6 Lessons From Work
Last Friday was my last day working at Facebook. As I reflected on my 3.5 years there working as a Product Designer, I wrote up this note to bid my farewell to the company and to all of the extraordinary people I worked with. With slight modifications of the original post, I want to share with you some lessons I learned during my journey:
Embracing constraints can unlock freedom.
My 3-hour round-trip commute could be draining. But once I acknowledged that the 35-mile gulf between Oakland and Menlo Park will never magically shrink, I began to view it differently. Time spent on the commute became less a burden, and more a prompt asking me how to maximize the time in that space. Over the past years, I've managed to organize my zines and comics on Photoshop that I shared in local zine festivals, listened to at least a thousand hours of a French-learning podcast, and read ample literature to expand my worldview — all of which have brought me ample joy and also directly to my next journey after Facebook (more on that later).
Relationships and people matter.
From meetings to dining halls to shuttle rides and back, I've encountered incredible people during my time here. I cherish the support and encouragement from my peers, even when I didn't always believe in myself. I've had some unforgettable milestones at work, such as in presenting my design deck to Mark Zuckerberg, and printing my first zine on the risograph at the Analog Research Lab. The joys didn't come only from accomplishing the milestone, but also in sharing it with others. Which goes to show that…
You can show care through your attention to others.
If you work in a fast-paced company, it's easy to get swept up in the momentum. It's easy to feel like you have a million tasks to complete all of the time — even during meetings. Something I've always appreciated during meetings is when people kept their computer closed if they weren't presenting. Giving your attention and time to others make them feel appreciated.
Creativity is a habit you can practice.
Of course you don't have to be a designer at to be creative! All of our jobs are inherently creative because they require us to solve problems, which requires us to delve into our reservoir of curiosity. At work, something I did that always brought me extra joy was bringing together different ingredients from our diverse options of eateries and seeing what new dishes I could conjure up matcha tea latte, ham-and-jam sandwiches, coffee-flavored oatmeal.
You learn a lot by inhabiting the contradictions.
When I was on Facebook's integrity team, I envisioned how to give our community the tools they needed to not see unwanted content, such as sexually suggestive images. Sometimes this content violated our Community Standards, and other times it did not. Given that more than 2 billion people use Facebook, what is one person's freedom of expression can be interpreted as a direct threat to another person's culture and values. Thus, there weren't always obvious product solutions that could empower one group of people without possibly harming another. And there is literally no other online platform in human history (!!!) doing what we were doing at this scale. Rather than ship a bunch of new products, I generated many design concepts that served as conversational aids between internal cross-functional organizations. In worse moments, this made me doubtful about my competencies as a designer. Was I still making impact even if I wasn't always shipping or launching something?
Eventually, I learned to redefine what "impact" meant for myself. "Impact" isn't always measured by a metric that moved, but also, by the alignment fostered between seemingly competing needs and stakeholders. This experience taught me that life's problems won't always be solved with evident, black-and-white solutions. We figure things out by making a series of trade-offs everyday. Which brings me to my final lesson:
It's good to ask whether to optimize or to let go.
We make decisions everyday. Should I walk to that other building on campus to get the lunch special, or enjoy what is already in this cafe? Should I continue to stay on this team, or join a new one? Should I iterate on this product experiment, or pivot to another direction? Sometimes we try very hard to mold our experience into the best one we could possibly hope for, and other times, we realize that it's good to let go. The task is deciding which to do at a given time. Deciding is both art and science.
After an incredible journey at Facebook, I've decided that it's time to try something different.
What's next?
I'm going to pursue freelance product design, consulting, and illustration to work with smart, kind people in my community on pursuing meaningful initiatives and solving compelling problems. I also hope that this shift will allow me more time with my art practice.
If you would like to work together and/or follow my journey, you can follow me here:
— My newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/lisasy
— My instagram: instagram.com/@lisasyart
— Contact: lisasyis[at]gmail.com
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