Design Student Co-op Management

Overview

Runming Dai joined Wayfair's Student Co-op Program as a design student from MassArt
As her manager, I worked to support and empower her through planning, project management, networking, and career development
My goal while supporting Runming was to help her prepare for her first job after school and to lead with empathy, vulnerability, and trust

Skills

Strategic Planning, Project Management, Empathetic Listening, Team Building, Transparent Communication, Radical Candor

Time Frame

6 months (January 2021 - June 2021)

Role

Product Design Manager; supporting Runming through sprint planning, one-on-ones, and career development sessions

Outcome

By mentoring, teaching, and connecting Runming with others, she achieved everything on her goals list to grow as a designer
- Learn how to use new UX tools (ie. Figma, Miro)
- Complete several design projects (ie. two new design system components, design system site navigation, visualizations)
- Conduct usability testing
Runming exceeded the expectations and competencies for the student co-op program through her design work and improving our team culture
She was offered a job at Wayfair at the end of the co-op, as she met Wayfair's Level 1 Associate Product Designer competencies

Professional development framework I created for Runming

Recruiting and Preparation

Looking for a designer with a systems-thinking mindset

I joined the co-op recruiting team to interview design students and help select the ones that would join Wayfair:

Behavioral Interview
Portfolio Review

Runming stood out when I met her because she was not just focused on the one problem she was solving for, she was thinking about all aspects of the experience. Check out Runming's "Under" project and "Weigh Your Decisions" project!

What does it mean to be a truly supportive manager?

Since this was my first time having a direct report, my manager Colby gifted me "The Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhuo (thank you so much, Colby!) It helped me to better understand the shift in mindset that occurs when switching from being a contributor to being a manager. Letting go of control and trusting your teammates was the biggest theme that stood out to me.

During the co-op, I listened to Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead" audiobook to understand more about how managing and teamwork requires the courage to be vulnerable. One of the other points that stuck out to me was how perfection can be toxic, and how we should empower our teams to try and fail in order to learn and grow.

Planning for the Co-op

Onboarding Deck

I created an onboarding deck for Runming to review before she started the co-op. This was aimed to ease any tensions she might have had and give her an idea of the first project that she would work on.

I also created a slide on why we hired her to boost her confidence and help her understand why she was specifically chosen for the role.

Learning Objectives

Wayfair identified how we would evaluate each student's performance with specific competencies.

I reviewed the co-op competencies and Wayfair's Level 1 Associate Product Designer competencies to get an idea of what skills Runming would need to demonstrate in order to be ready for a job after the co-op.

Based on Runming's interview, I could tell that she would have a great chance at exceeding the co-op competencies, so I planned for some learning objectives that flexed into the L1 role.

I brainstormed learning objectives and reviewed them with my manager, Colby, who helped to narrow them down. In order to meet these objectives, Runming would have to complete tasks that correspond to the co-op competencies, so these served as her main goals and opportunities throughout the co-op.

Onboarding

Setting expectations and building relationships

When Runming joined our team, she and I reviewed the learning objectives to make sure that they were matching everything on her own "wish list" for the co-op.

We talked through the different types of tasks she would complete in order to meet these objectives to set her expectations for the co-op.

I introduced Runming to several teams so that she could start forming relationships with people outside our direct team. I created a list of people that she could start having coffee chats with, and encouraged her to continue setting up ones with new people she met.

First project

In her second week, Runming started her first project. I chose this project for very specific reasons:

A project she could finish in one sprint to gain confidence
Help her gain knowledge of our work area
Get involved in our sprint rituals in order to get comfortable

This first project was an audit of how other design systems display their guidelines on Navigation. Our Navigation Guidelines article was generic and did not have any graphic examples. This project would help Runming to:

Learn what a design system is
Understand that design systems are composed of both components and usage guidelines
Review competitor design systems
Get creative with suggestions of how we could improve our design system site

Runming conducted the audit and found several ways that we could improve our Navigation Guidelines, along with other parts of the site (search experience, directing users to related articles/components, etc.)

