When saying yes changes everything: A designer's unconventional path from London to Dubai

Jayde bought her first property in London. She lived there for one month. Then she moved to Dubai, a city she'd never even visited.

If you're waiting for the part where this was all meticulously planned, where she had a five-year roadmap and a backup plan, you'll be disappointed. The truth is messier and far more interesting than that.

"I don't know, it just all kind of aligned," she says, laughing at how random it sounds even to her. "It was really weird because I had just bought my first property, which I obviously planned to live in."

Her mom's reaction? "I just got used to the fact that you were going to be moving out and now you're going to another country?"

But here's the thing about Jayde's career: the unconventional moves, the seemingly random pivots, the willingness to say yes to things that didn't fit any plan. That's precisely what made her the designer she is today.

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The career that nobody maps out

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Jayde didn't set out to become a product designer. She studied graphic design at university, back when UX wasn't the established discipline it is now. There were no bootcamps. No clear pathway. Just a degree in hand and a first job at a travel company.

"I've always been creative and analytical by nature," she explains. "Product design for me is where those two things meet."

She started designing brochures for theme parks and web banners. Then she got to work on website pages, things like search results and booking flows. That's when UX started making sense. It wasn't about making things pretty. It was about making things work for people who actually needed to use them.

Eighteen months in, she was made redundant. But each move after that built on the last. An agency taught her to work with different clients. A fashion company showed her a new industry. By the time she reached a streaming service as a UI designer, the path to product design was clear.

"It kind of feels like it was just a natural progression for me because I was always learning, always growing," she says. "There was no formal education in UX or product design."

What she did have were managers who saw something in her. Mentors who told her what she needed to learn. Colleagues who helped build her confidence. The kind of support system you can't download from a course or find in a certification program.

"I'm also fortunate because I think that kind of comes naturally to me, having that analytical and logical brain to match with the design and creativity."

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When lockdown became a launchpad

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Then 2020 happened. Most people's world got smaller during the pandemic. Jayde's got bigger.

She was in a good place. Good company, good manager, working on projects she genuinely enjoyed. But working remotely for over a year gave her something she hadn't had before: time and space to think beyond her day job.

That's when she and a friend launched Olly & Franc, an Instagram platform where they shared videos and posts about their experiences as Black women in design. They were just putting their faces out there, sharing their stories, and suddenly people were responding.

Collaboration requests came in. Someone asked her to teach a design course and develop all the materials. Interviews and podcast invitations followed. It snowballed.

"The year before that, I had said to myself, 'I want to say yes to more opportunities,'" she recalls. "And as soon as I did that, the opportunities just came and I was just doing a lot."

Teaching design connected back to something deeper. Her mom had been a teacher. Jayde had worked in schools during university, mentoring students and running after-school clubs. Her mom kept telling her, "You should be a teacher." Jayde kept insisting, "No, I want to be a designer."

When she finally started teaching design courses, her mom couldn't resist: "Well, I told you you should be a teacher."

"I know," Jayde laughs. "It will find you."

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The manifestation nobody planned

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Somewhere in the middle of lockdown, Jayde started saying something out loud that she'd never said before: "I want to live in Dubai."

She'd never been to Dubai. She didn't know anyone there. She just... wanted it.

She joined an Instagram live about moving to Dubai, absorbing information. She wrote about it in her journal. Those entries she can look back at now and see how things she wrote somehow came to life. And then, through one of the events she'd been hosting, a connection emerged.

She'd asked someone to speak at one of her design events in London. He moved to Dubai. They stayed connected on LinkedIn. Then one day, he posted a job.

"I didn't want that job," she admits. "I just wanted to know how to move in that direction eventually."

They spoke. He mentioned another role (a lead UI position) that he thought she'd be perfect for. She applied. Within two weeks, she had an offer.

She told her manager she was applying while she was still interviewing. Her manager's response? "You should go for it. You've talked about this, you want to do this."

So Jayde said yes. Lived in her new flat for exactly one month. Then moved halfway across the world to a city she'd only seen on Instagram.

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All the skills you didn't know were skills

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Here's what's interesting about Jayde's path: nothing was wasted.

Being the middle child (the oldest on her mom's side, middle overall) gave her leadership experience and mentorship instincts that show up in how she works with teams today.

Working in schools with students who had autism and other disabilities shaped how she thinks about accessibility in design. "I don't like to overlook anyone," she says. "I always try to think about the other person, the small percentage as well."

