Life at Springworks: A day in the life of a Product Designer

Afaq belongs to the city of Bangalore and joined Springworks in February 2021 as a Product Designer. He did his Bachelor of Engineering in the field of Electronics and Communication and then moved into the field of product design. Afaq has worked with multiple organizations based out in the USA, Africa, and India. 

He is currently working on two products, Trivia and EngageWith at Springworks. 

Let’s take a peek into the life of a Product Designer!

What do you do as a Product Designer at Springworks?

In simple words, I can say that my job involves identifying problems and ideating effective solutions for the same and moving on to creating prototypes and testing them out with actual users.

Apart from this just always be on the lookout for feature requirements as per the need, understanding whether it’s a new feature or an existing one.

What is your favorite part of your work?

I would say wire-framing and prototyping. I like prototyping and interactions a lot!

Wireframing is a process where designers draw overviews of products to establish the structure and flow of possible design solutions.

Prototyping on the other hand is creating a draft version of a product that allows one to explore ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept. 

What is the one essential skill that one requires to possess to be a Product Designer?

I would say design thinking needs to be an area that one needs to understand for being an effective product designer. 5 stages of design thinking start from 

• Empathizing with the users to understand their needs 
• Defining the problems
• Ideating the solutions for the defined problems
• Creating prototypes of the solutions
• And finally testing the solutions

Another important aspect would be understanding the problem statement. Identifying problems might be an easy step but understanding and defining it makes all the difference. A well-defined problem is a half solution!

Walk us through a day in the life of Afaq!

• Wake up around 10:30 am
• Make my breakfast, mostly it is eggs and bread
• After breakfast, I take my dog for a walk
• After coming back from the walk sometimes I go to the gym or maybe play Table Tennis at times
• I log in to work around noon, where I start by checking in my messages, mails
• Resolve any blockers that might have been created
• Then I connect with my teams for both the products
• The first part of my day I spend doing tasks related to engaging with
• The second half of my day goes into dealing with Trivia
• I take a break between 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
• Then I resume my work at 11:30 pm, which goes on to 4:00 am. During this period I specifically work on the designing aspect of my tasks as it is quiet and peaceful. 

What keeps Afaq motivated? 

My dog! He is always gets me through my bad days and is there to support me even on the good ones! 

Sneak-peek into your life outside Springworks!

I am a music enthusiast. I play guitar and I have been learning how to play the piano for the last 5-6 months now. Apart from music, I like to play table tennis and hang out with my friends on weekends!

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