First released over 20 years ago, Adobe InDesign is a graphic designer’s best friend and most valuable piece of software.
It can be used to create posters, flyers, books and magazines, amongst many, many other things—all those things that immediately spring to people’s minds when you say you’re a graphic designer.
You won’t find a graphic designer who isn’t both a master of InDesign and simultaneously constantly learning new tips and tricks on the programme. It really is amongst the essential skills needed to be a graphic designer.

Adobe InDesign

Photoshop is the world’s most popular photo editing app. 
<ul>
<li>As a designer, you’ll be using Photoshop for editing and modifying raster/bitmap graphics (aka JPEGs, PNGS, and GIFs) for use in your designs—in simpler terms, it uses pixels to make images.</li>
<li>The program can be used for things like cropping, color-correcting, resizing, and editing images and photos.</li>
<li>It’s also used for loads more jobs that will be part of a designer’s repertoire from overlaying text onto an image to combining photography (yours’ or someone else’s) and graphics.</li>
</ul>

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor first released in 1987. Vector graphics are not made up of pixels, but instead are made up of paths and can therefore be scaled much more than raster graphics. While Photoshop deals with the latter, Illustrator deals with vectors.
The program can be used to create a variety of digital and printed images—we’re talking logos, charts, illustrations, cartoons, graphs, diagrams—basically anything that may need to be printed or displayed at different sizes or on different formats.

Adobe Illustrator

Digital design is most commonly split into two fields: UI and UX.
<ul>
<li>UI, which stands for User Interface, is focused on visual experience—how a piece of digital design actually looks.</li>
<li>Meanwhile, UX, which stands for User Experience, is focused on usability—how a piece of digital design actually works.</li>
</ul>
Though you may often see jobs advertised as being explicitly UI or UX designers, it is important for all digital designers and all designers, in general, to have a good understanding and skills in both fields.

Digital (UI, UX, Sketch)

Typography means any skills related to typography that a graphic design might use—from picking the right font for a project to really getting in to the nitty-gritty of typesetting with alignment, kerning, and leading.
Most of these typography-related skills will be used when working in InDesign, but will also be used in every programme a designer uses.

Typography (Typesetting etc.)

They are key in creating any successful design. Let us quickly break down what each one means or how it affects a design:<ul><li>Alignment—> creates a sharper, more unified design.</li><li>Repetition—> strengthens a design by tying together otherwise separate parts and, as a result, creates associations.</li><li>Contrast—> is the most effective way to create emphasis and impact with your design.</li><li>Hierarchy—> creates organisation.</li><li>Balance—> provides stability and structure to a design, either through symmetry or tension of elements.</li></ul>

Design Principles

Ideation: In graphic design terms, it can be defined as the creative process of generating, developing and communicating new ideas.It can often be broken down into four steps: Research->Idea Generation->Evaluation->Apply.

Ideation (Moodboards, Idea Generation, etc.)

A brand, put simply, is a set of ideas a company or products stands for in people’s minds.There are five key parts to a brand’s anatomy and a designer should be well aware of all of them: the brief, the brand strategy, the brand values, the brand ideas and the brand identity. Designers should know how to understand a business inside out and pinpoint why it is special and be able to bring a brand to life through logos, colours, typography, illustration, photography, graphic elements and everything else that makes a brand a brand.

Branding

Designers should know the two types of printing, offset and digital, and how to prepare for them. They should know all the terminology associated with printing—bleed, slug, crop, fold marks—and print production—ink limits, dot gain and transparency. Designers should be up to scratch with different file formats, PDF  and Packaged InDesign, when to use the correct colour systems, either CMYK or PMS and beware of knockout and overprinting.

Designing for Print

A designer’s portfolio is arguably their most important tool—it will be used when job searching when pitching to clients and showing off their amazing work to their friends and colleagues. 
There are certain elements of portfolio management that can be learned. For example, things like how to correctly lay it out, what information to include and social media skills, such as properly maintaining and using Instagram and Behance profiles. These, of course, are super important for a designer to know so that they can have the most successful portfolio possible.

