Reflections &Takeaways

I was fortunate to have worked in-person in our San Francisco office throughout the entirety of the internship! Being able to work alongside my team taught me the value of continuous feedback and the importance of communicating in a cross-functional team. Throughout this amazing experience, I was able to:

Collaborate within Agile, global, cross-functional teams.

With our team spread out across San Francisco, Mexico, and Nigeria, I learned how to communicate effectively and efficiently with engineers, product managers, and business analysts from different backgrounds. Due to the fast-paced nature of the sprint framework and the spontaneity of a start-up environment, I learned how to adapt quickly to new ideas and challenges.

Get familiar with designing for unfamiliar users.

With our primary user demographic based in Nigeria, learning how to design with intention for an audience with unfamiliar values, culture, and relationships with finance was a major growth-inspiring experience. Through elaborate user testing and user research, I was able to rationalize my design decisions and ensure that every change we made was with our users in mind.

Implement and apply a thorough design system.

With the guidance of Felipe, one of our Product Designers based in Mexico, I learned how to create and evolve a design system to optimize operations between designers and engineers. Together, we revised Umba’s entire existing interface and developed a design system that incorporated pre-existing components with the new screens we designed. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about not only the technical skills of creating a design system, but also the value of attention to detail.

Thank you!

I couldn’t have asked for a better first internship experience. I had so much fun and witnessed major growth in myself, both as a human and as a designer. I’m infinitely grateful for my team and all the great memories we created!