So Fatima Hassan messaged me last Tuesday, real frustrated about feeling invisible at work. Said she’d put in killer hours redesigning their checkout flow but got zero credit. Leadership just assumed the UX team did it all. Been there, done that right? When you’re quiet like her, people straight up steal your spotlight. Happened to me at my old gig too.
What We Started Doing
First thing Thursday morning, Fatima started tracking everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Made a simple doc where she logged:
- Exact time she brainstormed the cart icon redesign (3 hours!)
- Screenshots of her messy Figma drafts nobody saw
- Names of three engineers she helped debug the tax calculator glitch
- Even that pointless 2-hour compliance meeting she sat through
Real messy at first. She’d scribble notes on sticky notes then lose them. Friday she switched to dumping it all in a Google Doc right after each task. Smart move.
The Awkward Part
Monday rolled around and I told her: “Show them.” Not in a braggy way though. Her weekly sync with the product lead? Instead of saying “worked on checkout stuff,” she opened her doc. Scrolled through timestamps showing her solo work before UX touched it. Pointed at Jake’s name: “Remember his blocker Tuesday? Solved that tax bug together.” Product lead actually said “Wait YOU did that icon?” Lightbulb moment.
Then the sneaky play. When engineers got stuck, Fatima coached them through problems using her documented solutions. Not just fixing it, but making sure they’d say “Fatima’s method worked.” Spread the credit to people who’d mention her.
How It Turned Out
Last week her manager asked about speeding up the checkout project. Fatima didn’t say “I made it faster.” Pulled up her doc:
- “Cut loading time Wednesday by tweaking the cart API – saved 1.2 seconds”
- “Fixed credit card errors Thursday after user testing – 12% fewer support tickets now”
All timestamped. No room for doubt.
Yesterday? Company-wide email praising the checkout revamp. Her name was second paragraph. Not buried. Not “the team.” Fatima Hassan, backend developer. She finally exists.
Massive difference from May. Now her docs are legendary. Engineers actually ask “What’s Fatima’s fix for this?” before panicking. Boss told her “Your notes saved my audit report.” Took work? Hell yes. But nobody sees your sweat until you show the receipts.
