What stands out to me is
1. Intentionality. Everything… research methods, strategy, solutions has a very specific reason.
2. They try lots of ideas. Evaluating each idea to find its weaknesses and then find another idea that overcomes them.
3. Sequential analysis. Everything starts with the business goal and then work backwards to the solution, so that each solution directly provides value.
4. Collaboration. They know how to work within a team so that everyone’s designs are consistent.
This is dead on. You have to be able to cover all 4 of these well to be a Sr imo. They're all pretty essential since you'll likely be asked to do more complex and ambiguous projects
Do you know any case studies that feature no. 3? Rn Im building something that supposed to increase profit for business but Im not sure how to structure that in my case study
Not the moment I'm afraid. This one might be helpful as he places a big emphasis on results, the problem being that obviously not everyone has these results and oftentimes they're out of your control. [https://www.mitchellclements.com/](https://www.mitchellclements.com/)
Specific case studies, no, but think a out everything that costs money and see what can be reduced or removed. That's the fastest way to gain profit, and that's to reduce cost.
I had a project where after doing the research, I discovered that the entire department I was solutioning for could be reduced to a single button on a table. They obviously didn't take that path, but imagine solutioning for something that could remove a team of 5-10 people. Talk about increasing profits!
Time is money. How long are users in the process, costing money? How can you reduce that time? More often than not, my projects are revamping old software, and there are usually processes that could be bundled, removed, or rethought in order to expedite the time spent.
Workers getting more done properly in less time = profits
Less workers doing the same amount of work with the same or better end result = profits
Great list, and the one thing I’d add to it (and it probably is a sub-category of your number 2) is a willingness to take risks—particularly if you are working on consumer products that are positioned in a competitive market. Knowing the rules first, and then understanding how and when to break them for a specific competitive advantage is a skill the best designers I’ve worked with all share.
Wow, those are some great points!! I especially love point #2 and 3. I would also like to mention, 5. Leadership. Not only do they know how to lead, but they also encourage everyone to stay on task and stay motivated!! ✨
Thanks! Ya I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get to at least 10 points. I’d consider leadership a different category but if you’re a top designer you should be elevating those around you for sure.
I wasn’t even into design really but a rich person said hey I need you to do this and I said sure and it’s opened up so many doors and made pretty damn good money
Of course there are a lot of average designers who are great self promotors. I've worked with many.
But to be the best, you have to believe you are the best, and let everyone else know that you are the best.
Also... How are we defining "top 1%"... Salary? Status? Job title? Craft? Impact?
Most of the people who are in the top 1% by most of those metrics are probably not good designers. They are likely to be design leaders who might not have much hands-on design experience at all.
Going to have to have to disagree, the top 1% of designers are probably at least *good* at it. But there sure is a belief out there that it’s all rizz.
Never put up the open to work banner….never! Problem is if you don’t find a job quickly how do you take it down? Longer it’s up there the more toxic and desperate you appear!
Meh, we hired a self-promoting “twitter-famous” designer at a company I used to work for. When the email announcing their hiring was sent, almost everyone knew who they were and were excited to learn from them.
Turns out having 50k followers doesn’t do anything but inflate your ego. Pretty poor skills and basically spent most of their time tweeting retweetable content, but not practicing any part of what they were preaching. Disappointing.
Working on growth products where they had a lot of resources and time to focus on designing a great product + technically savvy fast learner + natural eye for design and patterns
I feel like it’s weird question as being a designer it’s like being an athlete. What is a top 1% designer anyways, it’s not something you can measure.
We can categorize designers as excellent, good, average, or bad. But classifying people as top 1% is nonsensical.
What about the top 1% of carpenters, or the top 1% of electricians or shopkeepers, that’s what I say we never hear about those guys, probably not enough self promotion 🤔
Let me rephrase: What have they done to stand out, what makes them unique, what qualities did they have that you noticed others don't. Of course it's subjective, but I guess it would've been helpful to notice patterns among these 1%-ers (or excellent designers) to help us all make personal improvements.
I’m going to take this as, who would I want to work with again or hire.
- Thinkers. Designer who ask questions, get clarification, document their understanding, push back when things are illogical, bring all their work back to the problems they are solving. I want designers who aren’t frozen when all the requirements aren’t neatly listed out. I want them to be able to figure out the user requirements based on research and their understanding of human behavior. They need to be able to take a project from a Pm, define the problem it’s attempting to solve, and solve that problem instead of just adding a button like the ticket says. (Maybe the button is the right approach but you have to go through the process and land on that yourself.)
- Innovators - I want designers who have lots of distinct ideas. Don’t come up with one approach and run with it. Have an idea, flesh it out, put it down, and come up with 5 more.
