I left Wealthsimple - what's next
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you would have heard the news by now that I recently quit my job at Wealthsimple.
In this video, I'm uncovering the reasons behind my decision and sharing what's in my next career chapter!
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//TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Backstory
01:25 - My initial experience at Wealthsimple
02:27 - Why I left Wealthsimple
09:29 - How I came to this decision
11:09 - What’s next
12:25 - Outro
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I've worked in the tech industry for 7 years. Worked on different sized projects and teams. There is never any stability. It's the nature of the industry, I've learnt to embrace it.
That's awesome you've come to embrace it, I feel like I'm not quite there but probably will be eventually!
Congratulations. Love seeing your growth. Your honesty is great, it’s good to know how other teams operate when looking at the job market.
Thanks so much!
Congrats!🎉 I love hearing about your story and reasons behind your decision, looks like you’re really clear about what you want. You’re also a great storyteller. I look up to you!
Aw thank you so much!!!
Thanks for being so honest and open about your career path. I completely empathise with you. I am in a similar situation and I hope I can eventually make the right decision. Best wishes for you and the Gusto Team, that company is a dream to me.
oh my goodness Femke! I can relate so much to everything you're saying. For some context; I graduated last year thinking design was how you described it in the work force - a partnership from the very beginning of the product cycle to the end and to come up with a solution together. I quickly found out after I joined a startup, that isn't the case. I became the sole designer of this start up this summer and its so lonely and so hard to stay motivated. Especially when stakeholders and manages come to you just to execute on a solution oriented brief, like you said. This is why knowing companies design maturity is important.
Thanks Femke for making this video and shedding a light on your experience at Wealthsimple. Your videos are always so helpful & insightful !
Thanks Vicky!
So excited for you and your new management role! You're going to be amazing!!
Thanks so much Randeep.
Great to hear you made the choice. I hope the next step rewards your talents well. I've been a fan from your Uber days. You have raised the bar for me on project organizing! I hope this is a great next step!
Thanks for following along for so long Michael!
Such a great vid Femke! Appreciate you being vulnerable about the things that weren't working at wealthsimple and sad to hear it didnt work out, but excited to hear youre joining Gusto! Congrats and glad to hear you're staying in Canada!
Thanks so much Nicholas :)
Much props on the experience. Happy to see the next chapter unfold.
Thanks Riley!
Thank you for sharing such meaningful reflections on your time at wealthsimple, and congratulations on your new role!
Cheers Clark!
Thanks for such a detailed video! All the best for your new role at Gusto! ✨
Thank you so much!!
PREAAAAACH!! Design is more than what you see, it's about creating influence for product growth through a creative perspective. I am in the same boat where I feel that I have reached my peak of growth within the current product environment because those across the table from me do not understand the power of design. Getting back into the job hunt is more fun/joyful than before as I get to dictate who I am interested in joining. Thanks for sharing, I wish nothing but the best for your future!
Hope you find what you're looking for! Sounds like you deserve it. Good luck :)
You are so honest and open about those complex topics. I greatly respect that. Love your videos :)
Thank you so much!
Amazing stuff getting into the manager role at Gusto 👏👏! A good friend was a product designer there pre-pandemic and they absolutely loved it!
Also like many other commenters, really appreciate you sharing so openly and can relate to the struggles. I've gone start up > medium org > scale up > big org. Still excited by small teams and start ups but far more aware of the red flags.
Thank you so much! I'm loving Gusto so far :)
That's awesome, congrats! Would love to see a video in the future on the main differences + pros/cons of management vs IC design roles.
For sure! Keeping it in my back pocket. Thanks for watching Lauren!
Thank you for sharing this part of your journey. Often, these kinda “career storms” help you to see things much more clearly.
totally!
Great video! Definitely can relate. Thanks for sharing, and best of success to your next role at gusto!
Thanks so much :)
Congratulations Femke! Have heard such great things about the Gusto design team/company culture. Best of luck! Excited to see how it goes.
Thanks Rachel!
