In Conversation with Keith Oh, Head of Product Design at Carousell
One of the key questions I get from my students who have graduated is...
"How do I make a career switch to become a User Experience (UX) Designer?"
Rather than hearing it solely from me as a Design Educator who works with multiple forward-looking organisations, I decided to reach out to senior design leaders in my professional network and ask them what is their take.
If you are an organisation trying to hire your first designer or a career switcher trying to get your first UX role in a tech company, read on.
Keith Oh is Head of Product Design at Carousell (one of Asia largest and most active mobile-based classifieds and marketplace app) and previously Design Lead at IDEO. Keith is also an alumnus of the highly rigorous Masters of Science, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) program at Carnegie Mellon University. He was very generous with his sharing over a LinkedIn message interview. Responses below edited for clarity.
Disclaimer: I'm a not so active Carousell user who bought a second hand bike for my Triathalon race last year and am army mates with one of their co-founders.
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What’s the difference between UX, UI and Digital Product Design?
I don't differentiate these labels. They are all part of a designer's toolkit for creating great user experiences. Getting fixated at any of these labels go against the ethos of user-centred design, because we are putting the solution before the problem. What if the solution isn't in the product, the UX or the UI?
How does branding come into play when designing in digital?
A great brand goes beyond the visual identity (which is important) to clarify the purpose of the product—both its functional promise and its emotional promise to the users. It informs the roadmap of the product as much as research and strategy.
For an organisation, looking to hire their first designer, what should they look out for?
Many (small) companies need to hire senior designers first. They might be hiring their first designer, or finding that they don't have a sufficiently experienced designer to coach the juniors. So, it is important for the designers to know where NOT to look.
As a student or mid-career switcher who have no degree or certification in HCI or UX, how can I break into the industry?
Focus on building an awesome portfolio—one that goes beyond the typical coursework and attempts to solve some real-world or familiar problems with real users.
What are your thoughts about hiring people who went through a UX career conversion program?
Graduates of career conversion programs like General Assembly (GA) compete with the pool of fresh graduates from "traditional" backgrounds. Their portfolios typically consist of projects from school, so they can be quite theoretical. The better ones solve real world problems (albeit no real client), e.g. booking a Grab, buying movie tickets, redesigning Instagram, etc. I have hired a fresh grad who did a redesign of DBS PayLah!
Talking about a real world problem:
The portfolio is a real world project! User is the prospective employer. How can you design a great experience for the various types of users?
Many GA grads are career switchers, meaning they already have a few years of working experience. They can use that to their advantage when competing with fresh grads. If they are in customer service, can they do some research at their existing work? If they are a graphics designer, can they showcase how their graphics skill add to the the UX? If they are an accountant, how can their number crunching skills help them during their research process? Etc.
I've interviewed a few GA grads last year, and hired one. I've also hired designers from "non-traditional" backgrounds.
How do you tell what someone is strong at during an interview? E.g. research, design or strategy
Design starts with being curious about people. And being able to channel that curiosity into meaningful insights that lead to innovative solutions. That is what I look for in candidates through interviews and design challenges.
What’s one of your favourite questions during an interview?
"Why do you want to be a designer?"
Are you hiring and are there internship opportunities?
I am not hiring and Carousell does not have a UX internship program at the moment.
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Grateful for the insights? Feel free to share this article and tag Keith Oh and myself
Please also give Keith a virtual high five by commenting below. If you would like to learn more from Keith, you may watch a 30+mins talk he has given at GovTech's event.
Enjoyed the series? Tell me who I should interview next.
Thank you for reading.