What it really takes to get ‘good’ at something
(It’s not what you think)
Over the weekend, I spoke on a panel at Brain Station for prospective students. The panel consisted of myself and a software engineer Diego, where we gave students insights on our respective careers.
During the panel, we were asked a range of questions — ranging from the hiring process at our companies and essential skills, to how to make your CV stand out. While I believe we gave a lot of different advice, we did give one piece of advice that was the same.
In particular, this piece of advice came up while discussing ‘essential skills’ to pursuing a career in product. While it takes different technical skills to become a software engineer vs. a UX designer, the ‘soft skills’ , we both agreed, are crucial to getting a role— or to even just getting a project completed.
how this applies to you…
While having technical knowledge is important, that knowledge is not useful to you (or to anyone), if it cannot be applied in the real world. We live in an interdependent society, and we need buy-in from others involved in a problem to solve it. This buy-in requires mutual understanding, empathy, and enough understanding of a topic that you can explain it to others in a way that will appeal to them and their goals.
So how do we learn to share our skill and apply it in the real world? After watching the YouTube tutorial, or taking the course, how can we turn the skill from words in our brains, to impact on the world?
Share your work
- getting used to sharing my work and receiving feedback (even if I feel it’s not entirely valid) has allowed me to improve my process of how I share work so people from different skill backgrounds can better understand it. Other people have different skills to us, and they also need to engage in this type of sharing so we can get things done — the burden doesn’t just solely fall on you.
teach it to someone without knowledge of it
- As much as I love chatting to others in my field, I have found that I truly only understand a topic when I can explain it to someone who is not a designer. The conversations here, even though they are more basic, they are actually deeper because I am not just using words — I am explaining how it works, and how the topic is relevant to the world we all live in.
Ask for help
- Regardless of experience-level, I believe that everyone needs help and mentorship. There will always be someone further ahead of you dealing with a similar situation, and talking to them will help you use your skills in a better way. Humbling myself and asking for help has been the only way I’ve ever moved the needle when it comes to levelling up my skills in any area.
Read, read, read
- And finally, reading. During the panel I recommended the books Mindset and Difficult Conversations as MORE essential to read than anything specifically UX design related. If you don’t have a growth mindset, or you can’t have awkward conversations, then you will struggle a lot in both design and in life.
This week…
What’s that new thing you’ve learned but haven’t used it in the real world yet? What soft skills do you need for it to have real-world impact? Let’s continue the conversation over on Linkedin. 👋
