ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

My name is Hafsa Ali, i'm 23 years old and i am a Product Designer at a fin-tech company called ClearScore.

I'm also an artist, I have business where i sell paintings and different artwork in my free time.

I am a co-founder and lead designer for a new charity startup called Givt, where we aim to create a platform to connect people to local charities to help tackle issues; mainly focusing on homelessness.

So what do you actually do?

My role as a Product Designer consists of me creating engaging experiences for users, helping them manage and better understand their finances.

I am responsible for all aspects of the design process whether that includes workshops, ideation, user testing and UX/UI deliverables.

What has your career path been?

I did not take the conventional or traditional journey to tech, I actually transitioned from a complete different industry.

I have a BSc in Politics and History, but after graduating i felt confused about whether this was the career path I wanted to get into. I felt the pressure to find a post-graduate role but I realised i needed to take the time out and truly figure out what it is that i enjoyed and finding my passion and this was not easy especially living in an ethnic household.

I stumbled across tech which i had no clue about, but i took a coding module in my last year which i enjoyed so thought to give it a go. So from there, i started researching about different roles in the industry and attended free coding events on Eventbrite.

From there I signed up for this 8 week coding bootcamp with CodeFirstGirls which was an introduction to Web Development (HTML/CSS/Javascript). I really enjoyed it and it gave me a better understanding of coding, however I noticed i gravitated towards the design (UX/UI) process.

I realised that I wanted to explore UX/UI but there wasn't much out there or even anyone that I could relate to, so i had no clue where to begin. A friend told me about this UX design course with UX Design Institute, so I applied as I needed a foundation to better understand UX/UI and after completion you get a Professional Diploma which is what I needed as I didn't have a background in design.

Additionally, I attended design workshops and networked with people within the industry and reached out to people on Twitter about their journey. After my course, i needed to build my website portfolio so i took part in Deen Developers X Crisis UK: Hackathon for Homelessness. It consisted of creatives, developers, product managers, people from all fields and background collaborating over a few days to work on an impactful solution to tackle the issue of homelessness and make a change.

We got put into teams and had to come up with an MVP concept (minimum viable product) to pitch to a panel of expert judges where a winner would be chosen to have the opportunity to bring the solution to life. Our team Givt won joint 1st place and is currently in the process of launching. I learnt so much from this hacakthon in terms of how working in collaborative design tasks would be like and it gave me so much experience and confidence. I also met so many inspiring and talented individuals a long the way.

From there i prioritised building my skillsets, doing design challenges and working on my portfolio. I was at the point where i felt ready to apply for jobs and landed a job for an amazing company a few months after which was offering a salary above my expectations. Looking for jobs wasn't easy, i had many rejections before i got my job so i know it can be challenging and disheartening, but what is written for you will never miss you!

What is the best part of your job?

What I love about my job is no day is the same and the flexibility!

Why do you do your job?

Design gives us the freedom to express ourselves in whichever way we want.

At the same time, design changes the world around us, and our place within it, in ways we may not expect and has the power to influence and make impactful change!

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Start somewhere... consistent efforts no matter how small pays off in the long run, so make it count!

Any parting words? 

I hope i inspired anyone thinking of getting into tech, there are so many people you can reach out to who will offer their support and advice including myself so put yourself out there.

Check out Hafsa’s Twitter below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

Luckily I get the flexibility to work from home or at the office and only need to be in minimum 25% of my time so things would vary depending on the day.

Generally when i do go to the office, i wake up at 7:30, get myself ready and prepared for the day. I usually have breakfast at the office (which is free so why not lol). We have a daily stand up with my team in the mornings where we share what we got up to during day, and any tasks that needs to be completed and share any of our concerns. We also do another standup with just the designers as the teams are quite big which keeps our goals focused and we discuss our priorities of the week.

A large part of my day consists of working on tickets (assigned tasks), so that could vary, whether that is discovery, doing wireframes/prototyping on Figma, arranging meetings with developers or stakeholders.

There could also be workshops to attend such as building your strength training, Inclusion and Diversity but that would vary as no day is the same. There are days were you have a lot of meetings, or some days where it's quiet so you can get on with completing tasks. The days are not too structured so you have the flexibility to organise it however you want.

For context some examples of meetings could be weekly alignment meetings which involves all the member of our team (developers, designers, product manager) to discuss whether our objectives are met and setting targets and goals for the next week.

From time to time, we do kickoff’s for new projects which involves the product manager introducing the project in hand and building a road map where we all align out tasks in meeting those goals/missions. We also have weekly design meetings where we share the designs we’ve been working on that week with the wider teams, to get insight and feedback on our approaches or discuss any design inspirations we’ve come across.

There are times where you meet with client partners to discuss approaches and set a guideline on how they want you to present their expectations, however it’s not often designers join, usually it would be the lead designer but again it would vary depending on the task. In terms of setting tickets usually this is translated and told in the weekly meetings/briefings we have, you place a ticket in a Kanban board so you can keep track and measure your progress with the rest or your team.

Also we have company clubs so depending on the day i'll attend a club. I joined cinema club, book club, boxing, theatre so have the opportunity to mingle and meet other people from the company. Last week we went to watch Dune which was great. Some weeks we have design off-sites or trips so no week is the same which I truly love.

I usually leave work if i'm at the office at 5 or after 5 depending on the workload, i'd go home unwind. Depending on the day I have weekly meeting with my team on Givt work or Quran classes. If i'm not feeling lazy I would go gym or meet up and socialise with friends.