Portfolio Management

Why do designers need creativity? This might be quite obvious. A creative mindset in an important graphic design skill as it enables a designer to excel in pretty much every stage of the design process: from coming up with initial ideas when brainstorming a brief through to developing, designing and refining your concepts.

Creativity

First of all, graphic design can be defined as “effective visual communication of an idea or concept” so communication is at the very heart of what a graphic designer does. You’re going to need top communication skills to actually get pen to paper and start designing. On top of this, from your first day as a student all the way up to being a creative director, communication is going to be key to your career. You’re going to have to not only talk but also listen to your teachers, your team, your clients, account managers and so many other people.

Communication

Designers need to develop a strategy for how they tackle a brief. For each brief they work on, designers should have a readymade strategy in place to make the process as streamlined and efficient as possible.

Strategy

Graphic design can actually be seen as one big piece of problem-solving: You’re given a brief by a client, which you can think of as a problem, which you then have to solve using the skills you’ve developed through your graphic design training.
Problem solving actually pops up at several points during the graphic design process. For instance, after you present your design to the client, you’ll be given feedback. You’ll then have to revise your design so it meets the clients’ expectations. In this example, the problem is the feedback and the solution you have to come up with is the revisions.

Problem Solving

Tips to help you become an effective and self-reliant graphic designer

business

Business

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

career

Career

Being a Graphic Designer in the Modern World

If you want to be a graphic designer there are a handful of skills you'll need to get hired and succeed. Learn what they are in this brand new guide.

education

Learning & Education

product

Product & Design

11 Graphic Design Skills That Employers Want To See

When it comes to your portfolio website, focus on the essentials. You don't need an entirely bespoke all singing and dancing website to find work for yourself. A strong thoughtfully ordered and presented body of work is much more important.

Your portfolio

Your hourly rate probably needs to be higher than you think. Research the going rate in your locality.If people try to talk down your rate, stand firm. Once you agree to work for a reduced rate, it will be close to impossible to talk it back up again.

Your hourly rate

<ul><li>Research any potential new employer. </li><li>At the interview (or by email) find out what hours you will be expected to work. You might have to travel to a different part of town or start at an unfriendly time.</li><li>Find out your new employer's payment terms. Try to negotiate something shorter than the standard 28 days if you can.</li><li>﻿Allow 15 minutes extra so that you're early on the first day. First impressions still count, so you don't want to be late.</li><li>Get prepared. Have a folder of fonts at the ready (on your hard drive, not in the cloud). And perhaps some templates ready to go.</li></ul>

Preparing for the interview

<ul><li>Prefer to work from home? Ask if you can. If they say no, do your first job, make a good impression, and then ask again the next time. You will stand a good chance of them agreeing. I now have a few clients who let me work remotely on small jobs or after the first day's briefing has happened at their studio.</li><li>If you end up working in-house and don't like someone, don't let it get to you. You'll be out of there pretty soon. That's the joy of freelancing — it's not forever. </li><li>﻿Are there other freelancers working in the studio? Make friends with them.</li></ul>

Work from home conditions

... preferably once who works with people in the creative sector. Consider using an online invoicing system to manage your accounts.

Get a good accountant

A freelance graphic designer’s survival guide — James Greig

You don't necessarily hate your job, but you’re kind of bored. Your day-to-day responsibilities have become second nature, and you no longer feel like you’re being challenged.
Then an idea smacks you in the face. Someone on the sales team is working on a new assignment you’d love to get your hands on. Or, you’ve been dying to start a company blog and no one’s taken the initiative. 
Surely your boss would let you take on an outside project if it was for the good of the company? Here’s what you need to know to get them to say yes.

Working On Another Project

Make the connection for your boss not just to how this project aligns with team or company goals, but how it’ll make you a more valuable employee. What skills will you develop? What relationships will you build? What discoveries could you make? See if anyone else can advocate for you, someone who needs the new project done on time!

