Written communication is often the best thing for Junior Designers to learn
Written communication is the most accessible skill for introverts to get started with
Hiring a designer opened my eyes to the scary state of the design job market. However, it wasn’t the number of applications that shocked me; it was how aggressive some candidates were.
Whether the candidates cold-DMed me, replied to every job post with a comment, or randomly bugged me for references through my e-mail, I felt one particular feeling in the pit of my stomach.
If I were starting my design career now, I might not get hired because I used to be a pretty big introvert.
It took years of practice to become skilled at restraining stubborn stakeholders and others in advocating for my user. I can’t imagine how rough it would be for any introvert to be seeking a design job right now.
If you’re in that position, here’s my advice.
Master written communication, as it’s the most viable method
According to the Designer’s Guide to Product Vision, Designers need to master three types of Design communication for their job:
Written communication, which clearly defines tasks, responsibilities, and reasons for doing them
Visual communication, which sells the idea or design to others
Verbal communication to move the team forward and negotiate decisions
However, if you’re not great at verbal communication, you must master written communication first.
The most important reason for doing this is because people don’t always like decisions being written down. Writing things down means committing to a record and creating a paper trail of decisions that lead to a final product.
While speaking, the product manager might be enthusiastic about a specific (bad) design, but once you write down their name and attribute that decision to them, they might change their mind.
Writing also helps mitigate the problem of designing with vague requirements, one of the worst environments a new designer can be in.
Writing down requirements, summarizing decisions, and more can be a great way to nudge your team towards a user-friendly path without needing a lot of verbal communication.
This used to be a laborious process, but AI-based tools like Microsoft Co-pilot can become much more manageable (but don’t stop taking your notes!).
But how do you get started with learning written communication? Simple, you practice in public.
Practicing in public is vital to showing, not telling, your design skills
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, introduced me to this idea: if you do not practice in public, your experience doesn’t exist.
This is especially true in fields like Design, where no standardized certifications exist. However, part of the problem many designers face is that they only have so much “official” work.
If you only have one design project with a paying client (or a portfolio of school projects), how else do you show practice?
One method is to create cool new stuff (with your design skills) and show it in public (i.e., LinkedIn) daily. That’s what one of my former colleagues did when he was laid off.
This worked for him because he was showing his (graphic) design skills rather than putting them on a resume.
However, the advantage of writing is that practicing writing in public takes less time than designing a cool new thing daily. Writing a post may only be a couple of hundred words, and it’s a lot easier to show how you think quickly.
This helps you in two ways. First, it lets you practice developing your Design Thinking in a low-stakes environment. I’ve encountered designers with stunning visuals who did a terrible job outlining case studies and processes in their portfolios.
No matter what, part of your Design Interview will involve writing, whether explaining the steps you take, the goal of a project, or more. Practicing laying this out publicly is a great way to start with this practice.
More importantly, it also shows how you think about design, which has become increasingly important in the age of AI.
Even if you only have a single design project you’ve worked on, there are other things you can practice writing about to showcase your knowledge. For example:
A company made an awful move (from a UX standpoint). Let me explain why (this is like 90% of the posts I see from Design Leaders).
Here’s some current UX news and why it’s important to you
Here are well-researched deep dives into a particular topic
Here’s why (X piece of technology) might be great/horrible
etc.
What’s important here is not to treat this like your own blog, where it’s all about your personal opinions. Instead, imagine that a future employer may want to post this on their company blog website.
To help with this process, try following a template like this:
“Recently, [X piece of news happened]. Here’s a quick summary of the facts [A, B, and C], and this is why it matters [from a Design/UX/CX/etc. perspective].”
Showing professionalism and laying out your thoughts about design news, company fumbles, and other UX news can showcase your design skills beyond a visual portfolio.
In addition, forcing yourself to write out how you think about these things can help clarify and focus your thoughts around design problems, alternative scenarios, and more.
However, that doesn’t mean you should neglect verbal communication, either. Writing can help organize your thoughts, learn verbal communication, and focus on the problem.
Instead, it can serve as the basis for approaching your process around it.
Focus on the problem instead of persuasion when starting out
As an introverted designer, you cannot sit back, listen to what your team wants to design, and design it without any complaints.
However, you may not be ready for verbal confrontation either. So, one method—a middle ground—is to focus on framing the problem as best as possible. Approach specific conversations with curiosity about the problem because acknowledging the problem is the first step.
For example, imagine that your Product Manager is pushing to move forward with a bad design decision, such as requiring them to double-confirm everything in a deletion process (i.e. adding 4 more clicks to a deletion process).
Rather than saying something like “That’s not a good idea” and diving into a verbal confrontation, what can be more helpful is to re-summarize the problem and introduce it as a point of design exploration. For example:
PM: “I think we should add double-confirmations for everything, because it’s absolutely catastrophic to accidentally delete this category.”
You: So what I’m hearing is that accidental deletions can be catastrophic. Let me explore a couple of options for resolving that.”
Doing this confirms that you hear the problem the Product Manager is introducing, even if you disagree with the solution. You’ve agreed on the problem from here and can explore different solutions.
This way, you’re taking action on a particular step in their eyes instead of disagreeing with them.
Even if it’s a little intimidating, remember that you’re doing this in service of your users.
Remember, a UX professional must advocate for the user
Lastly, the most important thing to remember is that you are the user advocate. You are being hired as the person who thinks about things from the user's point of view.
Other people may appreciate UX and be passionate about it, but you are being paid to consider the user’s point of view. If you speak up, it’s not just your opinion; it’s the voice of your users.
Your users cannot attend every meeting and every kickoff and fight back against every wrong decision. They probably won’t interact with the product until you’re ready to user-test it, which may be months from now.
So, you must learn how to communicate your users' needs to your team and resist bad decisions for your users. However, you don’t have to pretend to be an extrovert; you can show others you can do this with writing.
So, if you’re an introverted designer despairing at pretending to be an extrovert to get a job, try writing about Design. It might help give you a competitive edge.
I’ve revamped my Maven course to teach Data Informed Design. If you want to learn this valuable skill, consider joining the waitlist.
Kai Wong is a Senior Product Designer and creator of the Data and Design newsletter. His book, Data-Informed UX Design, provides 21 small changes you can make to your design process to leverage the power of data and design.
As an introvert and a writer, I’d have to say this sounds like a great approach.