5 tips on being a Growth team designer
So, you’re a designer in a growth team where you see 5–10 campaigns happening week on week, 3–5 pilots, fake door tests, dozens of creative refresh requests, website changes on a daily basis…sounds like a lot? It is.
And here’s the reality – that’s the pace of growth. Growth is not easy, neither is it smooth sailing. Growth throws you in deep waters and forces you to swim to the shores. Making things work is the hardest thing you can possibly do, because 9/10 things are bound to fail.
If you feel like you’re struggling to keep up with the pace, here are some tips that I’ve been through personally with the team that will hopefully help ease the journey!
Changes are bound to happen, prepare for it
Yes, we feel the pain. When a certain creative or messaging is underperforming, the first thing people would comment, “Should we change the creative? Maybe it’s the copy, or the visual, can we try something new today?”. This breaks your intended flow of the day’s tasks where you suddenly have to think of a new idea, a new concept etc.
One key thing here is the mindset. You should have the mindset that changes will happen, and plan for it in advance. Prepare 3–5 variations when you’re doing the first because you already know that you will likely be needing them a few days after the launch. People are weird that way, we lean towards different concepts and visuals at different points in time. It can be a slight tweak, a colour change, but have them ready and prepared to roll!
So ramp up that mindset, prepare in advance so that you would have already maximised your efficiency. Tell yourself that people may like this version, but if they don’t, you have the next set ready for the team.
Do more than just design
I’ve always encouraged designers to not only just design, simply because times are changing rapidly and understanding what’s around and about design will help gather better context. And that translates to better output once you grasp an understanding of what potential impact your designs can make, especially in growth teams, where almost every aspect is intertwined and dependent on each other. Guess what, design covers them all!
So step out of your comfort zone once in awhile, understand what the business is looking out for, what are the project objectives, success metrics, and understand why certain timelines need to be met. You’ll find yourself being even more immersed in your creation after understanding the bigger picture, and that’s an amazing feeling to have.
Yet, there’s also the danger of stepping too far out and losing the initial passion you had for design. I’ve personally been there. It happens, you just need to hold your ground strong and always remember WHY you like to design, and you’ll naturally come back to it.
Learn the magic of data
Trust me when I say that I have a love-hate relationship with data and numbers. I mean, I got a D for Math and avoided numbers at all cost in university. Yet, here I am today diving into adobe analytics on a daily basis, deducing patterns and trends and analysing these numbers.
If you’re a designer looking at data, I’d say look into it from a curiosity standpoint where you’re trying to figure out the impact of your designs. Be it an ad, a landing page, a campaign etc, they all lead to a certain performance. And that’s where your focus can be when looking at data. To understand what works, what didn’t, what you can improve on, and what you can continue to do. Data isn’t everything because there are also external factors, emotions, psychological perspectives that design needs to consider, but it’s a good indication of user and consumer behaviour patterns. That also gives you room for iteration!
Speed = everything
This is definitely not the best thing a designer likes to hear when someone says, “We need this today. We need this in the next hour. It’s quick, can you make the changes fast?”. Yet in reality, we all know that it happens because everyone is trying to get things done and to see results fast. Afterall, we’re trying to grow the business and scale it up. Hence, yes that as a growth designer, you need to be quick, nimble, and fast in making changes. Here’s also where we have to understand that pixel perfect designs may not exactly be the key focus here, but to deliver a design that is presentable and to deliver the results it needs.
Here’s also why understanding the context and the team’s POV is crucial at this point because otherwise, it may seem that everything is being rushed and you’ll feel the stress and burnout of churning out the creatives. Knowing why something needs to be quick and what potential impact it can make will help you to prioritise accordingly. And you have sufficient ammo to say, “I’d need to prioritise this project first, because we are trying to get xx acquisitions from this change.” This helps the other team members to understand your workload and prioritisation as well. Design takes time and everyone should understand that, but we can be smart about it ;)
Be a design unicorn
Lastly, reading off another medium article previously, being a design unicorn simply wraps up all the above points into one simple sentence:
Be an excellent designer who hones her craft, understands the business impact, and grows her management skills to be able to prioritise efficiently.
Being in growth is challenging, but you will also grow 10x from being in such an exciting space. So if you’re in one, take the chance to really push yourself, you will find it tremendously satisfying when you feel the growth in you as you grow with the team!