Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to design in confidence. <inaudible>, I'm a creative coach, speaker and facilitator, helping people and businesses designing nobody experiences to get design in confidence is a podcast for designers, innovators, creative leaders, or just anyone who wants to change. In this episode, I will share with a wishing you on how to mindfully start a new job in a staff
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Before you joined someone, made a design decision, and that decision was looking for your role and hiring you in previous episodes. I explained the everything is designed, but not everything is mindfully designed. So you should ask herself how mindful design was the decision of hiring me investigate or what happened before you dined. They probably tried some solutions. Some of them were not good. Others were good enough with the resources they have available. Maybe someone else was doing the task that you've been asked to do. In my case, I was a UX designer and some tasks were done by the product manager, others by the developers, other by a design contractor. Then at some point, someone in the startup for Mallory, formally, consciously or unconsciously thought this event made her realize that we need someone that can do these things so that we can achieve this outcome.
Speaker 0 00:01:30 We need to make sure you understand what that event was, but then the things that you need to do that, what is the expected outcome? And these findings will lead you to having and making clear their needs and expectations are startup. Doesn't have many expertise and resources. So your role is a solution that it's maybe good enough to solve the problem, the wrong one, to solve the problem, or maybe not enough to solve that problem. And it's Norma, then maybe they go the wrong. So having all of the problems and opportunities clear will lead you to either own the problems that you will be able to solve or accept that some problems are not going to be solved by you. And as always, I invite you to not look things in a binary way by the spectrum. So you can unleash your creativity by looking at multiple solutions.
Speaker 0 00:02:25 For example, some of them might be solved by you, but differently than the expeditions. So in a different time or with a different process with different budget, or they might not be solved by you, but any way you might support somehow, for example, by hiring a contractor or a new employee that will be dedicated to solve those problems. So make sure that you align and manage the expectations of your boss and your team, because maybe they are unrealistic or what is best for them. And that's okay. It's normal. It's not about you, your ability or the fact that they hired their own person. Isn't what about the details of your role? They didn't have the time, the knowledge, the expertise to define in detail what your job is going to be. You do. So he's known by there. Maybe they are expecting too much or too little as a subject matter expert.
Speaker 0 00:03:20 It's your responsibility to define expectations around your role, do these by mistake 80, not only in the past of the stars, but also in the future, make sure you understand the objectives goals in the short and medium term, both for the startup as a whole and for your role and that because everything moves fast and changes quickly in a startup. So accept and prefer for your role to soon change too. And again, because you are the subject matter expert, you need to understand how it needs to change. Otherwise there, we realize that yes and change only when you start to have a negative impact and they will start to need a new person in a startup. You should grow as quickly as your role grows and keep in mind. As I said, the chute, Namaste, startups do scale fast and it's okay. It does too quickly for you.
Speaker 0 00:04:21 Don't feel bad about it, especially for a junior. And you are the only expert in your field, which means that nobody's there mentoring you and preparing you to grow as quickly as the startup does, but you must accept the sooner later the startup will scale and someone with a bigger role than yours will be needed. So they either will hi, someone that you will manage because you demonstrate there, you outgrown your role, or they will accept that you're not ready yet. Then high someone else for that role. And that person will manage you in confidence. That happened to me. It was hard to see that wasn't considered good enough. And I suggest you to accept the feeling and stay a little bit longer. Honestly, didn't do it because I left also for other reasons, but there will be an amazing opportunity for me because finally, a landmine, the person in my same field was able to help him grow, which is what I was missing before, but also because of will observe what they do and see the somethings I wasn't doing them and that was expected or that I was doing, but without the most threat in that leadership, and that's why they didn't think outgrown my role and I was ready for that bigger one.
Speaker 0 00:05:48 So I'll make sure that you see that as an opportunity to understand why then get the role and understand all the areas of improvement that you have in front of you. So to recap on this point, make sure that understanding why you're needed is a priority in your first week so months, because that's going to allow you to build a trusted relationship with your boss and team aligning on what expected and feasible from you then, because at some point they will evaluate to where they're creating the role and Harry knew was the right decision, awareness and control of expectations makes you able to inform the decisions, but also understanding why you're needed, makes you aware any control or why you're not good enough and why you're more than good enough. Let's look at these two in detail in that start up, you need to accept that you are just good enough, embrace it.
