The act of being a professional designer is a process of iteration in itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201d demanding ongoing feedback from peers & clients, of course, but also continuous critical self-examination, guided by an attitude of optimistic, if somewhat grudging, improvement. Design is an art of improving things \u00e2\u20ac\u201d changing existing situations into preferred ones, as Herb Simon famously declared in his definitive treatise on design \u00e2\u20ac\u2122Sciences of the Artificial’. So it is as well for the designer to reflect and resolve to make adjustments \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which requires a healthy does of detachment and humility \u00f0\u0178\u02dc\u2030<\/p>\n
So as I look back upon the past year and ahead to what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible this year, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m mindful of some key aspects that might be of help for you as well. For me, last year (2017) was a year of:<\/p>\n
* Re-entering familiar contexts<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that of an established yet growing corporate design team with product teams burdened by legacy protocols<\/p>\n * Re-building credibility<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as with any new engagement you start from zero, developing pivotal relationships and scoring “quick wins” to build up that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street cred\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for more ambitious pursuits later<\/p>\n * Learning new languages<\/strong> (and where to introduce my own vernacular) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d As with any new design \/ product dev context, there is a kind of jargon of words and actions (behaviors) to learn; in this case, heavily Agile-driven and also ideology around story, influence, craft, benefit and value. From \u00e2\u20ac\u0153durable teams\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153TPV metrics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and beyond.<\/p>\n * Satisficing and adapting my design goals<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d every product development context has their own dysfunctions and dramas, so the trick is knowing (or at least sensing with confidence) where and how to satisfice (compromise) effectively.<\/p>\n * Role modeling design leadership<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d for teams unaccustomed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153designer as partner\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (versus \u00e2\u20ac\u0153designer as production assistant\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), via discourse and delivery, this was a considerable challenge (yet huge opportunity!)<\/p>\n * Cultivating a genuine design ethos<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d especially for the squad that I lead and how to parlay that ethos (which itself is constantly evolving) into dialogues with my product and engineering peers, to shape a nuanced holistic view of Design<\/p>\n Overall it was undoubtedly a challenging yet exhilarating year of continued growth as a design practitioner and thought leader \u00e2\u20ac\u201d there was never a dull moment, that’s for sure! In certain areas there was considerable success, while in others…ehh, maybe not so much \u00f0\u0178\u02dc\u2030<\/p>\n Demonstrating prudent patience, expressing passion in a targeted deliberate manner, being smarter about the intrinsic politics of a highly fraught situation, better balancing of tactics and strategy (and communications to my partners, accordingly), and knowing when to delegate or simply let things go \u00e2\u20ac\u201d all were key areas of self-improvement, no question. Gotta keep at it!<\/p>\n Looking ahead to this year (2018), I resolve to improve upon those items, and also aim to pursue the following:<\/p>\n * Help (aka \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coach<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) product and engineering leaders to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tricky balance of acknowledging one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expertise and opening up to new (potentially risky or threatening) models of work, but with the aim of improving the team and product and customer outcomes<\/p>\n * Do more cross-functional facilitative engagements (aka \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conversations<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) going among traditionally siloed teams, via the power of artifacts and disposable designs<\/p>\n * Elevate design practice into more of a strategic art (aka \u00e2\u20ac\u0153connecting<\/strong> the dots\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), beyond delivering Sketch files and Zeplin specs, that speak to business aims and offering lenses upon those over-arching goals (and processes)<\/p>\n * Network with folks outside of the usual UX arena, to broaden my perspectives and learnings about ways to guide and improve culture, process, innovation, etc.<\/p>\n And of course…write<\/em> more, sketch<\/em> more, listen<\/em> more, and keep iterating on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being a designer”. After all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a persistent journey of reflecting and resolving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The act of being a professional designer is a process of iteration in itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201d demanding ongoing feedback from peers & clients, of course, but also continuous critical self-examination, guided by an attitude of optimistic, if somewhat grudging, improvement. Design is an art of improving things \u00e2\u20ac\u201d changing existing situations into preferred ones, as Herb … Continue reading “Reflect and Resolve”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\/ Looking ahead<\/h5>\n