My name is Dragan Babic, and I am a designer. Sort of… To be honest, if I really had to explain what I do, I’d say I help people make things. I’ve spent the majority of my career thinking I needed to be a designer in order to participate in design and sit with the cool kids. I’ve since realized I'm better off shifting my focus from improving my own design skills towards enabling others to practice theirs. These days I do still consider myself a designer, although a different kind of one. My interests lay in areas such as design systems and operations, design leadership, service design, digital product design, and user experience in and outside of digital products. In case it’s not blatantly obvious by now, my focus is set on the parts of the design practice traditionally not considered to be “design”.
Previous experience.
I’ve always considered “making it work whatever happens” the primary responsibility of any digital product designer, or a company founder for that matter. This is why my focus was never limited to creative production, and I always sought out ways outside of what is traditionally considered design to increase the chance of success for the projects I’ve been a part of.
Product strategy
I've helped a maker of renowned productivity software to overcome their identity crisis, and reimagine how and where their product fits in today's market by creating their new product strategy as a 5 year realignment plan, as well as guidelines as copywriting for their new marketing website.
Design leadeship • Design strategy
Figuring out tech for fashion
The fashion industry is a technologically-challenged one. I’ve helped the client navigate the complex world of non-standardized processes, and difficult paths to change by being their entire design department before they found product-market fit.
Product design • UX/UI design
From pivot to pivot
While working with a startup with an ambition to create the best possible relationship graph, I’ve helped them evolve on their road to market from an outdated MVP-type product, to a fully fledged advertising network.
Design leadership • Product design • UX/UI design
UX design & design ops for PLM & MRP SaaS
Designing the right thing, and then designing that thing right are integral parts of the digital product design process. Facilitating that work is an often overlooked effort, which when absent has the potential to wreck teams and destroy products.
Design operations • Product design • UX/UI design
Design ops & leadership for children’s furniture maker
Traditional businesses today are faced with a daunting ask, which is to adapt to a new way of catering to their customers through digital products and interfaces. Setting them up for success by forming their design teams and supporting creative staff is a significant challenge which I helped them overcome.
Design ops • Design leadership
Trailblazing new interfaces for CI
I’ve helped a continuous integration company pioneer the market by designing the entire UX of their initial product offering, as well as designing a couple of their marketing websites.
Product design • UX/UI design
My friend Arsenije and I are running a podcast on digital product design called Zalet, with the aim to spread the word about the importance of crafting software thoughtfully, and learning from the community along the way. Check it out.
Let’s work together.
At the moment I am a partner at Superawesome, a design agency I founded back in 2007. Nevertheless I still enjoy working with different people and organizations, and exploring how I can help them find success either through design, or by sharing my learnings as a company founder.
Is your traditional organization having problems leveraging design and technology to its advantage?
Are you not able to grow and nurture design within your technically dominant organization?
Are you a designer who is constantly in conflict with developers, and stakeholders who “just don’t fucking get it”?
Are you stuck in the no-man's-land of feeling like you’re just a group of people working together, and not an actual team or a company?
Do you feel like you're alone in your journey as a founder/leader, and have no one to confide in, and ask for advice?
Are you struggling with building a company culture, and have a high employee turnover?
Are your employees confused by the lack of a defined mission and vision of your company?
Are you failing to find purpose, and reasons to run a company, as a partner or a solo founder?
Are you struggling to see how to grow your team or company past a certain point?
Hiring your first designer or a design team? No clue how to interview them and pick the best fit?
