Designer spotlight: Pavika "PJ" Buddhari, Design Manager at Adobe
PJ and I chat about her design journey from working at an agency and as a freelancer, to now approaching her 6th year on design systems at Adobe.
While my memory of undergrad in Architecture becomes hazy, I vividly remember how much I admired my classmate, PJ, for her immaculate taste and craft. We supported each other through our different but converging paths into software design, and more than just her taste, I’m inspired by her positivity, and grounded approach to work and life. I’m so excited to share in today’s newsletter, PJ’s path into design from working at an agency and independently as a freelancer, to now approaching her 6th year on design systems at Adobe.
Today’s interview will be followed next week by a part two deep dive with PJ.
Designer Profile
Name: Pavika “PJ” Buddhari
Role: Design manager of design systems at Adobe
Motivations: helping her team succeed, being present
Skill to swipe: coordinating a process from A to B
You can find PJ on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. PJ’s corgi, Ume, is also on Instagram.
Who are you?
My name is PJ and I'm a design manager at Adobe, specifically for Spectrum, which is our design system.
What brought you into software product design?
I did architecture in college, and realized that this is perhaps not the right path for me, so I started looking for other creative jobs.
I had done some graphic design on the side, so my first job was as a brand marketing designer for a small consulting agency. They did UX consulting for digital health projects. That’s where I discovered UX design as a field.
What did you do as a marketing designer?
It was a lot of presentation design and coming up with the templates, making sure we use a single orange, the agency's website, and any marketing material.
How did you switch from marketing design to UX design?
It happened organically. Some of the projects required more visual design and the consultants were interaction design and research focused. They asked me to help. That’s when I started attending workshops, doing discovery, helping with ideas, and problem solving.
Most people were well into their career, so there was a lot to learn both in terms of UX design and research. The fact that I had coworkers who were being paid to do UX and realizing that I enjoy solving problems, it became something I was curious about and wanted to explore.
I wasn't sure if I enjoyed it because my coworkers were good, the problems were interesting, or I liked healthcare as a field, so that’s when I moved to freelancing to answer that question.
What were your career aspirations then?
I was trying to figure out what I enjoyed and prove myself at the same time.
It was always hard, and it’s still a little hard, to describe UX design to those outside of tech, especially for my family back home. Early career PJ was focused on trying to prove that I can do this.
How was your family involved in your career choices?
My family’s all in Thailand, and UX design is still new there but much more prominent now. Especially for my family, none of whom are in tech, it's hard to understand what we do.
There were a lot of questions like, why aren't you going to grad school? Don’t you need to get an MBA? That’s the expectation for Asian countries. If you have a master's degree, you can unlock more opportunities, earn more, go up the ladder. For their generation, you need a bachelor's and then a master's to move up the ladder, so they were very concerned.
My family was trying to understand what's next. There was no real pressure, but I perceived it that way. I wanted to show them that I could be successful.
How is your family involved in your career now?
I don't think about it anymore. It helps that I work for a company that they know.
My family enjoys creating things. My dad likes taking pictures and uses Lightroom on his phone. He’ll occasionally tell me, “Do you know how good this is?” My brother is a brand designer. My mom documents her breakfast creations every morning, which my dad takes pictures of.
They don't know what I do exactly, but they know my company makes either Acrobat or Photoshop or Lightroom, depending on who you talk to. That helps connect the dots.
How did you know when to move on from the agency?
It was really hard and I teared up when I was telling my boss that I wanted to leave because I felt like I was letting them down.
I knew that I had to move on because I wanted to know more about UX design and try my hand on other types of projects. The only way I could see myself doing that was to take on clients.
How did you get started as a freelance designer?
I always had the impression that you had to be super experienced in order to freelance, but at the agency Medullan, we worked with contractors, so that planted the seed.
I was also getting requests, cold emails, and friends of friends asking if I knew anyone who could contract.
What happened between then and now?
Once I started feeling more confident that I wanted to continue growing in digital product design, I realized there was only so much I could learn by myself. I wanted to be part of a team at a bigger company. That sparked me to start interviewing for a full time job.
Throughout that interview process, I started learning more about myself. When I started, I thought a small team was fine, but after talking to more companies, I realized I wanted a larger team that had the people in place to mentor me, room for me to grow, an established team culture, career ladder, job leveling, and stuff like that. I was leaning towards the larger companies, though I didn't expect myself to end up with a very large company like Adobe.
Why did you choose to specialize in design systems?
I ended up in design systems by chance. I applied without really fully realizing that design systems was going to become a hot thing.
In hindsight it makes sense. My hiring manager saw my architecture background and saw it was very systems thinking type of work. That’s what got me in the door and I’ve been there ever since.
What do design system teams do?
