Given the nature of work at Loblaw Digital, the most crucial trait of Helios team members is the ability to quickly and accurately switch contexts between different lines of business since one designer tends to handle multiple projects at once. But, I believe being agile and flexible comes with the need of being a critical thinker. They come hand-in-hand in order to lead my team and me to a successful final design delivery.

Working collaboratively in a mature design team, I treat the respective Product Manager (PM) as the other half of my brain to help me understand and visualize the product and business requirements in the Product Requirement Document (PRD) provided by the PM. However, it requires critical thinking ability (and confidence, of course) from me as the product designer to challenge the current status quo. For example, I should be able to comfortably question whether a feature should be prioritized higher than the other, whether we should explore a new pattern on doing things, and whether the project's timeline is appropriate given the importance of it to the business.

This may sound like a no-brainer, but there is absolutely no way I could do everything I did in the four months I was at Loblaw Digital without the help of my teammates. Hoping into a fast-moving team with barely any context was scary and intimidating, but I was able to comfortably reach out to my manager, my product managers, and my teammates for context whenever I need to courtesy of their kindness and warm welcome!

Collaboration really came in clutch when I felt stuck after being told that my design was not the easiest to implement technical-wise and had to find an alternative for it. By collaborating with my teammates, we were able to bounce ideas off multiple heads, re-dig similar past projects that my teammates did, and more! I was able to design a solution that was simple to implement yet performed effectively.