Ep 204| How to be irreplaceable designers - 10 Steps to achieve it

How to become an irreplaceable designer in your organization or how to become an irreplaceable designer. Wherever you are, you're doing freelancing, you're doing startup, there are steps to really achieve it. It's not a random process. Success is a science. This science has been deciphered. And in this podcast I'm going to give you 10 steps on my total experience of nine years. How you can really add huge value to your organization and become irreplaceable. As a take a lot of notes and please make sure you implement each and every steps whatever we are discussing because listening to this podcast will not change change anything. Many of my students have told me this. When they take action, they've got results.

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In this day and age, information is there guys, but all it needs is a focused implementation. And let me guarantee you one thing, if you focused, if you are focused towards implementing any of this 10 steps, let's say three steps, if you're implementing, you'll see a huge difference in your career profile. Whether you're already a big designer or starting up your career doesn't matter. Okay, so that much of important information we're going to discuss and let's jump into this video podcast. Welcome guys. Thank you for staying tuning in with me in this design for change. So today we're going to understand how to be irreplaceable in your design field. Okay, very first thing is have a very clear reason why you wanted to become a designer. Following that also know how you can go and really reach there a lot of people talk about why, right? Why, why, why? Find out your why your life gets sorted. But really nobody talks about how. It's very important equally to know how you wanted to go and reach your destination or your goal or something. You have to define your own process, guys. Don't follow any design thinking methodology, don't follow any kind of a double diamond process that you can have it as a reference. Any problem comes any particular project you are given, have your own way of solving it and your own perspective towards reaching there. You can collaborate with the team, but if you are not able to have a unique design style, you will be definitely replaced with someone who has that. Because in this particular AI technology and the automated systems what we are having, in no matter time you will be getting replaced. Guys, you need to definitely understand this. And also there is a very big reason why I am recording this podcast because as we are talking now, job automation is becoming a big threat. You know what a McKinsey report found that 800 million jobs worldwide could be lost automatically by 2030. 2030. In fact, creative fields like design, which is not immune to this kind of a trend, it will get a problem. The study by Oxford Martin School found that graphic Designers face a 23% probability of automation in the future. Because lot of graphic designs, posters, creating information, all these things are AI automated. So designer needs to upgrade themselves. Guys, that's the main reason we are having this podcast.

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So the second important thing is you should be having a mindset of solving a problem for a business. Don't think like hey, I need to be good in research skills, I need to be good in portfolio, I need to be good in UI skills, I need to be great in figma. Throw all these things away guys. First understand what is your company struggling with? What problem are they really stuck with? Have a conversation with your boss every single day. Have a conversation with your boss every single day. I repeat it twice. Nobody does this properly. If you are in complete alignment of your business problem. If you are in complete alignment of your boss instruction properly, you will know what problem to really solve. Based on that problem, you learn the skill and do it. There is nothing like you have to be industry ready and good. Nobody does that guys. You go on through the industry and then you learn it. There is a qualification, there is a process which you can learn but 100% you can't be prepared for the war ready situation like that.

