Doralin Kelly is a senior experience designer at BCG X in our Singapore office. We connected with Doralin to learn more about her role and what she enjoys about working at BCG X.

What led you to join BCG X?

I started my career as a digital art director in advertising and social media 13 years ago. I fondly think of this position as the first step in my journey as an Experience Designer. After three years as a digital art director, I found my true calling, which is designing for tech startups and companies.

I then started freelancing and working remotely, giving me the freedom to travel, and the opportunity to design solutions for different products and industries. I built a huge variety of platforms across e-commerce, enterprise, finance, insurance, lifestyle, and healthcare. I also worked with a range of clients from early-stage entrepreneurs to agencies and global corporations. All of this helped me to hone my skills as an Experience Designer and solidified my passion for building ventures from the ground up. This eventually led me to Digital Ventures (now BCG X) Singapore, where I was able to continue creating impactful businesses, working with a startup mindset and with an incredible, multidisciplinary team. I chose a career at BCG because it’s the perfect place for me to build zero-to-one ventures across a diverse range of industries with really talented people from different disciplines.

What do you do as an experience designer at BCG X?

Experience Designers are responsible for creating human-centered designs based on both customer frictions and business goals. We work to make insights and solutions tangible through a variety of research methods, such as user testing or lean experiments. We also collaborate closely with the Engineering team to guarantee technical feasibility as we build each feature. As a Senior Experience Designer, my role encompasses everything from facilitating testing, prototyping, and designing solutions from low-to-high fidelities to mapping out flows and information architecture.

What is a unique opportunity you have had at BCG X that you might not have had anywhere else?

I’ve been able to work on really interesting domains on ventures, from building a smart carbon management and accounting platform to designing an entire supply chain for an agriculture tech startup. Not only were these unique problem spaces to solve for, but I was also able to learn and grow my skill set by working with the rest of the venture’s extremely proficient team.

How would you describe the culture at BCG X?

I’m very proud of our culture. There’s something incredibly special and rare about working with highly skilled, diverse people who love building innovative ventures. We support each other through the challenges that come with our work, and friendships are forged in this positive environment. The heart and soul of BCG X are the people and the big reason why I love coming to work.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in becoming an experience designer and what are the most important traits a candidate needs to succeed?

First, Experience Designers should be problem solvers. Their job is to seek solutions that meet both the user’s needs and the business’s goals, which requires an aptitude to learn and iterate. They should be able to draw conclusions from quantitative and qualitative research, and empathize with the user’s problems in order to build the best possible experience and solutions.

Second, they should be good communicators. Communication is at the core of every venture. We work closely across cohorts, like Product Managers, Engineers, and client stakeholders, so it’s important that Experience Designers are able to articulate the rationale behind their designs. Being able to actively listen and ask the right questions in order to gather impactful feedback during testing is also crucial.

Third, they should be detail-oriented. Experience Designers need to be able to create a well-crafted end-to-end visual experience for each venture. A good eye for design and a high level of polish is necessary.

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