Hosting events (which she's done everywhere she's gone, from design meetups to Christian gatherings to Black professionals networks) taught her how to build communities and navigate different audiences.

Teaching design courses showed her how to break down complex concepts and communicate them clearly, which is basically half of what product designers do with stakeholders anyway.

"I really believe that a lot of the things I've experienced have all kind of come together," she says.

She started a Women in Design group on LinkedIn in Dubai and hosted events. People still stop her and tell her how valuable those gatherings were. "I'm a very big community builder and I love events," she says. "I've done design events here, I've done Christian events here, I've done Black professionals events here. That's how I've made a lot of the friends that I have here as well."

On her design Instagram, her bio makes it clear: she builds communities as well as designs.

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What the journey actually teaches you

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Moving to Dubai meant learning to design for a completely different user base. Right-to-left layouts. Arabic language considerations. Icons that flip, icons that don't.

But the bigger learning curve was cultural. Not just in the design work, but in understanding how work itself functions differently across regions.

Jayde has worked at four companies since moving to Dubai, and each one taught her something valuable about navigating different environments. She learned to read organizational cultures quickly. To recognize what good leadership looks like by experiencing the alternative. To understand that feedback styles vary dramatically across cultures, and that communication differences don't always mean the content is wrong.

"In the Middle East, it's very much about how you're perceived by people," she observes. "Which is something that I've definitely struggled with because I'm very just-in-a-corner, my face is very flat, unless you interact with me."

Those experiences pushed her to develop a skill most designers don't talk about: emotional detachment from feedback. To separate what's about the work from what's about communication styles or cultural expectations.

Two books helped: Articulating Design Decisions and Thanks for the Feedback.

But the real lesson was this: the right environment matters more than the perfect job title or the impressive company name. Understanding what you need to thrive is just as valuable as any design skill you can learn.

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Finding the right fit

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Which brings us to now. To Digital of Things, where Jayde found what she'd been missing.

"It's been the best experience of working in the UAE that I've had so far," she says simply.

Not because it's perfect. Not because there aren't challenges. But because the fundamentals are right. Designers are brought into strategy, not just execution. Leadership involves the team in conversations. There's space to think, to do deep work, to switch off when the day ends.

When asked what great product design means to her today, she doesn't talk about trends or tools.

"For me, great product design is the user never having to think about the design," she explains. "They should just be able to know what they want to do and achieve it. It should be invisible to them."

It also means alignment. Business outcomes and user outcomes working together. And on a personal level, it means continuous growth and learning, because things are changing fast, especially with AI.

But there's something else she's carried through every role, every move, every pivot: attention to accessibility. To the 1% who might get overlooked. To the people who don't fit the standard use case.

"That goes back to when I started Ole and Frank, the diversity aspect of it," she says. "Being a Black woman in the UK, there are things that you face. So I always try to think about the other person, the small percentage as well."

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The careers that actually work

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Looking back, Jayde's path makes a certain kind of sense. Not the kind you can map out in advance, but the kind you recognize in hindsight.

She didn't follow a template. She said yes to things that didn't fit any plan. She built communities alongside building her career. She moved to a city she'd never visited because something inside her said to do it.

And here's what that produced: a designer who understands that design skills aren't just learned in bootcamps or courses. They come from being the oldest sibling who had to lead. From working with students with different abilities. From teaching and breaking down complex ideas. From hosting events and reading rooms and navigating different cultural contexts.

They come from the willingness to be uncomfortable, to detach from feedback that stings, to recognize when an environment isn't working and have the courage to leave.

Most importantly, they come from understanding that the best careers aren't built by following someone else's roadmap. They're cultivated by paying attention to what feels right, saying yes when opportunities appear, and trusting that the skills you're building (even the ones that seem unrelated to your job title) are preparing you for something you can't see yet.

Jayde's mom was right about one thing: teaching found her, even when she insisted she just wanted to be a designer.

But here's the thing she's learned: you can be both. You can be a designer and a teacher and a community builder and an event organizer. You can buy a property and move a month later. You can turn vision into action, make design your superpower, and build growth into your habit.

The question isn't whether the path makes sense on paper. The question is whether you're willing to say yes when it shows up.

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Want to learn more about Jayde's work? Visit jaydeolivia.com. Interested in how Digital of Things approaches UX design with real regional expertise? Get in touch.

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