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So understanding the problem will help you enable the skills to learn in overnight. Today micro learning is very evident guys. If you're not learning in a micro learning way, you will be definitely replaced. You need to know how to like, let's say if your project requires data analytics techniques to be learned. Because if you want to create a UI for the data analytic company, you need to understand what is data analytics, right? So you can take a very, very short information from chat, GPT or YouTube or LinkedIn learning to go through that material and get to learn talk to the expert. So in one or two days you can become a master and you can able to understand the user interface behind that. But all it needs is your mindset towards solving the problem. Don't think like hey this is not my skill, hey this is not my area, I'll not go and learn. It becomes a big problem for you as well as your industry or your project. So have a mindset of solving problem. No program. I've seen talking from this angle. Guys, people teach a lot of design skills. People teach a lot of graphic Skills people teach a lot of UI skills, UX skills, product design skills nobody really talks about come from the problem of your company. Try to go and understand what problem are they really, really, really struggling to solve. If your alignment is 100% towards that, I'm telling you guys, even if they remove thousands of people from the company and then they just keep one or two employees, you will be that one or two employee 100% sure. I'm saying because you exactly understood what is the problem of the CEO? What are the problem of the founder? Why is this company really started in first place? If that owner or the CEO or somebody is really about to break the business will get in back to the track if they see people like you. Because you are really understanding the problem to the core and then you want to solve it through skills. Through your skills, through your design process, through your creativity. So there is no point in talking about irreplaceability if you really understand the second point. Okay, I'll tell you one example guys. In my career I've seen people from iits getting gold medals. Real example I'm telling you. Okay, so there is a guy from IIT Madras. It's a gold medalist. He's from a quality team. He's absolutely great in all this, what you call technology, all this metallurgy, all these things. But the point is he's not able to progress in his career. Same he's. He's in that position for several years and then he has retired in that position. People who really work on their soft skills, people who work on problem solving ability skills. Even though they didn't have a proper education, just a basic degree they got. They're just normal mark holders. They don't get the gold medal and all but their career growth is like 10x20x bigger than this guy. They are earning 10x20x bigger than this guy. Their influence in their company, their reputation, their value in the company is very huge. How much ever degree you have, how much ever gold medals you have, nobody cares. Until you solve a company's problem, you will be valued and priced based on that. Guys simple. If you're getting 20,000 in industry, you're adding value to that much. Only if you're getting 50,000 in the industry, you're adding value in that organization to that only. Don't think like my company will not give me 1 lakh Jagdish. No go and look at your company. Who is getting 1 lakh? Somebody is already getting 1 lakh rate. Somebody is already getting 2 lakh right. You know Jagdish, they have studied this that no go and understand. They are adding value which is equivalent to a one lakh rupees worth. If you also add that value, company will definitely pay you. There is no problem for the company to pay the salary. So the matter of irreplacement and the talk about this is completely vanished. When you understand this fact.

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Very, very important. The third is be accountable with someone. Always have a mentor or a boss or your superior or somebody. Because they should be completely watching you and understanding you what you're going through. Or else you will get lost. You will go into a big spin.

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Fourth is always remember planning. Okay? Six P. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Six p's okay. If you're having the tasks like let's say write down in a paper of number one to ten circle two tasks which can able to give you 80% of the impact in today's work. Out of this two, focus on the one important task and complete it 100% before you go to the second task. What I just told you will save you years of hard work to get you fast track success. Simple guys, I'll Repeat you write 10 tasks which is important for your day. Prioritize only the two tasks which is going to add 80 percentage value in your work life. Complete the first task. After this, go for the second task. If you do like this, you will be able to complete all the tasks more efficiently effectively. So that you will not have any problem.

