The One on One series is a format where we take a moment to chat to our Heroes across the global Delivery Hero team and ask them: what do you do?
In order to demystify the various job titles, we take an in-depth look at what they really mean and give a behind-the-scenes peek at the inner workings of the company. Read on to find out more about what Dom De Stefano, Senior Product Designer at Delivery Hero, actually does!
What is your job title and which team and brand are you part of?
My current job title is Senior Product Designer and I work on the Design System Flamingo, which is used in every rider app at the Delivery Hero Headquarters in Berlin. I’m part of different teams, as Flamingo is used across different products in the Logistics department. I’m part of the Rider transmission design team and Mobile Infra squad, which handles the actual creation of the Design System.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My typical day usually consists of meetings to keep up to date with everyone’s work within the teams. I work on Figma files to create and update new/current UI elements. Throughout the week, I also have support meetings and design critiques; the former to support designers to better understand and use the design system I work on, Flamingo, and help them create interfaces that are consistent across different products, the latter to showcase new work I need feedback on from my fellow designers or squad members.
What do you like most about your job?
I always wanted to be a fashion designer and be able to leave my mark on haute couture brands, (un)fortunately, coming from a conservative southern Italian family, and lacking great sewing skills made me venture to other designer lands. Being part of a Design System, means that I have a huge say on the visual language of an entire ecosystem of products. It means that I get to create the building blocks, used by other designers to create UIs. In a way, it’s kind of similar to what a fashion designer does when creating the motif and core values of a brand, so that every collection can look like being part of it.
Could you summarize your core tasks?
I create new UI elements for the Flamingo design system, update the ones that need fixing or a new variant, document their usage and guidelines, and make sure designers and squads use them correctly. In a nutshell I make sure that the design language used in different products makes sense as a whole and not just a juxtaposition of individual elements coming from a UI library.
What surprises people most about your job?
Nothing really surprises people about my job especially because stereotypically, as soon as they see my tattoos, piercings, and way of dressing they say “designer!” and they’re not wrong.
I guess what surprises most of my colleagues is that i’m really fast at my job, and I think this is due to 3 things that work very well together:
- I graduated from law school, so during those academic years I learned to read and memorize 500-1000 pages in a very short amount of time.
- As soon as there is a new task my brain goes into ‘perfectionist anxiety’ mode to complete it in the best way possible.
- I’m a sucker for compliments.
Ah! Yeah, what surprises people most is that I studied law and now I’m a designer.
Share