More power to you!🙌 As a User Experience Lead now, I can completely empathise with your experience. In my previous company, it was very difficult to explain the stakeholders/business what design is and how it fit in the product development lifecycle. After a few months, I realised that we could never agree on what design brings to the table and how it was being treated org-wide. Over time, I started feeling lazy, complacent and rusty about my design skills and competency. That's when I decided to move on and look for opportunities that aligned with my growth mindset and have been doing great ever since! Your journey is super inspiring, and I wish you all the best for your new role at Gusto! 🙂
Thank you!! It can be really hard to make that decision, even when it's so obvious that things aren't working out. So glad to hear things are going well for you!
Can we connect?
I feel like I'm living your life through a parallel universe ... I recently left my design job because everything you outlined and had the exact same contemplations and goals ... 🤯CONGRATS on your move! Upwards and onwards!
Ahaha somehow I think we're not the only ones :)))
@@femkedesign Definitely not! Lost half of my design team and inherited an additional internal team. Spread soooo thin 😅.
I could tell in the past few videos that your natural light was a bit dimmed down but didn't know why, now it makes sense. So good to see you shine again!! ✨✨
Good luck in your new role and thank you for such fantastic content ❤
Thanks Javier!
Really happy for you! Congrats on moving to the next phase of your growth (IC to Mgmt). Your reasoning seems really well considered and emotionally intelligent.
Thank you!!!
Hello Femke, that's life ! Wish you the best for future
Haha thank you :)
I'm so happy for you! 💛
thanks!!
thank you Femke for making this video. I am not a designer, but going through a similar struggle in my position. you mentioned all the great points to think about when taking this hard decision. will definitely keep this video as a guide 😊
Good luck Ada!
Wishing you the best on your next big endeavor ❤
Thank you so much!!
You posted this a year ago but this is the most relatable I saw today.
Thanks for sharing a video like this! I completely relate to everything you said. I quit my job a few months ago for similar reasons, and I struggled to explain why I was leaving. I said I wanted to feel proud, challenged, and engaged with the product I was helping to build and the company I was in, but you said it ten times better :D.
I'm currently interviewing with a few companies, and this video also helped me to remind myself what I want (and don't want) in the next company.
All the best in your new adventure
Good luck with your interviews!!
Thanks for this video. I follow you since Uber. I felt that you wasn't so exciting in last videos. I've already lived similar experience.
I trust you and I believe you did the right choice. I'm feel happy again with that good news. Be happy again!
Thanks so much! I appreciate the support a lot.
Femke, thank you for being very honest in this video! 🙂
Of course! Always :)
Awesome! Congrats on the new role! I look forward to seeing your journey as a design manager! :)
Thank you so much!!
Really love your attitude to life :))
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Femke! I’m sorry that Wealthsimple wasn’t what you expected - I had a very similar experience so far in my career (I’m a senior product designer as well). What’s bothering me the most is when a company/leadership doesn’t value or appreciate us designers at all and only sees us as “interface monkeys”. I was in the same position where I would be proactive, suggest initiatives, work on side projects for the company - just to be ignored. It can be extremely demotivating and demoralising.
Congrats on your new role though! I’m super excited to see how things will be going for you, especially because I’m interested in the manager track as well🎉
Thanks Steffi, and sorry to hear you've been in that position also. Hope you're somewhere better now!
Congrats 🎉❤ thanks for sharing your story. The decision is the worst part of every process, I appreciate your bravery 🥹 xoxo from 🇧🇷
Thank you so much!!
Wow! Congrats for the new adventure. Now we'll be competence :D
Thank you!
congrats on the new role!
Thanks!
I still remember last year's video about your portfolio that got you into Wealthsimple. And I learned a ton from that and recreate my own portfolio and got a new job. I will always thank you Femke. And wish you all doing well, enjoy your life and career.
Thank you Finn! I've got another video coming out soon with my updated portfolio so stay tuned :)
I've quit my previous company, and other previous companies, exactly for the same reasons. The main problem across those companies, now that you've mention it, is the trust in the designers team that wasn't there (and sometime between designers). That leads CEO or product manager to see designers as mere do-ers instead of being solution-ers to the business problems. Thanks for enlighting us by sharing your experience with us at Wealthsimple. I'll look into building this trust first or to look into company that already have this trust with designers.
Trust is so important! Thanks for watching.
You rock Girl!
Appreciate your honesty so much. Had a similar experience in my very first design job. Everyone left lol and only when I joined I found out why
You're welcome! It's so hard to know these things sometimes until you get in the door.
