Why I became a designer

As a child I loved things that were complex and esoteric and what were computers in the 1990s if not that? I enjoyed being the only person I knew who had their own website when they were 13. But I didn’t love the lonely work of coding.

 

I also had a love of solving problems and helping people. After graduating from college, I was pursuing that interest as an academic researcher in psychology until I was put in charge of maintaining our lab’s databases. I realized very quickly that I was getting more fulfillment out of designing software tools that saved people time than what my actual job was supposed to be.

 

One Master’s degree and a decade of work experience later, I am a seasoned product design specialist with several successful products behind me.

 

My design perspective

As a product designer, I solve problems. It’s for this reason that I think of my skillset as being quite broad, because problems needing solutions are everywhere. I could just as easily been placed in charge of a library, where instead my job would be focused on providing easy and efficient access to community resources. Design thinking is not limited to software.

 

You can’t objectively call a design good without knowing the problem it is trying to solve. For that reason, establishing a solid problem statement, grounded in user research, is usually my first step. From there, I iterate on designs, testing with users on the way. Once reasonably, confident, we ship the product and evaluate the user response, and the cycle continues.

 

Still here? Here are some of the other hats I wear...

I’m a husband, proud father, traveler, photographer, Michigander, gamer, builder (of Legos), builder (of computers), lover of cats and more

© Tom Bergman 2025 All Rights Reserved

Why I became a designer

As a child I loved things that were complex and esoteric and what were computers in the 1990s if not that? I enjoyed being the only person I knew who had their own website when they were 13. But I didn’t love the lonely work of coding.

 

I also had a love of solving problems and helping people. After graduating from college, I was pursuing that interest as an academic researcher in psychology until I was put in charge of maintaining our lab’s databases. I realized very quickly that I was getting more fulfillment out of designing software tools that saved people time than what my actual job was supposed to be.

 

One Master’s degree and a decade of work experience later, I am a seasoned product design specialist with several successful products behind me.

 

My design perspective

As a product designer, I solve problems. It’s for this reason that I think of my skillset as being quite broad, because problems needing solutions are everywhere. I could just as easily been placed in charge of a library, where instead my job would be focused on providing easy and efficient access to community resources. Design thinking is not limited to software.

 

You can’t objectively call a design good without knowing the problem it is trying to solve. For that reason, establishing a solid problem statement, grounded in user research, is usually my first step. From there, I iterate on designs, testing with users on the way. Once reasonably, confident, we ship the product and evaluate the user response, and the cycle continues.

 

Still here? Here are some of the other hats I wear...

I’m a husband, proud father, traveler, photographer, Michigander, gamer, builder (of Legos), builder (of computers), lover of cats and more

© Tom Bergman 2025 All Rights Reserved

Why I became a designer

As a child I loved things that were complex and esoteric and what were computers in the 1990s if not that? I enjoyed being the only person I knew who had their own website when they were 13. But I didn’t love the lonely work of coding.

 

I also had a love of solving problems and helping people. After graduating from college, I was pursuing that interest as an academic researcher in psychology until I was put in charge of maintaining our lab’s databases. I realized very quickly that I was getting more fulfillment out of designing software tools that saved people time than what my actual job was supposed to be.

 

One Master’s degree and a decade of work experience later, I am a seasoned product design specialist with several successful products behind me.

 

My design perspective

As a product designer, I solve problems. It’s for this reason that I think of my skillset as being quite broad, because problems needing solutions are everywhere. I could just as easily been placed in charge of a library, where instead my job would be focused on providing easy and efficient access to community resources. Design thinking is not limited to software.

 

You can’t objectively call a design good without knowing the problem it is trying to solve. For that reason, establishing a solid problem statement, grounded in user research, is usually my first step. From there, I iterate on designs, testing with users on the way. Once reasonably, confident, we ship the product and evaluate the user response, and the cycle continues.

 

Still here? Here are some of the other hats I wear...

I’m a husband, proud father, traveler, photographer, Michigander, gamer, builder (of Legos), builder (of computers), lover of cats and more

© Tom Bergman 2025 All Rights Reserved