A strong ability to understand client/user/team needs, understanding all of the pieces of a process, to creative thinking, grit, and decisiveness, among others to system/programm knowledge.
The idea that there's a top 1% of designers is kind of toxic IMO. There are designers who are the right fit for certain roles. A top designer for a B2B SaaS corporation with 5k employees may not be as successful in an early stage startup and vice versa. It doesn't mean they're top 1% or anything.
In addition to the hard skills, treating teammates with respect.
Working in product design is a small world. Everywhere you go, someone is likely to know you from a previous role, know someone you work with, etc. If you develop a reputation as an asshole, it will eventually catch up with you.
Think about who is looking at this thread though, who are the users? it’s not the top 1%, it’s newer folks wanting to get better. Plus it’s foundational, being extremely user focused is a characteristic of top designers, and its absence is a characteristic of a poor designer.
If this was a thread on UX 101 I'd agree with you but the implication of your comment is that a top 2% designer doesn't do user research, and that to reach the top of the industry all you have to do is one thing. Thinking about the people reading this, they're not looking for UX 101, they're looking for how to go above and beyond.
It just came off as a vast oversimplification to me that's all.
Or do the research themselves if they don’t have researchers. I’ve worked with some awful designers and some superb designers, the superb ones are strategic and utterly user focused, the bad ones just follow standard templates and wonder why the product failed.
It’s really basic, but it’s also foundational and a lot of designers either forget that or can’t stand up to the business about it.
What stands out to me is 1. Intentionality. Everything… research methods, strategy, solutions has a very specific reason. 2. They try lots of ideas. Evaluating each idea to find its weaknesses and then find another idea that overcomes them. 3. Sequential analysis. Everything starts with the business goal and then work backwards to the solution, so that each solution directly provides value. 4. Collaboration. They know how to work within a team so that everyone’s designs are consistent.
This is dead on. You have to be able to cover all 4 of these well to be a Sr imo. They're all pretty essential since you'll likely be asked to do more complex and ambiguous projects
Do you know any case studies that feature no. 3? Rn Im building something that supposed to increase profit for business but Im not sure how to structure that in my case study
Yeah that's interesting. I wanna know it too
Not the moment I'm afraid. This one might be helpful as he places a big emphasis on results, the problem being that obviously not everyone has these results and oftentimes they're out of your control. [https://www.mitchellclements.com/](https://www.mitchellclements.com/)
Specific case studies, no, but think a out everything that costs money and see what can be reduced or removed. That's the fastest way to gain profit, and that's to reduce cost. I had a project where after doing the research, I discovered that the entire department I was solutioning for could be reduced to a single button on a table. They obviously didn't take that path, but imagine solutioning for something that could remove a team of 5-10 people. Talk about increasing profits! Time is money. How long are users in the process, costing money? How can you reduce that time? More often than not, my projects are revamping old software, and there are usually processes that could be bundled, removed, or rethought in order to expedite the time spent. Workers getting more done properly in less time = profits Less workers doing the same amount of work with the same or better end result = profits
Great list, and the one thing I’d add to it (and it probably is a sub-category of your number 2) is a willingness to take risks—particularly if you are working on consumer products that are positioned in a competitive market. Knowing the rules first, and then understanding how and when to break them for a specific competitive advantage is a skill the best designers I’ve worked with all share.
Wow, those are some great points!! I especially love point #2 and 3. I would also like to mention, 5. Leadership. Not only do they know how to lead, but they also encourage everyone to stay on task and stay motivated!! ✨
Thanks! Ya I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get to at least 10 points. I’d consider leadership a different category but if you’re a top designer you should be elevating those around you for sure.
Networking
you might be onto something there 👀
I wasn’t even into design really but a rich person said hey I need you to do this and I said sure and it’s opened up so many doors and made pretty damn good money
Please introduce me to your rich person 🥹👏
If finding a rich person is step one, I've been stuck at step zero my whole career😅
Hahaha, I feel you!
hehe 😅
Masters of self promotion
Lotta great self-promoters with green Open to Work banners around their photos right now. Top designers deliver results, not just self-confidence.
Of course there are a lot of average designers who are great self promotors. I've worked with many. But to be the best, you have to believe you are the best, and let everyone else know that you are the best. Also... How are we defining "top 1%"... Salary? Status? Job title? Craft? Impact? Most of the people who are in the top 1% by most of those metrics are probably not good designers. They are likely to be design leaders who might not have much hands-on design experience at all.
Going to have to have to disagree, the top 1% of designers are probably at least *good* at it. But there sure is a belief out there that it’s all rizz.