The most tangible aspect that people outside of a design system teams can see and touch are our component and pattern libraries and documentation. Whether it’s as a UI Kit in your design tool or in code as a component you grab or as a website that explains the standards, we provide that shared resource of how our experiences should look, feel, and behave, so that product designers and engineers can focus on what they do best, which is designing the actual product flows and features, rather than worrying about what a drop shadow should be or what a form should look like. We get out of the way and help them move faster and be able to focus on their product.
What brought you down the design management path?
Like most things in my career path, it seemed to happen organically. I have considered management at many points. I almost came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to become a manager because I enjoyed what I was doing. I was an IC who had influence on strategy, involved in planning, and worked closely with my manager.
It wasn’t until my manager left that I started to do the people management side. It was supposed to be temporary, until I was asked if this is something I wanted to do. I realized that if I ever wanted to try, this was the perfect team because I knew my peers well and I have experience on the team, so that made me comfortable transitioning into people management.
It's only been half a year, but I've enjoyed it so far. I was surprised how easy it was for me to let go of the work, and that's because I have a great team that I trust and can rely on.
How has the way you spent your time changed as a manager?
It’s a lot more meetings, the classic manager thing to say.
I've had to be a lot more present in meetings. Not that as an IC you don't have to be present, but what you're focused on is different. As an IC, you're there to talk about what you're working on, but now, I have to be present for everybody. I have to care about what everyone is working on and be more available to talk and support the team.
It’s a very different way of spending my energy.
What’s made you stay at Adobe for 6 years?
I can say this because my manager knew this. There were definitely points when I looked elsewhere. That’s just healthy.
First, Adobe treats us really well. Our work life balance is great. The company treats us like humans with lives outside of work, which is the part of my life that I really value.
A very close second is how much I enjoy the team itself. We’ve changed a lot, people have come and left, but what has stayed the same is the spirit of the team. The people are great to work with, and the problem itself continues to remain interesting.
What’s something you would go back to tell your early career self?
I spent a lot of time worrying about what others perceive of me. I wish I did less of that.
As a junior designer, you want to build that presence and experience. For me, I spent a lot of time worrying and trying to add to that image. I spent many hours worrying and I wish I enjoyed the moment more, learning from my very talented coworkers or building those client relationships during freelancing.
How have your career aspirations changed over the years?
My career aspiration has shifted from what can I do to how can I help other people.
Even before becoming a manager, I wanted to be better because I really enjoy being in design systems and working with this team. Now as a manager, my success is dependent on my team's success. Right now I’m finding that management style that I'm comfortable with and getting comfortable with managing different types of people. I want to make sure I don't micromanage, while at the same time be there to support.
What has been the proudest moment in your design journey?
I'll give two answers.
In terms of the work itself, the proudest was when we released our documentation website to the public. When your work is visible outside of the company, it's always a good feeling. People reference it, share it and quote it in ways that I never thought they would. It started as a website with nine components and I was there for all of it.
When I look back on everything though, my proudest moment was not a moment, but this realization that I've stopped chasing the next thing. Obviously, everyone wants to get to the next level, but it’s less present in my head. Now, I focus on what's in front of me, while also growing and learning. I remember it was really hard for younger PJ to believe that I would be working in the Bay Area in tech as a designer. Looking back, that has made me very content and happy with work.
What has been the hardest moment in your design journey?
There have been challenges throughout. The hardest was probably the freelancing period because of the uncertainty.
There were a lot of things to try out. A project might not have been what I wanted, but I would just have to do it. Leading up to looking for a full time job, it felt like a rollercoaster. Feeling like am I valuable? Am I worth it to any team? Proving yourself constantly, that period is tough.
What skill could you inject into another designer to immediately up level them?
Once there is a destination, my strength is planning for how to get from A to B, thinking through all the little details of how, we need to talk to these people or this needs coordinating. It comes from knowing the field well.
What’s something someone can do to improve at planning a process?
Write things down. It sounds so simple, but I've learned that not a lot of people do that.
For me it always starts with writing things down. List out all the things that need to happen, not necessarily in order. Then, organize that brain dump and communicate it to who you're working with. That’s when you make sure everyone's on the same page.
It's common to leave things up to interpretation and in your head. Assuming people are on the same page and know what needs to happen or know your thought process is a common thing that I've seen. Writing it out helps you think about it and helps other people know what you're thinking.
Bonus question. What would you do if you weren’t a software product designer?
I hope it's not architecture.
In alternate world, I wish I could work as a performer, a casual singer. I enjoy the act of singing and performing, but I don't enjoy the things outside of that, having to put yourself out there and being known in order to make a living.
In part two of our interview with PJ, we’ll dive deeper into
client-oriented working environments, and
design systems