每周狗熊写的中、英文短贴里，值得再次回顾与分享的内容，都列到了这里。这是一份我的每周零散心得与学习收获的汇总列表，只要五分钟，就可以获得我一周的收获。请订阅邮件Newsletter，以获得完整的分享内容：tinyletter.com/Beartalk
非主流国外求职技巧分享（狗熊原创）
找到你理想中去工作公司的email格式，比如xxx@beartalking.com，搜到公司CEO的名字（first name），直接给他写邮件（把xxx换成其名字），提出一个其公司现有产品、服务或网站的问题，以及你的优化建议（如果是UX或设计师，可附一个简单的解决方案），注意语言谦虚。如果有回复，你就知道该怎么办了。 注意：这只是用来获得面试机会的一种方式，别幻想能直接找到工作，那是网络小说的情节。这个技巧可以帮你绕开HR，直接获得与hiring manager面试的机会。 对于英文邮件语气如果把握不好的话，自己google一下cold email的格式与技巧。 事先准备好所有要准备的东西，比如LinkedIn，简历，Cover letter。
关于工作提案的回顾
今天完成了一个设计稿的提案，讨论与推进到dev流程，很开心。虽然只是一个面板的UI设计，涉及到了以下的工作步骤：
与Product owner沟通需求，在Jira里创建任务 查看现有解决方案，列出problem和solution 和设计组同事沟通现有Style 在Sketch里进行主设计（理想方案） 在Sketch里进行次设计（最简方案） 发起会议，邀请team成员及乙方（技术dev），提案 确定方案方向（理想方案，耶） 和UX主管（我的boss）沟通，调整设计稿的细节 创建Confluence页面，写story描述，上传设计文件 将Sketch文件导出Zeplin，发布给乙方dev进行后续开发
所有步骤都是在Scrum流程下完成的，消耗时间全透明，所有人都可以在Jira里查看。
与在国内做设计相比最大的不同是：团队/乙方和boss都尊重你的专业意见，设计的问题由执行设计师（我）决定，而不是国内那种每个人都插个嘴的情况。当然前提是，你要能清晰地表达自己的设计逻辑，也能应对他人提出的挑战。
相同的一点是：沟通和表达对于设计推进来说同样重要。这里说的表达除了提案/沟通需求/明确问题时的口头交流之外，也包括清晰地撰写任务story和文档。
把这个流程放大，就是设计师/咨询公司对客户提案的常规流程。
My morning routine
Routine is powerful, for its consistency and compound effect if you do it right. The Miracle Morning written by Hal Elrond introduced 6 steps for each morning can wake your power and energize you to jump to things you love. But...
I can't do that, because I'm an ordinary person who's always fail to complete to-do list. 6 steps before go out to work in the morning? Too hard man, too hard.
But as a designer, I do build my own morning routine with a few steps, and they work perfect for me so far.
Here are my routines:
1️⃣ Put on my wireless headphone and play audiobook as soon as I wake up. I'm the first one to get up in my family so I can use the time to listen books. When I'm ready to go out for the bus, already listen 40 min audiobook. Pretty good, yay?
2️⃣ Cold water shower. It's the best way to fresh you up in 2 mins.
3️⃣ Meditation (optional). I don't spend specific time for meditation, instead, I meditate on the bus. Yes, on the bus. I often take a 15 min meditation on the bus, which is perfect for a 25 min bus trip. A noise-proof headphone is handy, or ear-plugs work fine. I use HeadSpace to meditate, which is so great. Sometimes I fell asleep when meditation, and that's why it's optional.
These are my designed morning routines.
Delete 10K files from Dropbox
Deleted 10k files in Dropbox, and felt such a relief! Tidy up is not part of the production, but essential for productive.
Highly suggest doing two things regularly, especially when you finish a project (or on the new year's holiday):
1️⃣ Tidy up the files. Categorize them, and don't just save them on the cloud. Leave the final outputs on the cloud and keep the process files offline.
2️⃣ Write a case study, and it doesn't need to be a compelling story. Reflect what you've learned from the project, the great, the to-be-improved and the next steps. Do it ASAP while the juice is still fresh.
What's your todos to be organized?
Fail fast to learn fast.
Fail fast to learn fast.
Take reading books for example. My native language is not English, so reading English books is hard for me, and listening audiobook is even harder. When I listen audiobooks, I find that I don't get a lot of information. Sometimes there're 60% or even 80% of the information I don't get.
Take the book Principles I'm listening for example, at least 70% of information is missed. How about that? Two options. 1. Pick up the text version and spent another 20 hours to read. 2. Use 6-7 hours to finish the book, summarize the brief, and move to next book. I pick the second.
It's a similar experience as I read Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. The first time was terrible and I can hardly remember anything from the book, but then I found when I read other books, the knowledge was familiar, then I read the book for the second time, and great benefit rewarded.
So, the tip is: fail fast to learn fast.
Invest your time on drawing / Sketch
Designers should invest time on learning trends and tools, but more importantly, invest time on improving timeless skills. Drawing(sketch) is one of them. Sometimes you sketch for generating ideas, sometimes for communicate concepts with others. It is not the gate keeper for design industry as decades ago, but still an essential way of communicating, ideating and visualizing your design solutions.