Hi, Ruzanna.

Before you start applying for jobs make a list of the things you want for yourself (environment, opportunities for growth, type of work, etc), and identify deal breakers. If you already have some experience reflect on the places where you thrived and where you were unhappy. That list will help you ask the right questions in interviews to identify the jobs that will be best for you.

Learning to work with others is one of the most important skills you'll need in your career, so make sure your mind and ears are open when talking about your designs with others.

Hone your communication skills to change the creative dialogue and reduce conflict. When you present your work are you clear about the problems you're trying to solve for the client? Are your designs practical as well as attractive? How will it help end users satisfy their Job to Be Done? Is your idea something your team can actually build within the given time and budget? If you think and talk about your work in terms of the problems you're trying to solve you'll find you don't have engage in conflicts with others nearly as much.

Make lots of designs, don't invest your heart in one. You won't get it right the first time.

Hey, Bryce.

I don't have a grand vision of what design will look like in the future, but I do see a challenge we face. Agile development is the common wisdom of our time, helping us move faster, but it's a very developer-centric process. Designers often struggle to find their place in the process and can feel like an add-on rather than an equal. We'll need to find a way for design to fit into the process as a peer if we want to continue to do satisfying work.

JTBD is a very helpful process to focus design work. We used the process extensively at MailChimp. I haven't written anything about Jobs myself, but this video provides a good primer. This article provides a solid guide to conducting JTBD interviews with your customers.

Make new designers talk to customers and clients to learn about the problems their designing for before they put a single pixel on canvas. Make then sketch 20 ideas first. Keep them from getting invested in a single solution. Force them to iterate and talk about their work with other. Give them regular feedback, and tight deadlines for they don't get lost on the wrong path.

Hi, Jay.

Avoid getting into the weeds when presenting to the client. If they're not type nerds, then don't even bring it up. Focus on how you're helping them solve a problem. For example, instead of focusing on the feel of the design—"We used a 4 column grid and big Franklin Gothic headers to give the page a modern feel"—try focusing on the function of the design—"It's important for visitors to see your products and start shopping right away."

Jot down notes as you design so you can present your design decisions well.

Writing about your research process and findings are a great way to show your skills. If you can, write about how your research affected the product and use experience.

I agree without just need to hire more designers. Developing your own pattern library/design system can help your current designers work more efficiently.

I'll be writing and speaking about design best practices that'll help teams do better work and help companies use design to grow. I'll run workshops for some of our customers, I'll continue to speak at conferences around the world, and I'll publish plenty of articles to guide designers. It's not content marketing, I'm not trying to sell InVision. I wan to help our industry see the value of design.

Make it easy for people to view your work. Right now all of your work is wrapped in detailed articles. Your asking a lot of people by making them read multiple articles to see what you can do. Show more than tell.

Hey, Kenny.

1. Julie Zhou at Facebook has recently written some great articles about managing design teams.

2. Before you start to build your team, take some time to identify the core values that will guide you. Here's an example of a team values doc. This will help you hire the right folks and guide your team. Hiring will be the most important thing you do. Make sure you put in the time to find the right people and don't hire in a hurry. It's easy to hire, hard to fire.

3. Design requests from other departments should flow through the team lead to protect the productivity of the team and make communication efficient. Be realistic about what your team can deliver. It's okay to tell colleagues you can't get to a project right now. If it's important they'll get back in touch later. If it's not the project will disappear.

Agile is tough if your teams are mostly part-time, but it's not impossible. You can structure a lot of the work to be remote if schedules are hard to align. You'll need to make sure teams can find time for regular stand-ups to talk about what they've completed and what they'll be working on next. These don't have to be daily, but the intervals should be regular. They should schedule design reviews in-person if possible. There are so many good tools that make remote collaboration easy: google Hangouts, Basecamp, Slack, InVision.

Choose clients that are committed to being available to students and providing the feedback they'll need to succeed. Choose clients that have meaningful problems to solve (non-profits, interesting new businesses, etc) to help students build a good portfolio. Choose clients that will give students access to the end user where possible so students get the opportunity to research the problem before designing.

We don't have a release date for Motion, but I can tell you we're working very hard on it. I've played with the beta, and it's impressive. We're excited to release it! Thanks for your patience.