Many designers are solo designers, and the reality of being in a solo situation is that it’s hard, lonely and stressful.
There’s no one to bounce ideas with, little to judge success objectively, and a large dose of ambiguity. These aren’t necessarily ideal environments to thrive, however..
Challenging things are also usually rewarding.
I want to dive into my learnings as a solo designer for the past year, where I’ve seen Autone grow from 1 customer when I joined, to 1 being onboarded every week. We’re now a Design team of 2, and looking to hire 2 more Senior Designers.
When joined Autone in the summer of 2023, I was the first design hire, and have essentially been a ‘Founding Designer’ (considering the transformation of the company since the summer of 2023). The founders Harry & Adil were formerly at Alexander McQueen, overseeing the supply chain operations, and spun out a company to transform inventory management for retail.
The company was in its infancy and I was employee #11. I was the first real product hire. I had no prior retail experience. And to top it all off, I was tasked to design a brand new module, of which there was nothing comparable in the market, in my first 6 weeks.
Easy right?
In the last 13 months, there have been plenty of learning moments. Below are 4 milestones that have been achieved, to give you a flavour of the progress made and the challenges faced.
