Ep 297 | Art of Choosing right projects in Creative career - 10/11/24, 7.36 AM

Foreign journey of the design for the next 10 years can be crafted perfectly. If you listen to this podcast for the next few minutes, I'm going to tell you how you can able to choose the projects in your design career which totally aligns with your goals, your interest, your passion, your values and how you can make a big count of it. Many people out there starting as a designer are having a big time problem in this you will not believe. More than 70% of the hiring managers prefer candidates who are more specific towards industry roles and projects and portfolio what they have. Presenting a professional interest projects can increase your user engagement by up to 75 percentage. A research institute, UX Design Institute has said that and also people who are more specific is becoming more terrific in design and you're going to know how and you're going to do one live activity to find it out how it is possible to do that. Okay, let's jump on. Welcome guys. Welcome. Thank you for staying tuning in this podcast. I welcome you again. This is a very important question. Many of the people are stuck and also they have asked me personally like how to really manage this, how to really find out whether what kind of a project really aligns to them and what would really suit them when it comes to starting that. Okay, because there are out there many projects which you can do. There is a projects like let's say you can do a project in fintech, you can do a project in healthcare, you can do a project in this that you can learn many skills, whatever you like, no problem. But the big problem lies in is it going to make a big sense for you your entire career. Alignment is matters based on this guys. See I'll tell you why it is important. Because if you have to position yourself in the right opportunity, you will be able to grow faster. First of all that becomes a brand for you. I'm telling you guys, at least 10 to 20x faster you will be able to grow in your career when you choose that path faster. See conventionally how a designer journey starts. Intern, junior designer, senior designer, experienced designer and then you go for project lead and then you go for technical lead and then you go for like, let's say AVP of design or VP of design. And then you go for technology director and then you go for a CEO. Typically it will take 45 to 50 years for you to reach this level guys, if you're working in an organization like this. But instead if you understand from the day one what is your true interest, what is your true passion and what is the true industry you wanted to go and solve some big problem which is most bothering to you. You will be able to do it in three to five years, guys. Even less than that also it's possible, but you will be having so much of positioning and clarity from the day one. I'm telling you there is no shortcut, but you can able to accelerate it. Think about it. Okay, so 70% of the designers who choose niche based projects are recognized as experts. Let's say if you are a UX expert, let's say if you're a UX accessibility expert. If you're a UX inclusive design expert. So think about that. Design industry analysis has showed that, okay, that will speed up your career path. Like anything, 85% of the creative design directors say showcasing the right project, it improves your hiring decision. AIGS survey says that. So it is very vital to understand this. Okay, so what are the core principles of doing that? I'll tell you five principles, guys. Okay? First, understand why. Second, align that with your personal values and interest. Third, choose the projects that reflect your unique strength and skills. Fourth, make it industry relevant and potential for growth. Fifth, make sure it is a very long term for you and your portfolio should be consistent based on that. Okay? So I'm going to go deeply into all of these five topics, but listen to me very carefully, okay? Because if you're not understanding this point, what happens? You will not be able to grow forward. For you, I'll give you a small action, okay? When you're listening to this podcast, if you take notes and do it parallelly in next five minutes, guys, I'm sure you'll be able to determine the big project, what you wanted to do in your career. Okay? So write down the top three reasons why it is more meaningful for you, why it is more interesting and relevant for you. Please write down that very carefully. Okay? Second, check alignment for that long term goals. What it is really important for you. Can you do it right now? Pass this podcast and try to do it. Okay? Three reasons. If you're not able to write three reasons, then probably that project is not exactly for you. Okay? Okay, Jagdish, I have multiple projects. What should I do? No problem. Write down the multiple projects. I'm going to narrow down into one project in the coming steps, okay? Don't worry about it if you've done it. Second, one, align with your personal values. What is your real goal? What's your real value? Are you feeling authentic towards it? See, many people have a value of innovation, value of creativity, value of empathy. Okay? Value of sustainability values of like let's say I want to spread health for the people, I want to spread health care. Like I want to spread technology. So your interest and value is most important here. Okay? So identify that core value and provide some projects which is aligning to that. If the earlier projects, whatever you've written aligns to that or write a new project now. Okay, that leads me to the third step. Make sure it reflects your strength, guys. See first of all you will have to write your three strengths, okay? And with that three strengths, what you think could be the relevant project for you. Maybe if the earlier project, whatever you have written can repeat or maybe you try to write a new project also. That's totally fine. Don't be rigid on this. Okay? Identify the top three design strength and provide what is the relevant project which can