Should you full-stack?
The generalist vs specialist debate is unending. We try and make sense of it for designers.
From the Editor
Generalist vs Specialist. What are your thoughts?
There are a lot of discussions out there. We thought to present a few to help you form your own opinion. On that note, we’re going to talk about being a full-stack designer and how it fits into the debate.
But what is a Full-Stack Designer?
I’m glad you asked.
For those of you with a fair experience, you can skip the next few paragraphs.
The design process starts at the UX design phase where research feeds into the wireframing and subsequent prototyping stages. One could further choose to specialize in this, becoming a UX researcher or a UX designer.
The next stages include UI design and interaction design which, once again, are also specialist skill sets.
While many a time ‘UI/UX designer’ as a job has been thrown around by those who are not in the field, both you and I know that they are two different functions. And it’s worth pointing out that the skills that allow for one to be good at them are quite different. Simplistically put, UX shifts focus toward the behavioural aspects while UI toward the aesthetics.
If you’ve worked at a product company, you know what happens next. The front-end development team gets involved and there’s a hand-off process after which there’s usually limited involvement with the next stage of the product development cycle.
That brings us to the crux of the matter. As very nicely illustrated in the diagram below, a full-stack designer is someone who has a grasp of the entire process - from UX design to front-end development.
To be very clear, this is for product design.
While there isn’t material out there on the same, we could make the argument for full-stack designers who work on creative design for marketing.
In this case, full-stack might imply the ability to participate in conceptualizing, designing, copywriting, and distribution. I would say that this tends to be rarer than the product-focused full-stack role but there are a handful of folks I’ve met who are full-stack marketing designers.
Arguments for becoming a full-stack designer
A full-stack designer is multiple roles in one; you’ll be like a swiss army knife of product development. To be clear, you probably won’t replace the job of a front-end engineer, but there’s a good chance you’re going to have a deeper involvement beyond the typical design hand-off stage. You could be that sorely needed bridge between design and development; this would improve communication and collaboration between teams.
Your versatility as a full-stack designer would make you eligible for more jobs than if you were a specialist. If you’re a freelancer, this would make you a very attractive hire given that most companies would prefer working with one designer instead of two. And since they get the benefit of a 2-in-1, adding a slight premium to your rates won’t raise an eyebrow.
I’d be doing an injustice if I were to leave out the opportunity to build and ship your own side-projects. The barrier to creating a product has never been lower. With your full-stack skills, you can go from idea to product all by yourself through a mix of no-code and low-code tools to handle the backend. No doubt you could do this even without becoming a full-stack designer, but the ability to build superior front-end experiences cannot be discounted.
Arguments against becoming a full-stack designer
Newton’s fourth law says that ‘for every pro, there is an equal and opposite con’.
Perhaps I’ve taken it too far with the ‘equal and opposite’, but the fact is that being a full-stack designer might prevent you from becoming extremely good at anything. As a generalist, one tends to build for breadth - the jack of all trades phenomenon.
While you might be eligible for multiple roles, the problem is that there’d always be a lot better UI designers, UX researchers, and Front-End Developers than you. For example, in a research-heavy project, you’d probably be overlooked in favour of a UX research specialist.
Should you full-stack or not?
“To be or not to be, that is the question” - William Shakespeare.
Unlike the Newton quote, this one is legit although our man William used it in a slightly different context.
So, should you become a full-stack designer or not?
I’d like to stray away from the binary yes or no choices and propose something else - no and yes. Or rather, not right now but yes eventually.
I once read a piece on career design (we’ll talk about career design in a later newsletter) where the writer mentioned how one should start off as a generalist, transition toward specialisation, and then become a generalist again.
The idea is that early in your career, it makes sense to explore oneself through roles that aren’t rigid. As one progresses, it makes a lot of sense to double down on the things you’re good at. And as you gather more experience, you once again begin to explore and expand beyond your specialisation.
In this piece about adjacent skills, Anne-Laure Le Cunff of Ness Labs touches upon many of the things we’ve spoken about earlier. She also illustrates some of the benefits that aren’t related to one’s craft, but rather the aspects that one needs in order to truly level up and eventually lead.
Increase empathy for teammates
Improve communication
Sustain motivation at work
Build a distinctive viewpoint
Expand career perspective
Better evaluate candidates
Like all things we write, this is not a prescription for what you ought to do. This is purely an exercise in shaping perspective. Decisions need more context; that’s different for each person.
You do you.
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IndieFolio went Offline
Nope, not our website. Our team and the IndieFolio community met up at Social Offline in Bangalore.
Check out the Instagram highlight of the Masterclass by Saptarshi Prakash, Director of Design at Swiggy.
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If you've ever found yourself wondering ‘How do I scale my freelance business?’, we’ve got you covered. IndieFolio’s very own Kavan Antani has a live conversation with Poras Thavnani, one of the top freelancers on the platform.
Questions like - How he got started, how he landed his first client, his first team members, how to set prices for freelancing services, payments etc.
All of it in just 20 minutes; much longer than making a Maggi noodles lunch but worth the time so you never ever have to eat Maggi other than for nostalgic reasons. This session is a literal gold mine for freelancers! 🔥
Our IG is 🔥🔥
Yep, the comments section of one of the posts was literally on 🔥🔥. Creatives were pretty pissed off. Not with us though.
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They were pretty annoyed with the fact that AI image generators are stepping on their toes. Our collective worst nightmare is unfolding in slow motion 😢
Food for Thought
While we will go down the deep rabbit hole of career, perhaps some of you might want to bookmark these pieces for the weekend.
In the piece on Techcrunch, Jake Chapman points to the 80-20 rule (Pareto principle) in his argument that one doesn’t necessarily have to achieve mastery of a subject. I wouldn’t take this at face value, but it’s definitely worth the read.
Specialization, Polymaths And The Pareto Principle In A Convergence Economy - Jake Chapman in Techcrunch
How to make career decisions - Reforge blog
Why the world needs deep generalists, not specialists - Aytekin Tank (Founder of JotForm)
Before we sign off on this edition, we’d like to share a book recommendation. Many of you have chosen to become full-time freelancers and Company of One might just be the perfect guide. The topic of building a freelance business is also one of the themes we’ll touch upon very frequently.
Till next week, goodbye!