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Last updated · 24 July 2024

Designer onboarding

Hi Designer! Again, welcome aboard! Before going any further on this page, make sure you have first read and digested Onboarding. This page will only come into play after your first two days at Significa.

Your first 30 days: learning

With your first two days and a weekend behind you, it's time to start getting accustomed to your role here at Significa, starting with your first week.

Your first full week

In the first two weeks, you'll focus your learning on who we are and why we exist. In other words, you will focus on knowing inside out all of the below:

We know some of the above you have already read, but re-reading will be essential for you to take it on board. So grab that coffee, head over to the lounge area and kick things off calmly. It will soon ramp up.

Having noted down some questions, you've sat down for some quick 15/30 minute chats with everyone on this list:

  • Pedro Brandão, Founder of Significa and Front-end Developer.

  • Ana Fernandes, Brand Manager.

  • Mariana Gomes, Delivery Manager.

  • Alec Norton, Operations Manager.

  • André Resendes, Chief Design Officer and Co-founder.

  • Rui Sereno, Managing Partner and Chief Business Development Officer.

You should be meeting with these team members and diving into their roles, how your roles will need to collaborate, what Significa culture means to them, what they love about their roles, and maybe the parts of their roles that they find energy draining. Basically, get to know them.

The most intrinsic part of your week will be showcasing a self-presentation to your design team peers on Thursday afternoon. We try to ensure these team meetings are creative and engaging, so much so that Teresa wrote a blog about them. You should read that blog post, too.

While we know that not everybody loves presenting (many people really don't), it will be an important aspect of your work as a designer at Significa. Your self-presentation is a great way to integrate with the team and share who you are. Spend the time necessary to have creative fun on Figma and make yourself feel confident when presenting.

That's a pretty busy first week, with lots of talking, reading and even some self-reflection.

Second week

In your second week, you'll aim to gain as much knowledge as possible about all our current projects. You'll want to learn the high-level details of everything your peers work on. By the end of the week, you should know about all our ongoing projects;

  • Project name.

  • Scope.

  • Who is working on it.

  • What's the objective of the project.

You'll be doing this by trying to understand each project's design process, spending time with all the designers, and carefully analysing the process. Spend a day with a different designer, ask questions, soak up their knowledge, and bond with them.

The important thing is never to be ashamed of asking stupid questions. They've been in your position before, know what you're expected to do, and are a really welcoming group of people.

Before you notice, it'll be Friday again, and you can put your feet up at the end of the day feeling smug about all the knowledge you've gained about your team's working processes.

The remainder of your first month

We know you can't cover everything about our design processes in one week. That would be… insane. The remainder of your first month is set aside to ensure that you are confident about your understanding of the role of designers at Significa, as well as our design process, standards, tools, and projects. With all that soaked up by the end of your first month with us, we'll move on to the Training phase with assurance, confidence and eagerness to get going.

Again, if you ever feel lost, without guidance, or in doubt about what to do next, don’t hesitate to contact your R&O manager.

Day 30 to 60: Training

It is time to start working on some challenges. You've gained an understanding of our processes, tools, standards and projects. You're now ready to work on a daily U.I. challenge.

For the next four weeks, you'll be diving into daily challenges and taking on one extended challenge (think of this as a final boss at the end of your video game), but instead of slamming the crap out of the pour soul, you'll have the to think through a problem, follow our design process, and get to an actual solution that is actually not related to spanking no boss.

For the daily UI challenges, check out 30-minute Design Challenges

Your extended challenge will be defined with you. It'll differ depending on your Level.

Day 60 to 90: Shadow and perform

For the final four weeks, you should focus on absorbing real project meetings to learn how we communicate, present and defend our ideas and perspectives from learning with your peers. While doing this, you should start performing on internal projects.

This stage is designed to give you a lot of independence when tackling your role and responsibilities. You'll be held accountable for your work and encouraged to accomplish projects with limited guidance and a set deadline. You'll be working as you would in any client project.

The internal project itself will be defined depending on what’s happening at Significa at that given moment. Our URL shortener, palette generator, and proposals document all came from people being onboarded—both designers and developers.

Shadowing

You'll soon be interacting with clients and taking on a project. It's a good time for you to shadow a peer again and focus on client communications. You'll be allocated to one project to follow and absorb whatever happens within it.

The idea here is that you are a shadow, not an active contributor to the project. Nonetheless, you should take some notes and share feedback with your peers about the work you are shadowing. Your input is valuable.

You're also expected to continue working on the UI challenges and actively participate in our design team meetings.

Check-in meetings

You'll meet with your mentor each Friday to look back at the week that was.

These check-ins will provide a space for you to share how you feel about your new surroundings and raise any questions you might have. Hopefully, these meetings will be of value to you and also contribute to improving our onboarding process going forward.

These are also opportunities for your mentor to assess your evolution and integration into Significa. They should share constructive feedback so you can take action and clarify any doubts regarding expectations while ensuring we can address any concerns you may have.

This all sounds quite formal, doesn't it? Don't worry! It's very chill. We aim for you to feel comfortable and for us all to learn from your onboarding experience so we can continue improving with you.

If, at any given time, we feel you are ready to move to real projects without completing your three-month onboarding, we will discuss it with you and on to a project you shall go.

Wrap it up

And there we have it! It's time to close this chapter and start a new one. You are not so new now, but hopefully, you're well and truly feeling like part of the team. You know your peers, our working process, and our methodology — you are ready to get going! We feel like proud parents as you set yourself free on your first Significa project.

But before we let you fly off from the onboarding, we must wrap it up. We'll give you consistent and constructive feedback about the whole thing. We'll be highlighting our reflections on your strengths and areas for improvement, considering three key aspects:

  • Cultural fit and adaptation.

  • Technical assessment of skills and evolution.

  • Soft skills.

Your mentor will share their feedback using CultureAmp, so both of you can access it whenever necessary. This will come in handy during your first performance review and for setting up your development plan. More on that in Personal development.

This being said: fly, bird, fly! Good luck!

Your feedback matters

Our onboarding processes are still very much a work in progress. Please don't hesitate to give us any feedback during and after your onboarding process.

  • Was anything missing that could have been helpful for you regarding equipment?

  • Did you have everything you needed to get up and running?

  • Could anything have been clearer for you?

  • What would you change in the onboarding to make it better?