By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres recounts advising a junior designer who wanted to grow in user experience design. She argues that hands-on learning matters more than reading or talking, and that the designer's best growth opportunity is a team where she has to fill gaps herself. When the designer asks how she can tell whether she is improving, Torres points to measurement: without analytics, hypotheses, and a clear sense of why changes are made, feedback is missing and effort amounts to guessing. Her company is also still developing these practices. She concludes that teams don't need perfect analytics on day one and should apply the same iterative mindset to measurement that they apply to building products.
01Key takeaways
- Prioritize learning by doing over consuming books and discussions alone.
- Look for roles where there is a gap to fill, since initiative is rewarded more easily there.
- Frame every change as a hypothesis so you know what you expect to learn from it.
- Measure the impact of your changes; without measurement, you are guessing rather than learning.
- Start with simple analytics and improve iteratively instead of waiting for a perfect setup.
02Key sections
- Learning by doing
- Torres values hands-on practice over reading and discussion. A role where the designer must step in to fill gaps gives the most room to learn.
- The question of getting better
- The designer asks how she will know she is improving, which leads Torres to the role of measurement in self-assessment.
- Analytics and hypotheses
- Torres asks whether changes start from a hypothesis and whether the team measures their impact. Without these, progress cannot be judged.
- Start somewhere
- Analytics is hard and most companies are still early in it. Teams should iterate on their measurement practices just as they iterate on products.
03From the post
“I met with a designer yesterday who shared with me that she wants to learn user experience design and asked for my advice. I asked her what she was reading and if she had joined any local groups. What had she found useful so far? She was reading Alan Cooper.”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.