Hello!

I'm a Product Discovery & Design Manager, currently working in a Polish digital advertising agency / technology group. I have over 6 years of agency experience and over 10 years of freelancing in digital design (commercial projects since age 16, now 27). I specialize in UI Design (mostly websites), and what I call the "discovery process," because I'm responsible for talking with the client, finding out what he wants, and then looking deeper to check why he wants it and if it makes sense; maybe something different would be beneficial for him. I'm fascinated with psychology in design, business, and user experience.

I'm self-taught. I've taken courses and I'm constantly reading books on usability, UX, strategy, but as much as I think I have a good understanding of UX, I feel insecure because I have never done UX in a proper team with a proper process, I have always done it by guess. I also don't have much experience with usability testing. I try to do simple 'inhouse testing" with colleagues at work, because I know that testing is important, but at the company where I work, they never take it seriously (that's the main reason I want to quit). So in terms of "classic" UX, testing, and workshops, I would not consider my skills senior.

I have only done commercial projects for the last 6 years and by the nature of the clients and the pace of work, they are not at the visual level I would like them to be. They are not "pretty dribble shots," which everyone loves to see; such I could also do, but I didn't need to. If I get the chance to work with you, I hope I can show my full potential. Due to the volume of work, I also did not have time to describe the process in the portfolio or make a pretty presentation; there are only flat designs, but I will be happy to tell more about it if needed.

On a more positive note, I have skills that are useful in this industry:

• I am confident in my UI skills; they're at the senior level, and I aspire to be among the world's best in a few years. I love creating consistent design systems, and I pay a lot of attention to detail.
• I pay a lot of attention to UX when designing; I make sure every design element is there for a compelling reason, and I can explain why. I look both at the whole process to see whether it makes sense and at individual interactions. I have also done UX audits of websites.
• I always try to understand the business and practical aspects; I have no problem talking to stakeholders, guiding them, and taking care of the relationship.
• I'm an internet nerd and power user, I understand IT pretty well (html, css, js, programming in general). Because of that, I have no problem talking to the developers, and I already think about the technical aspects from the beginning of each project. This helped the teams with which I was working avoid many problems.
• I have a bit of experience in SaaS design; also worked in SaaS company.
• I can work independently and organize what I need, but I dream of a team of professionals like me, where the work will be at the next level (love that sentence "No more pseudo-UX or guesswork" from job description).
• I have worked mostly in Adobe UX in terms of UI, but I'm already switching to figma and it's very similar (but better), I'll quickly get used to it.
• I have experience in branding, strategy, graphic design, print, and a bit in motion design.
• I love sharing knowledge and giving tips to junior designers, and in the future I would like to spend more time mentoring others.

As for my English, I have no problem with writing, reading, or understanding; however, I haven't been speaking English regularly for 7 years, so I'll need a while to get used to it, but I'm also very excited about it.

Have a best day (and thanks for reading it!)
Kamil Markiewka