Interview With: Stephen Song, Senior Product Designer

Name: Stephen Song
Role:  Senior Product Designer
Experience: 5 years
Concentration: Product Design & Product Management

Stephen Song is a designing machine hailing all the way from California, who’s love for connecting people, Waffle House, and his friends is undeniable. I first met Stephen during a small stint in San Francisco, and I was so happy that I was able to connect with someone who understood my Atlanta references. Keep reading to get a glimpse inside the mind of this insightful designer!

Tell me a little about you as a product designer?

I’m a senior product designer at a startup called Sweet, a company that helps people save money on their phone bills and find affordable phone plans! I have 5 years of experience (disclaimer: scattered across full-time work experiences, freelance work, internships, taking classes related to design, and reading).

I would say I’m concentrated on product design and product management. I feel the most productive when I’m able to solve open-ended business problems by using design as the techniques for doing so. I’m usually the one that helps communicate with people across disciplines, and in addition to being the UX and technological voice for our users, I try my best to make everybody more effective by keeping our eyes on the prize.

How do you become a product designer?

Do side projects, take design (or design-adjacent) classes, find passion projects aligning with your interests, go to hackathons as a designer, and assemble a thoughtful body of work that shows your strengths and what you’re sensitive to.

Find clients/startups/mentors willing to take a chance on you find topics that you know about or are very passionate about. Lots of domain knowledge is often more helpful than “doing design” at times.

Everyone has a unique journey into design, and you don’t need to have gone to a school like Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford, or Berkely to have a career in design.

Why did you choose to pursue product design?

I’ve always been interested in digital media and arts when I was in high school! I’ve always been interested in fields where I could set a vision for myself, create my own worlds, and figure out how to do so. It just so happened that technology was the way I felt most effective in doing so.

What does a typical day look like for you as a product designer?

This is tough to answer because I just started my job a few days ago! In my previous role, I would alternate between days full of meetings and days full of focus.

I always check in with everybody in-person and get a pulse for how I could be most helpful to the team. When those tasks are done, I start doing project and feature-based work, where I’ll go off in the corner and spend a few hours thinking through an idea or five. I either share my work with my immediate teammates in product and/or design roles, or I pair with developers to hammer out a bunch of changes if we have an afternoon.

Can you describe the design environment at a big company vs a smaller company?

There are always pros and cons to both!

Big Companies: The bigger the company, the more institutionalized design is, as in there’s usually a “right” way to do things. This can be good in that it’s always quick to know whether you’re doing something the correct way, but unless you’re really high up (or played company politics correctly), it can sometimes feel like the decisions are already made, and all you’re doing is defining what that looks like.

The biggest benefit I’ve felt from being at a big company was the amount of support and mentorship you get. You get tons of examples of successful designers from all different walks of life—I find myself channeling their energies whenever I need to do something they were good at!

I’ve always been interested in fields where I could set a vision for myself, create my own worlds, and figure out how to do so.

Smaller Companies: The smaller the company, the more autonomy, control, and trust is required of you. As the only designer at some of the companies I’ve worked at, I was everybody’s go-to person when it came to making design decisions and being the voice of the customers/ no matter how unqualified I felt, people needed decisions to be made, and that person ended up being me. As scary as that was, being the only designer strangely made me take myself more seriously as a designer, and be more assertive and diligent in making sure that things made sense and that I was being intentional.

Being in a smaller company also tends to bring out a wider set of skills from you. If you ever used to do something when you were younger or if you took any classes about it in college, you might be expected to do it! You’ll have to be aware enough to avoid getting overwhelmed by taking on too much, but it was a great feeling to know that every kind of professional skill I had picked up ended up being useful to the last company I worked at.

Are there any special skills you need in order to become a successful product designer?

SOFT SKILLS:

• In no particular order: being curious, knowing how to communicate well, acting more intentional, and always being willing to share what you know!

HARD SKILLS

• Design jobs are so diverse and different that it’s hard to really speak to any particular hard skills or techniques to use. Tools and technologies can definitely open our eyes to what’s possible, but that’s something that designers should always be doing no matter who or where they are.

Do you have any big career mistakes or life lessons you’ve learned thus far?

Until very recently, it was hard to feel like I could make my own decisions and be my own damn person after many years of being on this planet! It largely amounted to the environment, household, and industry I grew up in, and it took a lot of crises and personal struggles to find environments where I felt like I could thrive.

My saving grace has been my best friends who knew what I’m about, understand how I’m wired, and could see (and would always tell me about) all of the brilliant things I seemed capable of doing. When I moved to the same city as all of them, it was like something switched in my brain. I suddenly felt more inspired, more confident, and more like I had something unique that I could give to the world. The fact that I grew up not knowing that existed was regrettable, but seeing that it’s possible to be around people who believed in me made all the difference.

When I’m inspired by something in one area of my life, it inspires everything else in my life.

What does success look like to you?

Success is less so about the actual work or products I’m building, and more so the relationships I’ve created with people. I’ve learned that sometimes the decisions that make something what it is, is out of my control, but what’s totally in my control is how I help my teams do what they need to do. I consider myself a great visualizer, and when I can help people see what’s possible and how they can get there, it inspires them to get excited about what they’re doing and feel great about what’s getting built. That tends to be success for me.

What do you do outside of work to keep your creative juices flowing?

I love mood boarding and curating boards on Pinterest and Are.na! I also love cooking and coming up with fun ways to serve food and bring people together for dinners and whatnot. Both of those things feel indirectly related to what I do as a designer and as different as they are, they’re all things that help exercise the same muscles I use in my work. “Work” is often an arbitrary label for me and only one avenue for all the energies I want to express. When I’m inspired by something in one area of my life, it inspires everything else in my life.

Learn more about Stephen’s love for Waffle House, cooking, his friends and design via his Instagram!

Product Designer: Deeper Dive

Excited about becoming a Product Designer?
Here’s a deeper look into the role (via Payscale)

• Job Description: Product designers are responsible for designing and developing the majority of the consumer products that people use in their everyday lives.
• Related Roles: Graphic Designer, Design Engineer, Visual Designer
• Popular Skills: User Experience (UX) Design, User Interface Design, Wireframing, User Research
• Popular Companies: Facebook, Yelp!, Ford, Uber, Workday
• Average Salary: $84k/year

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