Nessa’s knowledge bombs #1 Lean into what makes you great

Nessa’s knowledge bombs are a series of short bite-size bombs of advice that I have learned over the years. 

Aside from your core talent as a designer, there is something about your set of skills that makes you a really great designer. Discover what that is and lean into it.

For example, some designers are great storytellers while others can deal with a lot of complexity. Leaning into the skill that makes you special will help you stand out.

Firstly, you need to know what makes you great. Start by identifying what comes naturally to you and what you enjoy. A person in my team, let’s call her Janet,  was really great at engaging an audience when she spoke, people were just drawn to her bubbly personality. Alongside this, Janet was also a superstar at research and creating connections across the business, which helped her in stakeholder management and discovery. Since leveraging her greatness, Janet now does mentoring, career talks, and presentations.

Once you have identified your star qualities, the next stage is to understand how it helps you to stand out as a designer.  Think about how you can leverage your unique skills in your day-to-day to better navigate the design process and get stakeholders and teams on board.

Once you know your own greatness, you can lean further and market yourself around it. Create a one-line that summarises what you do that you can add to your cv, portfolio, and LinkedIn profile. This helps you to stand out from the market as a designer.

Image originally sourced from Girl Vectors by Vecteezy