Making A Convincing Case

If you can show it’ll be good for them (and not just good for yourself), you’re more likely to get their stamp of approval. An email can do the initial trick. Prepare for and address any concerns they may have. What are the counterarguments to getting this project up? How will you defend yourself when they say they’re worried about it taking up too much of your time? Or, conflicting with your other responsibilities? Or, requiring them to manage you more?

Approaching Your Boss

There is no guarantee your manager will say yes—even if you did all your homework, even if you made a solid case, even if other people back you up. Your boss has the final say on what you work on, and it’s possible this project would conflict with their expectations for the future.If you get a no, staying positive and professional may convince your boss to reconsider your request down the road. Here are some phrases to try: <ul><li>“I understand why you disagree with this and appreciate you explaining further.”</li><li>“I wasn’t aware of those changes and am glad you brought them to my attention.”</li></ul>

Understand That You Might Get a No (for Now)

Just because you can’t work on something under your boss’ eye doesn’t mean your growth has to stagnate.Maybe you can’t start a blog, but you can assist your team in writing copy for your company newsletter. Or, instead of being able to help out your colleague on the sales team, you grab a coffee to learn more about the work they’re doing. Or, maybe you take your passions outside your office—signing up for an online class or taking on a side gig.

Make the Most of Your Current Situation

Want to do something new and exciting at the office but confused on how to approach your Boss?

You don’t hate your job necessarily, but you’re bored. Your day-to-day responsibilities have become second nature. Surely your boss would let you take on another team's project if it was for the good of the company? Here’s what you need to know to get them to say yes, plus an email template to make…

productivity

Productivity

communication

How to Ask to Work on Another Team's Project

How a new product manager approaches their first month in a company will determine their success. In the first month, product managers should focus on these three areas: <ul><li>People</li><li>Product</li><li>Personal</li></ul>

The product managers first month

<ul><li>Set clear expectations with the CEO or manager. Your main goal in the first month is to effectively join a team.</li><li>Schedule a one-on-one with everyone on the team. This may take a few hours or the whole first month.</li><li>Ask everyone, "What can I do to make your life easier?" You'll show that you're here to help, not to command.</li><li>Take a load off their back. Take from them something that is cutting into their productivity.</li></ul>

People

<ul><li>Schedule time with your lead engineer to walk you through the product's technical architecture. Ask questions about things that are unclear.</li><li>Hold back a bit on changing things. Your ideas and thoughts will be better formed after you had a chance to settle in.</li><li>Get in front of your users. Spend more time with your users in the beginning. Go on sales calls and customer visits. Engage on forums and Twitter.</li><li>Fix something. Fix a bug or launch a small feature on your own.</li></ul>

Product

<ul><li>Read old OKRs, specs, design documents, wiki pages, and anything else you can get your hands on. Add missing documentation, and write up what you've learned and how you can improve things for the next hire.</li><li>Set some personal development goals. What do you do well that you want to continue to do? What is the one thing you need to improve, and how will you do that?</li><li>Configure your life support systems. Install essential software; create Slack and email filters; set up Google News Alerts for your product.</li></ul>

Personal

Collection of stellar videos and articles to keep in your back pocket.

problemsolving

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Product Management Starter Kit

Congratulations, a product has found its product manager. How you approach your first 30 days will make a tremendous difference, setting you up for success or struggle.

What to Do in Your First 30 Days in a New Role | Ken Norton

• Hitting roadblocks while working on a project or during the creative process is quite common. • This naturally slows down our pace of work and what goes unnoticed is the amount of time being wasted by dwelling and thinking bout how big the roadblock is instead of doing something about it. • This happens so quite often and so unknowingly that one day it just hits you that you've just wasted weeks, months or even worse, years. • This disappointmen and regret of wasted time can be averted by being BRUTALLY HONEST and IMPATIENT with yourself.

Roadblocks And The Role Of Self-awareness. 

