Manual

This user manual helps you understand how you can best work with me

I was inspired to make this page by Jamie Tanna’s manual. It is a part of the Manual of Me movement.

Heya, I’m Zinzy! As a Product Designer I’m currently employed by Gerimedica, an enterprise software provider in the Dutch healthcare space. I’ve been with them for a little over a year now, and consider this job to be a milestone in my career. I’ve always known I would one day venture into healthcare technology. I love its for its complexity, for the constraints of rules and regulations, and for the impact it can have on the working lives of busy people.

Zinzy

Senior Product Designer

My role

I am a Product Designer, though some coworkers may call me a UX Designer, or Interface Designer. The latter isn’t my preferred job title, because it only covers part of what I do:

I solve user problems through applied research, facilitation, and multidisciplinary design to help our company reach its objectives.

Working hours

You'll usually find me online between these working hours. I don't put in 11 hours of work each day, but instead adjust my hours and location to my needs and objectives.

  • Mon 0700 - 1800
  • Tue 0700 - 1800
  • Wed 0700 - 1800
  • Thu 0700 - 1800
  • Fri 0700 - 1800
  • Sat —
  • Sun —

My day is structured around first unblocking development teams, so that what remains is space for deep work.

As a team-of-one I don't have stand-ups, which is great, because I like to get an early start. The first order of business each morning is pushing product feature requests forward. The further down the pipeline they are, the more urgent I consider them to be.

As a designer, my priority is to work in a way that doesn't impact the speed of development. This work usually takes me up to three hours, which means I can reserve the rest of the day for research, deep work, and meetings.

Good to know: as a rule, I don't do lunch meetings

I'm at my best when:

  • I work hybridly Alternating dynamic engagement and quiet time
  • I see the why Behind problem spaces and potential solutions
  • My coworkers & I Challenging directly, care personally, and respect truly
  • I feel I belong With a team, a department, the entire company
  • I go at my speed With intensity, skip-thinking to solve the right problems
  • Roles are clear I no longer work at startups, and that is intentional

Easy ways to lose my trust: structurely fostering negativity, lack of introspection, not empowering your coworkers, not offering feedback beyond passive aggression, not sharing knowledge, not learning from feedback.

My preferred communications channels

  • Slack: You’re welcome to skip the hello and instead just say what you want. Make sure to give me some context, and if your message is time-sensitive, lead with that (e.g. [Contains time-sensitive request]). I enjoy asynchronous communication, because it helps me manage my inboxes.
  • Video / voice / live: I’m often available for a huddle, especially if it pertains to time-sensitive work keeping engineers busy. Are we both at the office? Pull me aside, let’s grab coffee. I like connecting with coworkers!
  • Email: If you can help it at all, please God, no email.
  • One-on-one meetings If it's just you and me, I reserve 30 minutes for an in-person or remote conversation. Let's make magic!
  • Group meetings I love group meetings that last no longer than an hour, and that stop once the agenda has been fulfilled.