Katia Kunze

The UX job market in 2024 is a bit of a mixed bag. There are challenges due to recent economic trends, but also reasons for optimism. ✨ Job openings are down significantly from their peak in 2022, with UX being especially impacted. Competition for jobs is high, with many qualified candidates out of work. Here are some tips to help you carve your own career path in UX design given the current competitive job market: 🔹 Master foundational UX design principles 🔹 Specialize in a niche area of UX 🔹 Explore freelance and contract work 🔹 Contribute to open-source projects 🔹 Focus on transferable skills and consider roles in other industries ✨ Bonus tip: Use Lyssna to gather user feedback and validate your designs. Perfect for updating your portfolio! 🔍 #UXDesign #CareerTips #FreelanceDesign #DesignCommunity #Lyssna #usabilitytesting #userexperience #usertesting #userresearch #designthinking #ux

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I bet the future of digital work will be all about small, talented, and nimble teams that are super focused on one area of a product. We’re already seeing tons of contract roles popping up, probably even more than full-time jobs, as companies lean into the flexibility and cost savings that come with contracting. These smaller teams would keep things focused, delivering value regularly, but still have the freedom to dive deep into their field using AI and other tools. The best part for digital folks? More flexibility with time and project choices. This setup lets devs and designers juggle multiple projects at once and pick the ones they’re actually excited about. They can work more or less depending on their schedule or ambition. #futureofwork #digital #tech #teams

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❓ I have a question for product designers ❓ How do you understand that you’ve reached a certain grade or level in your career, such as transitioning to a senior role? Do you rely solely on performance reviews, or are there other ways you evaluate your growth? And what if there’s no formal performance review process? I’m asking because I often get questions about assessing one’s grade or level. So, I’m curious — do you have a similar need or interest in this topic? Let me know your thoughts!

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Tl;dr update: Still looking for work. Looking for Senior, Principal, Manager, Associate Director UX and Product Design roles. I have Product Management and Product Owner experience as well. The long of it: This morning I got the email that the position I’d gone through six rounds of interviews for was canceled. In response to market volatility, they’re pivoting. I’ve made it to final consideration 4 times since I was laid off in May. Twice the position was closed. Twice another candidate won out (we’re arch-nemeses now 👀… just kidding… 👀👀👀). My fiancée and I’ve still been planning and paying for our wedding, I’ve been homeschooling our youngest who has ADHD, is suspected to be on the spectrum, and who is an overall incredible kid. I’ve loved the time I’ve had with him… and I’ve found new levels of patience. Two hours to write a sentence is very 😳. We’ve had tickle fights, Spider-Man photo shoots, singing breaks, some tears and frustration, and a lot of hugs and “good jobs!” It’s all working out. I’m blessed, truly, to have my family and friends, to be getting interviews fairly steadily, to be consistently considered for senior or lead roles. But I’m also pretty exhausted. For the first time in my life I had an anxiety attack on an interview and couldn’t answer the question “describe your design process.” The interviewers graciously progressed through the next forty-five minutes of the call with me — but we all knew it wasn’t a good look. It was my fourth interview in two days, during moving an hour across the valley, around parenting and teaching and working a temporary full-time job as a security guard (Arizona unemployment caps at ~10% of what my monthly salary was, so a temp job pays a good deal more.) I rebalanced and have done just fine on the interviews since, but it paints a picture of the pressure. I’m an excellent team player, a capable professional, I love complex systems — generally seeing them as a chain of simple processes tying into one another, I learn quickly, lead well, and overall bring a lot to the table. Without equivocation, I’ve elevated and delivered in every role and on every project I’ve been in. I’ve had clients, co-workers, leaders and people I’ve mentored leave LinkedIn references. I think there are consistent trends they speak to. I know I bring a lot to the table — I’d love to do that for a place ready to leverage the most out of it! If anyone in my network knows of roles, or can like/repost for exposure, please spread the good stuff! I appreciate you all and I can’t wait to give a positive update!

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It’s time to unf*ck your user onboarding. Here’s what you DO NOT need: 🛑 Generic tutorials 🛑 Complicated processes 🛑 Every possible user info What you DO need: ✅ Understand your users & collect feedback ✅ Create a clear onboarding path ✅ Use the right onboarding elements at each stage Stop complicating your onboarding. Stop ignoring user feedback. And get started :) Did you not use an app or tool before because the onboarding was confusing?