• Addressing the problem head-on, immediately and keeping an eye on what your response to solving the problem is quite essential.• Be strict and BRUTALLY HONEST with yourself and ask: "what am I doing to solve this issue?" • If the solution is in progess, good.• If it's not, then get highly IMPATIENT at that moment and make effort to come up with a solution within a timeslot. "I'm going to solve this issue today" or "I'm resolving this problem within 30 min" • Set the timer and FORCE YOURSELF to dive in.

Brutal Honesty And Impatience

• Unbiased honesty may also come in handy while making decisions when you do not know what the right decision is.• Eliminate the inner bias and external influence while decision making and with BRUTAL HONESTY ask: " Do I really want to do this? yes or no?" Or "Is this the right choice? yes or no?" • Whatever the answer you get, from yourself, stick to it, don't look back. Don't think of it anymore because now you know the answer is the unbiased truth with no influence. Now stick to it and IMPATIENTLY execute.

Being Strictly Honest With Yourself While Making Decisions.

"Ask yourself at every moment 'Is this necessary?'"

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

Being Self-aware Of Inaction And Wasting time When You Hit a Wall while Doing a Task.

These are 4 main principles for effective study or learning: S - spacing T - testing I - interleavingC - categorizing

STIC method

If you combine these 4 principles in study, it will be much more effective than ever ever.

<ul><li>Active recall what you've learned or simply test yourself.</li></ul>testing yourself 1 is much better than rereading multiple times.<ul><li>The more you test yourself the more you remember</li></ul>

Testing 

<ol><li>You SHOULD test yourself even before you learned some topic</li><li>Test yourself before, during and after learning the specific topic</li></ol>

How Do You Test Yourself?

<ul><li>Leave the space between your topics </li><li>You probably would forget something</li><li>But after you retrieve it, you'll remember it even more than if you don't forget</li></ul>

Spacing

<ol><li>If you want to learn somethiniyg, you should put a structure and categories for information, than just learning</li><li>It's about building a tree of knowledge</li><li>Tree of knowledge is helps you understand the subject better</li></ol>

Categorizing

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Mix the problems of what you want to learn </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It will struggle more (it should be hards and pain in the ass) </li><li class="ql-align-justify">But it will be more easier and effective in the result</li></ul>

Interleaving

The harder you gonna get to this information remembered, the longer it will stick in your brain

If you find it easy that you don't learning it at all

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x Hey team, in this video we’re talking about STic, a framework for studying / learning anything. We talk about Spacing, Testing, Interleaving and Categorising. If you can build your own study routines around these 4 principles, you’ll be unstoppable. Enjoy xx WATCH THESE OTHER STUDY-THEMED VIDEOS TOO 1. My most popular video introducing Active Recall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE 2. My 2nd most popular video about Spaced Repetition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zNHHpXoMM 3. How to learn new content - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBXnxlLR0PY 4. The Retrospective Revision Timetable - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA 5. A playlist of my study tips videos - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BImOT2srcGCCjBBwNvU5zaB9F30lWye Links 1. David Epstein on 'Invest Like The Best - http://investorfieldguide.com/epstein/ 2. David Epstein - The Sports Gene - https://geni.us/SRgj7Au 3. David Epstein - Range - https://geni.us/O9j7D8 4. McDaneil & Brown - Make it Stick - https://geni.us/MakeItStickBook -------- MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎬 Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 😃 How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism TOOLS OF THE TRADE: 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 📚 How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy 🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES 📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam 📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb 🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). BE MY FRIEND: 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/ 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/). 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭 PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x 

Hey team, in this video we’re talking about STic, a framework for studying / learning anything. We talk about Spacing, Testing, Interleaving and Categorising. If you can build your own study routines around these 4 principles, you’ll be unstoppable. Enjoy xx

WATCH THESE OTHER STUDY-THEMED VIDEOS TOO
1. My most popular video introducing Active Recall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE
2. My 2nd most popular video about Spaced Repetition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zNHHpXoMM
3. How to learn new content - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBXnxlLR0PY
4. The Retrospective Revision Timetable - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA
5. A playlist of my study tips videos - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BImOT2srcGCCjBBwNvU5zaB9F30lWye

