Matt Przegietka

The longer you stay in the field,
the more you’ll wonder if anyone
actually knows what they’re doing. (𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵.)

↓↓↓ Here are some truths about product design
I learned through the years.

✌️

P.S. Share your truths!

10 truths about product design only seniors understand.

The earlier you grasp them, the better.

The way we perceive our role changes over time.
Our focus shifts with experience.

In the beginning, we cherish technical skills.
How well we know a tool.
How proficient we are.

Then we start looking at others.

Collaboration becomes crucial.

Group dynamics, feedback loops...
Teamwork is our world now.

It's just the start of our journey.

With experience, our role evolves.
Our perception evolves, too.

We can see more clearly what matters in design.

What the reality is.

How it differs from our expectations.

Here are some truths I've learned along
my (15 years-long) journey of being a product designer.

I am curious how many of you share the same ones.

Do you have any unique ones?
Share them in the comments!

✌️

Just a reminder for UI Designers.

To be a good UI Designer, you need to be good at UX.

UI is a part of the user experience.
It should never be treated as a separate thing.

My advice,
if you're a designer who strictly focuses on UI, STOP.

Start learning UX. Become more of a T-shaped
product designer with a specialization in UI.

UI (only) Designer role is the first one that will fade away
in a quicker, simpler, more agile, UX-driven design world.

With AI, we are going in that direction faster
and faster every day.

It's not too late yet.

Invest in yourself.

✌️

10 truths about product design only seniors understand.

The earlier you truly grasp them, the better.

The way we perceive our role changes over time.
Our gained experience shifts our focus.

In the beginning, we cherish technical skills.
How well we know a tool, how proficient we are.

After gaining some experience
and grasping the design fundamentals,
we start looking at others.

Collaboration becomes crucial.

Group dynamics, feedback loops...
Working in a team is our world now.

But this is just the start of our journey.
Each of us has our own story.
A story in which our role evolves.

Our perception evolves, too.

The experience we gain opens our eyes.
We can see more clearly
what truly matters in product design.

What the reality is.
How it's different from our expectations.
HOW MUCH different it is—and how scary that can be.

In the carousel, I've shared some truths I've learned
along my (15 years-long) journey of being a product designer.

I am curious how many of you share the same ones.
How many of you have your unique ones?
Share them in the comments!

Anthropic's Head of Design just dropped the 3 designer
archetypes companies actually want to hire right now.

Jenny Wen (𝘦𝘹-𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘮𝘢,
𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬)
went on Lenny's Podcast and said something
that should wake up every designer:

"The design process that designers have been taught,
that we treated as gospel — that's basically dead."

Mocking went from 60-70% of her time → 30-40%.
The rest?

Pairing with engineers.
Implementing in code.
Shipping.

She broke down the 3 types
of designers she's excited to hire.

I added actionable tips
on how to become each one. ↓

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What's your archetype?

Why do some designers win stakeholder buy-ins easily?

They use this storytelling framework.

I've pitched stakeholders countless times.
At the beginning, it was very hard for me.

Rejection after rejection.

Always covered with head nods and delicate words,
but my designs never easily got greenlit for development.
Getting buy-in was always an uphill battle.
To the point I started doubting my design skills.

On top of that, I constantly saw other designers
win stakeholder buy-ins with ease.

Back then, I didn't know a thing about storytelling
and methods to talk with stakeholders.

Now, after a decade, I have my own framework.
I use it all the time with great success.

I've wanted to turn this framework
into a shareable deck for a while now.

But building decks always felt clunky,
until I found Pitch.

I easily recreated my style guide.
The UX feels like it was made by designers for designers.
And the AI features actually speed things up.
So I finally made the deck.

Ah, by the way, you can get your hands on it.

Just like this post, and comment "STORY".

I'll send you the link.

✌️

#storytelling #Pitch #PitchPartner #DeckDesign