How I Became a Product Designer

Tertiary Education

When I started University in 2005, I didn’t know what I wanted to do career wise.
Information Technology was promoted as the job of the future so I figured I should skill up in that area and enrolled myself in a bachelor of Information Technology.
During my first year of study, I discovered that I really enjoyed Multimedia.
When I wasn’t studying I was often found dabbling in Photoshop.
By the end of my first year I had a clearer picture about what I enjoyed doing and as a result I switched over to study a bachelor of Visual Communication.
In 2008 I finished my bachelor of Visual Communication and left University knowing that I wanted to design and build websites.

During my last year at University I worked casually as a compositor for the local newspaper. Once I finished my studies a sister newspaper offered me a full time role as a marketing assistant.
I soon discovered that the main role of the marketing assistant was to cold call businesses to see if they were interested in advertising space....this wasn’t my calling (pun not intended).
I then moved to another local business where I worked as their “webmaster”.
One fateful day I was attending a marketing seminar where I met a woman called Katrina who was running her own web design business, Mojito Solutions. After a brief chat about what I had studied at university and what I was interested in doing she handed me her business card and told me to call her if I ever wanted a job. I rang her the next day.
And so my career as a web designer and developer started!

From 2009 to 2013 I worked for two web design agencies.
During this time I designed and developed countless websites for a variety of clients.
The diversity of work allowed me to explore different styles, trends, techniques and tools.

After 4 years, I decided to branch out on my own and I started freelancing.
I don’t often talk about my freelancing days as they were extremely short lived, I'm talking a matter of months (if that).
While freelancing I was told about SafetyCulture, a local tech startup that was looking for a web designer/developer contractor. The timing was perfect as I was just finishing up a batch of projects and was looking for some new work to sink my teeth into.
During my interview, the CEO mentioned that while they were happy to hire me as a contractor, they would prefer to hire me full time if I was interested.
There was something about SafetyCulture that sparked an interest in me so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity they dropped into my lap and joined the team full time.

In 2013 I joined SafetyCulture as a web design and developer.
I predominantly worked on designing, building, maintaining and optimising the marketing website.
The team at SafetyCulture grew at a rapid rate over the next few years, and with that growth came an influx of UX Designers, UX Researchers and Product Designers.
I collaborated frequently with people in these roles and I was fascinated and curious about what they did and how they worked.
I was really interested in the world of UX, and found myself learning more and more about it.
I started applying the things I was learning to marketing projects.
In 2017 my passion for web design and development started to fizzle. My job became too comfortable and I was no longer feeling challenged.
As fate would have it, a Product Design position had recently opened up at SafetyCulture and the Head of Design approached me with the position. I had spent the last few months longing for a new challenge at work, and here it was!
With the support of my Marketing Manager and the Head of Design I transitioned to the design team as a Product Designer.
The design team was quite established at this stage, which meant I had many people to learn from and ask for guidance when needed.
The design team continued to grow over the next few years, and with each new hire was a person I learnt something from.

And that is how I ended up working as a Product Designer! I can’t wait to see where the path I’m currently on takes me over the coming years.