Gladine Strydom

4.50 AM

I wake up to my alarm from a deep and restful sleep. Snoozing my alarm for another 5 minutes before I get out of bed. Once it goes off again, I quickly jump out of bed, get dressed, grab my gym bag and off I go to the gym.

6.00 AM

Feeling the pump from a good gym session, I head home to get ready for work. Mornings are personally my favourite time of the day! I get to move my body, cuddle my dog, and reset my mind for a new day.

8.00 AM

I arrive at my desk a little bit earlier in the morning to set myself up for a productive day. I like to start my day by checking the design channels we have in Slack. Drinking my coffee and reading Slack messages gives me context for everything I need to do in my day. It helps me stay up to date with the latest updates and what has been going on in my team. I will then spend a quick 5 minutes to prioritize my tasks for the day. I pick my largest priorities, like cycle work, and split them into smaller tasks that I can accomplish in the days to come. This helps me to remain focused and keeps me accountable for work with timelines.

9.30 AM

On certain occasions, the social committee hosts a communal breakfast for us to enjoy so obviously I head down to grab myself some croissants and more coffee! After I enjoyed some breakfast, I focused my mind on work for the day. I sync up with my team to discuss what we are working on for the week along with new learnings, issues and current focuses. It’s a crucial time for me as the designer in the team to let them know if I am stuck on any problems, if I require feedback on certain parts of the designs, and what I am currently focussing on.

11.00 AM

After spending time engaging in meetings and following up with my team, I like to gather all the information I need to start working on some of the tasks I set out for myself that day. Currently, I am in solution discovery within the design process and for this cycle we are focussing on helping our users have visibility and control over one of the most important parts of their business, their Product Catalog.

12.00 PM

Lunch time! Most days I will bring meal-prepped food into the office with me, so I will grab my food, head to one of the shared kitchens, warm up my meal and chat with some familiar faces. Due to being a graduate I tend to try and chat to people I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, giving myself all the opportunities to discuss anything and everything - from what our week looks like at work, what we did over the weekend, how long we have worked for the company and if we watched the latest episode of the Kardashians.

1.00 PM

After lunch, I usually have important meetings to attend with my team members to discuss further concerns and solutions we have for the cycle we are focussing on. This ensures that we as a team are all aligned on our goals and objectives for the problem we are solving. I will take the time to make sure I ask all necessary questions to help expand my own knowledge on the problem, that way I can ensure that my designs meet our principles which are to be clear, be true, be friendly and be bold.

2.00 PM

There will always be some time in the day spent on reviewing designs with other designers, whether these are rubber-duckies, one-to-one, or with a larger group of designers. Reviews help to get feedback and other perspectives on the direction of my work, and sense-checking my ideas and decisions with the design team ensures I produce consistent and delightful solutions for our users. I like to share my work early and review often to make sure that I get good feedback and open doors for problems to be discovered that I might not have seen in the first place. As you can tell, holding and attending reviews is an integral part of my day-to-day job as a Product Designer.

3.30 PM

After many meetings and reviews, it’s time to put some good energy into other elements of my job which is to work on smaller tasks I set out for myself. These could be to check work emails, clean up my Figma files, join in on user interviews for the next cycle or even just chatting with designers around plans for Friday Beehive Activity! There will always be smaller tasks for me to spend time on when I feel like I have been productive in completing larger-scale tasks. At the moment, I am expanding my skills in showing static designs through prototypes to better communicate interactions to other team members. From this, I have been able to up-skill myself and also other designers who find prototyping a good way of communicating their work.

5.00 PM

A productive day at work has come to an end and I quickly spend some time to look over the tasks I had to complete for the day. I will jot down some notes from the day and set out tasks for the next day if I didn’t complete them. I will add tasks to tomorrow’s to-do list and also mark off tasks I did complete in the day. I pack up all my work stuff into my bag, say bye to my team and leave to go home.

6.00 PM

After coming home and spending some quality time with my partner and doggo, I like to cook a home-made meal and listen to some music. Quality time with family after work is one of the best things to help my mind switch off from a productive day at work.

8.00 PM

I start to wind-down before bed by having a cup of herbal Rooibos tea. I am totally biased towards Rooibos tea as it started in the heart of southern Africa, my home. The aroma and taste that this tea brings to my mouth is just what I need to wind down and feel cozy in bed. Time to binge more of the Kardashians!

9.00 PM

Bed time, see you bright and early in the morning!

Thinking of experiencing life as a Lightspeed Graduate? Sign up to GradNewZealand to receive job alerts for Lightspeed.