Feeling stuck as a product designer

Taking time to reflect as a soon-to-be recent grad.

Once in a while, I start to think that I’m mediocre. In terms of user interface design, other people create much more pleasing designs than I do. In terms of creative ideas, other people have much more diverse thinking than I do.

In the past month, I had multiple interviews for Product Design positions — in all of them, I felt a wall between me and the designers there.

Multiple walls, actually.

In the past, I would simply say “Well, the part I’m not good at is visual design, it’ll take time to improve,” but these days I feel that I’m using “visual design” as an excuse to run away from a bigger problem — that I’m stuck overall as a product designer. Here, I want to truly reflect on why I feel stuck and how I can improve before graduating and joining the world of design.