Hi! I’m Caitlin Hartung.
😄 Nice to meet you.
I’m a Product Designer from Austin, TX. Here are a few fun facts about me:
Skills
Interface Design
Responsive Design
Building Components
Multi-tasking
Leading Others
Professional Experience (and how it has shaped me)
My current job = Product Design Lead for a company called theCOOP .
My current project = t.ux (an educational product that teaches UX design concepts)
So… what exactly does “Product Design Lead” entail at theCOOP?
I built the Phase 1 curriculum plan for new designers. I have trained and onboarded 13 designers so far and up-skilled them to Phase 2 of our program.
At Phase 2, I assign designers work (based on our product roadmap), critique, and eventually approve their designs.
I help Phase 3 designers network, strategize, and find the right mentors in order to grow the skills they need for the design niches they have chosen to pursue.
I run our weekly Design sprints using a Kan Ban board in Notion and conduct daily stand-ups.
I am in charge of decision making. I assign all designers their next project tickets, determine what needs to be built, and act as the gate keeper before designs are handed over to Product and Engineering.
I also am the gatekeeper for our design library and what elements are implemented into it.
I counsel and help designers when they get stuck or need guidance
I work on projects of my own, thus far I have designed:
The entire Accessibility Activity (and restructured our basic Activity cadence and flow)
The entire Heuristics Activity
The side navigation bar as it stands
Several Question Types and a Question Types Template file for reference
Naming Conventions and How We Work Figma File for designers to use as a template when they start a new project
8 Figma Skill Building Activities for our Phase 1 designers
The Content Wizard
The Activity Wizard (which combined the content and question wizards)
The Color Slider Mini Activity
The majority of the components in our design library
Tool tips
Currently working on the responsive design of our product, t.ux
I do all of this under the leadership and guidance of our founder and Product Manager, Aaron Neeley.
Always a Leader
My career as a personal trainer prepared me to be a leader. In that career, I learned to gently guide others and lead by example. Who is going to listen to me if I’m not practicing what I preach?
People need a positive environment in order to really thrive. Fear of failure limits creativity, which is the opposite of what I want from my fellow designers. At theCOOP, one of our favorite sayings is:
“Break things, so we can teach you to fix them.”
I use my ability to empathize with others to lead them.
When I was a personal trainer, I used to have my clients take the 8 colors of fitness personality test before I met with them for their first session. That personality test gave me a baseline understanding of what my clients were motivated by. I was able to then tailor their workouts to keep them engaged and happy. For example, if my client was more motivated by nature, I would take our workouts outside (weather permitting), or if they were motivated by competition, I would have them compete against themselves or a workout partner.
Creative Thinker/ Problem Solver
As a personal trainer, I had to come up with a lot of creative solutions. I worked mainly with injured people and people with severe weight problems that limited their mobility. Each person was unique and required unique training to help them overcome their personal obstacles.
I apply that same thinking when it comes to problem solving as a Product Designer. I start with the question “What is our main goal?” and I work backward from there. I love to solve problems, and I don’t rest until I figure out a suitable solution.
But don’t just take my word for it, check out my work and see how I think for yourself!
Lifelong Learner
Learning is important to me. One of my favorite quotes is:
“Stagnation is death. If you don’t change, you die. It’s that simple. It’s that scary.”
— Leonard Sweet
I’m a huge believer that life is meant to be lived. I don’t want to sit and stagnate. I want to keep being the best version of myself that I can be. I want to grow.
I have so loved the journey of learning how to be a product designer. I read as much as I can on the topic, I pick the brains of those who know more than I do. I listen to podcasts, and watch Youtube videos to gain skills in complementary crafts (like learning to use Spline and Figma tricks, Adobe Illustrator, etc.).
I’m looking for a work place where I can continue to grow, to learn from people better than me, and become the best product designer I can be. I also want to help the company I work for grow and keep up with the changing needs of their users.