Facebook Groups | June ~ September 2022 (12 weeks)
As a Sumer 2022 Product Design Intern for Facebook Groups, I played a crucial role in a variety of projects, in which one of them has launched in 3 countries and another was reviewed by Facebook leadership and impacted Meta's platforms as a whole. I became highly adept at working and communicating with user research, content design, product management, engineering, and other designers. I also learned the heavy responsibilities that I, as a designer, hold in such an execution-driven and fast-paced environment.
Leader Awards
I led the design process of Awards—Meta’s new appreciation system—that only admins, moderators, and group experts send, and I initiated and laid the foundations to the Special Awards project.
United Appreciation System
As the only intern, I worked on a cross-team design sprint to establish a unified appreciation system across Meta’s platforms.
Receiving Awards
I took charge of the cross-functional process of re-designing the comprehensive notification logic of my team’s product and designed an onboarding process, which all have launched in Greece, Cambodia, Columbia and awaits other countries.
Reflection
Overall, from these past weeks, I have grown as a designer and a person more than from any work experience I had in the past. Collaboration with cross functional partners was one of my favorite experiences, and I am also glad I had the opportunity to understand what happens within Facebook at this point in time.
To begin with the more career-centric learnings and developments, I would say my proactivity, intentionality, and communication improved the most. The kind of ownership for a project I get as a designer and the heavy responsibilities that comes with it empowered me to get out of my comfort zone and become very proactive and driven. The vast amount of research and data available at Facebook allowed me to make every single design decision based on tangible research, and this experience helped me better understand the power of intentional design.
Moreover, I’ve experienced and learned the responsibilities of the designer. I am the gatekeeper to ensuring our product is designed properly, based on tangible research, and considering all possible negative downstream impacts. I am responsible for ensuring that my vision and designs are implemented correctly until the moment of launch. I am also responsible for assessing how my deployed designs are actually being used and identifying any unexpected negative impacts. Working in an execution-driven environment such as Facebook made me realize the importance of these responsibilities, and I will continue to reflect this in my work.