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🎉The benefit of joining the MWG community! 🎉 The Mentorship with Goodness (MWG) Community is designed to be a space where aspiring and professional UX designers come together to learn, grow, and support each other. Who is this community for? - Entry-level designers seeking guidance in the UX field. - Designers looking to improve their skills and career growth. - Anyone passionate about building meaningful and impactful user experiences. What We Offer: - Exclusive Resources: Access to curated content, tutorials, and design guides to sharpen your skills. - Mind-shifting Sessions: Weekly webinars and discussions with industry experts to inspire and challenge your thinking. - Design Challenges: Participate in real-world design challenges that help you build a strong portfolio and gain practical experience. - Career Support: Get tips and advice on landing UX jobs, creating standout portfolios, and positioning yourself for success in the field. - Peer Learning: Engage with other designers through collaboration, feedback sessions, and community projects. Why Join? Learn directly from experienced mentors in the field. Stay updated on the latest UX trends, tools, and techniques. Connect with a network of like-minded designers who are passionate about their craft. Receive support and feedback that help accelerate your career. Ready to level up your design game, Click on this link..... https://lnkd.in/dArNywZg #MentorshipWithGoodness #designmentorship #careergrowth #designtips #networking #success

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DVA is not associated with this job posting Senior Product Designer https://lnkd.in/ghdTwqy4 About the Role As a Senior Product Designer at Circle, your role extends beyond crafting beautiful interfaces; you are a strategic partner influencing our community engagement SaaS platform's future. You'll have a high degree of autonomy and will be entrusted with significant responsibilities, shaping user experiences and design outcomes. Your work will contribute to Circle's growing impact in a sector that is not only culturally significant, but also a major economic driver, generating billions globally. As Circle strives to be the go-to platform for creators looking to scale their communities and monetize their content, your role will be instrumental in turning that vision into a reality. #innovation #management #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #futurism #startups #marketing #socialmedia #socialnetworking #motivation #personaldevelopment #jobinterviews #sustainability #personalbranding #education #productivity #travel #sales #socialentrepreneurship #fundraising #law #strategy #culture #fashion #business #networking #hiring #health #inspiration

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Looking for better ROI on your UX projects? Independent firms often deliver more value. With direct access to experts, less overhead, and efficient processes, you get more impact for your investment. See why going independent can transform your UX outcomes. 💭 #ThinkWithUs #UXConsultancy #UXPartners

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Companies are finally seeing the value of super-senior ICs! But career ladders and expectations for staff+ designers are often unclear, leaving lots of people who reach this level feeling unsupported. To help, I took my own 14+ years of experience as an individual contributor in high-impact roles at tech companies of varying sizes and made a highly interactive course. Join us starting Feb 3: https://lnkd.in/eqg4e2vx We’ll cover: 💡 Common expectations of the staff+ designer role 💡 Effective communication with senior leaders and executives 💡 How to set and uphold boundaries to focus on high-impact work 💡 Techniques to manage up and show impact Over the span of three weeks, you'll build a network of super-senior peers and acquire tactics from me: a designer who's been through these exact challenges. Grab your spot now! P.S. Thanks, Adekunle Oduye, for the kind words!

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If you’re solely relying on your UX team to solve all your product usability problems, you’re in trouble.   Don’t get me wrong, a kick-ass UX team is mandatory, not a luxury, but if you expect to hire a couple of designers, pat them on the back while saying, “Go get ’em,” and expect that to make your product a delight for your customers, you’re in trouble. I’m not trying to minimize the importance of good designers, and I assure you that this isn’t another “UX needs a seat at the table” screed. Rather, I’m telling you that building functional, usable products your customers love is a team effort.   If your Product Managers can’t (or *gasp* won’t) find space in product releases to prioritize design quality and improvements alongside new feature requests, technical debt mitigations, never-ending backlog excavations, etc., etc., you’re in trouble.   If your Development Teams can’t (or *horror* won’t) school themselves on the tenets of solid UI development practices and seek guidance on usability questions when they don’t have the answer instead of just winging it, you’re in trouble.   But it doesn’t stop there!   If your Technical Writers aren’t flagging 20-step documentation guides as usability issues that need to be fixed in the product and not with pages of text descriptions and countless screenshots, you’re in trouble.   If your QA Testers don’t tag in, or better yet, assign the UX team as owners of usability defects instead of engineering, you’re in trouble.   If your Account Teams don’t know when or why to bring designers into customer conversations to hear feedback firsthand, ask questions, and trust them to build their own relationships with said customers, you’re in trouble.   If your Salespeople can’t sell usability upgrades as equally beneficial to customers as new features, you’re in trouble.   If your Technical Support doesn’t know when a problem needs UX participation to help address it or how to bucket related usability issues common across customers for UX follow-up, you’re in trouble.   This isn’t about spreading around the problem, nor the responsibility!, of poor usability; it’s about realizing that delivering good UX is a team effort accelerated by shared responsibility and process redundancies to catch even minor issues before they wind up in the customer’s hands. And if you don’t understand that, you’re in trouble.

