Sherylene Chan

A problem solver and product design practitioner driven by her superpower of accepting challenges as they come.

Can you introduce yourself?

Hi! I’m Shery, and my day job mainly involves being a Design Lead at Roam Digital. As a product design practitioner, I count myself lucky to have found a work family in our very talented Design Chapter and I’m even more blessed to mentor some truly inspiring designers. Roam’s Design Leads are also responsible for ensuring our practice stays up-to-date and our teams are supported in developing their careers.

Outside of work, I’m a dog-loving, fried chicken and systems thinking enthusiast who does this design thing as a means to drive my idiosyncratic way of life. I credit my Singaporean upbringing for my weird obsession with finding (and making) awesome food as well as a strange desire to continuously outperform myself.

What role does creativity play in your life?

At present, creativity manifests itself in my life through the way I approach problems. Often, I find most unsatisfactory solutions share a common denominator, and that’s a method that fails to address the crux of a challenge – a lack of understanding around true human need.

Whether it be consolidating complex user flows, simplifying a authentication process or defining a product’s strategy, I honestly believe all problems can be solved by taking a step back and designing for what people actually need help doing.

How do you express yourself?

I’m very direct in the way I communicate with people. While largely embraced, this can sometimes put me in situations where I find myself wishing I had used a filter! I haven’t lost any friends because of it, so I might be doing okay there. (Ha.) I love shower karaoke, talking to Koji (my fluffy Japanese Spitz boy) experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen and occasionally writing. I must say I do miss the days where I used to paint or read for leisure.

We met 6 years ago, both at the very beginning of our journey. What you’ve been up to since then?

Six years feels like a lifetime ago – I still remember our fun photoshoot in Henderson! Since then, I’ve graduated from University, changed jobs a few times (spent some time in advertising, redesigned a heritage brand, worked as a learning experience designer, dabbled in digital strategy and transformation and was a lone service design advisor)… I also got married and moved house twice.

The decision to explore more of the strategic or conceptual side of design was a conscious one, and aligned greatly with my desire to elevate my design practice beyond my visual capabilities. Today, that experience pays off on a daily basis as my role requires me to be adept across the whole product design lifecycle (Discovery to Delivery).

What did you study? Do you currently study?

I studied Mass Communication in 2013 (majoring in Journalism) at Ngee Ann Polytechnic for three years in Singapore. That paved the way for my first Kiwi degree from Media Design School in media design (majoring in graphic design), which was augmented by a certification in design management from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego.

After that, I took a break from continuous study and landed a series of gigs across Auckland that have played a starring role in shaping the way my brain works.

Today, I’ve restarted my life-long education journey with a self inflicted MBA experience that is now centre stage in my endless pursuit of understanding everything.

Can you tell us about the growth of your professional career?

I’ve long believed that, “If you don’t try, you’ll never know.” I’ve spent the better part of a decade in Auckland (about 8.5 years now) and it has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. When asked, I often describe my journey as a ‘mixed bag’, or sort of a curly-wurly danger noodle. It definitely hasn’t been a straightforward experience, but I actually feel content with that.

Without my ‘offshoot’ explorations, I would not have met some incredible ‘non-designers’ who have stayed dear friends even after parting our professional ways.

It is also credit to this unconventional path that I have been able to gain significant exposure to areas like digital strategy, transformation, corporate learning, data and analytics, Agile, innovation, airline operations, University operations and employee experience in the short amount of time that I’ve had.

It has influenced the holistic approach I favour with design-led solutions today, and taught me lessons I will carry throughout my career.

Where would you like to get in your career? What’s your dream job?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the course of my career, it’s that nothing can ever be certain. If you had asked me six years ago, I would have told you I wanted to be a Creative Director in advertising. Three or four years ago, I would have said a ‘Head of’ or equivalent in service or customer experience design. Today, I happily marry concepts from those worlds and strive to be the best version of my professional self I can be.

The desire to help people with my learned skills and mish-mash of experiences has only grown stronger, and my decision to undertake an MBA programme has been in service of that. I’d like to see designers truly own the seat we’ve been given at the proverbial table, and we can only do that if we start speaking the same language our counterparts do.

Do you have a project that you are the most proud of? Why are you proud of it in particular?

When I was still a student at Media Design School, I got the opportunity to focus on a project allowing me to ‘design for good.’ In truth, it was an excellent opportunity for me to win a trip to San Francisco and represent the APAC region at the Clinton Global Initiative University held at UC Berkeley that year. I then spent a total of nine months trying to launch an Auckland-based programme called Play Nice, a social initiative with an aim to use art and design to transcend socio-economic boundaries. The outcome of it all was a co-designed zine filled with sketches, scribbles, heartfelt words and dreams for a better city.

With permission from the artists (a collective of design students and acquaintances I managed to coerce with the promise of free snacks, tea and coffee), copies of the zine were sold at the Auckland Zine Fest and all proceeds were then donated to the Auckland City Mission.

More than anything, the conversations, meals and stories I shared with individuals most would shun or ignore on the street taught me crippling humility, deepened my capacity for empathy and truly opened my eyes to the power of raw honesty over broken bread.

Did you win any awards? What for?

My last industry awards were for two pieces of student work at the Best Awards. They were for Walk Walk Singapore, an experiential campaign to promote my home country, Singapore, as a travel destination rather than a transitory location and Say Hello, a collaborative interactive project centred around enabling individuals in dangerous situations to safely reach out for help through innocuous phone booths promoting free calls to loved ones around the world.

As I had actively moved in-house since then, most of my accolades or recognition have been through internal promotions, incentives or company-wide awards.

What does your day look like as a Design Lead at Roam Digital? How do you keep yourself motivated?

As a Design Lead, I still spend a considerable amount of time on design work. This means I can either be helping define user needs through Discovery (through workshops, user surveys, stakeholder interviews, competitor analyses, etc…) or quickly jumping onto some Delivery work (mapping user flows, refining screens, prototyping, managing a design system, and more…).

When I’m not on the tools, you’ll often find me in one of many one-on-one chats with my team members, helping improve our Chapter’s processes with my fellow leads, attending client demos or interviewing potential new hires. All of this is obviously interspersed with many cups of coffee! I’m motivated by progress and seeing other people achieve wins along their journey. A proud ‘scroller’, I often find inspiration on LinkedIn or Medium, and can seldom wait to share new ideas with the team.

Do you still have capacity to work on your own projects after work?

My main ‘project’ for the last year has been learning and testing my knowledge as much as I can throughout the course of my MBA. In any downtime I have, I love painting and writing, so that may manifest in something more substantial one day!

Have you ever encountered any obstacles in your work just because you are a woman?

I’m very lucky to say that I haven’t experienced any outright discrimination in relation to my gender. I do, however, feel like I have had opportunities taken or not offered to me because of my age. In time, my being a woman may become more of a felt issue, especially if I decide to start a family of my own. The topic of family should be normalised more than it is today, with forward-planning organisations leading the way with appropriate continuation plans for mothers-to-be.

What would be your advice to designers at the beginning of their journey?

Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. Scary is good. Scary means you’re growing. Ask for help along your journey and you’ll be surprised at how willing people are to have a coffee with you. Remember, most of us are winging it, just like you!

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

I wish there was a magic wand that could translate true intent, demystify cultural differences and make fried chicken have 0 calories.