Please help review my application - Product Design

Stage 1
1

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working on putting my evidences together for GTV, to apply for Exceptional Promise. Kindly help provide feedback on my evidence list. Thank you as you help review.

A little background about me
I’m a product designer with over 5years of professional experience, designing for both mobile apps, web apps and websites. I currently work as a Lead Product Designer, and I’ve been with them for over a year. Here’s a link to my linkedin profile

LoRs
Getting recommendation letters from 3 CEOs I’ve worked with including the current company I work at.

Mandatory Criteria

  • Evidence I Led The Design Team of a Product Led Digital Tech Company: Show proof of my work a lead designer at my current company, slack conversation, contributions to leadership conversations, Figma screenshots, Screenshots of how I manage and track tasks assigned to my team members, Contract details and company HR portal showing the position i hold.

  • Evidence I’m Recognized as a leading talent in the digital technology sector: Show evidence of my pay grade in my current company, with comparison to payscale and glassdoor salary scale showing that i command a high salary at my current job and also attaching screenshots from other freelance projects.

I also added evidence of an award nomination, showing recognition through nomination, results,social media posts, etc.

  • Evidence showing Impact at my current company in my first year of joining the company: Figma screenshots showing my contribution to the design of a new initiative reducing the time to onboard consumers from 3-5days to 30 mins, launch materials (such as publicity email that was sent out after launch, youtube videos showing explanation of the product), screenshots from mix panel as evidence for numbers the initiative is doing.

  • Reference letter from my manager at the company

Optional Criteria 02

  • Evidence showing Evidence I have gone beyond my day-to-day to contribute to the advancement of the sector: Email screenshots sent to me to onboard me as a mentor in 2023, publicity materials used to announce mentors with my name and image included, screenshots of feedback from mentees to and a reference letter from the platform

  • Evidence I have received recognition in participating in teaching, & mentoring other designers: Screenshots showing students I teach through a UX design academy in the US, showing screenshots of my dashboard, review of tasks assigned to students, and pay as recognition for my services.

I also included an article I wrote in 2022, showing comments, numbers, and feedback from readers.

Optional Criteria 03

  • Evidences showing my contribution to a fintech company in Nigeria: where i worked for 10months, and contributed to the company raising a $1million dollar and also getting into Ycombinator, showing screenshot from figma and of my designs featured in articles and also on the company’s Ycombinator profile

  • Evidence of my contribution to another Fintech company using figma screenshots, designing its newend consumer facing product went live in 2023, contributing to the company raising $30million, and also listed as a Ycombinator top company. With articles featuring the product i designed

How strong do you think my evidence is for my application?

Looking forward to your feedback, thank you in advance.

@Francisca_Chiedu @Amara_O @alexnk @itd

2

Here are my thoughts:

First of all, if you have more than 5 years of experience of product-led company in Digital Tech field, you must apply / be evaluated for Exceptional Talent, which has higher requirement to meet.

MC

  • Don’t focus on the list of what you had done, but rather demonstrate that you are an exceptional person. For example: showing figma screenshot will not wow anyone, but show how your work made impact to the project/company.
  • I would advise that strong “High salary” evidence should be 70-90% on the top of the average scale.

OC2:

  • make sure that your evidence show the consistent of your contribution, not just ad-hoc contribution.
  • mentoring others, need to be a structured program and be the senior mentor.

OC3:

  • Try to add how your work had contributed and make the impact, by showing some reports, figures, presentation, and so on. Numbers are crucial here. It can be CTR% incremental, sale incremental, lead generation, and so on. The company raising 1 million dollars does not sound like a direct impact to your contribution.

Overall. I think you will still need to enhance your evidence to meet the promising talent route. However check again if you have to apply for Exceptional talent route instead.

I hope this helps. @Adedamoola

3

Thank you so much for the feedback @alexnk, Well understood

4

Your application looks good just remember to highlight your leadership as Exceptional Talent is heavily scrutinised so your public profile has to prove that you have been recognised outside of your company i.e speaking engagements, personal award recognition etc. I would also suggest that you reach out to designers who were recently endorsed to help you review your application.

You should include this in your MC as a standalone evidence, it should fall under “Professional Publication”

5

Thank you so much @Amara_O

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