Tom Petty

Tom Petty

Head of UX & Design at GoCardless Joined over 9 years ago

  • 2 stories
  • 23 comments
  • 7 upvotes
  • Posted to Are design articles ruining your product?, Apr 19, 2017

    Totally agree — too much focus on what is or isn't right, not enough on encouraging designers to build their own 'judgement muscle', and to apply that in each situation.

    I actually wrote a post on this last year: Building the Judgement Muscle (Medium)

    A relevant snippet:

    From sketching to Sketch-ing, mocking-up to coding-up, the community has been flooded with opinions and best practices about which tool or technique to use, how, and when. If you’re just getting into the industry, it’s got to be a little daunting. From speaking to new designers, it seems the current zeitgeist has created the impression that there’s a right way to approach a problem (and with that comes the implication that there’s a wrong way). Attempts to avoid the wrong approach are leading us to focus on how to design, instead of what (or even why, but more on that another time).

    4 points
  • Posted to Anyone using Wake?, Sep 30, 2015

    We used wake for a design team of 4 and really enjoyed it. We used it almost exclusively with Slack, and found that the ease of use meant we shared MUCH more openly & regularly. We also had a few developers sign up to 'lurk' and keep up with what we were working on — I loved that.

    However, the trial period ended and I just couldn't justify the expense. It feels 50% too much right now

    0 points
  • Posted to Lifting the lid on how we hire designers, in reply to Mario Montoya , Aug 13, 2015

    It's a great question, and one that I don't yet (and probably never will) have a perfect answer for. Here's how what I responded in the comments:

    I’ve struggled in the past with people who just might not be a great fit — it’s hard. What I’m learning is that most people (especially if they’re pros) really do appreciate honesty. So, for example, if someone doesn’t bring the right amount of enthusiasm, I would let them know.

    I’ve also learned that ‘culture fit’ is as much to do with their satisfaction as ours. If someone just doesn’t click, I think it’s fair to talk to them about how they might find it hard or unsatisfying working with us — it has to run both ways.

    1 point
  • Posted to Lifting the lid on how we hire designers, in reply to Todd F , Aug 12, 2015

    It's not that we only talk to those who can make time, it's that the ones who go to the most effort to ensure they have time are often the best candidates.

    0 points
  • Posted to Lifting the lid on how we hire designers, Aug 12, 2015

    Hey thanks Benjamin. We've worked hard to build a culture and company that not only respects design, but is driven by it. I guess the trick for designers is to try and spot the warning signs for those businesses that don't care as much.

    1 point
  • Posted to Lifting the lid on how we hire designers, in reply to louie solomon , Aug 12, 2015

    Hey, thanks for your thoughts.

    We're pretty conscious that people with full-time jobs/live far away might find interviewing pretty hard work. We've tried to address this by doing all of the onsite interviews back-to-back in one afternoon/morning.

    However we've historically found that the best candidates have no problems making the time — an afternoon out to try and land that job you're after shouldn't be beyond reach.

    1 point
  • Posted to Shareable title about designers and code, Jul 13, 2015

    Provocative comment about subject matter

    5 points
  • Posted to Dribbble Exchange (Jun 2015), Jun 29, 2015

    https://dribbble.com/anothertompetty

    0 points
  • Posted to Ask DN: Who’s Hiring (March, 2015)?, Mar 03, 2015

    GoCardless is hiring product designers!

    Location: London

    Come and help us change the way organisations get paid. We're building a design-led culture from the ground up, and our product already has significant traction (Box, TripAdvisor and The Guardian are among our customers).

    • Great Salary
    • Meaningful equity
    • Choose your own set up
    • £1500 conference budget

    Check us out

    Email me on tomp [at] gocardless [dot] com for more info/with a link to a portfolio

    2 points
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