Personal development goals every designer should set

Published in

UX Planet

7 min readJun 2, 2020

I’m a firm believer that with hard work, determination and some planning, you are capable of so much more than you think. However, to make your dreams come true, you will need to focus on your goals and keep making progress constantly. In this article I will explain why you should set goals and how they can help you maximise your potential.

Why you need goals at the first place

Goals are a great way to determine a clear direction of where we want to go and how we want to spend our time and energy. We are much more likely to get where we want to be if we have a written plan of actions and take regular steps towards achieving what we want to achieve. It does not mean that you won’t accomplish great things without setting up goals but they will definitely help you stay focused.

Ask yourself “What do I really want?” without any limitations or barricades. Following questions could help you determinate what you really want:

Why do I want this outcome?
What do you gain by getting it?
What do I lose by getting it?
What if I did nothing?
What if I succeed?

How to set goals

Sometimes it can be harder to set goals than to achieve them, at least from my experience. Here are 4 steps that helped me to set clear, actionable goals:

💡 Create vision
📐 Develop a plan
🗓️ Track your progress
🎯 Keep it relevant

In this article I will focus on S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals but keep in mind that it actually doesn’t matter if your vision is transformed into S.M.A.R.T. goals or OKRs (Objective & Key results) or if you just keep it in your head. Find whatever works best for you and keep going, keep progressing, learn from your mistakes and celebrate your successes along the way.

There are numerous tools that could help you set up goals and track them. Personally I really like Weekdone but depending on your working environment and tools you are already using you might consider Asana, Trello or Leapsome.

Examples of personal development goals for designers

Your personal development goals will highly depend on where you want to be at a certain point in the future. Here I will highlight a few specific goals that I believe most of us could find very useful for further development:

Become a confident presenter
Become a better in conducting user interviews
Learn to accept design critique
Start making use of version control system
Learn something new
Grow your design network

Become a confident presenter

From my perspective, the ability to confidently present and advocate for your design work is one of the most important skills for every product designer. Therefore, setting a goal around gaining confidence as a presenter could be helpful for your future career development.

Before deciding on what actions to take to become a confident presenter, it is very important to understand the nature of your fear. You will find many books on this topic. I found very good Dale Carnegie’s The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. The key to become a more confident speaker is to practice as much as possible. At the beginning it could help if you present it together with someone or make notes or script for a talk. Schedule and lead brainstorming sessions, host workshops or apply as a speaker to different meetups or webinars.

Become a better in conducting user interviews

Truly understanding what people are saying in conversations and interviews, will help you better understand users’ needs which is crucial for any well designed product. Therefore, one of the first steps in becoming better in conducting user interviews is to work on your active listening skills.

The best way to practice active listening is to pay close attention to what the other person is saying, listen without judging or jumping to conclusions. Asking relevant questions can show that you’ve been listening and help clarify what has been said.

Some of the questions to help you achieve success with your user interviews:

“So, what you are saying is…”
“Did you mean that…”
“I’m not sure if I understood what you were saying about…”
“How did that make you feel?”
“What did you do next?”
“What do you think about…”

For more specific examples of questions check Top UX Research Interview Questions to Ask Users.

Next time you conduct user interviews, ask open-ended and clarifying questions and do not interrupt the interviewee. It will also help if you write a short summary at the end of the interview.

Learn to accept design critique

Without criticism, we hardly grow or improve our work. When critique is done well, it identifies the strengths of the work and helps to improve weaknesses. However, It can be very difficult to see our work being taken apart in front of us, so it is crucial to learn how to receive criticism.

When our work is questioned or criticised, it is tempting to become defensive. You will need to overcome the defensive instinct and rather try to explain than defend. It is also crucial to understand the difference between constructive and unconstructive critique. Constructive feedback is engaged with strengths and weaknesses of our work and it uses questions and examples to raise awareness of a problem and invite a response. To learn more about the differences between constructive and unconstructive critique and how to receive a good one, I would highly recommend reading How to give and receive design critique well.

Here is few tips how to receive design critique well:

Avoid interrupting or contradicting the critique
Listen carefully
Don’t be defensive but rather try to explain
Take time to reflect
Iterate and seek further critique

Start making use of a version control system

Did you ever fear overwriting the original design file or working on an outdated file? If you have not been making use of a version control system, it is high time you start making use of one. Version control system will help you keep versions of your work so that if you need to revert changes back to an earlier version, it is easy to do so. It will also allow you to work in parallel with other designers, while maintaining a centralized source of truth.

Personally, I would recommend using one of the version control systems specifically made for designers, such as Abstract or Plant, but you could achieve similar things using GitHub or GitLab.

Learn something new

To keep up with the evolving industry you need to allocate some time to learn new things. There is always something new to learn, ways to polish your skills, experiment with design styles or work on side projects. Browse through Behance or Dribbble to get inspiration and courage to try something new. Muzli is also a great source of inspiration and it will keep you up-to-date.

Grow your design network

Having a great idea is not enough and without sharing it with others no one will ever hear about it. If you have not been actively networking, make an effort to connect with new people. Exchanging ideas and talking about projects or tools with other designers will shape you into a better designer. Sign to design webinars, take part in design meetups or join Slack design communities. I would highly recommend joining Designer Hangout, The Designership or Team Sketch. You could also consider becoming a mentor or finding a coach to support your development as a designer. Mentoring club could be a very good option for that.

Key learnings

Ask yourself “What do I really want?” without any limitations or barricades.
Your personal development goals will highly depend on your motivations and ambitions.
Once you have a vision, create a plan and decide what actions are required to reach your dreams.
Keep going, keep progressing, learn from your mistakes and celebrate your successes along the way. 🎉
To keep up with the evolving industry you need to allocate some time to learn new things.
Your network is your net worth, so keep growing your design network as exchanging ideas with others will shape you into a better designer.