This Designer Built 10+ Side Projects That Turned into UX Career Opportunities ✦ Seungmee Lee
5.6K views · 2026-10-20
Product DesignInteraction & UX
How can creative side projects turn into career opportunities for product designers & UX designers?
Seungmee walks us through SO MANY creative experiments featured in her product design portfolio. She shares her design workflow with code, Figma, and AI agents, and how everyday observations inspire her experiments & side projects. Seungmee also talks about how building in public could plant the seeds for unexpected career opportunities ;)
🕗 Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:46 Meet Seungmee: From Industrial Design to Product Design
02:12 Learning How to Code
03:56 Inside Her Hand-Coded Product Design Portfolio
05:57 Making a Product Design Portfolio Feel Like Home
09:43 Side Project: Interactive Clocks
12:57 Side Project: Watercolor-Inspired Drawing Tool
16:20 Her AI Design Workflow: Code, Figma & AI Agents
25:13 AI for Product Designers: New Possibilities & Creative Control
28:17 Building in Public as a Product Designer
32:32 Sharing Her Side Projects Led to a Career Opportunity?! 🫢🫢🫢
35:59 How to Start a Design Side Project That You ACTUALLY Enjoy
38:18 What's Next?!
39:14 Her Recommendations For Top Places to Visit in Seoul & Busan:
42:30 Where to Find Seungmee's Work
💫 About Seungmee Lee
Seungmee is a product designer at Granola, previously at Figma and Dell. On the side, she’s been building creative tools and experiments, like ShaderGradient, and sharing them online.
🔗 Connect with Seungmee
Portfolio: https://www.seungmee-lee.com/
X: https://x.com/smee_leee
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seungmeelee/
Seungmee's talk at Granola Design Engineering Night: https://youtu.be/quyN7ynW378?si=ybMyM49SrACQw62S
🇰🇷 Top Places to Visit in Seoul & Busan
- National Museum of Korea
- Poset (Small shop specialized in postcards)
- Point of View (stationery shop)
- Haeundae Amso Galbi (k-bbq place)
- Watch this movie called Train to Busan if you're taking KTX train to Busan from Seoul!!!
- Check out Seungmee's entire list 📋: https://meelee.notion.site/Seungmee-s-recs-for-Korea-386ad581123780e5902ff5d5e72760d0
📌 Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest and do not necessarily reflect those of their current or former employers or affiliated organizations.
#uxportfolio #designportfolio #productdesign #interactiondesign #creativecoding #uxdesign #designcareers #aifordesigners #figma #designportfolio #productdesigner #uxdesigner #granola #creativetechnology #uxdesigners #sideprojects #creativetechnology
Seungmee walks us through SO MANY creative experiments featured in her product design portfolio. She shares her design workflow with code, Figma, and AI agents, and how everyday observations inspire her experiments & side projects. Seungmee also talks about how building in public could plant the seeds for unexpected career opportunities ;)
🕗 Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:46 Meet Seungmee: From Industrial Design to Product Design
02:12 Learning How to Code
03:56 Inside Her Hand-Coded Product Design Portfolio
05:57 Making a Product Design Portfolio Feel Like Home
09:43 Side Project: Interactive Clocks
12:57 Side Project: Watercolor-Inspired Drawing Tool
16:20 Her AI Design Workflow: Code, Figma & AI Agents
25:13 AI for Product Designers: New Possibilities & Creative Control
28:17 Building in Public as a Product Designer
32:32 Sharing Her Side Projects Led to a Career Opportunity?! 🫢🫢🫢
35:59 How to Start a Design Side Project That You ACTUALLY Enjoy
38:18 What's Next?!
39:14 Her Recommendations For Top Places to Visit in Seoul & Busan:
42:30 Where to Find Seungmee's Work
💫 About Seungmee Lee
Seungmee is a product designer at Granola, previously at Figma and Dell. On the side, she’s been building creative tools and experiments, like ShaderGradient, and sharing them online.
🔗 Connect with Seungmee
Portfolio: https://www.seungmee-lee.com/
X: https://x.com/smee_leee
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seungmeelee/
Seungmee's talk at Granola Design Engineering Night: https://youtu.be/quyN7ynW378?si=ybMyM49SrACQw62S
🇰🇷 Top Places to Visit in Seoul & Busan
- National Museum of Korea
- Poset (Small shop specialized in postcards)
- Point of View (stationery shop)
- Haeundae Amso Galbi (k-bbq place)
- Watch this movie called Train to Busan if you're taking KTX train to Busan from Seoul!!!
- Check out Seungmee's entire list 📋: https://meelee.notion.site/Seungmee-s-recs-for-Korea-386ad581123780e5902ff5d5e72760d0
📌 Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest and do not necessarily reflect those of their current or former employers or affiliated organizations.
#uxportfolio #designportfolio #productdesign #interactiondesign #creativecoding #uxdesign #designcareers #aifordesigners #figma #designportfolio #productdesigner #uxdesigner #granola #creativetechnology #uxdesigners #sideprojects #creativetechnology