Links
1. David Epstein on 'Invest Like The Best - http://investorfieldguide.com/epstein/
2. David Epstein - The Sports Gene - https://geni.us/SRgj7Au
3. David Epstein - Range - https://geni.us/O9j7D8
4. McDaneil & Brown - Make it Stick - https://geni.us/MakeItStickBook

--------

MY FREE ONLINE COURSES:
🚀  Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity
🎬  Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing
🎓  How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying
😃  How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
🎥  My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal
⌨️  My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 
📝  My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 
🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk
📚  How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 
🎵  Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound
👻 Where I get my Website Themes from - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-themes
👻 My personal Ghost Website Theme - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-theme-ali
What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy
🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES
📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam
📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb

🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking
My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). 

BE MY FRIEND:
💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/
🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 
 
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal

WHO AM I:
I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/).

🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 

GET IN TOUCH:
If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭

PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

📚 Check out my first book Feel-Good Productivity here: https://www.feelgoodproductivity.com/

Hey, I'm Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity expert 😜 

On this channel, we explore evidence-based strategies and tools that can help us be more productive, and build a life that we love. 

If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing! See you in the next video x

Ali Abdaal

How to Study for Exams - The STic Framework for Effective Learning

One of the many reasons we don’t innovate is the fear of failure. What if you could celebrate your failures?Failure is a part of innovation. I know how to fail, but then I get wiser and become a better business person each time I experience failure. Now I call them experiments, not failure.

Embrace failure

Admitting to mistakes and learning from them will translate into deeper insights for your business and markets. Having employees and co-workers talk about failure in previous/current projects can spark innovation in a way that success cannot.Viewing your failures as portals to innovation will allow you to map out strategies to benefit from them.

Drive innovation from failure.

Employees need to feel like they belong. Instil a sense of ownership.They need to see your overall business goals as an extension or at least some sort of connection to their personal life goals. You will be amazed by how much creative energy you can amass by finding parallels.

A culture that encourages sharing ideas.

Challenge what is normal. Market research before getting into business is created, but what if you could create a whole new market because you showed up?Airbnb, Amazon, Uber, The Boring Company are examples of companies that challenged the status quo and dared to be different.

 Dare to be different

The role of innovators and entrepreneurs is to challenge received wisdom.

You focus on the need, not the product. You become immersed in the minds of your customers, looking for ways to expand demand. Your business strategy is driven by the marketplace. Do you know the difference between what you make and what people need?

Consumer Insights

Companies must spend enough time on insight generation, insights activation (sharing and acting on customer/market, the understanding gained from research) in marketing, R&D and innovation platforms so it can constantly respond to market opportunities and unexpected threats.

Insight Generation

Do you have the tactics to turn ideas into reality? Here are some insights or tactics you might find helpful.

One of the many reasons we don’t innovate is the fear of failure. What if you could celebrate your failures? Heard of Fuckup nights? Fuck up nights — Networking events in 90 countries where people…

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

Tactics to make innovation happen in your business

“a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

A praise for someone who is skillful in many skills instead of being a master at one.

"Jack of all trades" has become somewhat of an insult, but it didn’t begin as one. Far from letting it deter their path, some entrepreneurs swear that being a jack of all trades is necessary.

Why Being A Jack Of All Trades Is Essential For Success

As a product manager, you don’t need to be a data scientist, but you do need to be comfortable analyzing and utilizing data. It’ll benefit you not just for your current product, but throughout your entire career.

What is Product Analytics?

By making Data-Driven decisions, you improve your product and the user experience. When companies focus on the data, and use it to make decisions, they build better relationships with their customers. Creating a Data-Driven company culture allows for better understanding.

Why The Numbers Matter: The Importance of Product Analytics

A Data-Driven product manager is someone who arms themselves with as many facts as possible. Being dedicated to data is more about playing the long game. It's a long term practice that influences your product decisions and leads you to long term success. Being Data-Driven won't make you an overnight success.