Ongoing Support and Empowerment

One-on-ones

I scheduled daily one-on-ones for Runming's first month at Wayfair (and scaled back to 3 days a week afterwards). This gave me time to ask the questions:

How are you feeling?
How can I best support you right now and prevent blockers?
What feedback do you need on your work?
Anything else on your mind?

I set up a Miro board to help organize all of our thoughts, to-dos, and goals. Before each one-on-one, both of us could update the board with our thoughts. This helped us remember everything we needed to talk about as we were working fully remote.

Objectives and achievements

I scheduled monthly career development sessions with Runming to help her focus on her opportunities and talk through any career-related questions she had.

In our first session, we reviewed the learning objectives and wrote out tasks that she could complete to meet those objectives. These tasks would spin off into tickets that we created in our team's backlog for our 2-week sprints:

Review objective
List tasks to meet that objective
Create tickets in backlog to complete those tasks

When Runming completed the tickets associated with those tasks, I would move them into our "Achievements" section. When all of the tasks associated with an objective were complete, we dragged that objective over to the "Achievements" column.

By May, Runming had met all of the objectives we initially set in the beginning of the co-op!

Monthly career development sessions

After the first career development session where we reviewed her objectives in Miro, we continued to discuss any topics on her mind for the following career development sessions:

Graphic design vs. Product design (which area would be more beneficial for her to go in?)
The process of applying to jobs (tips and tricks)
Portfolio review

For each of these, I was as transparent and honest as possible, and told stories based on my experience to help give her insight into how she might tackle problems related to those topics.

Celebrating Runming's Work

Projects during co-op

The following is a showcase of the contributions Runming made during her co-op.

With careful direction and feedback on each of these projects, she was empowered to take risks and make impactful changes!

Runming joined in on the Status Indicator Co-Creation project, by helping us brainstorm a flexible component that could help consistently display status across Wayfair's experiences. This led to a proposal to the design system. Check out the Co-Creation Process for Product Teams to learn more!

Runming researched and designed a satisfaction survey for our design system site, so that we could get feedback from users of the design system. This required collaboration with our lead engineer and PM to determine the best method and time to display the survey.

Based on her first project, the design system audit, Runming identified, researched, and designed new graphic informational images that could go on our site. These graphics would help clarify the text in all of our guidelines, and she set a standard for each graphic type so that they would be consistent across the site:

Navigational link cards (linking to components or articles)
Anatomy and graphic example images
Do's and Don'ts visual cards
Tables

Runming and I collaborated on a new "Destructive Button" component. This would warn users before taking an irreversible action or cause severe consequences (ie. Deleting an account). When collaborating, Runming led:

Research
Design
Supported writing of usage guidelines

Runming's biggest contribution outside of design was her Virtual Art Gallery.

Within her first 30 days, Runming and I joined Wayfair's DEI collective. She pushed for us to celebrate black designers for Black History Month in our monthly design meeting. I gathered a small team to prepare slides and Runming helped me present those slides to our organization.

In her 30-day review, I encouraged Runming to keep the momentum and lead a DEI event herself as she had the potential.

With the rise of injustices against the AAPI community, Runming and I spoke about how we could address this. She took the lead to plan, organize, and design a virtual art gallery event for Wayfair, where any donated art (from anyone in the company) could be purchased. Donations would go to Facing History and Ourselves, as well as Year Up.

I am so incredibly proud of Runming for leading this event, and happy that she asked for support and raised blockers to make sure things kept moving forward. We worked on her presentation skills through this event as well, which was an added bonus.

The event fundraised $1,020!

Finishing the Co-op

Becoming an Associate Product Designer

Runming exceeded expectations in her role as a co-op. She further developed her systems-thinking skills, made impactful contributions to the organization, and stepped up as an advocate for inclusivity.

By working through her learning objectives and tasks together, Runming clearly flexed into the Level 1 Associate Product Designer role, demonstrated by her design process, communication skills, relationship building skills, and showcasing her will to lead.

Peer feedback for Runming and her growth throughout the co-op was very positive. This came from designers on our team and designers outside.

5 senior leaders on our team asked if Runming would accept a new role at Wayfair after finishing the co-op, which is a testament to how fast she grew and learned during the co-op!