What I Learned as a Design Intern at Coinbase

When I started my degree at Berkeley in Cognitive Science, if you told me that a few years later I’d be a design intern at Coinbase, I probably would’ve been confused, then surprised, then overjoyed.

But it’s true. Over the last few years, I’ve become really passionate about design, and this summer I had the incredible opportunity to work for Coinbase: a company whose product I used, and whose mission I truly admired. In May, I started my design internship on the Consumer team at Coinbase’s headquarters in San Francisco. Now that my 14-week internship is coming to an end, I thought I’d share some of the lessons I’ve learned here.

Always start with the problem you’re solving.

On one of my first projects, I was suggested to make some changes for a page redesign. I immediately jumped into a file and started designing solutions. Later that day, a designer checked in and pushed me to think critically about the reasons behind the changes I was making. Through our conversation, I realized that one of my changes didn’t actually address the problem I was trying to solve. Once I realized this, I easily narrowed down to solutions that were better and more intuitive.

Write everything down.

Before my internship, I rarely wrote anything down before starting to design. But given the complexity and variety of design challenges I worked on at Coinbase, writing everything down is critical. For each of my projects, I tracked the problem, goals, and constraints, and kept them in the file I was working on, so they would be top of mind when designing. This way, I never forgot what problem I was solving for, and could come up with better solutions.

Don’t get too attached to a design you love.

At the beginning of my internship, I was given a large design project that I worked on for several weeks. I spent lots of time getting feedback and iterating on my work. When it was done, I reviewed it with engineers on my team and they started to implement it, which was incredibly exciting. But when I received feedback that the design was confusing during a product review, I had to come up with a new design. I loved my original version, but the new one resulted in a simpler user experience. Through this experience, I learned the importance of openness to constructive feedback all the way through the design process.

…but don’t be afraid to defend an idea you believe in.

I also learned to have confidence in my work. There were moments in which I followed direction from others, even when I wasn’t convinced it was the best solution. Eventually, I started creating designs based on feedback, even if I disagreed with it, then evaluated it against my proposed designs. I found a lot of value in documenting the pros and cons of each exploration, which helped me justify my design decisions when they were questioned during reviews, or accept alternatives when it was clear they were better.

Don’t be intimidated by blockchain.

Before coming to Coinbase, I assumed that the company would be full of “blockchain bros,” that it would be highly technical, and that you had to know everything about the space to work here. But most of that turned out not to be true. Once I arrived, it was a relief to discover that not everyone is an expert in cryptocurrency or technical, and the team that I’d be working on was quite diverse. As a designer, I even found it beneficial in some ways not to be an expert, because I could more easily empathize with many of Coinbase Consumer’s core users, who are new to cryptocurrency. Blockchain is a complex space with countless ambiguous design challenges. But it’s also incredibly exciting — working on problems that haven’t been solved before is a privilege.

Overall, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by exceptionally talented designers here who inspire me every day. It was humbling to be in a position where I had the least experience, because there was so much to learn from everyone. I’m so grateful to Connie, Yitong, Zach, and the rest of the Design team for helping me become a better designer. Also, massive thanks to Annika and Steph for being wonderful mentors, and everyone on my product team for being truly amazing to work with. I hope to carry these lessons with me into future projects, roles, and companies.