Make a copy of this workbook to edit Your name <Fill in your name here> Introduction Am I fit for ‘UX Design Career’ ? Is the biggest question that will haunt you while trying to get started into UX Design. The answer to this question doesn’t lie in formulas out there describing UX Design or how UX Design worked for others. The answer needs to be discovered by ourselves. This is a very powerful workbook which helps you understand fundamentally about yourself and realize the connection between you and your UX career. The workbook will enable you to understand, what I call as, your fundamental qualities and then make you reflect on how they can be linked to the skills required in UX Design. This workbook has been career defining to many of my students who now not only have a well paying UX career but also a very very happy one. This forms the foundation on which my students make genuine UX portfolios, bringing their uniqueness into the work they do and showcase. This workbook allows you to discover your uniqueness. If nothing, this workbook will at least give you this benefit… A way to confidently answer these two questions in your UX Job interview: - Tell me about yourself - Why did you transition into UX Design? But I am sure you get much deeper realizations doing this workbook! The more times you rework on this workbook, the deeper you understand about yourself, and the better you enjoy the workbook! So all the very best discovering yourself! About the workbook This workbook is based on the philosophy that helped a lot of people understand if they are a fit to UX careers. Watch this video before starting the exercises so that you can understand the core philosophy. Can you be this sure if your career choice was right? Things you will do in the workbook: ● You will write down a few things that you already know about yourself. ● You will write down the things that you loved as a kid ● You will arrive at your fundamental qualities ● You will find the skills required in UX career ● You will match your fundamental qualities with the skills required in UX Things to keep in mind: ● Don’t limit yourself to the boxes provided there. They don’t indicate the length of the answer you should give. ● You should avoid writing very short answers. This workbook is supposed to help you think. Don’t fill this workbook for the sake of filling it. This is only for yourself. ● You need not write very long answers as well. You just make the answers the right size for yourself. ● Make your answers personal and don’t shy away from showing your personality. You will not be showing this workbook to anyone. ● If you can’t think of an answer, move on to the next question and come back to the unanswered questions later. You can even come back later in the program as well. There is no rule that you finish all of this at this point of time. Activity FQ 1: Things you know right now Let’s start with what you obviously know about yourself professionally. These are the things that you would generally tell people when they ask about you. This section will also help you understand your current understanding of how you relate to your UX Design career. You could later realize that you were wrong in thinking in this manner! And that is absolutely alright! The workbook is meant to work on yourself iteratively. What do you currently do? Mention in brief your educational and professional story till here From what you have heard, what do you think a UX Designer does? What do you like about the UX career that made you select this profession as a career option? Mention the relevant work that you have done related to UX Design career (projects, clients, roles, practice stuff) What are the professional strengths that you think you have that will help you in your career? What are some of the areas that you think that you need to improve to fit well as a UX Designer? Activity FQ 2: Things you loved as a kid Our childhood is a great source for us to understand what we fundamentally are. These were the times where we had a lot of freedom, times during which we didn’t really know about the limitations of the world, times during which we did everything we naturally loved but not for some result. Trying to dive deeper into this will give us a gold mine of information about ourselves, which sometimes we might have even forgotten as well! Focus a lot on the ‘reasons’ in this exercise. What are the things/hobbies you enjoyed doing the most as a child? For each of the above hobbies, please write down why you enjoyed doing them Go a step further now: Write down your reasons for the reasons you have given above Go one more step further: Write down the reasons for the reasons you have given above <Keep continuing this until you can’t go any further> Repeat this exercise as many rounds as possible. Add rows here to keep adding. Activity FQ 3: Fundamental qualities The moment you reach a stage where you can’t go further in the above exercise, you will be able to understand your fundamental qualities. There is no formula or right or wrong answers here. Whatever you feel is the most fundamental reason you did something as a kid, you can call it a fundamental quality. Fundamental quality 1 Fundamental quality 2 Fundamental quality 3 Fundamental quality 4 Fundamental quality 5 <Keep expanding as you find more> Activity FQ 4: Skills required in the UX Design Industry Now comes the part where you try and understand what is required in the UX Industry. You need to be very careful to only write down what you think are the skills required in the UX industry. Not what others think or claim. It is important to do this exercise in this manner as it will help you evolve as a UX Designer. You will have to keep revisiting this workbook as you keep understanding more about UX Design and the skills required for it. For now, to start with, go ahead and look at multiple job descriptions (JDs) of UX Design roles (preferably beginner JDs). Try to avoid very big companies and postings which require too experienced people. The best sources can be companies who are funded with Series A, B, C or more and are still in the growth stage. Job description 1 <Paste posting link here> <Write skills required here? Job description 2 <Paste posting link here> <Write skills required here? Job description 3 <Paste posting link here> <Write skills required here? Job description 4 <Paste posting link here> <Write skills required here? Job description 5 <Keep expanding as you find more> <Paste posting link here> <Write skills required here? Activity FQ 5: Matching your fundamental qualities with the skills required in the industry This is the most exciting part of the workbook. You will have to map how each of your fundamental qualities would relate to one of the skills required in the UX Design career. For this activity you will have to write down the fundamental qualities on one side and list of qualities on the other side. You need to manually match these yourself, realizing what it means to you and how it helps you. You need to do this activity either on a paper or board or using a tool like Figjam. 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