So here we are now, in our last week. In my case, my work week lasted 3 days in which I was able to wrap up my last couple of tasks.

I can’t say for which company the project is with but it’s essentially reinventing an existing interface and system for a fitness company that has a variety of exercise products like treadmills and an exercise bike. It was a really interesting project because the team had a bit of freedom when it came to the branding and user flow of the product. One of the first tasks from this project was to look at the onboarding process it currently has (through the app) and find examples of how others brands do it. Onboarding is important because it introduces the user to the app or platform they’re about to use. I spent a good amount of time downloading apps, both health/fitness and non-related ones, and screenshotting each page I went through. I actually learned a lot about onboarding through this process and it’s kind of crazy to see the number of apps that do it really badly! I learned that a major pain point for users is when there’s a paywall that they can’t bypass when they haven’t seen enough of the service or app to make that commitment (which is something I’m sure all of us have experienced at one point or another). 

I also got the chance to work on responsive screen layouts in which I had to take an already built out screen and update other screens to that latest style while also adjusting them to different screen sizes. What I realized when working on this part was how much more I need to familiarize myself with Figma. I love Figma, I like that it lives online as opposed to solely being a desktop app and it can be super easy to use but there are some features that I haven’t fully used yet (components and variants) and so I’m hoping during my vacation time, I can familiarize myself a little better!

I’m extremely happy I got a chance to experience working at Metalab and I’m more than grateful to continue on and really immerse myself fully into a single project during my next 3 months there. I now know which project I’ll be working on when I start – I can’t name the company but we’ll be working on a platform that allows sales representatives to develop, coach and improve their performance. I have no knowledge of this type of industry at all and I had the option to stay on the current project but I felt that this would be a good opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and continue learning more about working in different spaces. The internship sounds like an extension of the practicum to be honest but this time around I’m not as nervous to start. I’m a little sad that we’re now done at Capilano though, 4 years is quite a bit to get used to living a certain way but I walk away feeling prepared for the next step. If anything, I feel more focused now knowing a bit more of what lies ahead 🙂 

Well this week turned out to be the most exciting one yet: I got hired!! 

Officially starting on May 10th, I will continue on as a Product Design Intern for the next 3 months where I will be working on a single project with a new team! I don’t know which project it is yet but I’m both equally excited and nervous to begin! 

Since starting my practicum here at Metalab, I knew this is where I would like to be– even if not right after school, I would’ve definitely worked my way around to try again. While this place was number one choice out of my list of options for practicum, I was sliiiightly worried it would feel too big and busy because it’s already a pretty big company and it continues to grow in size but I’m so glad it didn’t turn out that way. While it is a big company, projects and teams are managed well enough that it doesn’t feel overwhelming and members are supportive. Even onboarding has been pretty fun! Every couple of weeks, there is an event for all the designers (although anyone else is welcomed too) called Global Design Share and it’s super interesting to watch because either one or two teams will present their work to everyone else. Depending on which phase they’re on, they present what they have so far, what the goal of the project is, what the client is like, what their next steps are, etc. It’s a great way to see what your fellow team mates are working on and you might learn something new that can be implemented on your current project. During these shares, the host will also make announcements and it was during this call that they announced my internship which was super sweet! I had to answer a couple of questions like describing my time here so far, which projects I’ve been working on and what was the most surprising thing I’ve learned (a bit more on this later). It felt really great being highlighted in this way and during the week I continued to get welcoming messages from other Metalab members. 

As for the most surprising thing I’ve learned so far… I would say learning about collaborating as a team. For a single project, there’ll be a good number of people involved: a producer who is basically the team manager, a client partner (deals directly with a client with any concerns, questions, etc), a design director (overlooks the whole design team, can make final calls), a design lead (leads the design team, works directly with designers), a couple of product designers and usually one or two researchers. I never really thought about how teams were organized or what that would look like (or even how many people were actually involved) so coming here really opened my eyes about workflow in general. At Capilano, we basically filled in these roles ourselves and I really appreciate it now because coming in with some background knowledge (such as research) has helped with the whole onboarding process (perhaps even helped remove some of that overwhelmingness I was worried about before!). 

Anyways, I’m over-the-moon happy about the way things have fallen into place. I only have 3 days left now and I’m looking forward to what my last (for a while) week looks like 🙂 

So far I’ve been learning a lot working in the digital space– some rules and general guidelines for accessibility, working on refining wireframes and of course, learning a lot about ideation! But this past week, I got to learn more about the operational side of Metalab. I was fortunate enough to meet with the COO, Steph (a super lovely woman!) and she told me many interesting stories about her career history and what makes Metalab a great place to be. If you were to read up on Metalab, one thing you’ll always hear them mention is that their employees are their secret sauce for the success as a digital company and so far, that seems pretty accurate! Metalab goes about two ways to keep their employees working on products they enjoy.

The first is by handing out a survey where employees are asked what their dream client/industry would be and the second is by having a slack channel where they’re able to share existing apps/platforms that they believe can be greatly improved by Metalab. After receiving feedback from everyone, they’re able to see patterns of the type of work the majority of employees would enjoy (funnily enough, the top choice is productivity this year) and based from that, they either go directly to those clients or sift them out from the long list applications they receive from companies hoping to work with them. Of course they’ll also have work that is a bit more rough or not suuuuper interesting but overall, they try to choose projects that either have clients that are friendly and easy to work with, has an interesting idea or align with their values as well. I was really impressed hearing about this because I’ve never really heard of work being chosen in this way but I believe that’s a great way to approach projects. Employees get to work on projects they’re more passionate about and Metalab provides strong work back to the client. In the end, everyone is happy!

