A day in the life of a senior product designer at Insider Inc.
Paulas Bhatt
Originally posted on the Insider Inc. Engineering blog.
In part two of our “Day in the Life” series, I sat down with Danna Wulf who is on the UXD (user experience design) team at Insider Inc.
Danna joined the company in March 2018 as Senior Product Designer, bringing a range of UI and UX experience from agency, consultancy, and startup environments. She graduated from Drake University where she received degrees in Graphic Design and Creative Advertising.
Since joining, Danna has worked on nearly all of our user-facing products, including website, newsletters, and subscription efforts. Recently, Danna has revamped the user experience of our post and homepages as well as created an improved experience for our buying guides.
Danna, who is also a first generation professional, gave me an opportunity to better understand what motivates her and the day-to-day challenges she faces, as well as a chance to become more familiar with how the UXD team works.
Why did you join Insider Inc.?
I was excited to join a small team where I could help inform processes and build culture from the ground up. The challenge of designing for a different industry was attractive; I was also looking to be a part of an organization that aligns with my values and delivers value to its community.
What do you love about working at Insider Inc.?
The people and our product — we have a great number of dynamic brands and I’ve really grown to love and appreciate our content. I also enjoy the amount of ownership and collaboration across product, engineering, and design.
What does your typical day look like?
It depends on the day, but some of the constants are daily scrums with my feature/UXD teams, and pairing with engineers and product to iterate features based on feedback.
During any 2-week sprint, I can be found in user story mapping sessions, listening to user interviews, white-boarding or brainstorming solutions and user flows, presenting concepts, interviewing candidates, having lunch with co-workers, and attending Insider Inc. culture club events.
What are you motivated by?
By the people, experiences, and challenges that come with my role. One of the most exciting challenges is proving the value of design; I believe that we’ve been able to make great progress here. Through analytics , including Google’s H.E.A.R.T framework, I have seen how our work has positively affected other parts of our organization.
What are some team initiatives you are currently working on?
We’re aiming to complete a redesign of the INSIDER and Business Insider homepages. My feature team has been releasing small layout changes since Q1, and by the end of Q2 it should look and feel completely different. (Keep an eye out for a blog post soon about our iterative process!) We’re also looking to formalize a design system to help our work become more scalable and workflows more effective.
What do you love about design?
The challenge of creating something new within certain constraints (like users’ expectations, standard conventions, brand patterns, or native frameworks) is exciting to me. I also love that UX relies on psychology principles, which I’ve always been naturally curious about.
What makes the Insider Inc. culture what it is today?
Insider Inc. is full of genuine and authentic people who are constantly trying to improve the culture and try new things to improve the workplace. People truly embrace our founder Henry Blodget’s motto of “Get Better Every Day.”
Looking for a new job opportunity? Apply to become a part of our team! We’re always looking for new talent.