Intro

I accepted my first fully remote role at Mailchimp in 2021. Working remotely was not something that I had ever wanted to do as I had never had a good reason and I preferred being in the office. COVID turned out to be a pretty decent reason to give remote work a try.

I knew it would be challenging but was psyched to be able to design for a company like Mailchimp. After a few years, it began to feel stale for several reasons and I felt the only thing stopping me from leaving was money—something that I always told myself I wouldn’t do (easier said than done).

After a few months of searching for a contract or full-time role, I eventually landed at Parmount+ and the work I’ve done so far has surprisingly changed my outlook on remote work.

What made it stale

I didn’t get an offer for the first role that I was interviewed for at Mailchimp, but a week went by and the recruiter reached out to me with another opening for which I later received an offer. This is a testament to my favorite experience working at Mailchimp—the people.

So, what made work feel stale for me?

Lack of iteration

I’ve written about this in some of my other posts which you can read here, but the main thing that made it difficult to feel excited and fulfilled by my work was the lack of iteration. Yearly reorgs done to “keep people interested” in what they’re doing. For me, and I’m sure others who left on their own, it did quite the opposite.

After months of reflection on how I could’ve changed my mindset around this, I realized that I couldn’t. Iteration is one of the main aspects of designing features and products for users and without it, it feels like you work at a feature farm simply churning out new things and moving on to the next.

Each year it became tougher and tougher to motivate myself about the work that I was doing when I knew that the odds were against me at the end of the fiscal year. It became a pattern that I couldn’t get used to, even for the money.

As a designer, I love the process of taking a concept and thinking about how to get it to a first version, and eventually, to its ideal state. Even if you don’t work in tech, I think it’s fairly easy to imagine that lack of iteration in this context will eventually become frustrating.

A silver lining from all of this is that it’s helped me adapt in my application and interview processes by being more selective with where I’m applying and asking more intentional questions to my interviewers.

What’s changed?

Getting in the user mindset

Being a little over a month in, the most impactful thing I’ve noticed that’s made work energizing is that, throughout the day, I’m watching a streaming service of some kind. Whether it’s live streams on Twitch or YouTube, or shows/movies on Paramount+, Prime Video, HBO Max, Netflix, and however many other platforms exist.

This isn’t to say that I didn’t do this at Mailchimp, but I don’t have to put on my “customer hat” at Paramount+ as I show up to work wearing that hat. It’s a lesson, or more so of a statement, that I’m sure you all are aware of when choosing your next role. Being able to work for a company or industry you’re interested in makes it easier to get into this customer mindset.

Closing words

I still think that hybrid is the way for me, but finding my work more energizing has made being remote much more enjoyable.

Have you ever found it difficult to empathize or relate to customers of the company or product you’re designing for? I’d love to hear about what you do to put yourself in their shoes.

Thank you

I like writing and sharing my experiences, so thank you for taking the time to read through this. As always, you can find me on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or feedback as I look to write about relevant topics. Check out some open job postings below!

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