[ Becoming A Designer] by Design
Image by @koolaid on X (formerly Twitter)
If you’re a designer, when exactly did you become one?
Was it when you landed your first “big kid” job?
When your direct deposits suddenly weighed a little more?
Or was it the moment you got your first real design project, the kind where “fake it till you make it” was a mantra, and impostor syndrome moved in with no intention to pay rent or utilities, yet was always ready to make a home in your head?
Lately, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with peers and colleagues who are wrestling with questions of design career identity. Some are fresh out of school and finding their way, while others are seeking pivots or looking to expand their skills and practice.
Across these conversations, three themes were persistent:
What book shaped you the most early in your career?
Where do you find the tools, resources, and frameworks you actually use in your work?
How did you find your niche in design?
[ 1. What book shaped you the most early in your career? ]
It’s the summer of 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’m working with one of my favorite professors, Jonas Milder, as an intern-slash-freelancer at the Milder Office, helping design learning spaces and offices.
Calling myself a “designer” back then?
Absolutely not.
In my mind, doing so would've meant the police bursting through the nearest wall like the Kool-Aid Man to take me away for the biggest identity-fraud scheme in American history.
Impostor syndrome aside, I loved design.
I loved designing workshops.
I loved working on social impact projects.
I loved creating experiences that invited everyday people, especially the people typically ignored, to shape the products and services meant for them. That work lit me up inside (and still does).
One day, Jonas had a book sitting at my desk with a pink sticky note attached with my name written on it:
Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation by Ezio Manzini.
This book didn’t just open a door. It handed me a map to a bigger world, with permission to go farther than what I could see for myself.
Manzini writes, “The designer’s role is shifting, from solving problems to enabling people to solve problems together.” He goes on to write, “The designer becomes a facilitator of processes rather than a producer of artifacts.”
I couldn’t confidently call myself a designer at that time (though in hindsight, I already was). I started calling myself a facilitator. It felt truer.
That single idea still anchors how I design with others, from research, to development, to implementation. I think this is a book for designers and non-designers alike to take away something that works for them.
[ 2. Where do you find resources and tools you actually use in your work? ]
I have my go-to resources that I’ll link below, but the most impactful frameworks and methodologies that have stuck with me I’ve learned from colleagues. These are like a carefully curated à la carte menu, selected from my experiences working with highly skilled designers, anthropologists, researchers, managers, entrepreneurs, even clients that I respect and admire. I adopt the best of what I observe, collecting frameworks and methodologies that help me evolve my own practice.
Every collaboration is an opportunity to observe, learn, and adopt new ways of working. There is no magic, nothing more complicated than keeping your eyes open and seeing what works for you.
Resources come and go, but a few I always return to:
| Title | Brief Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| DesignLibs | Curated collection of “design mad-lib” style templates to articulate design problems, goals, and solutions. | Structuring design thinking outputs, framing challenges, communicating design ideas clearly. |
| The Systems Thinker | Practical guides on applying systems thinking, mapping feedback loops, and analyzing complexity. | Understanding systemic issues, mapping interdependencies, driving organizational change. |
| Service Design Toolkit | Downloadable tools, methods, and templates for designing services and evaluating touchpoints. | Service design, journey mapping, facilitating co-creation workshops. |
| Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) | Extensive UX and design resources covering HCD, usability, and interaction design theory. | Learning UX principles, research, prototyping, designing intuitive interactions. |
| Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) | Expert research and articles on usability, UX best practices, and design heuristics. | Evidence-based UX decisions, usability testing, accessibility, interface optimization. |
| SessionLab Library | Library of structured workshop activities, facilitation tools, and session plans. | Facilitating workshops, ideation, team alignment, co-creation activities. |
| d.school Tools | Practical tools and methods from Stanford d.school for innovation and design. | Ideation, prototyping, problem framing, human-centered design projects. |
| Hyper Island Toolbox | Creative exercises and methods to boost collaboration, creativity, and innovation. | Team building, co-creation, brainstorming, creative collaboration. |
| Gamestorming | Collection of structured games to spark ideas and solve problems creatively. | Brainstorming, interactive workshops, collaborative problem-solving. |
| Business Model Navigator | Explore 55+ business model patterns to innovate and refine strategy. | Business model design, strategic innovation, analyzing market opportunities. |
[ 3. How did you find your niche in design? ]
At the heart of who I am, working with others to make their lives happier, healthier, and easier drives my career. Shirley Chisholm’s line, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on earth,” has guided how I wanted to show up in the world since high school.
I am a facilitator.
I love facilitating. I love helping people make their lives happier, healthier, and easier.
This core part of me freed me from thinking there’s only one way to be a designer. My work could take many forms, across many fields, and still be me.
Bozoma Saint John, Boz, multi-hyphenate, businesswoman, entrepreneur, Chief Marketing Officer of all your favorite brands, and all-around badass, put it far better than I ever could when she spoke with Emma Grede on the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast:
"Look,” she says, “there’s a trait you have that can be expressed in many different ways. That’s actually how I think about specialty. Storytelling, that’s what I’m excellent at. And it can come across in marketing, as an author, as a TV personality. I am a storyteller."
Like Boz, I found my trait long before I could fully articulate it. I am a facilitator, helping people create solutions to the challenges they face, to make moments in their lives happier, healthier, and easier. That is my trait. That is what I do.
The application of my trait is limited only by my imagination. The project, the role, even the field, does not define my place in design. I follow where my trait really shines.
My projects have changed. The industries I work in have changed. One day, I may move from the design field. But my trait, facilitating people to make change happen, that will outlive them all.
[ Consider this. ]
These experiences have shaped my design practice so far and will continue to influence me in the future. If you haven’t already, give Ezio Manzini’s When Everybody Designs a read, and take a look at some of the resources I’ve shared.
If you are trying to find an identity in your career, what is your trait that transcends your title, your projects, and your career? The thing that, no matter where you go or what role you play, defines what you are great at?
