That Cast Member Life: My First Year at Disney
Back in 2001, my high school offered a senior elective called “Intro to Graphic Design” for the first time, where I got to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Little did I know that this class would be the start of my journey into the design world that allowed me to work at places like Google, Airbnb, and Lyft. The opportunity to work at all of these amazing companies has helped me cultivate an expertise in not only design but also in my passion, design systems.
Fast forward to today where I’m a lead product designer on the Disney Streaming design systems team. And I’m proud to say that I’ve reached my one year anniversary milestone! But it sure hasn’t been an easy year. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about my first year at Disney Streaming, focusing on both the good and the telenovela-like twists and turns.
This is the 2nd story of a 3-part blog series titled “That Cast Member Life”. Feel free to read my origin story here.
Disclaimer: This blog article was written in September 2023 but was never published; better late than never, right?
New Kid on the Block
I’ve had many “first days” at companies in the past but the difference this time around was my onboarding was 100% virtual. Regardless if y’all prefer a remote versus in-person working style, starting a new job environment is tougher virtually because it’s more difficult to learn a person’s physical cues in front of a Zoom camera. Knowing this, I prioritized scheduling 1-on-1 chats with my teammates, trying to get to know them better while gaining historical context from their individual experiences.
As the months started to fly by and I became more familiar with how Disney Streaming did things, I found myself facing a number of challenges. Though it wasn’t uncommon to encounter challenges at a new company, these challenges stemmed from being adverse to changing how things were done during the Disney+ (and Star+) launch and an apparent rift between design and engineering. Without going into specifics, I’ll just say that I realized that my past systems experience was sometimes viewed negatively. Plus my hustle nature was such an uncommon working style that it lost the proactiveness that I intended it to be.
Those who’ve worked with me in the past can vouch that I usually am working on a number of side projects while focused on a single large project; so I’m busy as it is. The Production Designer in me is always focused on getting projects over the finish line, regardless who gets the credit. I also came to realize that the negativity towards my systems experience was really because others were intimidated by my working style of partnering with both feature designers and platform engineers on a delivery. The traditional silo working style, even on the same team, isn’t the way I like to work and definitely not how a product should be built, in my opinion.
This didn’t deter me though. I continued to be as transparent about my project work, especially when asking for feedback, trying to create a safe and open environment for collaboration and ideation. And I’d like to think my teammates started to come around, or at least, start to understand the team culture I was trying to influence. Then out of nowhere something crazy happened…
Return of the Jedi
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, a friend from my Star Wars costuming group, the Golden Gate Garrison of the 501st Legion, messaged me on Facebook Messenger asking if the news that Bob Iger was back as CEO of The Walt Disney Company is for real or not. I immediately jumped onto my work Slack to confirm that yes, Bob Iger, was back and that Bob Chapek was out. Talking about “the world turned upside down” as Lin Manuel-Miranda sang in Hamilton.
What did this actually mean? Well, fast forward three months later at the Q1 Earnings call, Bob announced not only a restructuring of the core businesses but also a reduction of workforce in the realm of 7,000 jobs across all of The Walt Disney Company. To say we were shocked is an understatement. And based on the current trend in the tech industry, layoffs were real and we weren’t immune to it. Hashtag Tech Layoffs.
Speaking of layoffs, at my very first design job where I spent 3 ½ years at, my position was unfortunately eliminated, along with whole teams of people. I went through feeling an assortment of emotions, ranging from confusion, disappointment, and anxiety about what I was going to do. So I empathize with coworkers who have never experienced this unpleasantness before. But at the end of the day, we had to wait for our fates to be revealed.
The waiting, obviously, was the worst part of this entire thing. Announcing 7,000 people we’re going to be laid off and letting us speculate for a month before the 1st round would happen was brutal. And everyone dealt with this anxiety in different ways. By the end of each round, I felt survivor’s guilt surface, especially with my own team being affected during the third final layoff round. Shoutout to my design systems teammates whose contributions impacted Disney+ and Hulu in a very big way.
But you know what? It’s difficult to admit but the world continued to spin. Yes, layoffs are still a sore subject and I hope we don’t experience them again because I want to be at Disney Streaming for a long time. I have plans here and I do believe I can accomplish them with the people around me.
Takeaways
So that’s how my first year as a Cast Member went.
Was it what I expected?
Not really.
Was it worth it?
Hell yeah!
What I’ve learned from working at different companies throughout my career is that there will be aspects of the job that you’ll have control over and there are a majority of things you won’t. That’s the Game of Thrones we play. But there’s always a silver lining to those dark clouds: you get to decide how you perceive those uncontrollable things. And personally, that’s something I’ve been working on when I’m faced with a reorganization or layoff situation.
I’m a firm believer of learning from my experiences and so what follows are some key takeaways from my first year working at Disney Streaming.
Growth Mindset
I learned early in my career that cultivating a growth mindset is vital to being successful. And this applies to any industry, in my opinion. Because having a growth mindset enables you to build that learning muscle, especially when you fail. And I admit that I’ve failed many times throughout my career. But to me, failure is just another learning opportunity.
This is how I continue to cultivate my growth mindset:
- When I fail: I ask myself, “What can I learn from this for next time?”
- When faced with challenges: I ask myself, “Is it just hard or can this help me grow?”
- When receiving feedback: I tell myself, “This feedback isn’t criticizing me; this is a way to make my work better.”
- When things don’t go my way: I tell myself, “I’m proud of myself because I put a lot of effort into it.” or “This time I fell short of the finish line, but next time, I’m going to crush it!”
Resiliency
Another muscle I had to build throughout my career is directly connected to those things out of my control, like layoffs, org (or roadmap) changes, or teammates leaving the company. Being flexible when changes like this happen is important, regardless if you accept those changes or not. And falling back into usual patterns may be the best medicine. For me, I like to stay busy so I focus on the work because at least I have semblance of control. Others prioritize those things or activities that make them happy, like exercise or walking your dog.
Whatever that is to help weather the storm of changes, it will help build your resiliency shield. So next time when things spiral out of control, (I’m kidding but also accept that more changes can and will happen in the future), you have a plan to help get through those anxious times.
Bring on Year 2!
In just a year, so much has happened and I imagine Year 2 will be equally exciting. But at this point of my story, I’m energized and motivated to really relish in these experiences. Working at Disney is a dream come true and I still can’t believe I get to work with these amazing brands and characters. Plus, there’s so much work that my team plans to accomplish so y’all better buckle up for the ride!
Stay tuned as I continue my story, reflecting on my second year working at Disney Streaming Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology in this 3-part blog series titled “That Cast Member Life”.
Jeremy is a Bay Area native who loves all things design systems. He took the “long way round” into design, taking educational stops in the manufacturing and printing industries. These experiences give Jeremy a unique perspective on design and he relishes in giving back to the design community in any way he can.
