Say Hello to Daniel Shilov, Senior Product Designer

What do you do?

I’m a Senior Product Designer at Instacart working on the consumer experience team. Most recently I’ve been involved with the design of Instacart Pickup, a project that spanned multiple digital and physical touchpoints. Day to day I’m a design generalist — I tackle complex interaction design challenges, work through hi-fidelity mocks, help run research studies, and do some light data analysis with the help of the team. Although Instacart is a larger company now, there’s no shortage of opportunity to stretch yourself professionally and elevate your team in the process.

How did you get into design?

Back in the 2000s, I learned web design by picking up Microsoft FrontPage and Photoshop and jumped right in by doing tutorials and reading those heavy tech books. Later on, I did things the proper way by learning CSS and HTML. I did a bit of freelancing on the side in high school and college afterward but never fully made the jump into design until I graduated with a degree in business.

Soon after I joined a tech rotational program which exposed me to engineering, prototyping, research, and analytics. This helped me understand the underpinnings of user experience design and set me up for success in my first official role as a product designer.

What makes everything worth it?

The satisfaction of learning something new. Either you nail it the first time, which feels great, or you learned an important lesson along the way, which is just as valuable.

What’s the greatest piece of career advice you’ve ever received?

“Where is the human in the experience?” From one of my graduate design professors, Karen Berntsen, I learned the art of storytelling and making the technology work for the customer as opposed to thinking solely about patterns and systems, which might look robust and fluid but don’t solve the actual customer need.

What advice would you give to a designer just starting out?

Best way to get better at design is through practice and observation — whether it’s observing people using your product or working with other designers and sharing feedback along the way.

Where do you find inspiration?

I’m fascinated by speculative design and futures thinking — using design tools to imagine what the future might be like several years if not decades out. If we broke through today’s constraints, how would the world look? What types of options are available to us?

Working on various projects at Instacart, which one was the most challenging and exciting for you?

Working on Instacart Pickup has been a rewarding part of my career. It was fascinating to see this project come to life from 0 to 1. Working together with other designers and collaborating with cross-functional partners helped me fully understand and appreciate the logistical constraints and challenge me in new ways. Unlike delivery, pickup has so many touchpoints for customers that are important to get right. You can say pickup keeps me up at night.

Where did you grow up and what made it special?

I spent my early childhood in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Growing up in the metro area has exposed me to arts and culture at a young age. Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time, it must have made an impression on me as I now usually find myself visiting SF MOMA, going to the symphony, or visiting other arts-related events in San Francisco.

What was the first thing you ever designed?

Age of Empires gaming fan-site that I built in FrontPage 2000.

What is something you’re most proud of in your life/career?

Surviving grad school! Wrote a post about it too.

What is something non-design related that you’ve brought into your design work?

Although it’s not design per se, I enjoy sketching ideas out on paper in my notebook. It’s a habit I picked up from grad school to communicate complex ideas quickly.

Come build with Dan.

If you’re excited about defining the future of a one trillion dollar industry, building an ad-serving network for groceries, scaling the world’s most extensive grocery catalog, perfecting a real-time on-demand logistics chain, all while simultaneously designing the future of food for millions of people, you should take a look at the available opportunities or reach out to someone from the team.