Many designers want to welcome more development skills into their toolkit and become a hybrid. In reality however, it can be a struggle to fit in the learning required to develop complementary skills while also completing the tasks you were hired to do! In this episode Charli shares her experience of becoming a hybrid, and the practical steps she took to expand her skillset.
Being a hybrid designer/developer might benefit you in ways you didn’t expect - like by helping you to become a better designer as you understand in a new way how your designs will function on the web.
If you are trying to figure out what new skill you would like to learn, take a look at what you enjoy doing and see where you might be able to add value to your company. Is there another discipline or team that you work closely with that you find very interesting?
When what you are trying to learn is not essential to getting your job done, it is a lot harder to prioritise and find the time to learn.
If you don’t have the chance at your current role to use the new skills you want to learn, take the opportunity to learn from the people around you. Remember you won’t have this job forever, think about your future career and what skills you might like to bring to your next role.
Be clear about which of your two hybrid skills you want to give the most time to. If you are a designer adding development to your toolkit, you might find that bringing your designs to life in CSS and HTML is very satisfying, and fixing bugs less so. Be careful not to spend too much of your time on your secondary skill so that you can stay passionate about the elements of your job that you like best.
00:30 Intro
06:08 Charli’s journey to becoming a hybrid
08:20 Factors that influence becoming a hybrid
09:26 Make time to learn
12:12 Timeblocking
13:55 Choose your new skills wisely
20:40 Learn from those around you
24:30 How to avoid being a ‘Jack of all trades, Master of none’
27:00 Questions from the Design Life Community on Twitter