Leadership not seeing the value in design is very discouraging. I can relate to it. Good on you to constantly reflect upon your journey and make conscious decisions.
Thanks Darshan!
Love your transparency and putting yourself out there - truly positive attitude while remaining conservative. Best wishes with your new chapter in life : )
Thanks!
It's incredible how I completely relate to everything you've said. I remember I ealier on listened to this on the 'Design Life' podcast (I am regular listener by the way) and I was literally completing your sentences even before you make them. It's so much discouraging when you know how much better things could be because you've seen it and genuinely wants to help bring those things onboard, but looks like you're the only one seeing through those lenses and majority of the people don't just care... Continuing seam like selling your soul, which is something I'm doing now because I haven’t had any opportunity yet...I've thought of quiting countless times without having a new job before hand, but the bills aren’t going to pay themselves... CONGRATS for moving on.
Thank you! Appreciate you listening to Design Life also, and it's nice to hear that I'm not alone in the situation I was in. I hope you find yourself in a better environment, you deserve it.
@@femkedesign thanks 🙏
Congrats! This is so exciting! I'm also interested in senior/manager level content so if you do more videos on that, I'll be there 🙂 Question for you/maybe a future video: What was the interview (and if applicable, portfolio presentation) like as someone interviewing for a manager position vs. an IC? Was it less about direct design work, and more about situations you lead?
Can't wait to see what you do at Gusto 💖
Thanks for the question! We've been addressing a bit about the interview and portfolio piece on my podcast, designlife.fm :)
Thanks for the video and insight. Curious to know if looking back there were any questions you would have asked or ways you could have gotten insight on what the experience at wealthsimple would turn out to be. This asymmetry we face when thinking of joining a new company/team or role is always interesting. I am curious to hear what you did differently now to check where gusto sits relative to your expectations and if you developed some sort of framework to uncover the culture of the companies you’re thinking of joining.
Absolutely. My experience at WS gave me really good insight into what to look for when interviewing. It helped me create a list of questions to ask to ensure I avoid a similar environment.
Something I also wish I had done (and did this round) was reach out to someone at the company outside of the interview loop eg. through LinkedIn to get an honest, unbiased opinion of what's going on internally.
Congrats on the new role and new journey!! I can really empathize with your experience as I gain more years of experience. As a UX consultant, I'm surrounded by companies wanting to give solution-level requirements all the time, and part of our role is to really advocate for our design process and teach them about how they can improve their design maturity, and how what they think the solution is, isn't always what users want. Understanding the value our teams can bring is so important, and I'm right with you that working for a team or company that doesn't see it just isn't fulfilling for us. I'm so glad for you, and can't wait to hear about your design managerial learnings and more!
Thank you Leona! So glad to hear you're advocating for design, keep it up!
Congratulations Femke! .
I wish you good luck with the next chapter. Really looking forward to more content.
Thank you so much!
Feeling you 1000% 😭
Hug!
I’ve been following you since you were a designer at Uber. Despite all the challenges you faced at Wealthsimple, it’s inspiring to see your growth as a fellow designer! All the best in your new role at Gusto! 🎉
Aw thanks James! Appreciate it!
Great video! Very good to hear you share these considerations at these key moments in your carreer. BUT: why is it so many people (seem to) consider design to be a temporary gig, building up to a management role? There is still so much room to grow if you have done something for only 5 years. I have been there, did a management / teamlead role and I found much more satisfaction in finding design solutions than managing people. Don’t get me wrong: good managers are very needed, but a design carreer can be the main course, not just the appetizer…
Absolutely! I personally chose the management track because it better matches my interest and skills sets. But you can totally continue growing on the IC track. I've worked with designers who have 15-20+ years of experience as Principle designers. That option is there! Was not at all my intention in this video for it to come across that management is the only path.
Years ago I left a UX team lead position at Disney Studios for some of the same reasons and it felt tragic. Onward and upward though!
Onwards for sure!
I’ve been in Product Design and UX for over 17 years. I’m at the HOPD level now and let me tell you…The management track will most certainly mean your work with still entail IC work in addition to the HR/People Management responsibilities. It’s very tough, you’ll need expert time management skills, and be prepared to work some nights and weekends covering for the IC/design work in the trenches.
