This episode is sponsored by Playbook, which is a collaborative platform for creatives to store, organize, and share their work. It features AI-powered search and integrates seamlessly with design tools, making it a great space to manage all your files and projects. Join the "30 Days of 30 Projects" Challenge with Playbook to elevate your creative skills and unlock your full potential!

In this episode, Femke and Charli delve into the journey of transitioning from an individual contributor to a design manager, including distinct responsibilities and skills required for effective management in the creative industry. They talk about their training experiences, essential books, and learning opportunities that contribute to the development of successful management careers.

Timestamps:

0:34 - Intro

01:16 - Catch-Up

03:31 - Playbook sponsorship

04:52 - Training for Management Skills

06:38 - Charli's Current Management Training at Kit

08:24 - Femke’s Training Overview

16:15 - Book Recommendations

• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

19:23 - At what point of your career did you get the coach?

21:08 - How to balance the relationship between external coaching and internal management?

23:37 - Did you have a chance to coach others in management?

25:16 - Is there anything Charli would like to pursue in management training, specifically in design leadership?

 

Big thanks to our sponsor for this episode, Playbook! Be sure to check them out and see how they can elevate your workflow

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

This episode is sponsored by Playbook, which is a collaborative platform for creatives to store, organize, and share their work. It features AI-powered search and integrates seamlessly with design tools, making it a great space to manage all your files and projects. Join the "30 Days of 30 Projects" Challenge with Playbook to elevate your creative skills and unlock your full potential!

In this live Q&A session, Femke and Charli dive into key topics for designers, including staying relevant in the industry, navigating stakeholder misalignment, making career moves, and the challenges and rewards of building a design culture as a founding designer.

0:38 Episode start and catch up

04:39 Playbook sponsorship

06:43 Q1: How do you stay cool and relevant for 9 years in the design industry?

08:30 Q2: When stakeholders are misaligned in product leadership, should a designer check in with the project manager to ensure alignment at the team level? Should designers step beyond the technical scope of their role to address misalignment?

13:22 Q3: What does it feel like to be a founding designer and how can you create a design culture?

15:48 Q4: How do you start a new role after ending on a low note at a previous company?

18:04 Q5: What’s the difference between a visual designer and a UI designer?

22:20 Q6: What were your sources of inspiration for shaping the new creative direction for Kit?

24:04 Follow up on the founding designer question

25:17 Q7: How do you view the current job market? Is it important to base career moves on company name recognition, or should you prioritize skills and experience over past employers?

30:08 Q8: How can you make your growth plan more actionable and trackable, especially when discussing career progression with your manager?

33:40 Q9: What advice do you have for someone hiring and leading a design team for the first time?

38:38 Q10: What are the main lessons you’ve learned from doing the podcast and sharing your career journey? Has the podcast contributed to your design thinking and overall creative self-development?

Big thanks to our sponsor for this episode, Playbook! Be sure to check them out and see how they can elevate your workflow

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

‍

Femke and Charli delve into the difficulties of managing a side project that isn't going well. Charli shares her personal experience of trying to organize a live workshop in New Zealand and not managing to attract enough participants. The hosts discuss what Charli learned from this experience and how the situation could have been handled better.

Show Timestamps:

2:03 Update from Femke’s side

4:14 Update from Charli’s side

6:23 Background of the situation

12:18 What is your reflection on this situation?

13:44 What are some lessons learned from this situation? Why do you think you did not sell as many tickets as you thought you would?

17:12 If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?

19:02 Are there any interesting reasons why the people who bought the tickets decided to do so?

21:28 Another idea for improvement

 

Show links:

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

Get 10% off any new annual Webflow plan using the code “designlife” at http://wfl.io/designlife

 

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Thanks to Webflow for sponsoring this episode! Webflow gives designers the power of code in a visual interface, and both of your Design Life hosts love using it for their personal sites.

Get 10% off any new annual Webflow plan using the code “designlife” at http://wfl.io/designlife

Thanks to Webflow for sponsoring this episode! Webflow gives designers the power of code in a visual interface, and both of your Design Life hosts love using it for their personal sites.

Get 10% off any new annual Webflow plan using the code “designlife” at http://wfl.io/designlife

 

Join the design life community

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Submit a topic

Thanks to Webflow for sponsoring this episode! Webflow gives designers the power of code in a visual interface, and both of your Design Life hosts love using it for their personal sites.