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Fifth important step is do it really really fast. Guys, fast is not in a very hurry. Bury where you make a mistake. No. Complete the first task immediately. Move to the second task immediately move to the third task. Ask people for projects. Ask people for support. Ask people for what you call any kind of a help, resource, tools, material so that you can able to navigate in the process really really fast. Don't waste lot of time in your lunch. Don't go late to the office. Don't come very early in the office. Stay a little late. Go early in the morning. If you wanted to work in the weekends, do it. If you wanted to really work in the midnights, do it. But don't spend too much time there. If you're efficiently planning it many times you can sleep little early. Because health is also very very important for you. If you able, if you are able to put lot of efforts like let's say per week. If you're able to put hundred plus hours of efforts and huge work, I'm telling you in two, three years you will even start up your industry. You will even have a level which is reaching to your topmost position of your company. You'll be like a design lead, you'll be like a design director, you'll be like a strategic head so that you will be definitely irreplaceable. Guys, people don't understand this. People think, hey Acha, we'll take a chai break, we'll take a lunch, we'll have a chit chat. All these people who are in this kind of a zone are literally time wasters. In your career you can do all these things, but after you become successful now, you have not become the irreplaceable asset. Right? You can definitely do it later. But if you're really working hard, work hard. People who tell, hey, do this, relax this, that those people really work till the end of their career. But if you really work hard in one single thing and put your hundred percent efforts and work every single week, one hundred plus hours, you'll be celebrating your lifestyle with a financial freedom and an abundance. Guys, with your family and then your entire passion or project, whatever you have. People don't understand this clarity and they end up like, what do you call, they end up really going on a rat race and they end up going on a complete cycle of month to month, paycheck to paycheck life because of not understanding this clarity. Okay, just rewind this podcast little bit and listen to it. It's very important. Sixth is you need to handle politics. See, wherever people are there, politics will be there wherever you go, irrespective of any industry. It doesn't matter more than four people, five people are there. There'll be a difference in opinion, there'll be a politics. So you will have to collaborate with cross functional team, have. Don't have a fight or a discussion or anything. Guys, have a, have a mentorship program which can really guide you on all these things. Because you can't learn this handling different design, decision, politics in your organization. You need to have some seniors, you need to have some mentors, you need to have some kind of a support in order to give you that maturity to navigate that. I mean if you are in the zone of I'll hit and trial, I'll learn on my own, you'll lose your career forever. Some of the people in my program who have lost their career before and after my guidance of handling with the team and handling with the people and handling with the company, they've gotten back to the track into the great design jobs. Okay, It's Very important. Seventh is determine your weakest skill guys. Okay, see write down what are the skills which you wanted to learn on that skills like let's say 10 skills if you wanted to learn. Close your eyes and think if one skill I can master tonight using some magic technique which will create a huge difference in my career, what would be that one skill? Round that skill. Take immediately crash course. Choose a mentor, go into an online method, chat, GPT, YouTube, learning, LinkedIn learning. Do whatever method you want. Learn it, learn it, learn it. Because your weakest Skill determines your 10x growth guys. My mentor always used to say your weakest Skill determines your 10x growth. So find out your right weakest skill and grow for it. 8th important thing is add value to your organization. See stay in the company. Wherever you find your value is also matching. Don't be very hard like hey I need to be replaceable guy in the company. Don't see it in that perspective. I'm recording this podcast in a different perspective saying change the company if it doesn't align with your value. If your value is towards creativity, ideation, bringing new ideas, but if your company is always working on towards monotonous production related things then that's not really matching your value. You need to find the organization which matches your value and then be irreplaceable there. Okay, get this point clearly guys. A lot of people understand differently and they end up making a terrible mist terrible mistakes in their career. Sometimes you should be really flexible on letting go of some companies and some roles and some responsibilities, some big salaries in order to find a proper balance to job so that it adds huge value in your career because it matches with your value system. Values are really important guys. I've taken a separate podcast to record it. Okay, all these insecurity feelings will go if you work in an organization where your values are really rated properly. Ninth is have a clarity on what kind of a designer you want to be. Don't tell, I'm a product designer. Don't tell, I'm a UI UX designer. Go in very specific. I want to become a UX researcher. I'm good in prototyping skills, I'm good in user researching techniques, I'm good in testing, I'm good in user interviews. So if you are, if you are going into the niche and micro niche, you will be a superstar guys. Because riches are in the niches, the more narrower you go. Like let's say I wanted to become a UX researchers who understand people's behavior and neuroscience so that I can Able to design products and service for them. See how specific and how terrific it is. The more specific you go, the terrific it is, the more riches are in the niches. So find out the niche and the micro niche so that you can pierce it in your design role. So that becomes a destiny for your career. And you'll be definitely irreplaceable because people will come to you for that particular skill. Because nobody does behavioral research, because nobody does what you call UX research like you. Because nobody does prototyping skills like you. Okay, 10th is have a personal influence, guys. Have your Instagram page, have your LinkedIn profile, have your Facebook. Please keep on posting some good information not related to technical design. That's up to you. You can post technical, but showcase your lifestyle, showcase your good information, what you're sharing, showcase whatever you're learning. Showcase your lifestyle, showcase your good intention and your heart to the people every single day. Because your colleagues and your, and your boss and your supporter and everybody is always watching you and they will be having a separate respect for you. Don't think like, hey, my camera is bad. Hey, my face is having pimples. I don't look good in beard. Hey, I don't look good in cameras. Don't have this kind of BS thoughts, guys. Just throw it away. Just focus on building your brand. And what will happen is this will indirectly impact you on your personality, it will indirectly impact on the people who are viewing you and it will indirectly impact on your career growth also because when an organization putting some promotions and other things, people will really hire you for that reason. Because people know that you are a very confident guy. You're, you're an excellent guy. You are a very, what you call understandable and empathetic guy. You're fast, you're good, you're skillful, and then also you're smooth moving with the people. Don't be that kind of a guy who just sits inside the room and do all. It's, it's fine guys. You're not in that era anymore. We have to be in that way of collaborative, flexible, adaptable in order to be irreplaceable. Last but not the least, keep your body fit, have your mindset proper. You can listen to an audio called Stranger Secret. I'll be pasting you the link also that keeps your mindset really proper in an abundance way. And have your, what do you call, have your routines properly with food habits, fitness, all these things. Because if you are able to correct these things, it will all reflect on the 10 points. Whatever it will. Okay, if you follow this 10 steps guys will become irreplaceable in your organization. Let me repeat you first is have a clarity on why you wanted to become a designer and know how to really go and achieve that. That's how you find the unique design process of you. If you're not finding out the unique design process, you will not be surviving in this industry. Second is have a mindset of solving problem, not only developing your skills. 3rd is be accountable with someone. 4th is proper prior planning prevents poor performance. 6p 5th is work really fast in completing the task and moving for the next task, next project, next promotions so that you will be valued more. Sixth is handle the project by handle the politics by having a cross functional collaboration and have a collaborative approach rather than having a fight or clash. Seventh is determine your weakest skill using the magic grind technique. I told you so that your 10x growth is affected because of your weakest skill. 8 is add value to the organization matching with your value. Go to that organization and be replaceable there.

