stress you out. A good boss is there to help you grow. They’re your caretaker while you work with them.

I’ve had some great bosses and some very average ones in my design career. Currently, I have a great one, and that’s part of the
the reason why I stay.

Don’t settle for shit bosses.

2. Learn to become besties with your engineers

“I’ve learned how to communicate with engineers.Designers and engineers are both problem solvers, we just communicate in different forms. I’ve found that if I’m struggling to communicate cross-team, then I just need to re-frame the problem better.” —

Buzz Usborne

I’ve worked with quite a few engineers over the last eights years, and it’s such an important day to day relationship for designers.

The engineers translate what you design. Without a solid relationship and open communication, life gets tricky when you encounter roadblocks. And there will be roadblocks.

Take the time to get to know your engineers. When I miss stuff or need changes, the engineers are the ones that save my arse.

3. Learn to slow down and focus to work smarter.

“Slow down! The design/tech industry moves fast, so naturally, there’s a lot of stuff happening that makes you feel as though you’re falling behind the curve. I’ve learned that the most important thing when I’m feeling this way is to slow down and re-focus on my craft… to stay inspired, passionate and conceptual. No matter what new trend or technology is making headlines, being a good designer is the most useful thing to my professional development.” —

Buzz Usborne

There’s a tonne of stuff that can take you off track as a designer. You can go down rabbit holes, specialising in certain areas. You can try to consume everything new that comes in the world of design and tech.

All of it can be useful, but you need to step back and focus on being ‘a good designer’ first and foremost. This sounds wishy-washy but what it means is to focus on your craft. Don’t get pulled in all directions trying to keep up.

Stay focused on your day to work and bring in new learnings as and when you need.

4. Learn to get used to never being done.

“Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries.” — Neville Brody

I struggled with this when I started. I wanted to have the work all done with a bow nicely wrapper around it, then onto the next thing. Nope, that’s not the way it works.

Your design work will rarely be done the way you designed it due to time constraints, compromises, technical complications etc.

Push to get as much done as is sensible but don’t be precious and compromise when you need to.

5. Learn to trust yourself more.

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” — Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

You won’t always have the answer, but as the designer, you need to make a call with the information at hand. You won’t always have high confidence in your decisions.

To help with this confidence, imagine that a stakeholder asks why you made that design decision. Think through the answer, and go with it if it makes sense. Trust yourself.

Good to make a decision log document with reasons for specific designs. This can help you tell the story of why you designed what you designed. I use a simple Google doc.

In summary:

1. Quit places where you’re stuck with a wanker boss.
2. Be mates with your engineers.
3. Slow down and focus to work smarter.
4. The work will never be done. Get used to it.
5. Trust yourself and have a solid answer for decisions made.