Get 10% off any new annual Webflow plan using the code “designlife” at http://wfl.io/designlife

Join the design life community

Support the show by buying a Pin!

Submit a topic

Join the design life community

Support the show by buying a Pin!

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The inspiration for this topic came from Charli’s new series ‘Inside Marketing Design’ where she speaks with marketing designers working with the biggest Tech brands from around the world. A listener noticed a theme that many designers mentioned working with freelancers and we wanted to dive deeper into this topic and share our own experiences and insights of how to establish the freelancer/client relationship and the benefits or possible pitfalls of working with freelancers. 

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In today’s episode of Design Life we talk about future proofing your skills to help you establish a long lasting career, by leveraging new technology to boost your creative thinking and using problem solving to develop innovative design solutions. 

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Have you ever felt that you have so many meetings in one week that you don’t have time to get your work done? If this is the case finding focus time at work can be a struggle. In this episode of Design Life we discuss how to evaluate if you have control over your meetings and how to maximise your meetings so they are as productive as they can be.

Charli's new series - Inside Marketing Design

Get Femke's advice through Superpeer

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Femke and Charli share their insights on how to approach the application process in the 2024 design job market. The hosts share strategies on how to optimize your application, stand out from the crowd, and increase your chances of securing your desired position. As competition intensifies and hiring standards rise, it is important to excel in every aspect of your application, whether it's a case study, website, or resume. Tune in to discover how to effectively showcase your design expertise and gain essential guidance for thriving in today's fiercely competitive job market.

Show Timestamps:

01:40 Catch up

03:49 What are you looking for as a hiring manager?

09:08 How to approach an application process?

12:13 What are the tips for standing out more among other applicants?

16:09 What to focus on in the case studies?

17:32 Where would you be looking for the roles?

19:49 Instagram creator recommendation - @badasscareers

21:26 Extracurricular activities and side hustles

25:24 Extra tips

 

Show links:

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

We spotted a tweet recently that said instead of working from home we’re living at work, a sentiment we can agree with. If your self worth is attached to your work, now more than ever you might be experiencing feelings of being unworthy, but you are worth more than your work. In this episode we talk honestly about our jobs, side projects and attaching self worth to our work.

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Today on the Design Life podcast, we’re talking about processes and design operations. Writing briefs, developing processes and reviewing workflows are all part of the job, but sometimes it can feel like that’s all we do as designers! If your daily to-do list has shifted away from design, it might be time to start delegating. In this episode we discuss how to use your initiative to accelerate your success, when to improve a process and how to delegate effectively.

In this episode of Design Life we ask the question why are there so few women in design leadership? When Femke tweeted recently wondering why there is a disparity between men and women in design leadership, the replies showed this message resonated with a lot of people. In this episode we discuss why female design leaders are the exception rather than the rule, and what can women, and men, do about it.

Femke’s Tweet

How to be antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Sign the petition for George Floyd

Grayscale - Charli's font!

Glyphs font software

Teela Cunningham font course

Convert Kit Homepage

Angie Kwan

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Although we work for companies of different sizes and on vastly different kinds of projects, there are more similarities between our QA reviews than there are differences. A QA is a process that every designer implements as the project comes closer to completion, as a designer you need to check everything is good to go for your launch date. Hitting snags at the end of a project is common, we discuss how we’ve evolved our design QA process to get the best results.

Jonathan has worked with companies like Lego, Twitter and even the UN, running sprints to make design decision making easier. Following on from our recent topic of design decision making, we ask Jonathan to tell us more about how we can get out of busy work and instead, spend time creating through easier, faster and more collaborative design decision making.

AJ&Smart

The Workshopper Playbook

As designers, we make a lot of decisions. From moving something two pixels to the left to redesigning an entire website, our decisions range in difficulty. Today on Design Life we talk about how we go about making these decisions and how to overcome decision paralysis.

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Design reviews can seem a bit like a holy grail but using them to the designer’s advantage to create a successful project is key. We dive deep into the processes in place for formal and informal design reviews and crits where we work and share what we have learned from giving and receiving feedback. 