Being a Data-Driven Product Manager

There are a whole host of product analytics platforms out there, as well was business intelligence platforms who offer similar features. These are the most common and, arguably, the most important ones:

Product Analytics Tools: The Features You Need

A/b testing offers you the chance to test out your hypotheses and improve your product based on the results. It can also help you to test out different versions of your product with different users, in order to understand who prefers what. For example, Netflix implements almost religiously.

A/B Testing

When you start figuring out exactly how users interact with your product, how long they spend on one feature, where they drop off, etc…you’ll wonder how you lived without user tracking!

User Tracking

Pinterest found, through product Analytics, that men were the most Underserved demographic. The product team used this information to offer more personalized results for these users, which led to males becoming the fastest growing demographic within their user base. Segmentation can also help you to understand seemingly erratic user behaviour.

User Segmentation

Gainsight says almost every team can benefit from product Analytics. Data gives you a common ground to begin discussions with Cross-Functional teams. If you see that no one is clicking on an important CTA, the objective truth is that no one is clicking on what you need them to click on. The next step is to take this problem and form your problem statement.

Who Benefits from Product Analytics?

You won’t know what questions to ask from your data if you’re not 100% what problem you’re trying to solve. A problem well defined is a problem Half-Solved.

Learning to Ask the Right Questions: Define the Problem Statement

Whether the problem comes from your users or another set of stakeholders, you need to properly understand the problem. The only way to do that is through a combination of research, and empathy. This means gathering both qualitative and quantitative data. Find out how the user/stakeholder feels about the problem, as well as how they behave in response to it.

1: Understanding the problem

Work out how much of your team’s work hours, budget, and resources will be needed to complete the project and solve the problem. Balance this out by seeing how the Best-Case scenario (Eg, you completely solve the problem) will benefit your product in terms of Okrs, and the bottom line.

2: Make a risk vs reward assessment

Defining the success of a project really boils down to the final part of your risk vs reward assessment. What does the best case scenario look like?If the answer isn’t obvious, think about your company’s North Star metrics, or your team’s KPIs. If the project is worthwhile, its goals should align with either, if not both, or these.

3: Define Success

Data science is a science. That means asking Iterative questions, testing multiple hypotheses, and using data to do more than just keep your boss happy. One key thing to remember when asking your questions is to remember that data science is a science.

How to Ask the Right Questions from Data

Most tools offer a free trial or a tour, allowing you to test before committing. If you’re particularly interested in data visualization, check out this All-You-Need-To-Know guide. If you don’t know where to begin with choosing the right tool, consider hiring a product ops manager to your team. Still got questions? try asking our community of 60,000 PMS on slack.

Finding the Right Tools

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

Product Analytics is the term applied to the automated gathering, analysis, and visualization of data. Most people first get their introduction to analytics through the popular Google Analytics, but…

Comparing how you feel on the inside – with your doubts and insecurities – to another person’s external success means you’ll only see their achievements and none of their own self-doubt.If you have imposter syndrome, you might relate to some of these behaviours.

5 signs of imposter syndrome and what you can do to manage self-doubt

<ol><li>Procrastination: We might put things off because we don't want to expose ourselves as a fraud or a failure.</li><li>Perfectionism: We keep striving to get it right so we can't be exposed.</li><li>Being a workaholic: We overcompensate by over-committing, so no one can tell us we're not good enough.</li><li>Avoidance or apathy: We lower our goals as a coping mechanism. If we don’t do well, we can then claim we didn’t really try, anyway.</li><li>Blaming others: We blame others when things go wrong, because our own failure would be devastating.</li></ol>

Around half of us – 51% of women and 47% of men – have felt imposter syndrome at some point, SEEK research reveals.Even someone who has objective success, such as running a business for 20 years, can have self-doubts about the value of what they’re offering, Read says.Imposter syndrome is most common among people working in junior management, mid-level employee or graduate roles, with 65% of those employees feeling imposter syndrome at some point, the research shows.