Really? Surely this depends. I've had managers in the past who never did any IC work at all.
It would be great if you shared insights into the interview process and portfolio you presented for the UX Manager role. There's a lot of advice and content on individual contributor design roles, but very little discussion on UX Manager portfolios and interview questions.
You read my mind. Stay tuned for a future video ;)
Hi Femke, excited for you! A question I have: when interviewing with Wealthsimple did those 🚩 come out in the interviews at all or they told you that they respect and value designer role? Was there anything to pay attention to, to foresee this? I am currently interviewing with smaller companies as well and they telling me they are design friendly…
Nope they weren't there. I have a future video coming out soon on questions to ask during the hiring phase. Stay tuned!
@@femkedesign thanks Femke! Always looking forward to your videos :)
Great video thanks for sharing Femke, quick question, is Design manager equal to Lead designer?
It can in some places yes! Some places treat Lead as still an IC role, but others its more of a management position.
I'm curious to know, making this type of video, does anyone at Wealthsimple see this as a bad thing or being "ungrateful" or burning bridges?
I wish more people spoke about this type of experience because we as designers join a company based on the information we are given only to find out down the road that things are not what they seem. Like you said, hiring and onboarding takes a lot of time and effort. We then end up right back were we started, looking for a new role.
For your first question - I don't know, I guess we'll have to wait and see if any of them comment on this video :)
I too wish more spoke up, but also can understand why more people don't. I try to approach these topics with integrity in the hopes that by sharing this experience with others, it might reach just one person who needed to hear it today.
If you worked for a company in Germany (especially if they'd be a local company) they would sue you based on you criticizing them publicly and reducing their reputation. I am so happy to see people in other countries are freer to discuss what didn't go well in their previous job experiences. At least Wealthsimple might take your criticism into consideration, not get away like the ones here in Germany.
Sorry to hear that would happen :(
The part about designers needing a fundamentally respectful ground to grow...believe it or not, working in one of the biggest IT giants (starting with an "A") as a UX designer and I'm still fighting for that ground of respect. Sometimes I genuinely want to just ask my stakeholders: "Seriously guys this is 2023 and we are one of the biggest IT company in the world, and you still need me to explain what UX design is? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Well, we all as a UX community still have a long way to go. Glad you took the initiative to find a way out of an less UX-friendly business environment.
Hi Femke! How do you know before you join if the company views design as playing a part in product strategy or if it's more of a execution role?
Greaaaaat q. I'm gonna save that for an upcoming video where I share some of the questions to ask ;)
Based on the reasons you outlined, you did the right thing for yourself. Gusto is a great company. Would you be open to sharing what efforts you took to make the imapct at Wealthsimple as you'd envisioned?
Thank you! might save it for a future video :)
Hey Femke! what software did you use to edit and make the video?
My editor uses Premiere Pro.
Hey Femke, how is the design leadership at WealthSimple? Does design have a VP or something? Or does design leadership report to product?
We had a Design Director who quit after the layoffs. We had been trying to hire a VP of design above that Director for a year by the time I left. The position still wasn't filled. Design did report into product, yes.
@@femkedesign got ya, thanks for answering!
Whats your opinion of design being a subsidiary (if you will) of product? I know its very common in companies, but doesn’t really sit right with me. IMO if the product trio (product, design and engineering) is unequal at the top it sets the wrong example.
so initially you said there wasn't enough space for creativity & influence on a product and then moved to management position at all. that's a disappointment, but hopefully good for you and will fulfill your desires in career path, good luck
Influence and impact can look different though equally be attained regardless of whether you're an IC or manager IMO.
Solution-first / interface monkey is really common. I'm going througb the same relationship myself and know so many others like myself. I always wonder if a real problem/design thinking focused place even exists? Are we just dreaming of a utopia? I've yet to come across it in my
career.
The ones that exist can be hard to find. I do believe there a lot on the cusp of it - that have the potential to become it if they're lucky enough to hire designers who care and are willing to put int he work to bring it to that next level.
Where did you get that hat? I want :)
store.webflow.com/product/designing-websites-hat
@@femkedesign you’re the best 💙
What is difference between design manager and product manager?
One manages the design/ui/look the other manages the product.
How are things at Gusto so far?
