New Layer

How do designers track their work? Should they? In this episode, Tanner and Jasmine discuss the importance of tracking your work—through journaling, screenshots, video, and more. When it comes time to reflect on your growth, your toolkit of processes and knowledge, or sharing with peers or stakeholders, tracking work plays a major role.

What do you do when you get blocked? That is: what's the best course of action when something is obstructing your path forward, to success? In this episode of New Layer, Jasmine and Tanner share examples of times they've been blocked in their career and the variable ways to get unblocked. From naming the block to exploring the landscape around it, this episode is packed full of what we hope to be helpful tips (and some very unhelpful jokes).

What are you responsible for at your job? To find out you'll have to talk with your team, your manager, and even your customers. But often we don't have those conversations, why? To do your best work you must understand not only what your role and responsibilities are, but what those are for your team too. In this episode of New Layer, Jasmine and Tanner discuss responsibility as it relates to expectations and the ever-expanding circle of responsibilities we each have when it comes to the work we do.

Mentioned in this episode: How to define roles and responsibilities, a playbook from Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/roles-and-responsibilities).

What should you look for when choosing a manager? What type of manager would you work with best and what signals might you use to determine as much? In this episode of New Layer, Tanner and Jasmine discuss their past experiences with good (and not so good) managers, as well as what types of managers are out there and how to identify the right manager for you.

Recruiters are a vital, but often neglected or otherwise belittled, part of the job-finding process. In this episode of New Layer, Jasmine and Tanner share what it is exactly recruiters do, how they do it, and why it's so important that designers treat recruiters as any other member of the team. From being your authentic self to getting to know the recruiters, negotiating, and more.

Personal values are how we measure our lives and evaluate trade-offs. They enable us to quickly and effectively make decisions while ensuring a high quality of work and livelihood. In this episode of New Layer, both Tanner and Jasmine share their personal values and how each came up with them. Spoiler: there's no right or wrong way to define your personal values. What matters is that you identify what matters most for you in your life and career so you can ensure you're making decisions toward those values.

For more on values check out: https://www.lifehack.org/866227/personal-values

What does remote communication offer that in-person can't? What challenges, opportunities, and unique value does communicating remotely provide designers and the teams we work on? We discuss all this and more in this episode of New Layer!

Looking for your first design job? Thinking of making the switch to a larger or smaller company? Moving from freelance to in-house? Each type of job has different benefits and drawbacks, as with most things we discuss today: the right type of job for you is going to depend a lot on who you are and what you want from your career.

In this episode, Jasmine and Tanner discuss some of the tradeoffs they've observed with each different type of job designers might consider. Personal stories, lessons learned, and skills (plus a reminder) all designers should be mindful of no matter what stage of a career they're in.

Is there space in the product design industry for older designers? What should designers do as they reach ages 40, 50, 60 and beyond? A New Layer listener recently asked and in this episode we answer. Jasmine and Tanner talk about what it means to be an older designer: the advantages and disadvantages faced, who to look for as an example, why you should keep designing no matter your age, and the role biases play in the hiring of older designers. This and more in this episode of New Layer!

What is interaction design, why does it matter, and how do you go about it? In this episode of New Layer, Tanner and Jasmine outline what interaction design is and why it's a core part of digital product design; from mapping out comprehensive user experience to defining and understanding the underlining architecture of a digital experience, interaction design is a core part of the product design skillset.

Resources for learning more about interaction design: