The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Figma Skills Won't Get You Promoted
Figma Skills Won't Get You Promotedby Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Today's advice letter concerns the design community's fetishization of Figma and how our obsession with tools gives the wrong impression. Let me explain. Everywhere you look, designer dudes are trying to sell you on Figma. Design is so much more than software for drawing rectangles. But still, you click this stuff. It's almost like you think that learning this one piece of software is the job...rather than, you know, learning how to design the software itself. I see designers offering advice on Figma as a way to move up the career ladder. To me, this is a red flag. 🚩 Here's why... Leadership doesn't care about Figma.People in a position to promote you don't care about your Figma skills. Figma skills don't set you apart in the job market. A designer who has mastered Figma? 🥱 Cool. Next resumé, please. And you've had way too many iced coffees if you think the rest of the organization cares about your Figma layers. Nobody cares about your layers or your plugins. Only the developers and PMs care a little, and I bet it's less than you think. Don't get me wrong. I love "design craft" and can spend hours in Figma, happy as a raccoon in a trash pile. My point is that people in a position to promote you don't appreciate our design craft in the same way as we do. Leadership and people who promote care about the impact of your designs. Leadership cares about how design fits into the current business strategy. They care about how design will make them money. They don't care if you're the team's dedicated layer mayor. What you can do instead of mastering FigmaThese skills will do more for your career than learning how to make animations in Figma:
TL:DR: Mastering Figma is a waste of time. Learn the basics and move on to something more strategic. This article was originally published on Jeff's blog. Read the full version Shared by Linus Mimetz in the Guild
Until next time! ✌️
|
The Fountain Institute
The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Every 2024 Newsletter You Missed by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, It's that time of the year again! Here are all the newsletters you missed in 2024 from the Fountain Institute: A Designer's Uncertain Path to Success Design Strategy vs. Design Vision: What's the difference? Is Poor Communication Hindering Your Projects? Balancing Freelance Life with Maya McBeath Innovation by Design with Cristina Colosi Shaping the Future of the Guild of Working Designers Figma Skills Won't Get You Promoted See...
Turning Challenges into Confidence: Lessons from Dyslexia By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, When I was seven, I was an expert at pretending. I could "read" picture books without actually decoding the words, using context to fill in the gaps. It wasn’t until my mom, a teacher, noticed I was faking it that I was tested and diagnosed with dyslexia. What followed were years of frustration, advocacy, and learning how to embrace a brain that simply worked differently. While my initial reaction was...
28 Ways to Test an Idea (that is NOT an A/B Test) by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Today I'm thankful for all the ways you can test that are not A/B tests. Executives and product people think A/B testing is the only thing on the testing menu. 🍽️ For me, it doesn't usually make sense to A/B test. Here's why: A/B tests should happen as late as possible. They might be the most scientific approach, but they require a lot of traffic. Plus, they're usually live and in code, so everything must be...