Besides speaking with Steph, I also got to chat with someone from the sales team which was an equally interesting conversation. Gen, a sales woman also from Vancouver, who told me how about the amount of inquiries Metalab has received in the last couple of years. For a long time, Metalab operated quietly in the background and no-one really knew about them except for the companies working directly with them but overtime, their reputation grew and now they receive multiple applications in a day from companies all over the world trying to get them to build their products (it’s even reported that other companies will attempt to scout Metalab’s team members to work in-house for them instead which is pretty funny!). Anyways, next week I start with a new team and I’m excited to find out what I’ll be working on 🙂

This week started off pretty fast, I gotta say! My first interaction on Monday morning was with a branding specialist, Matt. Our chat was very insightful as Matt shared the branding process at Metalab including the timeline and details they go through with clients and I was delightfully surprised to know that a lot of what we were taught in IDEA is pretty accurate with the way some agencies work (here for sure so far). It was really interesting to learn about Metalab’s experience with branding as they mainly focus on interactive work and digital products but it seems to have grown really quickly and is continuing to expand to create well-rounded products.

After this lovely chat with Matt, we had a company-wide zoom call (and this is probably the largest zoom call I’ve ever attended with 120-ish people to meet the new CEO, Arif Mansuri! It was pretty exciting, they had held off giving us the name beforehand for an element of surprise (no sneaky Googling!) and it was very well received. Arif introduced himself, spoke about what his plans at Metalab would be, and showed us his adorable new pup. The meeting wrapped up with hard-hitting questions such as: “is it pronounced Gif or Jif?” and “Mint ice cream– love it or does it taste like toothpaste?”. Let’s just say he made some friends and enemies that day.

The rest of the week went by quicker than I even noticed. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was put on a project that centers around sports and it’s been a really interesting experience so far. What I was really excited about going into this project (and am continuing to enjoy) was the fact that I would be working alongside female designers, one of who is a design lead. For me, it’s been really inspiring to see more women in the digital space, especially in higher positions of power. Anyways, the first portion of the project I was exposed to was the research side. I really enjoyed digging into the research plan and learning what the process was like, which research methods were used, how they went about finding an audience to interview, and what the overall goals of the research plans were going in. It was quick learning and I hope I can take it all in before I move onto the next project in the next couple of weeks! 🙂

Alright, week 2! This week was a lot more hands than week one. As I mentioned in the last post, the project I was put on to shadow was quickly wrapping up. However, as a little bonus for the clients, I was asked to create additional styling for a couple of screens and for their email template. It was an interesting assignment because I had to use specific guidelines for a portion of the product and then experiment with completely different styling for another portion. In the end, the team organized the Figma files well enough to pass along to the client and after our last meeting with them, we had a virtual celebratory drink together as a way to celebrate the end of a two-year project.

In between this assignment, my coach Jeremy also gave me another exercise to work on, an exercise called a Tarantino. It’s a design test that Metalab uses during the interview process. The brief for this specific exercise is to create a scooter app that is mounted to rental scooters available in the city of your choice and it’ll need to focus on creating the best possible experience for touring that city. The only constraint is the size of the screen but other than that, you’re free to do what you like! I started by doing research on scooter rentals, coming up with a user, looking at the competition, and then jotting/sketching down features I would like for an app like this. So far, I LOVE this exercise. I find it super liberating to go as creative as I want while also designing the flow and look of it. Originally this exercise is meant to be created within 10 hours but after going over my ideas with Jeremy, we decided that I can work on it as a personal project during my time here and my goal now is to have a portfolio piece by the end of this practicum!

My next week heading up is looking pretty interesting as well. I’ve already been told which project I’ll be on and it sounds exciting – a live sports app. What I’m really enjoying about my time here (and a big reason I chose an agency like Metalab) is the variation of projects that they work on. They seem to work within a lot of different industries– from fintech to mental health to pups, there’s constant learning involved in each project. I love it because aside from learning about a specific topic, you also get to learn about human behavior in that space, it’s super fascinating. With that said, I’m off to learn more about the sports world 🙂

It’s pretty wild to think that we’re finally at this point in the program: practicum! Of course, I never thought it would happen under these circumstances with Covid but I’m thrilled we’re here anyway. My first week at Metalab has been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. The first day started very calmly (better than I had anticipated being honest) with an onboarding meeting where I met my coach, Jeremy, a Design Lead who I’ll be working with, and Lauren, a Product Designer who’s gone through the internship program and is my designated buddy.

Every day since then, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of super fascinating and friendly members over Zoom meetings. I’ll be honest – it’s been a really long time since I last spoke to someone else other than the people in my household so it’s super refreshing to speak to other team members and learn more about their roles at Metalab. In a place like Metalab where remote working has been the norm long before 2020, it’s very likely you’ll be meet someone in a completely different city (or timezone) as you. I’ve learned something new from every single person I’ve met so far and I love it!

In terms of work, I’ve started at a slightly strange time right as a two-year project is coming to an end which means most of the work is just wrapping up. While it sounds slightly unfortunate, I’m really grateful I wasn’t immediately thrown into the deep end, and instead, I get to learn what the end process looks like (also known as a Handover). While I did sit in on internal meetings and one client meeting, I was also given time to familiarizing myself with current and past Metalab work, learning about the different tools used Metalab uses and basically trying to expose myself to as much information as possible. So far it’s a lot to process but not overwhelming! I’m just excited I get to learn it at all 🙂