Starting with more conviction than experience
On April 6, 2019, I submitted a design challenge to Kargo Technologies. That application led to my first opportunity as a product design intern—and my first chance to understand what product design looked like outside a classroom.
At the time, I was in my sixth semester studying Information Systems at Universitas Indonesia. A Human–Computer Interaction course had pulled me toward UI and UX, but my practical knowledge was still limited. I had previously enjoyed graphic design; product design felt like a way to connect that visual instinct with a deeper interest in how things work.
I applied to many companies before Kargo replied. I was inexperienced, idealistic, and determined to get started. The design challenge became my first proper case study and, eventually, my entry point into the profession.
A startup made the work feel immediate
Kargo was a young Indonesian logistics and trucking startup. I joined because I wanted exposure to the industry and to the way a design team operated inside a fast-moving company. A small, dynamic team seemed like the best environment in which to learn quickly.
During the internship I contributed to two products using Sketch, Zeplin, and Abstract, alongside plenty of pencil, paper, markers, and sticky notes. I was introduced to Lean UX, MVP thinking, synthesis, rapid concept testing, and the practical constraints that shape a product long before a polished interface appears.
The first time something I designed shipped
One of my designs launched during the internship. It was a small milestone in the life of the company, but a major one for me. For the first time, something I had helped research, prototype, test, and refine became part of a real product.
Seeing the work in production made the design process tangible. Every interview, paper prototype, critique, and revision was no longer an academic exercise. Each step reduced uncertainty before the team committed engineering time and put the experience in front of users.
Shipping turned the design process from a diagram into something I could finally feel.
Curiosity compounds
Before I started, my mentor sent me a reading list covering design and adjacent fields. Once I joined, I realized that learning was not an onboarding task; it was part of the design culture. The team was encouraged to read, ask questions, and keep a beginner’s mindset.
That habit became a loop I still value: do the work, learn from what happened, then repeat with a better question. Curiosity is not separate from delivery. It is what keeps repeated delivery from becoming mechanical.
Collaboration makes design possible
Product decisions crossed business units and carried constraints that no designer could understand alone. I had to socialize work early, gather feedback, and communicate why a particular direction served the objective.
I was fortunate to join a team where questions were welcome. That safety helped me learn faster, but it also showed me my responsibility in creating the same environment for other people: share unfinished work, invite the right expertise, and make feedback easy to give.
Defend the decision, release the ego
Not everyone will agree with a design. Sometimes the responsible response is to say no and explain the evidence behind the decision. At other times, new information proves that the design is wrong.
Kargo taught me to hold those two positions at once: be prepared to defend the work, and be equally prepared to change it. The goal is not to win an argument. The goal is to help the team make the strongest decision available with the information it has.
Expect the plan to change
My only expectation for the internship was to learn how design worked in a startup. The reality included changing deadlines, shifting directions, mistakes, and many things I did not yet know how to do.
That uncertainty stopped feeling like evidence that I was unprepared. It became the environment in which product work happens. What mattered was staying open, recovering quickly, and continuing to learn.
I entered Kargo knowing very little about product design. I left knowing how much more there was to learn—and with a clearer sense of the designer I wanted to become. I remain grateful to the mentors and teammates who challenged me, welcomed my questions, and gave my first pieces of work a chance to become real.