New Layer

Burnout is what you experience when everything that fuels you gets used up too quickly. In this episode of New Layer, Jasmine and Tanner talk about what it feels like to have burnout, what typically causes burnout, and the types of things you can do to avoid it. Things like: working to figure out your inner identity, setting appropriate boundaries for yourself, finding mentors or guides to help ground you, and planning vacation or breaks away from work in-advance. To carry on the conversation, reach out to Tanner or Jasmine on Twitter: @tannerc and @jazzy33ca

If you're seeking your first product design job or you twentieth, what exactly should you look for? From compensation and company culture, to responsibilities and job title, what matters most? The answer, as Tanner and Jasmine discuss in this episode, depends on you. Your career ambitions, your skills and knowledge, and where you want to grow as a designer. Listen to hear personal experience and lessons-learned from Jasmine and Tanner's more than 20 years of product design, their suggestions on how to identify what matters most to you, and how to seek out the most important information in any job interview process.

When it comes to your career: how do you set expectations for yourself? How does setting your own expectations for a project differ from that of setting them for a promotion? When it comes to expectations we can often misguide ourselves, much to our detriment. In this episode of the podcast, Tanner and Jasmine chat about lessons they've learned over the course of their careers about how to set expectations and measure career growth without feeling overwhelmed or like you're an imposter.

What are soft skills and why do they matter for product designers? How do you identify what soft skills matter most for a specific role and how do you improve your soft skills? In this episode Jasmine and Tanner discuss soft skills: strong communication, negotiation, prioritization, self-awareness, and more. To set yourself apart from the competition in the job market you need to not only invest in the hard skills to do your job, but also the soft skills that enable you to work better with others.

What makes mentorship valuable, and should everyone have a mentor? In this episode Tanner and Jasmine discuss their experience with mentors throughout their 20+ years of design and why mentorship often doesn't take on the appearance the industry thinks it does. How to find a good mentor, how to ensure the relationship between a mentor and mentee is healthy, and much more in this episode of New Layer.

To do our best work we need to get feedback. For that reason critique is a fundamental part of the role we play as product designers. And yet, critique can feel intense for many designers, especially when done poorly. What does the best critique look like and how can we as designers and peers ensure each time we review work it's beneficial for everyone involved? What are the warning signs of a poor critique? How can you get feedback on your work if you work in a small team or if you're the only designer on the team? In this episode Jasmine and Tanner answer these questions and more.

What is the design process? There's a universal, time-tested, overarching process for design that many of us are familiar with, but when it comes to applying that process to any project, you may find it needs to be adapted. In this episode of New Layer, Tanner and Jasmine talk about the different ways the design process must be used to meet specific project needs; including how to identify what part of the process should be changed and how to ensure your process is fluid, not rigid, to ensure you and your team get the best results from your design work.

When it comes to showing your work in an online portfolio: how do you decide what goes in it? How much information is too much and how much is not enough? In this episode Jasmine and Tanner discuss best practices for building a compelling online portfolio, what to do if you don't have enough work to build one, and how to structure your work in a way that tells an effective story.