United Kingdom

UX Design

UI/ Visual Design

Product Design

BTEC in Advanced Publishing

12 GCSE's of A-C Grades & ICT GNVQ

Elliot Rylands

Senior Product Designer

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Empathy

Leadership

Adobe XD

Balsamiq

ChatGPT

Figma

Framer

Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe After Effects

Webflow

Notion

Time management

Team player

Organisation skills

Presentation skills

User research

Usability Testing

Quantitative research

Qualitative research

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Making remote and globally distributed teams work for you and your needs.

Working remotely

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Talk to people who have learned to manage their imposter syndrome.

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to successfully prepare and position yourself for a job promotion?

How to get promoted

How to ask for a promotion and negotiate for salary raise?

Negotiating a job offer

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

Talk to people who've broken into the tech industry and learn their stories.

Breaking into tech

Learn the best ways to answer technical interview questions with frameworks

Acing technical interview questions

How to define and execute a successful launch and managing stakeholders expectations. (eg. MVP)

Launching new products or features

Methods of prototyping and solution validation. When to use which kind of prototype (eg. Webflow, Notion, etc)

Prototyping methods and tips

Manage team expectations and get the most out of your meetings.

Running effective meetings

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Learn how to properly present your work and share ideas and opinions.

Presenting your work with impact

Tips on how to work and collaborate with designers.

Working with designers

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Methods and models of exploring, deciding and delivering design.

Building a design process

Managing being the only designer at your company and working with non-designers.

Being the only designer

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Ways and resources to improve your design skills.

Improving design skills

Navigating the working relationship with PM's and engineers as a designer.

Working with product and engineering

How to set up product analytics and metrics to track success?

Leveraging Product Analytics

How to create personas, and leverage them in design.

Creating and leveraging user personas

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

How to define an ambitious product vision and how to best communicate it to stakeholders?

Creating a product vision

Tips on how to work and collaborate with engineers and developers.

Working with engineers

What is a successful user onboarding flow and how to achieve it?

Onboarding new users

Best practices for documenting projects, epics, and stories

Writing product requirement documents

How to conduct interviews, what to ask, and how to analyze your results? (eg. user interview)

Conducting effective customer interviews

Founder and Designer at La Brea Studio, specialising in digital solutions and brand strategy.

I was employed by Rylands Associates as a Junior CAD technician just before I left school. I worked with the Practice part-time, until I completed both my GCSE's, and my Digital Publishing Certification. 
Beyond my studies, I took on a full time role at the practice, jumping from a Junior CAD Technician to a CAD Specialist. 
My responsibilities included: 

- Rendering Site notes and sketches into refined, annotated Architectural Drawings.
- Creating high fidelity 3 dimensional proposal designs for clients and construction workers.  
- Initiating, building, and maintaining rapport with clients across the board. 
- Attending site meetings with construction workers & creating progression reports. 
- Utilising my creative flair, I developed the Company website and Branding, and worked close alongside a local printing firm designing all print fidelity for the firm (which is where I started gaining the initial bulk of my freelance work).

Elliot Rylands🇬🇧