On this episode of Design Life we are talking side projects. You might have a few ideas bouncing around in your mind of late, that keep coming back to you. Maybe you want to see if your idea would spark interest in the audience you have in mind, but you don’t know where to start. Using our own side projects as examples, we talk about how you can bring your idea to life and avoid potential pitfalls along the way. 

Burger bun recipe

Charli reflects on her 7-year journey at her current workplace, emphasizing the importance of difficult conversations in clarifying issues such as salary and job satisfaction. Femke talks about the struggles she experienced of leaving behind internal reputation and connections when transitioning roles, highlighting the value of established relationships within a company. They discuss the concept of "golden handcuffs" and the need to see if current job aligns with personal growth and challenges. Charli and Femke also share personal experiences of leaving previous jobs in tech, offering insights into recognizing signs for change and taking the first steps towards opportunities.

Shownotes:

01:02 Episode intro

02:01 Life update

05:42 Charli shares her journey at the current workplace and emphasises the importance of addressing concerns

09:45 The value of reputation and relationships you’ve built within the company.

10:48 What is golden handcuffs concept?

11:35 How to identifying important things in your role if you are starting to think it’s time to move on?

12:52 Why did Femke decide to move on from her first position?

15:59 Charli shares why she moved on from her first job in tech.

17:14 Why did Femke leave her second role?

18:59 Femke shares the signs that made it clear to her that she should move on.

20:27 What was the timeframe from the decision to taking the first steps to move on?

24:44 Was there a moment at Uber when Femke thought it’s time to move on but then realised she should continue?

Show links:

Charli's Design Career Checkpoint worksheet

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

In this week’s episode of Design Life, we have a timely discussion about our motivation while working from home. These are unprecedented times we’re living in. Trying to find and stay motivated while also building a new routine when working from home is a challenge. We discuss our levels of motivation as it changes from day-to-day and why it’s important not to give yourself a hard time if you’re feeling less motivated than usual.

Femke's video: Temporary workstation setup while working from home (Desk Tour)

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Many people find themselves working from home at the moment as workplaces play their part in helping to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. For those of us who are working from home for the first time, or returning to remote working after some time in the office, we use this episode of Design Life to chat about the benefits of working from home and how we stay productive in our new environment. We also share the struggles we face as we miss our colleagues and how we use technology to stay connected.

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In this episode of Design Life we discuss how to build your network. Over the course of your career, how can you build a strong, supportive network? We talk about taking the organic approach to creating your network so you can you successfully leverage the support of your colleagues online and IRL.

How to network as an introvert

116: An alternative approach to networking

107: Advice for networking

Giving and receiving feedback can be tricky. In this episode we talk about performance reviews, which is quite timely as both of us have just finished or are in the process of having ours. We discuss how feedback works on our teams, how this helps us and what we plan to do with our feedback.

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As designers we have very high expectations of our own portfolios. Try to take the pressure off. Don’t overthink it. Build a system so you can easily and quickly publish work and keep it up to date. Identify your own barriers and then build solutions to overcome them. 

The temptation to redesign your portfolio can make you lose sight of your goal. Stick with an old design if it means getting the new work up. At the end of the day, that is the most important thing. Schedule time to come back to the design at a later date. 

If your work is covered by an NDA, you might feel like there is no way around it - you just can’t build a portfolio. Instead of this mindset, could you consider sending a password protected link to share your work? How about blanking out information that is private? Or send through a password protected pdf. Remember your goal is to get an interview, so you need to share just enough to interest the company and give you a chance to present your portfolio in more detail at an interview. 

If you are really short on time, create an archive. Even if you have a portfolio, creating an archive which you can reference at a glance is a good idea. Keep it simple. The information can be sparse to begin with, the year, the project, the company and a holding image is enough. If you want to host your archive on a platform, try using Dribble.

We have both experienced the frustration of being asked to sign off on our designs only to find that either a small part of the project or a large chunk have not been developed as we had intended. In this episode of design life we discuss how to tackle implementation issues between design and development so that company goals are achieved on schedule and within budget.

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In this episode we talk about how design is more than just pushing pixels. As a designer you may find yourself completing any number of tasks - planning researching, exploring, scoping, interviewing, wire framing - we could go on and on. Sometimes this can be frustrating. This week we discuss a query from a listener about what to do when you feel that design is the last thing on your to do list.

