Don’t be confused! 4 career suggestions for novice B-side designers

I have found that many newcomers who join B-side enterprises are usually confused and doubt whether they are suitable for the B-side design profession. They also come to consult me, hoping to get some answers.

I recall that when I first joined a B-side enterprise a few years ago, I also had a lot of confusion and bewilderment. Now looking back, I would like to share my views based on my own experience.

Change your mindset

Everyone tends to have a "fixed mindset" when dealing with things that they are familiar with. When we design a page, we will consider the user's fixed mindset, and the same is true when dealing with design problems.

When communicating with many senior designers who switched from C-end to B-end, I found that they seemed to still follow their previous mindset when dealing with problems. This led to many troubles in the work process, such as:

• The boss complained that he didn't have enough experience, but he was a designer with many years of experience.
• When dealing with design requirements, only care about "surface issues"
• Not reused in the team, a true component designer
• The reason is that in the C-end era, designers talk about users;

In the B-side era, we are no longer talking about users, but more about revenue, processes, and business.

Therefore, when dealing with B-side needs, design style is just a "surface project". It is not that it is not important, but it is more to serve the true "soul" of the product.

Looking back at your portfolio, what we ask for is not: how good is the layout of your portfolio, what good-looking fonts you chose, or what bright colors you used, but more about seeing your thinking from your portfolio and what optimizations have been achieved in the product through your adjustments to the interaction process.

Step out of your comfort zone

Being in your own comfort zone can be understood as "comfort".

The word "comfortable" is not worth mentioning to me as a Chengdu native. It can express your admiration for your current state, and also your envy of others. Because when we talk about "comfortable", we often only talk about how comfortable others are.

Many people would think that jumping out of one's comfort zone is involution.

But I prefer to think of it as a learning attitude, because the B-side things you just come into contact with must be brand new and break your previous cognition. For example, when talking about low-code products, we will definitely talk about objects, layouts, and configuration forms.

And these things, if slightly extended, will amount to a lot of content. If you have been engaged in B-side design for many years, you will find that you are becoming more and more like a product manager, but because everyone's standpoint will be different, the content produced will be slightly different.

When you feel anxious, you especially want to jump out of your comfort zone. I am the same. When I was working, I arrived at work at 10 o'clock every morning, but I was immersed in studying at Tianfu Third Street at 6:50, which also gave me enough time to do things other than work.

Choose an industry with greater potential

In B-end products, industry selection is a very important thing. Because if you want to develop deeply in this industry, you must accompany the company for 2-3 years, and in the subsequent job-hopping process, industry attributes are a very important label for you. You can see that the importance of the industry is clearly pointed out in various recruitment information.

Therefore, choosing an industry with greater potential can add a lot of points in your subsequent career.

Focus on a specific field

It seems to be repeated with the previous one, but the focus I want to tell you will be different

The key point here is to dig deep, because in the process of contacting some B-side interaction designers who have worked for 2-3 years, you will find that they don’t seem to understand their own business, or even feel a little unfamiliar with it. Digging deep into a certain field means that you have an expert level in an industry. And in the subsequent job-hopping, you can also use your own strength to quickly get started with the corresponding business of the industry

Although deep cultivation will bring many difficulties in the later stage of career development, it must be said that in the early stage of the B-end market, it can teach you a lot of principles of analyzing B-end problems.

Summarize

The B-end design is different from the C-end design, and there will be huge differences in business forms. At the same time, in terms of work attitude, it is not recommended that you be too impetuous, because the B-end requires a long research and development process, which requires you to be able to deeply cultivate a certain industry. Therefore, in terms of career development, I hope you can make careful choices!