Let us delve into Lili Mirba‘s odyssey, discovering the inspiration and creativity propelling her flourishing career, and she being a catalyst in our project. Lili is our highly valued member in the KIDS FIRST app development project, she is our UX/UI team lead and mentor. As of today, she has been helping us for over two and a half years, during which she has taught and mentored a dozen UX/UI members.
On a typical day, Lili’s KIDS FIRST engagement is spent keeping a healthy dialogue with stakeholders, product owners, and future users. She collaborates with the team, UX/UI designers and software developers throughout the product lifecycle and ensures the users’ and business needs are addressed and that designs are feasible to implement and executed accurately. As a UX/UI team lead, she believes in keeping herself up to date with the latest trends in the industry and guides the team with these accordingly. Her pivotal role revolves around fostering user-experience empathy, conducting insightful research, and driving innovation with the continual improvement of designs and products in mind.
When asked how KIDS FIRST happened, she has a story to tell. A graduate of John Abbott College, Montreal, Lili’s previous experience lies in system and network administration, but like many of us, COVID changed her fate.
“The company I worked for before the pandemic was building an application for IT management. Although I was a System Administrator, I was widely involved in other aspects of the development. That is when I came across a new concept behind each digital product: UX and UI. Their ability to influence user interface fascinated me. I began studying it independently to the point where I started handing suggestions to the team based on the principles. My suggestions were acknowledged and appreciated, and I was praised for my knowledge.”
“The company downsized, and I was out. But I continued learning UX/UI and started freelancing on various projects. That’s when a friend introduced me to WITT and the KIDS FIRST project in 2021. Since then, WITT’s projects have allowed me to use my knowledge and continue being innovative and creative.”
January 2022 marked a turning point, the UX/UI team dynamic was changing. That was also when Juliette Smith, Manager of Women IT Teleworkers (WITT), asked Lili if she could be the team leader. Leadership surely is Lili’s natural instinct. She is a patient listener, inclusive, and balanced. And being the team lead fits her well, as she believes in respecting clients’ goals, caring for her team, and fostering positive influence.
Lili’s contributions to KIDS FIRST stem from an array of skill sets that have helped her achieve notable results in her career. For instance, while in RBC Insurance, Lili held workshops with stakeholders and taught product planning, development, and strategic design vision. As a result, stakeholders’ decision-making efficiency significantly improved. She also delivered user-interface prototypes that led to a 15% improvement in development efficiency, which was evident from evaluations. For another client, Lili helped them gain better insights to the needs of their Intelligent Dashboard product. To improve the dashboard, she executed qualitative and quantitative research, heuristic evaluations, usability testing, and competitor research. In KIDS FIRST, Lili is sharing her knowledge with our team, and is enhancing the usability of the app, so far, taking it through multiple iterations in line with the many roads the project has taken.
We wanted to share Lili’s story as a thank you for your hard work and contributions! Join us in celebrating Lili’s journey; a testament to resilience, adaptability, and a passion for pushing creative boundaries in the UX/UI realm.