For our latest Talented Recruiting Thought Leadership interview, I spoke with my friend and former Uber colleague, Sylvia Nguyen, about her journey with transitioning careers. Sylvia was initially a pre-med student at Stanford until she ultimately considered another possible career path: product design! From spending dreadful hours looking into organic chemistry books in college, she is now the sole Product Designer at Lambda School. The following interview will cover Sylivia’s approach with successfully building a new career path, and establishing herself as a Product Designer.
TR: Thinking back to undergrad at Stanford: was this the career path you envisioned for yourself?
Sylvia: I did not envision this at all! I was pre-med all throughout undergrad. I come from a family of physicians, so I assumed that was the right path for me. It was senior year at Stanford when I realized that [being a physician] wasn’t the right direction. Realizing that gave me the freedom to explore other career options to see what really was a fit.
TR: Did you have any inkling ahead of starting your journey as to what in the business world would be interesting?
Sylvia: Eventually, I wanted to do something related to design - but I took a very winding path to get there. I worked in state government, and then worked at various non-profits, and then eventually landed in tech and worked in marketing & business development. For me, I had to go and test out a whole bunch of very different fields to find out what I was good at and what I liked.
TR: You wrote a really fascinating Medium post about how you used Design Thinking when you were at a more recent career crossroads - trying to decide between pursuing sales versus a career in design - would love to hear more about how that process happened for you.
Sylvia: When I was in business development at Uber, I managed a partnership where we were working with the deaf community to help make the Uber app more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing drivers. When I was sitting in on interviews with drivers and the non-profit we were working with - and then sitting alongside designers to create and build the app features - I had this realization that what designers did was really cool, and I wanted to be the one to actually design solutions versus just manage the relationship. It was a major “A-ha!” moment for me. I had always been interested in visual design and had taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator and all those things, but working at Uber helped me realize how much more fascinating design could really be. I learned Product Design incorporated user research, empathy building, and an entire creative process to make sure that you and your team are not only designing the right thing, but always iterating and improving to make it better.
TR: How did Design Thinking then come into play?
Sylvia: I didn’t realize I was using Design Thinking until after the fact. But I started reaching out to product designers and learned more about what they did. Design Thinking is about approaching a problem creatively in order to figure out the best path forward. One of the phases is discovery, or gathering as much information as possible before you take the next step. At that time, I was learning as much as I could about the field of design - and then used that knowledge to shape my own career path.
TR: You then went back to school and got your Masters in Interaction Design at California College of Arts - what was that process like, and would you recommend other aspiring designers consider getting a Masters?
Sylvia: I loved it. It was a 1-year program. A lot of people in the program were in career transitions and eager to get back to work. I benefited from having a lot of colleagues and experienced faculty to help guide and shape my own design learning. Anyone could benefit from this program. We had a lot of graphic designers, architects, industrial designers, but also people from non-design backgrounds in the program (like me). A great diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. I would highly recommend this for people who are either starting out or making a career change.
TR: After getting your Masters, you went out on your own as a UX Designer & Strategist. What was that like versus being in-house?
Sylvia: A lot of my clients at that time were people in my network. Some of those people found me via that blog post on Medium! I worked on one project for a colleague and friend from Uber, who was in the process of starting her own business. I helped her design a new website and launch new brand identity. I also worked with a design agency in a consultancy model. I really wanted to go in-house. I missed being on a team, missed working cross-functionally, and wanted to be able to work on a project for longer instead of just handing it off to a client in the end.
TR: So you are currently a Product Designer at Lambda School. How did you end up working there?
Sylvia: I heard about Lambda School from a friend.. I remember him talking about the school, explaining the model, and I read the stories about students who either didn’t have a college education or were coming from more humble backgrounds - would enroll in the program, learn how to code, and triple their income potential! It was incredibly inspiring and really spoke to me as someone who had undergone my own career transition.
TR: What is an average day like for you at Lambda?
Sylvia: As the first and only (!) Product Designer, I do the entire end-to-end design process. I conduct user research - such as interviewing Lambda students and internal stakeholders to figure out pain points and discover opportunities. I work with our product managers and engineering team to scope out product and design requirements. I do all of the wireframes and high fidelity designs, and finally usability testing. So basically, everything under the sun!
TR: What attributes and skill sets (“hard” and “soft”) are vital to success as a PD?
Sylvia: For hard skills - keeping up with UX and UI best practices. The software, the trends, everything changes at lightning speed! I read a lot of Medium posts, attend conferences, and try to keep active in the design community. For soft skills - a designer is a connector. You have to be a good listener to understand what people’s challenges are and to understand different points of view. You also have to be a great storyteller. Translating complex ideas into something that is cohesive and clear to a wide audience. Communication is key.
TR: What advice would you have for someone who is considering becoming a PD and/or someone who is just starting out in the field?
Sylvia: Talk to lots of people. Talk to user researchers, design strategists, in-house and agency people. Do your research and figure out if it’s work you will thrive in. I initially felt insecure about my technical design skills, so I really put in the time to get better at visual design and metrics/data-oriented skills. When a recruiter looks at your portfolio, you want to really demonstrate that you have a wide-breadth of design skills including metrics-based work.
TR: The portfolio is obviously a crucial part of your PD career. What do you think makes for a solid, strong portfolio?
Sylvia: I’ve reviewed a lot of portfolios. From my very first glance, I want to make sure that the person has a really good design aesthetic and a good visual eye. The next thing is, how does this person talk about their design process? I don’t want to just see wireframes or a diagram of a user journey, I want to be able to learn from their insights. What did you learn from the user interviews and how did this inform your final designs? Process is key to distinguishing a great designer from a not-so-great one.
I enjoyed catching up with Sylvia! For those considering a change of career, specifically in Product Design, I found the following super helpful.
There are great resources \out there for prototyping a new career path (and hey, I know of as I speak - I went from working in operations to recruiting & coaching). One particularly powerful resource is the book (and Stanford class) called Designing Your Life.
Communication and empathy are key to success as a designer. You have to be an effective voice for design both on behalf of users, but also as you interface with your cross-functional partners.
Take the time to put your best foot forward on your portfolio. Demonstrate not just that you have a great eye for design, but that you have data to back up your successes.
Interested in being featured on our blog? Have a unique product management or design story? Email blogfeature@talentedrecruiting.com.