Early years and where you came from?
Hello, I’m Janete, a designer from the sunny Madeira island and I have a degree in Design at the University of Madeira. Since I finished my degree, I’ve worked with local brands and companies, with print ad web design (doing websites from design to coding).
How were you introduced to the world of the Portuguese tech industry?
I had the pleasure of being part of the early years of Platforme, a company that offers dynamic products as a service, focused on made to order. Since then, I become passionate about User experience and User Interface design.
Walk me through your work and what you are doing now in the tech industry.
As I’m now working remotely as a Freelancer, my days are not the same, because I can do my schedule and prioritize my work according to the projects. Mainly, these projects are e-commerce websites and app projects, from different types of companies — it can be a brand or a startup company. And because of that, I work with different teams with different processes, and it’s interesting seeing how different companies are organized.
Note for designers: Please don’t be afraid of developers!!! Communicate communicate, communicate.
What part of what you do, you love the most?
I love solving problems. I always try to find a way out that is easy for the user and most of the time, that are also easy for developers.
How do you think that your background and knowledge impact the way you approach your work in the Portuguese tech industry?
I think my previous experience in startups, with the number of changes and priorities, gave me the flexibility to deal with tight deadlines, that fortunately or not, we Portuguese are very relaxed, until the moment when the deadline is at the door.
What advice do you have for young women that want to get into tech and don’t know where to start?
Young women designers,
Unfortunately, most of the universities don’t teach UX or UI design or teach poorly. And in my opinion, is important to have at least UI Design projects in your portfolio when applying to a job in the tech field.
So, do “ghost” projects, do design challenges, experiment new Softwares (Sketch or Figma), read articles, do tutorials. Only with practice, we become better.
And remember that it is a privilege to do design daily, and value yourself.
Walk me through a day in your life as a Portuguese women in tech.
My day always starts with a big cup of coffee in my home office.
The first things to do are to view my calendar and my Jira tasks, and with that organize my workday. The rest of the day is normally designing or having meetings (stand-up meetings, weekly meetings).
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“Only with practice, we become better”. So don’t be lazy
What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Figma ❤, Sketch, Adobe CC and Invision
👉Find Janete on LinkedIn
