8 Lessons Learnt in HSBC
Some lessons learnt across 3 years in HSBC, the story of me transforming from a designers who hide into the corner to someone who never shy away from sharing my work.
Written in Aug 2022 (Before there is even AI)
Lesson #1
Be proactive - Don’t wait thing to happen
It happened every week that things drag or you are blocked. It’s extremely crucial to think about how to make it happen.
If you are waiting for a meeting to happen, set it up yourself, or make sure someone’s gonna set it up.
If you need someone’s help, just asked directly, jabber/slack/MS Team is just one click away.
If you are blocked because you need some information (e.g. if XYZ is true or not), then think about all possible solutions given if XYZ is both true or false. And very likely that person you waited do not have the answer, think about how to facilitate that thinking to happen.
If someone haven’t replied your email for days, probably s/he missed it, sent a follow up.
If you need help/advice/suggest, always ask your PM. S/he is going to be your best partner.
If you are struggle to in the middle of a complicated problem, list out all the steps you’ll need to do, then do it one by one. It is usually less complicated than you think if you listed it out clearly.
Lesson #2
When you walkthrough a journey, talk about why.
There has been many times that I heard that - designer is not respected, we were treated as a tool. Sadly it can be true, however, I always believe we can make some change. We'll need to build a better respect on our profession, to share more of our thinking process so that others would understand better about what we do.
The biggest trick I learnt is to share the reason and research behind -
Before sharing your design, talk about the finding/research you did and what you find. What are the problem we are solving.
Then talk about your design, and while you are walking though you work, also explain why this design look like this, e.g. why this CTA is there.
Lesson #3
Think about who the person is before presenting
As designer, we made presentation all the time to different people, or we attended 10 meetings a day. One of the thing I always do is to be aware of
Who is our audience in meeting/presentation What do they do
What do they need
How can we cooperate
Why are we talking today
What would be their concern/challenge What do they know about your project What do you need from s/he
From identifying more about your audience, I am sure the communication will be more effective.
It is like applying your design thinking skill into your day to day work - Think and understand your audience before jump into the solution.
Lesson #4
Make friends, lot of friends.
It just make you work happier, and much much much smoother.
Lesson #5
Show empathy to understand why others say No
There is so many time that we heard NO. Before feeling dishearten, it is super important to really step into other's shoes into understanding why. It could be business or technical concern that you simply didn't know. By understanding it, you might actually figure out a solution that everyone will be happy about. There is always more than one perspective to view a problem, it is never just about design or user experience.
Lesson #6
Think as a UX designer if you are UI designer, vice versa.
This is probably the most painful lesson learnt - when I worked on UX, I didn't think about how would it be like in HSBC UI/toolkit component, therefore, it drastically become a problem (e.g. spacing, new component that didn't work...).
UI is certainly part of the UX - as a UX designer, it is super important to evaluate your design more holistically, involve and talk with you UI designer ASAP.
As a UI designer, it is also way more than just directly adopting toolkit without thinking about UX, for example, what font size to use, allow more space for breathing, etc - It all affect the UX.
P.S. It is becoming burier and burier the responsibility of UX & UI, the new terms is product design. We surely have product designer who's stronger in research or visual, but it is vital to be involved as much as possible so that you can make bigger impact to the full product cycle. Don't limit yourself with your title.
Lesson #7
Don't be afraid to ask for feedback, share your work!
I simply don't trust myself in deciding which design is better. Imagine you have been working in the project/screen for weeks, how would you be objective enough in making a fair decision? There has been countless time that I think version A work, and whilst I asked other people, version B actually work better.
One of the things I encourage everyone to do - share you work and ask for feedback. It will help you in becoming a way better designer as it helped you to see thing from more perspectives. Tips: start from asking feedback in your slack channel, then start doing guerilla testing.
Lesson #8
You will be wrong. Be open minded. Stay humble.
Last lesson is about my personal growth as a designer. I found it difficult in the beginning of my career to take in opposite feedback.
After many sleepless night, I've realised that it is not my profession to make perfect design decision every time. It is about understanding and listening different feedback/perspective then make a better decision. To become a better designer, it's about staying open minded to learn what you didn't know, discover the perspective that you haven't heard and ask to be taught.
Be courageous to accept that you can be wrong.
