I'm An Imposter

I’ve been a professional designer for 9 years now. I’ve worked on some really cool projects and for some really great people. Things I’m really proud about. Most of my career though, I’ve worked relatively alone.

The agencies I worked for have been small. One or two people and myself. The largest was eight. Freelancing, I’d be the guy behind the scenes making everything bulletproof, building the site, polishing the dark corners of the design handed to me, designing a site in a vaccum to the project managers whims.

I guess it’s time I come to terms with something. I have no idea what I’m doing. I did not have anyone show me the ropes of design or front-end development. I’ve learned a lot of things from the people I was around. I read a lot of books and websites. I (try to) pay attention and figure out why something was created the way it was.

I had relatively few managers so now that I’m leading a team, I’m scrambling to make sure I’m doing it right. But how do I help a great group of people be better designers if I myself don’t even know if I’m doing it right?

My name is Matt and I have imposter syndrome.