Support the show on Patreon! 

Have you ever thought about starting your own YouTube channel? In this week’s episode of Design Life we speak about our channel’s journeys, what has worked consistently and what we have done differently over time. We speak honestly about growing our channels, dealing with controversy, balancing content, monetisation and sponsorship. This episode is a must-listen for any designer who wants to start or grow a design YouTube channel.

01.39 – Catch up

04.15 – Gaps in the Youtube design community

10.18 – Striking a content balance

12.13 – Our favourite videos to make

16.44 – Dealing with controversy

19.06 – Growing your channel

24.50 – Evergreen vs tentpole content 

27.05 – Monetisation and sponsored content

 

Femke's latest video

Charli's latest video

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This is a very exciting time of year, a great time to evaluate 2019 and look ahead to what you want to achieve in 2020. In this episode, the first episode of the new decade, we talk about our goals and intentions for the year ahead. This has become a tradition for us on the podcast, at the start of every year we reflect on our goals and look forward to what we want to achieve next. 

Plan your year workbook

The Design Life Community on Patreon

Is the weight of your potential weighing you down? Potential can be both a blessing and a curse. When you feel fulfilled, you are able to focus on the task at hand and complete your best work. If you possess a greater potential than the task at hand requires, over time, completing this task will leave you feeling unfulfilled. In this week’s episode, inspired by Charli’s blog post, we go deep and talk about how fulfilled we feel right now, the weight of potential and getting unstuck.

Charli and Femke talk about their experience of having retreats with their teams, how retreats should be structured, what is their purpose and how to make the best out of in-person time with your teammates.

As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent and we usually do not get the chance to see our co-workers’ faces outside of video-calls, team offsites can greatly improve the team dynamic and subsequently enhance communication between team members. Changing scenery and experiencing new things with your team will create space for creativity to approach challenges and open doors to have crucial discussions, paving the way for growth and innovation.

Show Timestamps:

0:57 Intro

01:50 Life update

6:13 Femke’s offsite in Denver

7:56 Charli’s team retreat in France

10:00 Purpose of retreats at Charli’s workplace

10:30 Retreats as a manager vs. an individual contributor (IC)

11:46 Structure of the retreat

17:22 Did the offsite match out to the expectations?

20:50 Femke talks about her upcoming off-sight to San Francisco

23:55 Is there anything that you learnt at an offsite in Denver that you will bring to San Francisco?

24:33 Takeaways from this episode

 

Show links:

Charli's live workshop in New Zealand

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

In this episode of Design Life we have a special guest joining us, Zach Grosser. Zach joins Charli on the podcast this week as they both attended Adobe MAX 2019, Charli was an Adobe Insider this year and Zach was invited to attend by Adobe as a UX leader. Charli and Zach discuss their key takeaways from this year’s flagship creativity conference.

Bézier podcast with Zach Grosser

Talk to Me by Dean Nelson

Full Time You by Meg Lewis

 

Are you hoping to make the jump from a junior to senior role in 2020? 

On this episode of Design Life we discuss a query about senior and junior roles from a listener hoping to change levels. How do you know when you’re ready, how can you figure out and prove that you have the skills you need to do the job at hand? 

We discuss how the jump is managed at our respective companies and the idea that there is always something you can do, even if it’s not being asked of you, to demonstrate why you you’re up to the challenge. 

Han Bang – Toronto design Youtuber

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In a change to our usual format, this week on Design Life we discuss Femke’s experience of the Within leadership retreat. The three day, design leadership retreat provided plenty for us to discuss, including leading authentically, listening to your inner critic and coaching colleagues to come up with their own solutions.

Leadership Circles

Within Retreat

How do you deal with the frustration of people not accepting your ideas? When you share an idea and people brush it off or they don’t agree that it is a good idea, how do you deal with that in such a way that your team understand your disappointment but don’t mark you as a sore loser. In this episode we talk about how we communicate our disappointment and frustrations with our teams, and how sometimes listening can reveal an unexpected solution. 

01.10 – Check in

04.40 – Listener’s letter

11.55 – What to do if this happens to you

17.34 – Accept your idea didn’t make the cut

22.50 – Listen & Learn

25.55 – What to do if your ideas are being shot down more often than not

 

 

 

This week on Design Life we’re talking about a topic that has been on our minds lately - career progression. We have been thinking about the next stage in our careers, and thought you might be interested to hear what steps we have taken to secure the next phase and how we know it is time to have that all important conversation.

