Miguel M: Being a Product Design Principal

Behind the screen

1 Sept

Miguel is a Design Strategist, Educator, and Entrepreneur from New York.

He is currently a Principal Product Designer at NPR. He specialises in Inclusive Design, Design Strategy, and Design Process and is passionate about Technology, Gov Tech, and Business.

He is the founder of Inclusion Design Lab, an educational community for UX beginners focusing on teaching Inclusive Design methods and principles, as well as the founder of Rita Creative, an agency turned startup supporting creative initiatives led by women and people of colour.

What’s your official job title, and what’s the most straightforward way to explain what you do?

My 9-5 job title is Product Design Principal. Since that title is a bit nebulous, I rather refer to myself as a Design Strategist.

When explaining what I do to others, I typically say I bridge the gap between the business and the design process. Having had other UX strategy roles, the focus of my career has genuinely been that bridge.

When it comes to the business side of things, I work with business leaders, stakeholders, teams, and other partners to identify the project's goals and to represent the design efforts. When it comes to the design side of things, I help teams and other designers navigate the design process and represent the business goals.

These two parts of the equation make it possible to build useful products for people that solve a problem. Who am I kidding? I really just say I help teams build better websites, apps, and other digital products.

What does a normal day look like?

What I love most about working in design/product/tech is that everything is so exciting because everything is constantly changing.

Therefore, every month, week, and day is super different. One misconception about working in this industry is that you spend a lot of time doing the specific activity your focus may imply. For example, I find people assume that those who focus on Product Design spend most of their time designing. This could not be further from the truth. There's a ton of collaboration, teamwork, and, yes, meetings. I'm in a lot of meetings. Many of these meetings aren't the boring kind of meetings you may be thinking about, though! I love what I do because I get to innovate with others. And because I'm mainly a Design Strategist, a lot of my work is in some kind of document.

I may be making my day-to-day sound boring, but I promise it's not!

UX Day in the Life - Miguel makes

What's the most enjoyable part of your job?

I may have already alluded to what I enjoy most about my job, but working with others truly is what I enjoy most. I love working with others to identify a problem and explore different ways to solve that problem. I especially love when things are difficult and messy. I often find we simplify Product Design down to a few methods and ceremonies. However, the truth is that Product Design, or working in Tech in general, isn't that simple. And that's exactly what makes it exciting to me and what I love most about it. I love going into my work feeling like I'm putting together a puzzle. Except, in Product and Tech, this puzzle provides real value to people and is not just there for us to see it put together once we finish putting it together. This is why I especially love mission-driven work - doing good by solving problems through Design, Product, and Tech is the dream! At least it is to me! ;)

What did it take to get to where you are today?

Embracing the process did.

Allow me to be very honest on this one. Too many focus too much on the finish line. Some focus so much on the finish line that they actually delay getting there. Not enough people focus on embracing the process, embracing the road to getting there. Ironically, the more you embrace the process, the quicker you'll reach the finish line.

Look, I completely understand why people focus on the finish line. After all, that is the goal, and it's also very easy to think about. However, the whole point of the journey is not the destination; it's the process. The more you put into the process, the more you'll get out of the journey. The more you get out of the journey, the sweeter the finish line will be.

I've made the mistake of being so obsessed with getting there many times. As soon as I learned to become obsessed with the middle, the messiness, the mistakes, that's when things really started to change for me.

If you're reading this, take this as your sign. Embrace the process, dammit!

What are the main digital tools you could not do without?

For me, Notion gets the job done for most of what I need to get done. Yes, I'm one of those people who swear by Notion. Notion is life, my friends!

At work, I use collaboration tools like Slack, Figma, Miro - the essentials! I'm really heavy on Discord as my preferred communication tool outside of work these days.

In terms of design, it's Figma all day! And some other tools that I use often are Webflow, Airtable, and Spotify.

Any advice for people wanting to do a similar role to you?

Insert my whole schpeal about "embracing the process" here.

Beyond that, for those wanting to pursue a career in the design, product, and tech industry, I highly advise finding a community like Inclusion Design Lab, and finding a mentor.

Additionally, it's super important not to focus so much on hard skills that you forget to focus on soft skills. Many times, though not always, where you lack in the "hard skills" department, you can make up for in the "soft skills" department.

And lastly, find your focus. You're not limiting yourself by niching down; you're being more intentional by focusing up.

And finally, what do you enjoying doing outside of work?

Three things. First, I love music, so I curate a weekly playlist for Motivation Monday (via Rita Creative @_ritacreative). Side note: Monday is my favourite day of the week.

Second, I try to stay as active as possible, so I play a lot of basketball and box.

Lastly, I'm actively working on being the first designer on Mars. I'll be sharing my journey on Instagram this year - follow me @miguelmakes!