“In the place of false constructions of identity that lead us to view one another as less than human, Baldwin called on us to embrace the reckless idea of confronting the world as ourselves.
“The very influential researchers I’ve met are usually those who can form a strong opinion after research, and act like thought partners, as opposed to those who are only craft in conducting perfectly rigorous research.
“instead of becoming anxious and rushing to “simple” solutions, try to welcome the unknown and energise your imagination with scenarios and possibilities.
“Inside of organisations, there is a need to build and ship products fast.
“Since everything that we do needs to be supporting an overarching business strategy, our work nowadays is heavily collaborative.
“All features have consequences.
“Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.
“But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.
“Firstly, the design process determines the steps of the design, while the method determines the design measures and effects.
“Methods refer to the sum of the receipts that can be used to achieve certain purposes in any fields.
I recently answered a question around documenting design process on Spectrum Chat.
“Modern product design is a planned, step-by-step, targeted, and directional creative activity.
“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.
“Competitive testing can help you:
“This equality matters, because there are many of us who immensely enjoy the tangible output of our work more than we like the idea of helping define career paths, providing opportunities and cover for teammates, or negotiating career pathways for those we work with.
“The tangible work done as a designer—the screens and flows, the interaction patterns and project strategies, the ability to create vision and align a team behind it—has the ability to influence and create impact just as much as that of organizational design.
“UX Design is, in a lot of ways, about creative and strategic process more than it is deliverables.
“The reality is that people often use products or combinations of products in ways that the product makers do not expect.
“Don’t make user journeys too complex.
“But vision is only half of the picture.
“Before you start building a product, you need to understand its context for existence.
“PMs are on the hook for making sure that product releases push the business in the right direction.
“We reinvent buses and bodegas and act like we’re saving the world instead of just making our shareholders money.
“I know that corporations don’t prioritize user needs unless those needs already align with company goals.
“The more designers practice talking aloud about designs, the more they will reveal their thinking and be better prepared to make a case.
“Another way to be prepared to talk about design decisions is to practice explaining it out loud before the meeting with stakeholders.
“There is something about moving unconscious thought to a tangible form that prepares one to better explain it to other people.
“I would go so far as to say that a designer’s ability to be thoughtful about a problem and articulate any solution is more important than their ability to design the perfect solution every time.
“To be articulate, the practice of solving problems with design must also be accompanied by an awareness that will help explain design decisions to other people.
“In fact, the difference between a good designer and a great designer is in their ability to not only solve problems with design, but to also articulate how their solution solves it in a way that’s compelling and fosters agreement.
“Throwing together strangers into a team doesn’t lead to much creativity.
“This is why I propose knowledge mining,__ __where we look for what we embody and learn as culturally meaningful — this approach reconnects us to the ideas of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, and the roots of design.
[6 Crucial Skills for Building a Good Workplace Reputation]
[The career path of the new Head of Design at Intercom: Jasmine Friedl]
“Everything good needs time.
“I’ve learned that design career path evolution involves an iterative combination of self-reflection around personal interests & talents (what am I missing, what am I gaining) with serendipitous intersections with opportunities that foster growth and learning (upon those areas self-reflected upon), with guided trajectory anchored by core areas like vision/strategy/culture/process/leadership/tools, etc.
“And the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work — do a huge volume of work.