Ep 182| Software Developer in to Creative Designer - How to transition in 5 Steps

While interacting with more than 12,500 students. You know what? Majority of the students are working as a software developers. Are they working as a HTML, css, Java, Angular? But they wanted to come into a creative product design. They wanted to come come into a UI UX product design. But they are really blocking themselves of several reasons. Okay, if you're really thinking to transition yourself as a product designer, this podcast is exactly for you. And you have to take a note because I'm going to give you five steps and under which three, three sub steps in order to do that transition. If you effectively note it down and take action, you will get results. Guys. Okay, let's jump into this podcast. Welcome to Design for Change. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. We have an amazing topic today. Can I tell you how to transition being a developer into the designer role? Okay, see a lot of people have this as a big aspiration. If you personally ask me, I would say more than 30 to 40 percentage people whom I've interacted with 101. I had a very deep conversation also with more than 100 to 200 students. Had a one to one conversation with 12,500 students. I've observed their patterns, I've seen their interview process. I've seen people cracking 2x3x salary growth. I've seen people who are just getting 10,000 in UI UX design. I've kind of understood the major important element. If you want to become a designer, the main element which you have to work is your mindset. Okay? Unless until you don't have the reason why you wanted to become a designer, I don't think this podcast is going to add any value for you. You can stop and you can go back to any other material you want. Because if you're not still found the reason why you wanted to become a designer, whatever I'm going to tell you now is also not going to make a sense. Okay? So go and first find out that hey Jagdish, I want more money. It's okay. Hey Jagdish, I want a passion to be fulfilled. It's okay. But write it down clearly. The moment when you pen down the moment when you write it down, you will go deep into your heart to find out a real reason. Don't try to try to be dishonest with yourself. Pause this podcast and write it down on a paper. Or if you're traveling somewhere, you can write it down in your text notepad. But action is very important guys. Okay, so think about it for a minute because that is going to be your intrinsic motivation. You're going to come out or else I don't think the transition is really worth it. Even if you make the transition, you will definitely regret it. Even if you have any difficulties during this transition, you will be feeling very bad. Even in the design field, if ups and downs comes, you will regret the decision and then you will go back to your developer role. So don't do it. Guys, don't waste all of your career time without answering this question properly. If you answer this in a proper way, you will have a clarity where to go. Okay, so with that being said, the first important thing is understand the transition. That's the very, very first thing. Guys. See you need to understand the difference between what a developer does and a designer does. 100% people have a Khichdi understanding in this. Guys, when I ask a question, when I really ask what's your job role? When you, when I ask what is their role and when I ask what is that role of the other department guy testing or like let's say marketing or sales or a development or a design or an engineer, we will have a very different understanding. That's the problem will happen. So you need to understand that first. So emphasize particularly the technical implementation. Like let's say if you want to really understand what are the technicalities involved in it, go and first understand this. You have to emphasize that to yourself clearly even before convincing others. So that transition understanding is very vital. And recognize the transferable skills in the, in the first section, I'm just giving you a subsection because it's not like 100% you are going into a different area, right? You're going into a different stream. It's not a. You're going into Amazon Forest as an explorer. No, that's not the case. So understand why you're designing as a designer and understand how and what kind of skills you can transfer. Like let's say if you do a user research, that could be transferable skill. If you do a prototyping, that could be a transferable skill. If you do sketching sometimes, okay, lot of people don't do it. But if you do sketching in that stage as well, you can, you can take it down. If you're, if you're parametrically, I mean if you're metricating the UX parameters, you can able to do the transfer of the skill. So problem solving ability, attention to detail, understanding technology. So this kind of a skills can be transferred. Guys, you're not going into a new alien world. Okay, A lot of people forget it to tell in the interviews. They just blabber like anything, just like developer, I'm a designer. Based on the job description, based on the company, they'll act, they'll act whatever they wanted to tell. It's not that guys HRS and people are not what do you call. They'll sense you very fast. You need to be true, honest, genuine. That's why you need to read the job role and responsibility. And if you wanted to transition, you have to make sure to tell clearly what are the transfer of the skill you got and mention that the second important thing is develop that skill. Guys. See now you know the skills. Go and learn the fundamentals. Learn typeface, line, color theory, like learn composition, learn sketching, learn, learn user research, learn primary research, secondary research, Persona mapping, empathy mapping, learn testing method, learn evaluation criteria, learn usability, every part of the thing in product design, you can go and learn it, okay, you can take mentorship program, you can take online course, anything which is good for you. Then mastering the tools. It's very important in the second step, learn tools like let's say sketch Figma, Adobe xd. You can do that. That would be really good for you. In order to excise and familiarize that. The third important thing is adopting the designer mindset. I already told you, right? First there's one more point guys. In order to build your UX design skills and tools, please build a good portfolio also which is showcasing your skill set. Because