able to work for you in order to leverage those strength as a potential. Step four, make sure the industry should be very relevant for that. Okay? See research some tools like let's say Forrester, what you call Statista, Toffler, Crunchbase and you can use a tool called Google Trends. You can use answerthepublic.com these are all one of the wonderful tools guys. Don't worry, I'll be pasting this link as well. In the description for your resource you can able to create a new account in free Google and you can try it out. It's a wonderful tools. Okay? But find out what are the statistics and the need and the growth of these industries. It's not like only you are passionate. See remember always one thing. Your passion should solve a problem for a particular Persona in order to get paid profitable. The bigger problem you choose, the bigger people you attack. The bigger Persona you work, the bigger pay you will get. Very simple. If you want to do small, do it small. Remember this 4p okay, we made it very simple. So choose that industry which is more relevant. Research out like let's say AI Healthcare sustainability and target those industries and plug that gap. See now your interest, your project, your industry relevance. Everything is more aligned. Think about long term. See even in the future when you're choosing the project, you will have to only choose based on this. Define a theme for your project. I'm a healthcare designer. I'm a fintech designer. I'm a fitness designer. I'm a sports designer. I'm a. I am an expert in UX accessibility design. I'm an expert in storytelling. If you're not able to analyze and narrow down on this niche, you will have a big time problem. Okay? Jagdish, why it is very important why you are saying this? Five steps is important to choose that. See there is a huge connection between the projects what you choose and the personality what you have. Everything will be self expressed guys, when you choose a project and talk to somebody, people will understand that that's your personality. Have you seen many people who have a big time problem in their life with one specific problem. Their entire projects and career will be revolving around that. They might self not known that consciously. If you ask a question, many people who are stuck in money, money, money. I have this money problem, this problem that they will do lot of fintech related projects. If you look closely you will observe that. And second, if you observe like let's say people who are more affected with their disabilities or if their family has lot of disabled people, they will do projects and related stuff which is to help them because they have empathized this a lot, right? See guys, the reflection what you have as a designer, it will connect him emotionally more and you will have a lot of creativity and dedication to solve that problem. That is why your personality is very important in choosing the project. And then make sure it is industry fit and 68% hiring managers prefer candidate with industry specific portfolio. I already told you that. Right? So understand this very important activity. Guys, I hope you would have now got the clarity why it is very very relevant for you to choose that project. After you choose the project. Like let's say if 23 projects are coming in the line. Draw a tablet column and put a left hand side the list of project. Let's say if you have five project. Okay, divided into three columns. The first column is skill utilization. Second column is industry relevance. Third column is portfolio impact. Okay, like let's say for the project one, your skill utilization could be 10 out of 10. Wow. Excellent. Your second column industry relevant should be portfolio. No, it's not really relevant. 5 out of 10. And third the portfolio impact. Yeah, it creates a huge impact. 10 out of 10. So 10 plus 5 plus 1025 points. Right? Like this, you create a rating for all of your five projects and choose which project comes maximum rating. That's it. That's how you choose. Because it should be relevant for your skill set, relevant for the industry and it should be super impactful for your portfolio. Ideally if you have a confusion in choosing the project, this is the owner only method to do it really really fast. Guys, I would highly recommend. I'm also pasting one ChatGPT prompt for you. You guys can able to use AI tools To also brainstorm and find out what is the projects which is more aligned towards you in order to choose it really better. See, I'll tell you guys. If you choose a project which is more aligned to your passion, your dopamine goes up, your serotonin level goes high. It automatically improves your creativity, focus and resilience. Projects that you choose on a personal values increases your motivation and it reduces your burnout. See, many people think projects. I'm getting burned out. No, if you choose the right project which aligns with your career interest, you will feel in fact super happy. Creating a meaningful projects will boost your performance up to 40 percentage guys, a journal of Occupational psychology has said that. So what are you waiting for? It's you. You have to decide that. Okay, so think about it and I'll see you in the next episode of the podcast. And the below gift. Whatever we have given, it's actually a coming number 14. We are having a very good webinar, guys. Please click that link and register for that upcoming webinar. Okay. In fact, that webinar is very expensive but we have kept it as a very affordable prices so that outer public can able to take an advantage. Okay. And subscribe me for further episodes in podcast. You'll be getting notified as well and spread out the word to your friends. It's a great opportunity for them to learn while they're traveling through this podcast. Okay? So thank you so much guys. All the best. If you feel your pain point needs to be addressed, write out to that email connectdesignforchange.com what's your top pain point? We'll be researching and addressing you in the coming episodes. Okay, take care. All the best. Bye bye. Sam.