Following main improvement areas that you’ve highlighted, here are my comments:

Communication
- Since I tested HubSpot forms, my email was spammed and I might have missed some
mails. I will organize my email better through filters. I can also make sure not to miss any
GitLab issues where I’m tagged in. I sometimes get so invested in my work that I might have
missed some.
- In my work I communicate mostly with Senad, and then Sabina, Martina (Eda before), Deb,
Karlo, sometimes Daniel and web team if needed. I didn’t have any problems in cooperation
and didn’t notice that something was missing. Mostly I rely on cooperation with Senad, and
follow his instructions, which I understood was expected since I started working here. I try not
to skip Senad’s approval in my work, and I cooperate with others based on our agreement
and the requirements of given tasks.
I didn’t have much opportunity to cooperate with other content or documentation team
members because my line of work includes mostly graphics and animation so I mostly
engage with Senad.
Maybe some examples where I didn’t engage with other marketing members enough would
be helpful to let me better understand what I can improve.
- I’ll try to resolve questions about tasks more independently. It’s not a problem to give more
details when sharing work, so I can definitely work on that.

Task ownership
- I did have a problem with task ownership for several reasons:
- often I wasn’t sure which design task I can take on my own (without approval). I was
used to mostly get tasks directly from Senad
- sometimes I found it difficult to determine which task is designated for design team
and which not
- I have to say that regardless of task ownership, I always have tasks that I work on and have
no idle time in my working hours

Active participation in marketing activities

I can try to be more active in all marketing activities. Most of my working time, I am engaged
in design work, and sometimes I engage over a lot of details (for example in animations). It
can happen that I cannot dedicate so much time on other marketing activities. I understand
the importance of such engagement for the overall quality of work. Regarding ideas and
proposing improvements, I am open for that, but didn’t really see that was expected of me.

Design
I will take into account all the suggested improvements.
Regarding the logo size, it’s maybe a good example of situations when there are different
instructions from marketing leadership (or general leadership perhaps) and I am confused
about which ones to follow. It results in design that is not approved by everyone. I got
instructions to make logos more discrete on some design work, and then later to make it
bigger.

Design workflow suggestions

Regarding the methods and workflows used in creating designs:
- I use free resources only as inspiration and for sketches; I do not use them in final design

- regarding graphic software advanced tools: I believe that there are situations where such
tools can be of much help and can speed up the process or give the work a quality that is
hard to achieve with regular tools (e.g. lynard pattern for HAProxyConf 22, where I used
advanced Illustrator tools to create final patterns design)
- I agree that the usage of such tools should be considered carefully and used smart:
e.g. mentioned pictures of significantly lower quality were not the result of the advanced tool
itself, but of the low quality of the original photos of HAProxyConf speakers. It showed that
such tools are not suitable to work with low quality photos. I redid and fixed the photos
relatively quickly after we realized the result was not satisfying.
- regarding using Illustrator’s Blend tool to make the long shadow effect on the “Got No Time
for Downtime” t-shirt: I decided to use this tool because it’s a great time saver. By using
classic tools, design time would be much longer since it would require applying multipoint
gradient on each letter by itself (20 letters in design). Also, as we do multicolor versions, to
change the colors would take a great amount of time with such a method.

Design reviews

“Ain’t Got No Time For No Downtime” blue t-shirt

- this was one of the six propositions I made, and probably the weakest one. It was not
intended as the proposition for the final design
- the graphic is not composed of free assets, except for the playing cards. All the other
elements are illustrations I did by hand, using pictures as inspiration (like Las Vegas
silhouette).
- I agree on not mixing different styles. This was a proposition I made to see whether I was
following the idea of the wanted design and to see if we would include this elements in it
(Loady, black hat, cards, Las Vegas silhouettes). In this, I followed some suggestions I got
from brainstorming the day before with a marketing team member (such as adding a black
hat and playing cards)
- I agree regarding the font. I also offered much more suitable options in other versions (6
fonts), including the font that we agreed upon on final design.
- I am open to share other versions and the details of process if needed

“Swiss Army Knife Illustration”

- On Friday, I was working on several tasks that I got from Senad that day: Black Hat
business card, HAProxy logo for conference, API Gateway diagrams. I finished with API
Gateway at 6pm and started to work on “Swiss Army Knife Illustration”. I submitted my work
as a .webp file by the end of my working day (at 6:53pm) so it did not take more than hour.
Feel free to check time of the first posted work in same link (GitLab issue link).
- on Monday I decided to additionally submit the .svg version (vector one for more precise
display, although this was not explicitly asked from me) of the graphic at 11:40am
- on Monday I worked further on Back Hat business card design
- Martina contacted me on Monday at 1:40pm saying that the mobile version of the graphic is
missing
- since the issue did not state that there is also a mobile version of the graphic, I was not
aware of it and haven’t done it
- I started to work on mobile version after Martina contacted me, around 1:50pm and
submitted at 1:56

Overall, it was a task that took not more than an hour, as expected. What probably happened
here was that Senad saw the additional .svg version that I uploaded to be sure that we have
more quality version, that was on Monday at 11:40, and missed the first one, that was
finished on Friday at 6:53pm.

Finalizing design and polish

I will try to dedicate more time on polishing the final design.

Ideal task workflow

I think this is a good and detailed example and can be helpful.

Professional growth
I will take these advices into account. I am open to learning and to work on my design
fundamentals.

In conclusion, I would say that one of my biggest challenges is to determine the boundaries
of self-sufficiency versus strictly following given directions for tasks and designs. Since I
started to work at Crossvalia, I followed Senad 's lead and approval (e.g. wait for Senad to
give me new task, go through revision with Senad before submitting work in the main
channel etc). I obviously was used to that kind of workflow and didn't see it as something I
myself should change.
Another challenge is delivering design ideas that meet expectations of the whole team, which
are not always aligned.
I believe that some concrete expectations described here, and my feedback could be helpful
in overcoming both of these challenges.
Design-wise: I often feel confused and even stressed by what is allowed. When I started to
work, I had to adapt to some strict guidelines, but in time I saw that these restrictions are not
used consistently in all design work in the company. E.g. I used gradient in creating some
images for blog or newsletter and was guided not to implement gradient into work. However,
gradient is used in work of others relatively frequent. This also apply to demands of precision
in my work, which for me is not a problem by itself, but is time-consuming, which is now
represented as one of the biggest problems in my work.
I believe that in the last year I have been working conscientiously and trying my best to follow
the lead, adapt and learn. I have been working longer hours when needed, skipping lunch
break to attend to work that couldn’t be postponed etc. I am open to receive feedback and
appreciate suggestions and advices. I am sorry and surprised to see that my work to date is
portrayed in such a negative way in almost all aspects.

I believe and hope that the feedback exchanged here can result in more quality in my work,
better workflow and overall more work satisfaction on both sides.

Question from Senad: How can we help you create better designs that fit HAProxy’s style
and be more self-sufficient?
- more precise instructions on wanted design would be appreciated
- if instructions cannot be precise immediately, which is understandable, and I get only a
rough idea on what I should do, I would appreciate it if the overall process taking more time
would not be considered as my incompetency but considered regarding circumstances. A
great deal of extra time is generated by these changes in design directions and ideas after i
already spent a day or more on the first design. With this report, i was informed that this is
considered unsustainable. Yet, my concern is how much influence do i have to try to change
this.