Speaker 0 00:06:44 They hire you because they have the resources for your role, but they probably need a bigger team or a bigger department, but maybe they don't have the resources for it, or they do have them, but they're not sure whether investing in it is valuable or how you will work. So see your role as a prototype of what the feature team will be. And this means being okay, that your role is just good enough to address some of the main problems that needs to be addressed in confidence. I always felt that the startup deserve better. And as soon I started to discover all the problems that that users had, I felt that this so much more that I could deliver instead of making that crushed me. I used desert incentivize me by accepting that I could deliver just centered. I was good enough by periodizing and focusing on where I could deliver at least some value of first and on the same time, learning a lot about design, design leadership and improving my skills.
Speaker 0 00:07:43 So could you better in delivering that value quicker and better as soon as possible, as well as defining the tasks I was doing, where honestly, I wasn't good enough, which meant preparing as soon as possible to delegate those tasks to others in future. So remember took okay to be good enough in life, to be honest, but even more in a startup, because trust me in a startup, everyone is just good enough. Even if they look confident, like more failures or Trinity in the metrics, but that seeded because they hide the fact that they are just good enough, or they're not aware that they're just good enough. Well, they own the fact they're just good enough, which is what I'm suggesting you to do. Every startup has many unknowns and tasks and limited amount of expertise and resources. And the people that are more aware of this are those that are actually experts because experts can see all the problems, all the opportunities that should be addressed. Their critic, confidence come from being aware and in control or how much their role is. Potential is limited with resources available and make the best out of it.
Speaker 0 00:09:04 Mindful design brings it to accept that you're on journey. So the while you know that you need to be better and to improve, you can also focus a why you're good enough here and now, because once you accept all the things that you need to improve in the future, you allow yourself to focus in the here and now where you can discover why you're more than good enough. Yes. There are some things that you go below the startup expectations. There are some things that you are not able to do yet, but there are many things that yo are really able to do. And that go beyond the start-up expectations. As I said, in a startup, everyone is just good enough. Everyone is figuring things out and the way anyone is threatening out of their role being outside of that comfort zone. So failure is something that is more accepted from the other side.
Speaker 0 00:10:00 This means that youth can take ownership of tasks done. Don't have a dedicated expert. So go beyond the job title and job description. Yes, you should get paid for what you're asked for, but in a startup consider going extra first, because you might want to capitalize whether they gave you option dividends or shares, or you just see that as sort of to capitalize for your own personal branding, because maybe you're going to do a work. They finally, you can add to your portfolio and that's going to be really useful for you. What will you learn? Because you go beyond your comfort zone by doing tasks that you never done before, but remember to mindful design your extra work. So they will be aware of when your salary and your impact aren't good enough anymore. And the startup needs to invest on a pay rise or to add the next ready member. So to wrap up Tam at nausea, which is largely for Noey die self, that was the sentence that the article from the metrics had in her kitchen and show to Neo their article tells Neo be in the one. It just like being lost. No one needs to tell you, you are in love. You just know it.
Speaker 0 00:11:19 And that's what the suggested to do, discover, find out why you're needed so that, you know, mostly you let them know why you are the one, why you are the one that they need. And that's what is suggested to do, do your research so that you know what is needed. You can mindfully design your role and let them know why you are the one even beyond their expectations. And let me know how it goes. Let me know how you found the confidence to start working as startup,
Speaker 2 00:11:54 Go to designing confidence.com. It's a fun, there is no G before confidence there, you can see how to contact me and also find links to relevant resources and people. I found this pattern from this and other talks where they talk about here, doesn't represent any my former or current employees, but in some episode they deserve Alyssa. Thank you any for fun. This is powering. Please leave a review or share this podcast. Tell people why you think this podcast help your creative confidence becomes someone else's safe space to talk about these topics and to find support in building their credit confidence. Because if you got this far, I'm sure you're a great listener, which a thank you for. And now it's time for me to shut up so that you can listen to your thoughts after this episode and remember to thank yourself for the time you spent to learn and grow.
