Designers love to argue about what they should or shouldn’t do. So I thought this would be a cool title for my first Medium post.

Almost two years ago, I joined Ueno as an intern. I was a bit anxious.

As the first week went by, I thought I was doing okay, but I was a bit frustrated about not bringing more to the table. (If you remember the title of the article, you see where I’m going, don’t you?) The problem, which isn’t really one, was that I was just trying to do exactly what people were asking me to do, not more and not less.

Then one day, Emmanuel Saccoccini, our COO at the time, gave me the best advice that anyone has ever give me as a designer.

“When someone asks you for a coffee, bring the best one you can, but always add a piece of chocolate.”

What’s the 🍫 ?

It’s pretty simple. Don’t just do what people ask for. Go beyond that, and do something that they didn’t even know they wanted.

And the chocolate can be anything.

If someone asks you to design something (as a designer, it might happen), why not …

… prototype the interaction that goes with it? (Doesn’t matter if you use Framer, After Effects, Invision, Principle, MySpace or MSN — whatever gets the job done.)

… try to model it in 3D?

… design other explorations that you thought about?

… add cool illustrations to give it more personality?

… benchmark how other designers solved this same problem?

… look for data to better sell your solution to the client?

The list could go on.

The design itself is the ☕️, because that’s what people are expecting. But all these other things are the 🍫.

Caveat: Don’t forget the importance of the ☕️! We only appreciate the 🍫 if the ☕️ is good!

Why bring the 🍫 ?

Bringing the 🍫 is a good way to show that you have skills and that you can do more than what’s expected. You will be surprised to learn that people will start to come to you especially for this piece of 🍫. It’ll make you valuable to the company.

By bringing the 🍫, you also show that you are passionate, ambitious, innovative and source of good ideas. Which sounds like what you’d put on a cheesy resume but is actually a super valuable attitude and a great work ethic.

How to bring the 🍫 ?

First, you need to be sure and confident about your ☕️. Work hard on this, never stop learning, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and always doubt yourself — that’s what keeps you motivated. And please, be humble! Is there anything worse than a designer who thinks he’s a rockstar? We’re pushing pixels, not saving lives.

In the meantime, learn how to deliver the ☕️ like the best barista in town. (Psst… I’m talking about how to present your design here.) You can spend hours doing the best latte art with the perfect coffee taste, but if you stumble and spill coffee all over your client, he/she might not really like it, even if you did bring a Ferrero Rocher.

Invest a bit of your free time to learn how to make this kind of 🍫, just for fun. The more you learn, the better you’ll be at learning, and the more valuable you will be to any company.

On a related note, always take on work that people from your company ask you to do, especially if you don’t know how to do it. Because if you keep doing things you don’t know how to do, your comfort zone will always grow, and you will grow as a designer.