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πAbout me
I work at Etsy as a staff product designer. During my time here, I've worked on a number of different products and initiatives, and am now focused on the shipping and fulfillment space. I enjoy working in, on, and around systems β and I love that I'm constantly learning more about how everything works and fits together. In past lives, Iβve made: website templates, wedding invitations and handlettered envelopes, product catalogs, information graphics, tee shirt graphics, leather and metal jewelry, comics, and fanart :3
Product Design
Skilled in
βοΈWhy I mentor
I'm always looking to deepen my understanding of UX design by getting to know other prospective and practicing designers! I hope to provide insight and support along the way, so that I can make this industry accessible particularly for folks of marginalized or underrepresented backgrounds π§‘
Talk to me about
π©βπ©βπ¦βπ¦ Team happiness & productivity
π Working in cross functional teams
π Being the only designer
π§ UX and UI design
π° Managing burnout
π Getting the most out of my internship
Recommendations
Hereβs what Merit users have said about Yoko
Yoko is amazing! Very nice and eager to help. She ensures that you understand her feedback. Through our session I learned how to better work cross-functionally with PM's, Engineers, Researchers and other Designers. This is such a critical skill and Yoko explained the process to me best!
SmartLogic
Product Designer
10/10 first time mentor meeting :) Yoko was such a warm and approachable mentor! She naturally created a safe space for me to express my needs and questions with candor (not something I'm usually comfortable doing especially with mentor figures). Yoko's perspective as an interviewer was invaluable to me as an interviewee. We were able to cover all of my questions in a ~55 min session (10 min over our allotted time). Yoko is a clear advocate for her company and inadvertently inspired me to apply for a role.
Lyra Health
Senior Product Designer Β· 501-1,000 employees
I chatted with Yoko about her approach to doing Q&A with developers. She is very knowledgeable and helped me find resources after the session. I enjoyed learning with her.
βοΈ Recent Answers
How to transition from an internship to a full-time product design role?
Hey Whitney! I've also been in a situation where I interned at a company I was excited to join and they just weren't hiring at the time π§‘
While you're still at the company you're interning at, I suggest that you take stock of any differences in role expectations between your internship and that of a full-time designer. If you identify any, could you ask the full-time person to let you shadow them, so that you can start to close that gap? If that's not feasible, you'll at least be equipped with a baseline understanding of where you may need to put in extra effort to demonstrate your readiness to be full-time.
In my opinion, a lot of "good product designer" qualities are transferrable skills β thinking critically about root causes, reframing needs and opportunities, communicating and advocating effectively. It's possible that you have done these things before, and you can proactively call them out to cover some of your bases against a hiring manager who is hesitant about hiring someone for their first full-time role.
Good luck!
