Field Notes: My First 90 Days as a Product Designer

Remote Onboarding, Meeting the Crew, & Imposter Syndrome

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Onboarding

Ask Questions

Meeting My Manager: Setting the tone

  • Confirm your understanding of your role and responsibilities
  • Establish your 1:1 meeting cadence
  • Your preferred way to be recognized for your work
  • Obligations outside of work
  • My Role: I understood that as a designer I’ll wear many hats depending on the client’s need. My tasks would include UI design, user research, user testing, and more. Dialexa is a tech consultancy. That meant consulting. Good to get that clarification.
  • Meeting Cadence: We set a weekly 1:1 meeting to connect, talk wins, blockers, and a mental health check.
  • Recognition: We have a tool used to manage our goals and give praise to anyone in the company and share it on Slack. More public than I like but hey, it’ll be a solid repository of promotion evidence during my review.
  • Obligations: Did I mention I have 3 kids? (Yeah, I can’t believe it either.) Parenthood can be unpredictable. I made sure their existence was known.

Meeting the Crew

  • Gain a deeper sense of the company vibe
  • Establish a rapport
  • Ask questions about their experience at Dialexa
  • Get their tips for what made them successful when they got started

Imposter Syndrome

  • Ask questions
  • Set expectations with your manager
  • Make an effort to connect with your colleagues
  • Imposter Syndrome: Close knowledge gaps to improve your confidence and identify a peer mentor to create a safe space and ally.

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Digital product designer at Dialexa, advocate for BIPOC, speaker, and hustler.

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Shara Rosenbalm

Digital product designer at Dialexa, advocate for BIPOC, speaker, and hustler.