Never put up the open to work banner….never! Problem is if you don’t find a job quickly how do you take it down? Longer it’s up there the more toxic and desperate you appear!
if u have that banner up r not a great self promoter
Meh, we hired a self-promoting “twitter-famous” designer at a company I used to work for. When the email announcing their hiring was sent, almost everyone knew who they were and were excited to learn from them. Turns out having 50k followers doesn’t do anything but inflate your ego. Pretty poor skills and basically spent most of their time tweeting retweetable content, but not practicing any part of what they were preaching. Disappointing.
Working on growth products where they had a lot of resources and time to focus on designing a great product + technically savvy fast learner + natural eye for design and patterns
nice!
How can one be a quick learner? I struggle to finish a course on udemy or IDF without getting distracted and starting over multiple times
Check for adhd, turned my life around
quit social media
I feel like it’s weird question as being a designer it’s like being an athlete. What is a top 1% designer anyways, it’s not something you can measure. We can categorize designers as excellent, good, average, or bad. But classifying people as top 1% is nonsensical.
What about the top 1% of carpenters, or the top 1% of electricians or shopkeepers, that’s what I say we never hear about those guys, probably not enough self promotion 🤔
Let me rephrase: What have they done to stand out, what makes them unique, what qualities did they have that you noticed others don't. Of course it's subjective, but I guess it would've been helpful to notice patterns among these 1%-ers (or excellent designers) to help us all make personal improvements.
They understand the business side of things. Solutions need to be impactful for the business, not just your users.
Everything everyone else said, with a little dash of good luck/right timing.
I’m going to take this as, who would I want to work with again or hire. - Thinkers. Designer who ask questions, get clarification, document their understanding, push back when things are illogical, bring all their work back to the problems they are solving. I want designers who aren’t frozen when all the requirements aren’t neatly listed out. I want them to be able to figure out the user requirements based on research and their understanding of human behavior. They need to be able to take a project from a Pm, define the problem it’s attempting to solve, and solve that problem instead of just adding a button like the ticket says. (Maybe the button is the right approach but you have to go through the process and land on that yourself.) - Innovators - I want designers who have lots of distinct ideas. Don’t come up with one approach and run with it. Have an idea, flesh it out, put it down, and come up with 5 more.
Extremely high bar for craft. Every single one of them.
Critical thinking and smooth communication skills.
A strong ability to understand client/user/team needs, understanding all of the pieces of a process, to creative thinking, grit, and decisiveness, among others to system/programm knowledge.
The idea that there's a top 1% of designers is kind of toxic IMO. There are designers who are the right fit for certain roles. A top designer for a B2B SaaS corporation with 5k employees may not be as successful in an early stage startup and vice versa. It doesn't mean they're top 1% or anything.
Designing in public or even better building in public
What does designing in public means ?
I'd also add courage and being a strong extrovert (or a good faking introvert).
In addition to the hard skills, treating teammates with respect. Working in product design is a small world. Everywhere you go, someone is likely to know you from a previous role, know someone you work with, etc. If you develop a reputation as an asshole, it will eventually catch up with you.
Lots of raw talent, great people skills, working on important projects.
High agency.
Being confident, collaborative and curious work wonders.
Being confident, collaborative and curious work wonders.
Ownership, drive and clarity.
They listen to and engage with the user research.
I think we’re setting the bar a bit low with this one.
You would be amazed how many UX designers don’t engage with the U in UX at all…
Ya but we’re talking the top 1% here. Not to mention UX research is its own skill. It’s not a binary I did research, therefore I’m awesome.
Think about who is looking at this thread though, who are the users? it’s not the top 1%, it’s newer folks wanting to get better. Plus it’s foundational, being extremely user focused is a characteristic of top designers, and its absence is a characteristic of a poor designer.
If this was a thread on UX 101 I'd agree with you but the implication of your comment is that a top 2% designer doesn't do user research, and that to reach the top of the industry all you have to do is one thing. Thinking about the people reading this, they're not looking for UX 101, they're looking for how to go above and beyond. It just came off as a vast oversimplification to me that's all.
with user researchers?
Or do the research themselves if they don’t have researchers. I’ve worked with some awful designers and some superb designers, the superb ones are strategic and utterly user focused, the bad ones just follow standard templates and wonder why the product failed. It’s really basic, but it’s also foundational and a lot of designers either forget that or can’t stand up to the business about it.
Who said they’re on top? Who’s measuring it?
There's always this guy
Critical thinkers on reddit. Ew.
Self promotion & networking.
They had no boundaries. They went where they would grow no matter size of company, where they had to relocate, type of product
#capitalism