Adventurous experiences of a remote product designer

A product designer's life is never dull. Learn the fascinating insights into working remotely - how to reach the highs and manage the lows

Working as a product designer is fun, but when you do it remotely and for a startup, it gets more exciting - even hectic sometimes. You need more than your technical professional skills. You need the ability to adapt, communicate adequately and build honest relationships.

It’s true that a remote design job gives lots of flexibility. You have opportunities for being creative as well as a lot of freedom - but it also comes with a few challenges.

Through the period of more than a year working in my current position, I've learned a lot about myself and brushed up on not only professional skills, but also personal ones. In this talk, I'll cover three different topics:

1) Tools and workflows I use for designing, prototyping, collaboration, and communication with the team. These were evolving and changing through the time, from building the first MVP to adding new features and currently working on v2 of the apps.

2) Human relationship aspect of the remote work, building connections, and trust from the perspective of an introvert. Excellent communication skills should be at the core of every designer, but when working remotely, they become even more important. And since I'm an introvert, sometimes simple communication tasks become challenging, and I need to keep pushing my limits each day.

3) The general benefits of working remotely. The flexibility that comes with freelancing is what keeps adding enjoyment and fun to my job on a daily basis. Arranging the schedule in a way that suits me the best is so precious, especially since I'm a parent. And not being tied to one location, traveling and working from different countries while turning various places into offices is another significant gain.

Saturday, 2017-10-07 @ 13:05
> Skill level: elementary
> Duration: 25 min

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Ivana Milicic

Ivana is a product designer with a great passion for creating experiences users will love. Powered with endless energy, always curious and eager to learn something new and improve. Finding daily inspiration and motivation in challenges, problem-solving and making users happy. After graduating product design, she started a career in the publishing industry. Soon after, she founded a small design studio and worked on numerous print and digital projects for all types of clients.

Some time down the career path, she fell in love with designing for digital and interactions and feels like that affection is here to stay. When not designing Ivana is managing her design studio projects, teaching at the university, volunteering, traveling, and playing with kids.