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly
Kim Scott, Radical Candour
Liz + Mollie, No Hard Feelings

After a short hiatus the Design Life podcast is back! Staying creative and motivated during big life changes can be a real challenge, one we have recently faced. We have jumped at the chance for our next adventure and moved to new countries. Femke has joined the Uber design team in Toronto, working with a new team on Uber Eats. Charli continues to work remotely for Convertkit but has swapped the hustle and bustle of London for sunny Valencia!
Trying to stay inspired while also managing the logistics of a big move to another country is a challenge, in this episode we share what worked for us during this busy time.

Ladies Wine Design
Bumble BFF
Ladders Conference
Design Life Enamel Pin

In this episode of Design Life, we talk about how to get your first design job. It can be a conundrum, in order to get a job you need to have experience, but in order to get experience you need a job. How can you get experience if no one is willing to give you a job? We share our tips, along with an exciting new product we have launched in the Design Life store.

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Liz Steel
Hollie Arnett

Passive income is a great way for designers to earn a little extra every month alongside your full time or freelance gig. In this episode of Design Life we discuss the different passive income streams we have used successfully, what we have learned and what we hope to try in the future.

Charli’s passive income, a breakdown
Amazon Associates

This week we are delighted to share a very special edition of Design Life with you. For this episode we invited Helen Tran who is a Product Designer, hobbyist writer, and the CEO & Founder of Jupiter to tell us all about her journey to becoming her own boss, the importance of teaching and her thoughts on going deep versus going wide.

Helen Tran's Blog
Jupiter
Helen on Twitter

Femke and Charli delve into the concept of personal branding. They discuss whether personal branding requires strategic planning and the level of intentionality one should have regarding their personal brand. Femke and Charli explore the distinction between personal and company brands, the objectives personal branding can help achieve and whether individuals can truly control others' perceptions of them through personal branding. Femke and Charli also touch upon the importance of personal branding for designers and how to cultivate it within a company they work at. Finally, the hosts address the issue of misalignment between one's perceived and desired personal brand, offering guidance on how to navigate this discrepancy.

Timestamps:

01:54 - Life update

04:22 - Is personal brand something that is instinctive or do you need to be strategic about it?

5: 00 Femke shares her thoughts on the difference between her personal and her company brands

07:11 - What goals personal brand can helps you achieve? 

09:40 - How intentional are you about your personal brand? Is it something that you change every year?

12:52 - Can you control what people think about you with personal branding? 

15:38 Why as designers we need to think more about our personal brand? How to build your personal brand internally in your company?

17:54 Femke asks Charli how has her personal brand evolved over the years.

18:47 - Is there anything that people reach out to you for surprises you?

21:44 - What to do if people’s perception of you is not aligned with your personal brand?

24:33 - Updates on Charli’s workshop

 

Show links:

Charli's live workshop in New Zealand

Femke’s course “Product strategy for designers”

Share your topic suggestions for the show with us at hello@designlife.fm

A few weeks ago on the podcast we discussed project retrospectives. A listener sent in a follow-up request for an episode about project kickoffs, which it turns out we have never discussed! Starting a project with a kickoff checklist can be useful for everyone involved. In this episode we discuss the checklists we use, and how to jump in successfully if you haven’t been involved in the kickoff.

Design Life Episode 151 Running Design Sprints
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This episode comes by way of a talk Charli heard at the How Design Live conference in Chicago. Stephen Gates delivered a thought provoking presentation, about living life as a creative. One question in particular stood out - is our manufactured reality killing the design industry and our creativity? In this episode of Design Life we tease out this topic, and how we see it play out in our lives and in our careers.

Dribbble's HANG TIME – Get $100 off admission!
Stephen Gates
How Design Live
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Is your portfolio truthful, is it a fair representation of your skills? Today’s episode comes by way of an email we had from a client, who asks this very question, and favours freelance market places as a result. We discuss how to make sure your portfolio is an accurate representation of your work, honestly.

Dribbble Presents: Hang Time
Quinn Keast’s portfolio
Alejandra Quintero’s portfolio
Daniel Eden’s portfolio