🚀 Introducing
@ProductDisrupt
2.0
A curated list of resources to learn product design from the internet. Think of it as a guide to your DIY design education.
✨ Fresh new design
📁 16 resource categories
📲 Improved navigation
RT & upvote on PH 💙
I don't own an iPhone.
I don't use dark mode.
I don't have a fancy desk setup.
I don't buy expensive gadgets.
I'm still a Designer.
Don't fall prey to stereotypes. You do you.
I spend unreasonable time on the internet looking for the best design resources, so you don't have to.
Here are the top free icon packs I've curated over 5+ years ↓
A friend of mine got laid off from a FANG last week but he's going to receive eight months of salary in severance. You read that right – EIGHT months.
To be honest, that's the kind of sabbatical most people can only dream of.
College festivals are the hidden Y Combinator for Indian designers.
So many designers I know got into design because they happened to design posters or websites for their college festivals.
I'm moving to Berlin 🇩🇪 to join
@contentful
as a Product Designer from Dec'19.
3 yrs ago I set out on a goal to find a job overseas. It hasn't been easy - faced many rejections & made many sacrifices.
At last, consistency won ✨
More here 👇
I'm stoked to share that I've joined
@GraphCMS
as their first product designer. It's a small team of passionate folks building a great product with a mission to provide content management for everyone. The last few months have been tough but the future looks exciting ✨
Moved to Berlin exactly 4 years ago. Strangely, it's still the only place that feels like home. Grateful that I get to live here.
Also, a few days ago I received the permanent residency title. What a way to bring up the anniversary ✦
When I joined
@hygraph
as the first designer, one of my jobs was to build a design system.
I'd only built component lib. in Sketch until then. So this was going to be a new & exciting challenge for me.
Here's the approach & resources I used to build our first design system ↓
I've been a little hesitant in sharing this earlier. I lost my job last month and now looking for new product design opportunities in Berlin. Trying to stay positive and keeping myself busy.
Bangalore will be the highlight of my India visit this time. Lovely city, energetic startup scene and the warmest people.
I'm tempted to make BLR trip a ritual in my yearly India visit.
You aren't hired for the tools you can use, you're hired for the craft. So please do yourself a favor by removing those tool percentage charts from your resume and portfolio.
Sometimes I really feel bad for the designers at Apple as they're never allowed to share their work on the internet. The design community could gain so much from their behind-the-scenes.
2nd night in Bali and someone broke into our
@Airbnb
at 2:30 noon in broad daylight. We got into a fistfight while the guy tried to escape and managed to save our stuff, except for the power bank.
Pretty gutted about it. Turns out Bali isn't that safe after all.
Only my 2nd day in SF and I see a guy shooting 20+ rounds on the other guy in a car. I'm at Pier 39 (pretty crowded tourist place on weekends), it's around 7 pm, I hear gunshots behind my back and jump to the ground.
They injured 2 people in the firing. This place is a mess.
I had to struggle really hard to get to Europe. So I can take great pride in the fact that I recently helped one of my direct reports to move to Berlin from India.
Seven years of sharing work on the internet and I've responded to every single email asking for help or advice. I feel very nice about it and would like to keep this going 😇
✦ Announcing
@ProductDisrupt
Talent Network ✦
A new initiative to help match designers looking for a job with hiring companies.
↳
Here's how it works ↓
Celebrated my 30th on Sep 30 somewhere lakeside in Germany with the loved ones.
I don't have 30 lessons for you, just this one — Realize that you only have one life, don't try to spend it on artificial terms, live it on yours.
When I was studying engineering, my family believed I could repair every home appliance. Now that I work as a designer, my family believes I can design every home appliance.
Either my family believes very strongly in me or they're just obsessed with their home appliances.
Designer at Twitter: What if we made a LIKE animation that suggests to wear a mask every time someone tweets with
#COVID
?
PM: That sounds cool but doesn't help with the revenue. Let's just make one for
#AppleEvent
I'm writing an ebook on cracking a product design interview. I'm also going to bundle it with resume and email templates with a system to track progress in Notion.
As a designer, you aren't expected to come up with the best solution all by yourself but to convert an idea into a conversation. To facilitate your team to participate and translate it into the best solution together.
Stoked to share that
@Hygraphcom
is a Series B company now ✦
We've raised another $30M from
@OnePeakPartners
to continue building the next generation of content management.
Looking back, can you point to that one moment that changed the trajectory of your life?
Mine was when I bunked the first day in an engineering job to interview for a design job. Had I not shown courage at that moment, I would've become a Software Engineer.
How do you overcome imposter syndrome?
I've a folder with screenshots of people telling me how something I made has helped them or how they liked my work. Just swiping through it gets me back up and running.
Introducing my new side project – AI Escapes ✦
A travel postcard series where I've reimagined my favorite places in the world with generative AI. These places are real, but the postcards are generated with a touch of imagination & fantasy.
Get them for free ↓
When I was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, I had ONE month of salary to support my move into the new continent. And had a blade of visa expiry hanging over my head.
This is not the same. I'm happy for him :)
Big win for
@ProductDisrupt
newsletter. Sold out the sponsorships for the next 3 months for $1200 🥳
First time that I've sold 3 months (6 issues) sponsorship deal to a single sponsor. This allows me to create even better content now that I don't have to worry about the bills.
For the past few months, we've been working on a special project – to redesign the
@hygraph
interface.
It's taking shape nicely, here's a little teaser for what's to come.
I got these pins made to give out to friends when I meet them in person.
I visited BLR last week and met with so many friends. But stupid me forgot to carry the pins 🤦♂️
💡 Tip for Designers
Organize your Figma files & make it readable for collaborators from the product, engg, marketing, etc.
It was okay to have messy Sketch files coz only designers worked on them. But it's changed with tools like Figma that facilitate cross-collaboration.
Designer at Twitter: What if we made a LIKE animation that suggests to wear a mask every time someone tweets with
#COVID
?
PM: That sounds cool but doesn't help with the revenue. Let's just make one for
#AppleEvent
This day, 2 years ago, I moved to Berlin with dreamy eyes. The city has been everything I expected it to be and more. I wake up every day feeling grateful that I get to live here. To many more 🍻
Been receiving emails from recruiters lately with subject lines like "return to India to head design at xyz".
That's very kind but no, thanks. Your company isn't a good enough reason to leave my life in Berlin.
My grandma was hospitalized this past week and this video gave me strength during the time. Thanks, Jaggu dada!
She's back home now and recovering well.
My side-project
@ProductDisrupt
hit a new milestone – the newsletter sponsorship slots are sold out until the end of this year ✦
Four months in advance, can you believe it?
@paulg
The US wasn't attractive to me anymore the moment I realised I can do my work with just a laptop and a good internet connection. So I started to look for cities with a better quality of life and ended up in Berlin ❤️
I moved to Berlin with just one bag. This week I moved to another apartment in Berlin with 3 bags and some more stuff. Also gave away some stuff.
Reminder to self:
Stop hoarding unnecessary stuff.