I like to start my days with some me-time to help me get moving and stay focused all day. I wake up at 6 AM and head straight to my local YMCA, blasting Lizzo on my way to swim laps. When I get home, I brew some coffee and take some time to relax in my backyard or by my fireplace and read Medium articles to ease into a work mindset. Then I wake up and feed my cat, Pablo, and my Frenchie, Lulu, give everyone smooshes, and settle in at my desk in my home office.
To get organized, I start my work by writing down my weekly tasks and putting them into time-slots in my calendar to keep me on task. I organize my time across my projects based on what I plan to get feedback on for the week or any project milestones planned. Since I typically have a few projects on the go, it’s common for my day to start with meetings or discussions with the product team or other designers. Today I had the opportunity to meet with the mobile dev team to talk about flushing out designs for a hackathon project that we want to better define and hopefully make real.
Post-morning meetings, I bunker down and focus on designing a solution for another upcoming feature. To prepare for my heads-down work I always re-read existing documentation and user feedback, revisit the problem statement and hypothesis, and review any previous design critique I may have received. I usually start on paper or my iPad, working through multiple quick sketches to go wide on exploration before moving into mid-fidelity to iron out the best ideas. Once an idea has been shaped up enough for discussion, I’ll share it with other designers in design critique or run it by the project manager and developer I’m working with on the project. I think I get the best results with short feedback loops and close collaboration with cross-functional teams.
In the afternoon, once I’ve re-caffeinated and taken Lulu for a walk, I like to dedicate time diving into our design system. I get to flex my design ops muscles by conducting audits of what we have, identifying issues with accessibility, researching what other companies do, and defining our guidelines. I started a #designsystem Slack channel to host discussions around system constraints and keep everyone in the loop on the progress we’re making.
At Bridgit, my days are a mix of balancing project work, systems work, and self-guided learning. We are constantly adjusting our processes to help drive our rapid growth as a business, and it feels like there are lots of opportunities to do work in the areas I am interested in. Being surrounded by great people is a bonus, it’s a team effort daily to deliver the best possible service for our customers.