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In today's "more is more" world, how do UX champions prioritize quality (not just quantity) in product experiences? Forget endless features – it's all about protecting quality and creating a user experience that truly shines. 🌟 Read more: https://lnkd.in/ekkVzxjF #productdesign #intranet #intranetdesign #ux #ui

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Wow! The topic of super senior designers seems to resonate with a lot of folks! I think it’s a really interesting time right now to be a senior IC. More and more companies are looking to flatten org structures by removing layers of management. So more people managers are moving back into IC roles (and perhaps wondering how they can continue to lead without direct reports). At the same time, the remaining managers gain bigger scopes, where they might benefit from partnering with super senior designers to take on some of the load. So let’s chat about what leadership looks like for ICs. First, I think “individual contributor” is a bit of a misnomer - no one works alone, so even without direct reports, leadership for an IC, I would say, is not only possible, but quite necessary. Here are three areas that I often see IC designers leading, would love to hear of others! 🐅 Lead product or strategic initiatives - bring together an ad-hoc team to work together on an opportunity. I’m currently working on a project that spans across multiple VPs at Amazon, because of that scale, there’s no single manager who owns that space, so it’s a really good opportunity for an IC to step in and assemble a team (at Amazon we call them tiger teams) from across the company to get the work done. In larger organizations team silos often create poor customer experiences, so they’re good hunting grounds for new initiatives. 🙋‍♀️ Improve processes - are there opportunities to improve how the design team operates, or how it collaborates with partners? The best example of this I’ve seen was the amazing Jessica Chaillar, who piloted how to incorporate agile practices in our design process, created a playbook for other designers to use, and rolled it out to the whole org. You can start by getting data on the biggest hurdles the team is facing (team retros, surveys, and asking your teammates directly are all good sources), and start piloting ways to solve them. 🎓 Become a subject matter expert - it could be about almost anything work related - how to run workshops, accessibility, Figma, or designing with AI. The key is finding a topic you’re passionate about, going deep on it, and sharing your learnings with others. From there you can set up a small cohort to work on it together, and develop resources for others. What are some other ways you’ve seen ICs step into leadership positions within your org? 📷 Photo taken inside the Amazon Spheres in Seattle. Chosen for this post because like these stairs, careers trend upwards, even if sometimes they change direction and plateau for a bit. #superseniordesigner #IC #principaldesigner #design #leadership

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Leaders, here's a hard truth: 67% of users say poor website experiences negatively affect their view of brands. That's why we've developed a detailed UX maturity assessment framework focused on three critical dimensions: - Culture & Leadership - Research Methods - Impact Measurement Ready to evaluate where your organization stands? Get started with our assessment tool and join forward-thinking organizations transforming their digital experiences through strategic UX investment. https://hubs.la/Q02-VmH60 #UXResearch #DigitalTransformation #UserExperience

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My pal Vitaly Friedman is second-to-none when it comes to delivering thorough, thoughtful, and actionable design advice. He's released a few courses that are really valuable for practicing designers and design leads: 🧠 Smart Interface Design Patterns: https://lnkd.in/e-v-jsCG 📏 How to Measure UX Impact: https://measure-ux.com/ #design #ux

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Ok design community, top pet peeves when reviewing portfolios and resumes. Go! I'll go first 1. Profile image (an image of your face) is the first thing I see on your portfolio site. I would prefer to see your awesome work and personal aesthetic. 2. Undesigned resumes. Indent those bullet points, put some thought into your typography. The Swiss design style is a good place to start if you're feeling stuck. #designers #portfolios #hiring #resumes #productdesign

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UX Design is flourishing, especially within the ever-evolving SaaS industry. Stepping into 2024, let's dive deep into the current salary landscape across varying experience levels in this rapidly expanding sector. Keep up with the trend and gain a better understanding of your professional worth! Read on here: https://lnkd.in/dHDimv3H #UXDesign #SaaS #SalaryOverview2024".

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The greatest challenge of leadership is found in the daily exercise of understanding others as you drive towards reaching desired outcomes.

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Very insightful... I love how Peter Merholz is categorizing companies based on the UX maturity model. He answered a lot of my unsolved questions like when is the time that a good Design Manager/Director/Lead is most needed in an Org to employ "politics" and prove design value (of course in favor of the company's success). I'd like to add that the work of design individuals is certainly needed and surely, effective, but this can't be done completely bottom-up in an organization where the executives' mindset and the company's stage are not really ready to accept design value.

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Well that’s a wrap on Config! It was so great to see so many folks that I’ve worked with, admired, hired, managed, led, followed and best of all loved to work and be around in one place. Last year was epic but this year was sublime. And what a delight it was to see Figma’s new design magazine and little ole’ me playing a small part in this community publication! I’m talking about my favorite topic - data. With the pomp and circumstance of LLMs and “look what I can do,” brag of GenAI people are falling silent on the most important part of all this new technology - the data that fuels it. We’re forgetting the labor that goes into collecting, labeling and making data machine ready and the class of people who aren’t getting fairly compensated for this work. We’re forgetting that entire business models are being celebrated right now that use the stealing and appropriating of other’s creative content as their foundation. First there is awarness. Then anger. Now it’s time for advocacy. Here’s a question how can we make AI development for equitable overall all by fairly compensating those unseen data producers who make the AI tree grow? Check it out! I’m Proud to be part of The Prompt, a print and digital zine from @Figma’s Story & Brand Studios exploring the intersection of AI, design, and code, which launched at #Config2024. My Q&A on the power of input in AL and ML is here:

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