when people see the portfolio, they'll have a good conviction that you are actually aspiring to be a designer. It has a great value. So now comes the third point, mindset. See, show that reason why you want to become a designer. Understand the user perspective in designing with empathy. Okay, so you can show some techniques like let's say user research, usability testing and you can put it in your portfolio, you can able to share it, you can able to understand in a more deeper way. And you have to be really creative. Guys, cultivating the creativity is a very, very important see, being that, being in that mindset. As a designer who is really exploring, experimenting, sketching, exploring, sketching, iterating and then experimenting, your mindset will become so huge. And then your mindset will be in a, in a way to explore a lot of ideas in order to bring the best out of it. Can I tell you very honestly guys, engineers don't do this much of iterations. I've seen that. I'm also an engineer for your information. Okay, so there are some engineers who really does it in a Different way, but majority people, I'm saying because the way in which they have learnt the curriculum and the way in which they are seeing engineering is like a formula. A question will be there, an answer will be there, the end of the answer. Also they'll know and they have to fit into that formula to make the design happen. They are good for functionality, they are good for technical constraints, design, they are good for what you call meeting the technical spec. But when it comes to design and creativity, you need to have a large shift in your, in your mindset. It took me six months to understand this simple point, guys. I'm not saying you will understand it in this podcast, but put it in your mind. Start thinking you will evolve as a person slowly when you nurture this thought. Okay? You need to be a great guy in terms of experimenting, iterating more, more, more as a creative designer. You know what? I've recorded a specific podcast on improving your creativity. Like a muscle, you can hear out that and you can able to overcome that. The fourth important thing is navigate your growth opportunity. Guys. See, See. Good guidance, good mentorship programs. I would say mentorship program because human to human connect. You get a great feedback one to one and then you move faster. Okay. Rather than watching some courses recording videos, this, that I mean I'm not saying it's good but the course completion rate in Udemy and Skillshare is less than 5 percentage. Can I tell you in my course completion its average 30 to 40 percentage people complete the courses. Some of the people don't come but yeah, majority of the people. I have to say it's almost six, seven times better than the market average. So the meaning is I take mentorship and then I give courses so people get this clarity. So you can choose any mentor with your convenience but do it because when you are monitored and when you are accountable with someone, you will definitely take action and stop your procrastination. Guys, don't think of spending money. If you really wanted to get a great results, go and spend good amount of money. You are spending on yourself, you are spending on your career, you are spending on your improvement. It's going to come 10 or 20x guys, if you rightly invest. Like let's say if the mentorship program is 20, 30,000, 40,000, you're going to get first month itself 50 to 60,000 no matter which program you join. So it's not about the mentor, it's not about the program, it's about you taking action. Any mentorship program is better than nothing, guys. Okay? So do fit. So understand the technology, stay in trend. That's the point. So be in the mode of continuous learning and adoption guys, that's the sub point. I would say understand the methodologies, emerging technologies, the trends and tools and process. So design thinking process or double diamond process or any anything. If you wanted to approach in a different ideation or if you want to approach in a different brainstorming way, if you want to add a creative perspective and a flavor to your ideas, do it. Learn it. Okay, the fifth important thing is explore the scope of the product design. See even before taking impulsive decision you need to be very careful in this. Okay See understand what a UI designer does, UX designer does, interaction designers does and understand in what industry. Like let's say if you want to go for healthcare, e commerce, let's say if you want to go for a free fitness, if you want to go for a sports industry, if you want to go to education industry. So understand the pros and cons. If you wanted to do a freelancing you can choose that. If you wanted to do a employment in an employee like a CNN in an MNC organization or if you want to for a score design studio, think upon it very clearly. Rate the pros and cons of working as a freelancer versus a company and then you will be able to take a better decision. Consider your cost, consider your time, consider your work life balance, consider your resources knowledge so that you can able to decide very clearly. Okay See according to a survey by InVision, demand for UX designers has increased by 87% in the last five years. Glassdoor reports that average salary for product designers $90,000 per year which is close to 60 to 70 lpa. Okay, in Indian money. So in United States I'm saying it's US$90,000 with opportunity has a very huge higher earning capabilities of earning that much of salaries as being a ui, UX and product designer. A research by Adobe indicates that companies with a strong Design Focus have 32% more revenues grown than their competitors. Study by McKinsey found that companies who prioritize design outperform any industry as much as 2. So what does it mean you can now take the action and move your career. Guys, I hope this podcast would have given you clarity. If you wanted to come into my mentorship program and experience it, I would highly highly recommend to go to that email DFC DesignForChange and drop an email. If you need any kind of further information you can write down in this podcast and we'll be happy to address you. Okay, Come and experience. Let's have a fun and you will come to know whether design is going to fit for you or not. Okay? Thank you so much guys. If you feel this podcast useful in Spotify and Apple, give me a best star rating and spread it among your friends. They can be benefited as well. Thank you. Take care. Bye Bye.