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Welcome to our UX Designer Spotlight series, where we explore the journeys and insights of professionals in User Experience Design. Today, we’re featuring Cary, a UX Manager who shares valuable advice for professionals at various stages of their UX careers.
How did you get into UX?
My journey into UX is quite straightforward compared to other UX professionals. I studied psychology at the University of Waterloo, and one of my professors was researching eye-tracking movements, which I found really interesting. That was the first time I learned about UX as a profession. And then, when I graduated, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a career, I applied to various jobs across Canada and happened to land a UX job, which I liked. So, yeah, it’s a pretty straightforward journey.
What is it about UX that interests you the most?
I think it’s a nice mix of different kinds of disciplines and different types of skills. The visual aspect is a big one. I enjoy the aesthetic side of UX. My other hobbies are also quite visual, like photography, painting and digital art. I’ve moved into management, which brings a different dimension to UX, focusing more on communication, stakeholder management, and people. This may tie in somewhat with my psychology background. We also work closely with researchers and data, which I find interesting. It’s a combination of many different elements, so the job is never boring.
Can you speak more about UX Management?
The experience is quite different from being an individual contributor (IC) designer. Most of my time is now dedicated to meetings and strategic decision-making. I enjoy the operational-level challenges that come with this role. Managing designers is rewarding because I get to assist them, and build the kind of team culture I want.
What digital tools do you use as a UX Manager?
I feel like the whole industry has converted from sketch to Figma in the last three to five years. And I think there’s quite a lot of project or document management tools that I use. The UX tools like Atlassian, Miro, and FigJam — they’re okay, but nothing beats pen and paper at the end of the day.
If you think about new tools that are coming up right now in AI, is there anything that you find interesting?
I think for me personally, the most useful AI tool I use at work is FigJam. They introduced a feature that can summarize a lot of sticky notes at once, which is really helpful since I host workshops quite often. In these workshops, there can be a hundred sticky notes, and normally I’d have to manually type them up and analyze them to find patterns or meaning. Essentially, any tool that reduces manual work is good. I don’t think there are a lot of these tools yet. I’ve tried some other tools like Lightroom, which has AI features, but that’s more for fun and not really for work. For work, I use Dovetail a lot, which is really helpful. Dovetail transcribes and summarizes UX research. I just upload the audio from user interviews, and it transcribes everything. Then I can highlight key points in the transcription, and it helps me find patterns across multiple interviews. It’s pretty useful for analyzing research data efficiently.
Could you tell me about some podcasts and news sources that you follow?
One newsletter I have followed since moving to Berlin is from this guy who releases one every Monday about tech happenings in Berlin. It’s called Handpicked Berlin. It’s really popular and focuses on tech in general, not just UX. It’s a great way to stay updated on the local tech scene.
I’d really like to follow a more reliable, leadership-level UX source—something like a UX newspaper with high-quality insights. I feel like the industry needs something like that—something tailored for seniors, managers, and C-level or VP-level professionals. A platform or newsletter that curates advanced, reliable content specifically for experienced professionals would be valuable.
Figma’s conference that I watched this year was quite helpful. The most valuable part was hearing directly from Figma about what was coming up next. It’s interesting to watch because it gives you insights into new features and updates straight from the source, which helps keep you ahead of the curve in the industry.
Do you have any advice for others in the field?
For Junior Designers:
I used to work part-time for a US company where I mentored junior designers, a lot of my advice, especially back then, was towards relatively junior people who were trying to find their first job. This is quite different from talking to someone with five or ten years of experience.
I talk to quite a lot of folks who are career transitioners. For example, they may have come from marketing to UX or graphic design to UX design. It’s hard for juniors to find a job because the market is saturated. A general piece of advice for beginners is to look for opportunities to improve the software they’re already using. They can train themselves, ideally with a mentor’s help, by starting to use tools like Figma, drafting ideas on how to enhance the software, and then discussing these ideas with the developers who maintain the system. By taking this approach, it becomes easier to find a full-time UX job because they’ve already demonstrated the ability to work with developers, stakeholders, and within a business context. This is the kind of advice I often give to beginners in the UX field.
For Mid-Level Designers:
The common theme I see is that it’s not their hard skills that need work—their Figma skills are solid, and they can create beautiful designs. Instead, it’s more about soft skills, like communication. Presentation is a big one—how do you present your ideas in a way that that gets different leves of stakeholders on board. How do you read the room when you’re in a meeting with executives?
We hope you found Cary’s Interview insightful. Her experiences in the field provide practical insights for UX professionals at every level. If you’re a UX professional with a story to share or have suggestions for future spotlights, we’d love to hear from you at admin@ux.tools. Stay tuned for more inspiring journeys in our UX Designer Spotlight series!
