Designing Intuitive Experiences That Delight and Deliver
Pawel Betkowski (Pav) is a Product Designer living in Manchester, UK, blending creativity and strategy to build user-centered solutions that drive results.
Looking for my CV? Find it here.
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For the past few years I have worked mostly remote, with occasional trips to the office. It’s nice to have a coffee and hang out with people in real life every now and then. Also open to hybrid positions.
I am a team player, but don’t mind the autonomy. Definitely a self-starter, so you can expect initiatives and improvements to existing systems and processes.
At work, I am focused on the goals of the company. What is the business objective? How can it impact the user? Does it work for both the team, user, and the company? These are the questions I keep in mind when thinking of solutions. In my experience, it’s the most sustainable way to produce.
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I am a strong believer in communicating early, and communicating often. Teams that celebrate open channels and speak to each other are the teams that succeed long-term.
Building relationships outside of my team is something I pride myself in, and I like to think I treat everyone with the same amount of respect and trust.
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I am a huge fan and adopter of Design Thinking philosophy. Inspired by the book “The Design of Everyday Things” by Dan Norman, I like to adapt an agile approach that’s iterative and adaptable to various scenarios.
In today’s world, with the variety of user characteristics and personas, I believe it’s important to stay open and empathetic at every step.
Another one of my favourite books is “Good Services” by Lou Downe. From it I have learned that Design is a not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it is important to never to stop learning, and to always remain curious.
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In my time outside of work, I get in touch with my artistic side. I like to paint when I’m down, and make music when inspired. I have also dabbled in miniature sculpture, and at times I drift between different tactile disciplines. It’s cool to create stuff outside of the screen. That being said, art that I produce is something that I keep to myself, and am not interested in making it my career.
I am also an avid runner. In March of 2024 I have completed my first 50k ultra-marathon, and I believe it’s just the beginning. Caring for my mental health is something that I take really seriously, and so far exercise has been an important pillar in that journey.
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Since 2018 I have been a fan of Figma, especially with it’s pioneering Design System capabilities.
I am also experienced in InVision, Xd, Sketch, and Adobe suite. As a child, I designed my first websites using Photoshop, so it’ll always have a special place in my heart.
Outside of UI tools, I am also experienced in video editing and animation, with a tiny bit of 3d every now and then.
I am a fast and avid learner, and take time to learn technology outside of my job jurisdiction to not only empathise with other people, but to broaden my own perspectives.
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Since childhood I have had experience with HTML and CSS, not because of wanting to be a developer, but because I wanted to build things no one could build for me at the time.
Following that, for needs of various projects, I have learned vanilla JavaScript, React.js, Next.js, tiny bit of Python, and recently I finished a small course on Swift.
While I don’t mind writing animations in CSS, I am not really interested in making coding a part of my job. I do however believe it’s important to be aware of technical constraints of every system I work with.
“Simply put, Pawel is one of the best designers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. His empathy for the end user, deep knowledge of design systems and design ops, eye for details, and consistent application and hard work are second to none.”
Ed Pratt, Senior Product Designer
“I’ve always been amazed by Pavs ability to bring ideas to life.
He’s a highly skilled UI designer, with first class knowledge of design patterns, best practice and design tools.
He was instrumental in the development of Strike's design system, which significantly accelerated our design process and was used by six designers. He advocated for the creation of the system across design, development, and the entire organisation. He continued to collaborate with designers to improve the system's quality and adoption by our team.
Because of this, many designers on the team would seek out advice from Pav. He was the central point for his thoughts on new patterns or additions to the platforms.
Forgetting all of this, Pav is a great person as well. He lights up any room he is in and makes people feel comfortable around him.”
Jason Thorarinsson, Lead Product Designer
“Paweł was a great colleague to work alongside. I had the pleasure of being mentored by Paweł, in which he gave me great confidence to peruse further more into Web Development. He always wants to discover and share his knowledge and skills in UX and Web Development.
He thrives in what he feels passionate towards, and is always motivated to learn more. Overall he is a great team player.”
Shanice Clarke, Senior Product Designer
See all recommendations on my LinkedIn