Tell us a little bit about yourself I have been a designer of one sort or another since 2011. I started out as a Graphic Designer who also built websites, but as I got more and more interested in web apps and websites I started moving towards digital design then product design. I am currently Lead Product Designer at Definely. I am happy working on design at any step of the process, whether that be strategy, research, prototyping, testing, design systems, and everything in between. I also love to code when I get the chance, I am a big fan of HTML and CSS, but I will give most languages a try. What are the first questions you ask at the beginning of every project? What research do we already have? Has any design work already been done? What resources do we have to share? Where did this idea come from? (support ticket, stakeholders etc.) How urgent is it? (should I drop other things I’m working on to start on this?) Who is the team that will be working on it? How do you approach pricing with clients? How did you arrive at this? I’ve never been freelance or been directly involved in too many pricing conversations, but I often need to estimate how long things will take. I usually start with a broad estimate followed by frequent updates, I like to over estimate and then take anything ahead of schedule as a win. What are the first things you do when you start a new project? I don’t usually do anything concrete, and it depends on the project. But I will usually start by ask a bunch of questions, and then outline the next steps I will take. I will try and learn as much as I can about the problem, from there I see where the wind takes me and go from there. What does your moodboarding process look like? Where do you source inspiration? I don’t moodboard as often I as used to, but when I do my sources vary. I tend to avoid just moodboarding bits of UI/UX, as that has too much of a bias for solutions. Instead I try to find an eclectic mix of sources, my favourites include architecture, interior design, photography, typography, and physical product design. I read a lot articles from blogs and sites I like via RSS, and I save visuals I find inspiring on Savee. What’s your favourite part of the design process? Why? Prototyping. It’s great to move fast and get something out of your head, then test it with people quickly. I would love to have a number on the amount of hours I’ve saved on circular discussions about features by just building a little thing and showing it to people, it clarifies and validates faster than any amount of meetings could. Are there any parts of your process that go against received wisdom? Or common steps that you skip? Why? There have been times where I followed the ‘double diamond’ process religiously, but more often than not I tend to let the process reveal itself as move along. It really depends on the feature or product, but I find you can often skip a super in-depth discovery process for something far less formal and time consuming. Similarly I often find that having a long iterative process of design drafts doesn’t really lead anywhere productive, sometimes shifting focus too much into detail too early in a project. I prefer to research to confirm assumptions, and then iterate on a shipped feature instead of iterating before launching anything at all. Less double diamond and more squiggly line. Is there anything else you suspect is unique or unusual about your practice? I create lots of diagrams, which I don’t see very often from designers, I see it more from engineers and developers: Information architecture, user flows, workflows, swimlanes, all sorts. I think that it helps to get information structured and out of my head without a UI early. It really helps to focus on all those little words and connections, when you aren’t biased by colours, layout typography etc. If you collaborate with others (copywriters, illustrators, developers, etc): when do you bring them in? How do you handle project management? Early and often, if they’re curious to get involved. It can be very helpful to have a small team involved throughout the whole process. There have been plenty of times where a developer has asked a key question during a research interview, or a product manager has noticed an early inefficiency in my thinking, that would not have been caught until we were much further along otherwise. What’s been the most impactful change you’ve made to your process? Where did you hear about it? Asking “stupid” questions. I have learnt so much by asking questions that should have an obvious answer, and avoided massive assumptions early on. For example say somebody I’ve never worked with before mentions a “customer”, I will ask “What does ‘customer’ mean?”. The answer is often far more nuanced and unexpected than you might think. Unfortunately I can’t remember where or when I first started doing this. What parts of the process are non-negotiables for you? Honestly, I’m happy to skip any part if there is a good reason to do so. I often have strong opinions on validating assumptions, and prototyping, but even those can be ditched in some projects. How do you organise design files? I’m not very good at this. I will occasionally have a blitz and a tidy up when things get overwhelming inside Figma. But if I’m handing anything over I’ll usually create a page with the name of a Linear ticket, and send links to that out. What does design hand-off look like for you? It depends on what I’m designing, if it’s a little change all that needed is a quick comment or Slack message. But as things get more complex I will document more heavily and write specs as needed, I’m not a pixel-perfect kind of guy. I will also have short calls with the team and present the design and answer questions as they come up, and then document that instead if the feature is particularly big. I will often get involved directly with front-end code also if it saves a developer putting up with me listing 50 ‘snags’ that I’d like fixed. Looking back over the last 12 months, how do people find out about you? I’m not much of a self-promoter, I get a fair bit of traffic to my website, especially the bookmarks page, but it’s not something I actively push or post about anywhere else. I’m lucky to only have had to look for work once or twice in the last 10 years, both times I applied for those jobs. If I were ever to go freelance I would have to be much more proactive. What elements of the process create speed bumps or challenges? How do you get out of these ruts? I find projects often get stuck in a discussion loop, or lose momentum when the task seems a bit too big. I try to break that loop by doing or building something demonstrable that everyone can see, critique, and plan against. It’s easier to say if something works or doesn’t, or if it’s too ambitious, if you can see and use it. How do you make decisions? There are lots of factors to take into account for decision-making: time, urgency, impact etc. If it’s a short-term, low-impact, urgent decision I usually use experience and intuition to get those out of the way quickly. I know that the decision I make there is probably reversible and I can iterate on it later. The trickier ones are the decisions where I care much more about the outcome, usually because it has long-term impact that would be hard to reverse quickly. In those cases I have to make sure I am prepared to answer any questions that might counter my opinion, I also like to be prepared with resources to back my decision up. If I can’t justify my decision with anything more than “because I think it’s right”, then I haven’t done my job. That being said I am surrounded by smart people who I listen to when making decisions, and while I will push back I will concede or compromise when others have similarly well prepared arguments to mine. Favourite tool, resource or course? Physical: A nice pen and a nice notebook. Digital: Things by Cultured Code. Where can people find out more about you, keep up to date, or work with you? Checkout my website, there are some other links on there: interroban.gg