Who has imposter syndrome? (It’s not just you)

“Firstly, imposter syndrome isn’t a clinical diagnosis,” Read points out. “It’s a description of thoughts and behaviours. It can happen if you were raised to value achievement, or if you don’t have the traditional qualifications for a role” Read explains. You might also feel like an imposter if you can’t invest as much time and energy into your work as you would like – such as if you have caring responsibilities, Read says.

Why imposter syndrome happens

“Imposter syndrome describes high-achieving individuals who, despite objective success, fail to internalise their accomplishments. They fear that they'll be exposed as a fraud, and someone will find out that they're not as good as they appear to be” Read says.

Impostor syndrome can change your behavior in the workplace – it could stop you applying for jobs, asking for pay rises, or make it hard to sell yourself in an interview, Read says.If you run your own business, you might be unsure how much to charge or be afraid to market yourself, because you don’t think what you’re offering is as valuable as what someone else is.

How imposter syndrome affects your work

“It can have a significant impact on the way we work, our job satisfaction and cause burnout and mental health issues,” Read says.“But doing a job well and being satisfied in your own work should be the main metrics of success, not whether you got the same degree as everyone else.”

Normalise it by sharing: If we talk about it with other people, we realise that others experience it, too. “If you keep those thoughts to yourself, you can feel like you’re the only one,” Read says.Appreciate your achievements: Celebrating your achievements will help challenge your imposter syndrome thinking. If you find that difficult, ask people you trust to tell you about times when they see you at your best.

Challenging the lies that imposter syndrome tells you

It’s entirely appropriate to ask your boss for an example of how you’ve made a valuable contribution to the workplace, Read says.Take your thoughts to court: This is a favourite phrase that Read uses to challenge negative thinking. If you had to prove your case of being an imposter in court, could you really provide the evidence? “Your thoughts would pretty quickly get kicked out of court,” Read says.

As well as challenging the psychological impacts of imposter syndrome, there are several practical steps you can take to combat the negative impact this phenomenon can have on your daily work.According to Relaunch Me founder and career coach Leah Lambart, it’s key to stick to routine and implement a strategy when you feel those feelings creeping back in.

4 tips for managing imposter syndrome in your daily work

<ul><li>Regular self-assessment</li></ul>“Regular self-assessment is necessary to remind yourself of what you bring to the table,” Lambart says. Reflection on a semi-regular basis to help you identify your skills, strengths and unique attributes can build confidence in the workplace or when it comes time to search for a job. This can be as simple as making a list of things you do well, and the skills you can use – whether it’s a mental list or you write it down.

<ul><li>Document your achievements regularly</li></ul>“It may sound simple, but practice getting in the habit of writing down your achievements on a regular basis, even the small wins,” advises Lambart. “Consider keeping a daily ‘accomplishments journal’ and get into the habit of writing down one small win or accomplishment every single day. You may find that you are achieving more than you think.”

<ul><li>Don’t compare yourself to others</li></ul>There are many different avenues to career success, and everyone treads their own path. Just because you’ve reached your position via a different pathway to others doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be there, explains Lambart.“Focus on what you are achieving rather than how you arrived there. Everyone has their own unique set of skills, strengths and attributes that they bring to an organisation and no employer wants everyone to be exactly the same.”

<ul><li>Practice talking about what you have achieved</li></ul>Many people find it difficult to ‘sell’ themselves and often find that the first time that they need to do it is in an interview scenario. But you can get plenty of practice in when you’re working. “Make an effort to keep your manager informed of what you are working on and your successes – in regular catch-up meetings be sure to focus on ‘results’ rather than ‘activities’,” says Lambart.

If you sometimes feel like a fraud, recognising those challenging thoughts is the first step to tackling imposter syndrome. Sharing your feelings with others and asking for objective feedback will help you overcome self-doubt and boost your self-confidence. That can help you gain a new perspective, give you renewed work satisfaction and give yourself the assurance to take on new opportunities.

Feel like an imposter at work? Imposter syndrome is a feeling of self-doubt despite your achievements. Find out 5 common signs and how to manage it.  

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5 signs of imposter syndrome (and what to do about it) - SEEK Career Advice

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