I have been working at SAP (Palo Alto, CA) as a UX Research Intern from August 2022. Until January 2023, I worked at Venture Studio Design team and worked for several internal ventures at SAP to help them build their vision and scale up with SAP.
From February 2023 to present, I have been working at ICN (Innovation Center Network) Design team to conduct innovative projects that evolve with future technology.
My work is under NDA. I wrote down my main responsibilities and learnings.
UX Research Intern
Aug 2022 ~ Present
Figma, AdobeXD, Framer, Confluence, Airtable, Word
Since I was part of a cross-functional team consisting of diverse types of designers, researchers, and technologists, I spent time talking to them about their projects and products to work together. I also worked with Design Technologists and engineers a lot to learn about the technical aspects of our products.
Our team initiates products sometimes, but we get UX requests from our clients internally and externally a lot. Therefore, their project's type and characteristic are diverse. Business area also varies across e-commerce to real estate. In addition, their business types differ across B2B, B2C, SaaS, etc. Therefore, it was a great chance for me to experience diverse types of business products and to see how they scale up with SAP.
I conducted UX research, including user interviews and user testing. I wrote different types of scripts, conducted research studies, and integrated answers to find valuable insight. I used Word to write scripts and create slide deck to share research results to get/give feedback from team members. And I used Mural to integrate the insight and learnings. Sometimes, I had to do market research and competitive analysis about the industries and business regarding the projects as well.
Although my position was technically a UX research intern, I had to work on design parts of products as well since we are a small design team. I used Figma, Adobe XD, and Framers to design personas, user flows, prototypes, and animated demos. We have to use SAP libraries to create prototypes, so this taught me how to utilize big corporate UI library to create prototypes and importance of having visual consistency.
Since we work with different product with different business types, target users, user flows, and platforms, I sometimes needed help keeping myself in the loop with each project. Sometimes it was frustrating to even onboard since it was a totally different topic from the last one. I tried not to be afraid to ask about the project and gather as much information as possible to work on. I set up 1 on 1 with Design Technologists when I didn't understand or had a hard time updating myself with underlying technologies. My team and my manager helped me a lot to keep myself looped in on each project.
I worked collaboratively with diverse teams across SAP, such as development, business, and marketing teams. Sometimes I got lost, especially when the team used terminologies, I needed to familiarize myself with. When I needed help understanding, I followed up to ask about the meaning and explained why and where I needed clarification. I learned that asking many questions is the best way to collaborate with the team or area I'm unfamiliar with.
I worked at the Palo Alto office in the summer but had to return to Michigan to continue school and work remotely. Many of my team members were working in remote or hybrid positions as well. To be connected, our team had a regular team meeting twice a week, and we interns had a regular sync-up meeting once a week. And I also have regular sync with my manager, and sometimes I just set up 1 on 1 with different team members. Setting up 1 on 1 meetings helped me a lot to be connected with team members so far, and we could discuss the projects formally and sometimes informally.
Since our team is working on a diverse range of projects, I had an opportunity to participate in interesting projects such as VR onboarding platform. When I wanted to be a part of the projects, I asked my manager if I could assist with the project. Or sometimes, I contact the designer directly and set up 1 on 1 to ask if there is a possibility that I can be a part of the project. Therefore, I was able to grab the chance to work on some projects I wanted to work on.
Being a part of the team has been an enjoyable experience. Especially during the summer of 2022, I was able to being an in-person intern and not only did I get the opportunity to work on exciting projects and make an impact, but I also had a lot of fun. We visited the Computer History Museum and the California Academy of Sciences, savored Chinese cuisines, tried Salt & Straw (best ice cream place in San Francisco!), and attended a barbecue party hosted by my manager. Sincerely thanks to all my teammates for their collaborative efforts:)
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