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And ninth is find out your niche and the micro niche area in your design which you wanted to become specialist and go deep into it. 10th is build your personal brand and influence. And last but not the least is have yourself fit and keep yourself healthy and sleep yourself properly and have your personal work life balance so that you will become a great person as a designer. It's not a super duper designer you are going to become. It's about the process in which you become and it's about the person you are really changing in order to achieve that perfect idle self which you are imagining in your mind which will be irreplaceable designer.

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So love this process. Enjoy the technique, enjoy the process and what you call you have to really become that person in order to receive that fruitful rewards or big salaries or big projects or a world class designer or irreplaceable asset. If you're not becoming that person and then by some luck you have went there and then by chance you went there, you will be definitely pulled back guys, because you have really not become that person. You're just hanging here and there and then you're incomplete.

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So I hope this podcast would have given you great understanding on why it is important. I've told you a lot of automation and all these things are happening guys. If you are not really building irreplaceable asset with us, we will be definitely replaced with a great what you call great systems and automation. Okay? According to a survey by envision form, 84% of the consumers says that brands design is an important factor in purchasing decision, highlighting the critical role of design and shaping customers perspective. If your brand is not built properly in your organization, same 84 percentage of your industries will not really hire you or recruit you or your customer or client will not recruit you as a person for them to solve your problem. It's very important guys understand this informations and reflect on okay thank you so much guys and as a token of gift after this 200 episodes I'm pasting a a very great gift for you. You can go to the podcast description and click that to avail that trip. It's a immense gift free of cost. And also if you find this information valuable you can rate me in Spotify and Apple has a five star rating in give me your comments as well. If you needed your pain points to be addressed, you can write that as well. We'd be happy to address the future episodes. Thank you guys. Take care. All the best. Bye bye.