Amazing :)
Yes, BUT it's the same old BUT I have to ask all career minded people... when you really ask why questions like, why was this company founded, and trace it back to its root, founding impetus, and ask yourself if you agree with the path of the company within the greater business world and the risk you're taking on, and whether you're comfortable with the path and the risks - don't you find that you can do a lot better?? And by better I'm not talking a little bit better, I'm talking infinitely better. I don't see how anyone can be at all happy with a career other than the fact that it appears to be what other people want from you. Appearances are one thing, but when you really dig deeper, what are the characteristics of the path you are on. This is what I call the path to chaos - it eventually breaks down all of your relationships with the world, especially if you are being paid in an asset that is rapidly declining in value - within 10 or 15 years that asset will be worthless. If I were paid in an asset that was appreciating in value I would have to re-assess.
So when you dig deeper - and ask yourself what you really think would satisfy your success in the world, you should at least come to some crucial personal ethical questions as your starting point. Is your relationship with the world increasing in its level of personal trust or decreasing... is your work contributing to increasing trust, or is it dividing people against one another. Are the terms of your contracts with businesses, people and states etc, in your favour, do you have any negotiating power? Is that even something that you care to work for, or you just couldn't care less about? How does your personal success make the world any better if your measure of that is your own personal/immediate family wealth???
If you had a billion dollars, and the rest of the world is dirt poor, do you consider that a success?
Do you think the synergies that come from "external competition" are sufficient in the greater society to work in your favour? Are there any synergies at all that come from external competition?? I understand that internal competition within a company is motivating and compelling in terms of the synergies that it creates, but under the world business system we operate under external competition is divisive in my view and counter-productive, and I have to very seriously question why synergies should be limited to within a company. I target and demean external competition because I have better ideas that aim to minimize the conflicts. Every external competitor is not only taking on massive business risks passed on to the employees, but things like professional opaqueness, contract rigging, unnecessary frills, and endless lists of contract non-negotiables that put the consumer at a severe disadvantage with their products and services. Nobody represents the consumer. The solution to these types of problems is the subject of my work. Maybe nobody is interested, but we'll see, I've gotten much farther than I thought I was going to get when I left the programming world 7 years ago.
Negotiating power is huge issue in the world, and I wanted to offer a solution because if it is enough to motivate me to love life again, I presume it would be the same for most men out there, at least the good ones. I know there are a sh** ton of bad ones out there too, but there's no hope for them, their arrogance comes from their alignment with the path to chaos and obviously their lies and deceit are so stupid, they are easily exposed in court, so I have no idea why they bother in the first place, other than to make the whole world a living hell knowing that 99% of the population has no access to justice.
Hey Femke, did you encounter having people that are not designers managing you as a designer? This year I moved from an outsourcing company with a design team and a design manager to a smaller company to make more of an impact and help them build a design team but being ended up managed by a project manager that didn't have any experience building software before this company and also hiring a very junior designer without real experience treating him as an experience designer until after all my comments she realized that he was not helping me at all. I don't want to say this is a bad person, but something is frustrating having someone above you instead of collaborating at the same level when our expertise is different. I am an experience designer, and I feel this is the problem of small companies and project managers who think they can make you the wireframes, and in the end, you are hired as UX/UI / product designer. Still, you end up doing only UI and seeing how others make decisions.
I hope I will be able to be a design manager one day, my congrats to you!
I have not been in this position but have heard it is common especially at smaller scale companies like you mentioned. In this case, part of our role is inevitably going to be managing up - telling them what you need, what success looks like, and how you expect them to support you.
I quit a year back due to burnout. It's not worth being a slave to organizations like these.
So sorry, hope you're better now!
How does one go from design to management, is it through a course or hands on experience or both?
This is a huge topic I'll be saving for a future video :)
any coder worth their weight will tip their hat towards designers, as it is where the elegant work can be done sometimes.
I am the only designer in my company XD imagine my pain.
Good luck! Seems like an incredibly challenging position to be in.
@@femkedesign Thanks, It is definitely difficult sometimes, but the plus side is that i get to do to all the creative work and it allows me to make myself an amazing portfolio to apply for better jobs.
ALREADY?????
i knowwwww
Oh oh, back to uber?!😅
🙊
that's really sad for the layoffs.. hope you are doing good.. all the best Femke
Thanks! I'm doing really well now :)