How I got to Stripe
I spent 2012-2017 working for CURE International (a non-profit network of Christian hospitals that offered life changing surgical care to patients around the world). My role was primarily design and I remember spending lots of time pouring over the details in the latest Stripe landing pages (button design, faux 3d CSS transforms, OG gradient usage, etc). I remember when the redesigned, when they launched their open source page, when I discovered their instagram page, etc.
I didn’t really seriously entertain the idea of working for Stripe someday because I viewed myself as an outsider of the industry. I didn’t really know designers, let alone web designers and front-end engineers.
So it was basically the stuff of dreams when in 2021, I joined Stripe as a Design Engineer on the Web Presence and Platform team (WPP), the very team responsible for shipping all the cool stuff I loved most about stripe. It was a strange experience being interviewed by people that I knew of, respected, and followed on twitter haha. I was pumped to finally be on the inside and get to know the secret sauce that enabled them to ship so much cool, impressive, thoughtful, well-designed and delightful work.
After a few months of being on the team and getting know and see how we operated, I wrote down my thoughts on that secret sauce and tips I wish I’d known on day 1.
This is what I learned (from the perspective of December, 2023 me):
What I learned in my first 90 months (written by past me to past me)
Stuff I think I know now that I was sure I didn’t know 3 months ago. I expect about 2/3 of these to be true and to learn I was wrong about the other 1/3 in the next 90 days.
Advice I’d offer myself on my first day
- The greatest boon to your learning and getting onboarded is going to be who you know. Build relationships with folks and prioritize it above being “productive” in your first 60 days.
- Find a good way to save valuable learnings that you find in Slack. They’ll disappear soon and relying on slack bookmarks is a recipe for pain and disappointment.
- Security is a really, really big deal to Stripe (justifiably) and it comes at the cost of convenience and dev workflow efficiency.
- There’s probably a helpful doc for whatever internal tool you’re trying to understand. Whether or not it’s up to date and well-written is another matter.
- Show up to the Friday Fireside chats, they usually involve feedback sessions from customers that are rich in the kind of context you need as a new Stripe.
- We use lots of Jargon and acronyms, not as much as New Relic, but enough that you should have go/lexicon bookmarked.
- Stuck? Here’s a recipe for success (75% of the time you’ll get unstuck before reaching step 2):
- Keep trying, researching, attempting to get unstuck on your own for a reasonable amount of time (30 min. – 1hr)
- Reach out to someone who can help (onboarding buddy, other colleagues)
- Keep trying to get unstuck, on your own until someone else becomes available for help
- The classic stuff that Stripe is known for on places like Blind and Glassdoor (poor work/life balance and excessive doc writing) doesn’t characterize WPP. That doesn’t mean it’s not the reality of other Stripes, but it’s certainly not company wide.
- Helm is a very young design system that doesn’t function as a product design system traditionally does. That’s a real gift and a curse at the same time.
- Don’t buy the CalDigit TS4! I know the TS3 is acclaimed as the best USB Hub on the market, but the TS4 has so many problems. Just don’t do it.
- Jira sucks, but there’s value in it. Don’t run from the darkness, don’t resist it. You will gain real value from learning to use it effectively.
- The design org is big, but most know what WPP is so when introducing yourself you can just mention you’re a design engineer in WPP.
- Get good at gmail filters because a serious chunk of the messages in your inbox are going to be pure noise.
- You are learner and you are learning. That’s a sign of growth and a badge of honor, not an attribute to shrink from nor a phase to anticipate moving on from.
The special sauce behind Stripe’s design quality and engineering reputation
You know that magical and world-class quality of design, animation, and front-end engineering that Stripe’s known for? There’s no magic. It’s the result of some folks just caring a ton about the quality of what they put out. The stack they work on isn’t even conducive to the high-quality of stripe.com (it’s the opposite).
There’s no mystical or precious process that can be attributed with the success and quality of stripe.com. It’s not mandated from the top down, and there’s no golden guardrail to keep it from vanishing. It’s just people who care a lot about doing really great, high-quality work. There’s no magic.
There’s nothing about joining Stripe or WPP that’s going to make anyone suddenly start putting out great work. WPP puts out great work because there are people in WPP who care a stupid amount about great design and engineering. There’s no magic.
There’s no special Stripe sauce that makes it great, it’s just people who care “too” much. It’s people who spend more time on a few aspects of a design or animation than anyone else cares to or is willing to. If you’re interested in carrying on the legacy of excellence and unreasonably good work that you came to Stripe for then:
- Sharpen the saw
- Hone your craft
- Continue to refine your taste
- Learn from the incredibly talented and experienced designers and engineers around you
- Maybe above all else, don’t be content with “good enough”
Whether or not Stripe continues to be a name synonymous design quality and boundary-pushing design engineering rests largely on the shoulders of the individuals in WPP. Given you’re one of those individuals, you have the freedom (and I’d argue, the responsibility) to not only maintain the standard but lift it.