Figma: The product design team’s process

The only reason why I, with a design background, was able to learn frontend (as well as additional topics like design patterns, DSAs, caching, software architecture, optimization, etc.) was because I was lucky enough to find a back end engineer who needed design help and was game to let me take the reigns on that part of the project even when I had zero experience. I mean, holy shit, talk about trial by fire. He tested me with toy projects and then when I showed that I could actually walk the walk, we were off to the races with real client projects. Other companies simply put people like me to do one thing and one thing alone which is... well design.

Realistically, most companies just care about filtering candidates based on x years of experience in Language/Library. Which makes sense, but it also means that pushing the boundaries of your knowledge isn't resume-able until a company allows you to deploy, at which point you can finally say you have 0+i years of ThingYourAreLearning.

[1] https://refactoringui.com/

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"We each go around the room and share a quick highlight or two of what we did over the weekend"

"We take time to reflect on our weeks, and ask each other “how are you feeling?”"

These kinds of 'forced empathetic connections' are a a 'hostile workplace' to many, I think it is objectively unprofessional to, in formal settings (and weekly meetings are formal) to require people do a personal 'song and dance'. Even though some people might share 'their mother died' and surely everyone would be nice about it ... it is absolutely not the place for that.

There is no doubt everyone loves to be asked these question on some level, and it's certain fine to do between colleagues when frankly it's more sincere.

But in a 'group/managerial setting' this exercise become cultish, expectant and oddly insincere.

In particular, the more intimate, the more likely people have to 'gel' deeply on cultural issues, and if they don't, there will be problems.

These are the people to talk most of 'diversity' but they end up being the 'least diverse' groups in terms of interest and ethos.

On some level - they are designers who generally tend to be a kind of 'specific type' of person, and I'm sure many/most of them would be fine with it, but I'm also doubtful of the level of self awareness.

The alternative - abrupt but highly productive meetings might leave people feeling cold; 'dispassion' all the time can feel that way. So I don't know what the answer is, but maybe something less formal like 'shared meals' where people just naturally engage in a more classically informal setting, on their own terms, would work.

I worked at a place that had 'free lunch' with a presentation every Wednesday, it turned out to be a great way to meet and chat with random people.

'People like to be Productive'

What I've found, is that almost all professionals actually love to do their jobs, to the extent they can do them. What 'we hate' is bureaucracy and 'things in our way' - but people love to talk about (and do!) their work and are eager to 'complete' if they feel their work will be used.

What would be a great 'follow up' to this, is more on the mechanics of actual process, and how new projects and details are shepherded through the system.

Is everyone working from spreadsheets? Atlassian tools?

How do people feel about working out of a 'ticket system' all of the time.

How much time is given to learning, exploring?

What's the breakdown between panic fixes, ongoing work, new projects?

What's the team balance there?

How do they work directly with Eng., where are the hurdles?

How do they document and record stuff (because that seems to be a byzantine thing everywhere I've worked).