Uber Product Designer Speaks on Campus

Accomplished alumni regularly return to campus to offer career advice and insight about life after college. Last month, art major Brett Banning (C’11) shared his path to his current employment with Uber as a product designer (also known as user experience, or UX, design). During workshops and presentations, Banning brought a “real-life, boots on the ground” view of working for a high-tech company in San Francisco.

Known as the “Problem-Solving Guy”

In 2017, Banning was hired as a designer on Uber’s Global Vehicle Solutions team, where he helped develop a program for onboarding new drivers. His knack for working through tough problems caught the attention of Uber management, who recently promoted him to lead designer on a six-person UX team that’s launching the Uber Bike app, which is currently being tested in San Francisco and Washington, DC.

During a workshop session in Principia’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Banning led a timed exercise giving students an opportunity to try out the human-centered design methodology he uses to develop literally hundreds of possible solutions before a product is ultimately launched. He shared insight into the technology (without giving away proprietary knowledge), citing an ever-evolving mix of wireframing, prototyping, and design tools. 

Offering insight into the collaborative nature of his work, he said: “I regularly interact with professionals across the company—engineers, marketers, data scientists, lawyers, copywriters, researchers, and senior executives. It’s a very important part of the iterative process, and good communication is key. The liberal arts education I received at Principia prepared me to be adaptable, providing me with presentation, writing, and communication skills that I use on a daily basis, along with the design skills I learned in my major. And I rely a lot on what I know about the unlimited source of ideas we learn about in Christian Science.”

Making good use of opportunities 

Before joining Uber, Banning worked in Principia's Marketing Department, at Caleres, and at Monsanto. While at Monsanto, the work he posted on Dribbble, an open source website for designers to showcase their projects, caught the eye of his current manager and led to his being hired at Uber. He also told students about his experience on a team of designers that won the 2016 GlobalHack VI Grand Prize and the First Place Pro Division prize for their app to help alleviate chronic homelessness.  

“Practice professional skills as much as you can during college,” Banning told students. “I’ve seen the rigors of hiring practices firsthand, and it isn’t easy. But you have opportunities here that will prepare you if you take advantage of them.”