My Tech Transition: How Rue Idaneme went from Surveyor to Product Designer

When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, Rue Idaneme needed something productive to fill her time. After a brief stint in interior design, she found her passion in product design.

My Tech Transition is a monthly ConTech series that shines a spotlight on Africans who have successfully transitioned into tech.

Written by David Onugha

When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, Rue Idaneme needed something productive to fill her time. After a brief stint in interior design, she found her passion in product design. Currently a product designer at Shaare, Rue tells us her tech transition story. 

Can you walk us through your responsibilities as a product designer at Shaare?

Shaare provides on-demand cleaning services to customers. I am responsible for designing the digital products so customers can book cleaners and the cleaners can manage their bookings. Right now, I am working on a user flow for the Shaare admin dashboard. This involves carrying out research and speaking to existing customers to know how to improve the process of ordering a cleaner. 

I talk to the customers, ask them important questions, and then relay this feedback to the stakeholders. Then we sync the user needs and the business needs to see how best to provide a product that is user-centred and provides profits for the business. After this, I do a market analysis to see how people use other apps that provide the same solutions. Then I analyse the information I’ve received to see how the feedback could be implemented into my designs. I start designing after this. 

I put all my ideas on my Figma board, and since I love iteration, I always incorporate it into my design process. After my initial design, I go back to the stakeholders to present everything I have done to see if this aligns with the goals they had. At the moment, I have finished designing and done my testing with both existing and new users to see shortcomings in my solution. After this, I’ll make changes based on the feedback. 

How did you decide to pursue product design as a career choice?

What I studied in school, surveying, was not what I wanted to do. Then COVID happened and it impacted a lot of decisions that are affecting my life right now. I was tired of staying at home, doing nothing, so I decided to change that. Initially, I started learning interior design — I took three courses, but then I realised that there weren’t many interior designers I could reach out to for career guidance. I was also young, so it was going to be tough breaking into the market. I needed someone to shadow, and when it was proving futile, I decided to check what I could do in tech. It was design. 

How were you able to bridge the gap between surveying and product design? What steps did you take to improve your skills as a designer?

It was self-learning for me. I did a lot of research, and this was initially aimed at determining what niche I wanted to get into. I even took personality tests to determine what I was most suited for. 

When I started learning, I relied mostly on books and YouTube videos. Mitchelle Chibundu released a book called “Clueless to Designer,” which I read and loved. It motivated me to pursue a design career. I also did courses with Utiva and Perxels, which helped a lot. Besides these, the rest of my career journey was mainly self-learning. 

What factors helped you ease into your first tech job? 

My first role was an internship. It’s not something I’d want anyone else to experience. There was no junior designer, mid designer, or even senior designer. I was an intern tasked to create full spectrum products like web apps, a mobile app, a website, and an admin dashboard. All I'd been doing as a designer was creating case studies and just putting them out there. Then I get the job and the next thing I hear is “You have to work on a web app and a dashboard.” 

Looking back, I can say that this really helped my work ethic. I had to be accountable and ready to learn anything. There was a lot of learning on the job because I'd be told, “Oh, you're going to do this tomorrow.”  And I knew it hadn't been done before and there was no one in the company to ask. So I'd do a lot of research and learning the night before so that the next day at stand-up, I'd know what to say while presenting. 

What inspired the design challenge you’re currently doing on social media?

It was actually from a social media post. The author talked about 2023 being his obsession year and how he did everything he could to ensure his career is where he wants it to be in 2024. He was very particular about consistency and posting your work. I decided that 2024 was going to be my obsession year and thought of posting satirical designs on Twitter every day. 

At first, I was excited. Then after I put out the post announcing the challenge, I got scared. I did not think it was going to be hard to achieve at first until I realised that I would definitely run out of ideas. To get additional ideas, I’ve been asking people the designs they want to see from me or the apps they want to see some changes in.

I'm glad that I did this challenge; it has given me a very good online presence and added some credibility to my name and brand as a product designer. 

What other benefits would you say you’ve gained from this design challenge?

Networking has been easier. I have access to people I’ve always wanted to talk to about my work and theirs. Most times, they even reach out to me. I have also been engaged in some business talks since I started my challenge and that’s also a plus. 

What advice would you give to anyone looking to make a tech transition?

First of all, networking is super important. I think it should be your top priority to reach out to people in the field you’re interested in, connect with them, and ask them about their journey in tech. It helps to have someone or people who can always inspire or push you. 

Also, try as much as possible to be in a community so that whenever you’re experiencing any challenge, you will have a large number of people to reach out to for help. Lastly, stay consistent.  Once you start learning, do not stop or take a break. If it's possible, don't close your laptop. 

You can shut it down but do not close the screen so that when you walk past, you’ll feel the need to work on the laptop.  The learning process gets easier. But then once you're done learning, the actual work starts. You’ll get to a point where you’ll learn things while working even when you don't know that you are learning.