Ghost in the Pixel

It’s a truism to say that designers in the broader UX practice must have well-developed “soft skills” to be effective in the field. I gotta say, that trite phrase irks me, if only because it implies something less-than-substantial, almost an afterthought of ephemeral squishiness to tack onto the “hard skills” of… exporting precisely cut Retina-optimized graphics? Hmm. Dubious.

Whether slicing graphics for a mobile app or defining the parameters for a user study or mapping out various task flows, you are dealing with people. From co-workers like Devs and PMs demanding those graphics and workflows, to executive sponsors asking for metrics to end-users and partners with their use cases, you are necessarily engaging to varying degrees with people. People who are flawed, emotional, distracted, temperamental, or insecure. People who have hidden agendas and ulterior motives, who are driven by complicated arrays of motivators and demotivators at home and work. People who live amazing yet difficult lives. People who say one thing, do another, and believe something else completely—all rich with invisible layers of complexity and contradiction. People who object, project, personify, influence, and manipulate in many crazy insufferable ways. People who are quite simply passive-aggressive or flat out cynical and rude.

Well, our jobs are not easy when you look at this way! Design is all about handling the most complicated, messiest creatures on this planet (humans ;-) —which makes it incredibly challenging and paramount to learn how to deal with people.

It’s not some “soft skill”, it’s a vital skill for living, working, learning, growing. Knowing how to navigate, persuade, interpret and facilitate with a diverse range of personalities to advance your and their goals— that’s an essential ability for any successful designer. And it’s one that takes countless painful lessons and near-death tumbles to develop “working with and for people” into an intuitive, personal art at the core of your design practice. Because without people, as egregious and difficult and damning as they can be, there wouldn’t be a purpose to design in the first place. 

So how do you deal with people –aside from the Draper method of drinking it away? ;-) Patient observation, calm self-reflection, level-headed mediation, and candid, authentic conversations with bonafide interests surfaced, are some key elements. All backed by a wry, healthy skepticism, and a measure of self-confidence to keep yourself grounded yet wary. Just like slicing graphics, it’s a practice that requires…practice!

After almost 15 years of working in Silicon Valley as a designer in a variety of fixed, dedicated roles internally at large corps and start-ups (with some agency & freelancing, as well), I am now taking a slightly different tack to “delivering design value” to the industry and field at-large. How so?

My focus is now a self-directed “virtuous cycle” of consulting, speaking, and teaching, pursuing those opportunities I’m most passionate about as I consider the shifting of my own career, towards greater autonomy, flexibility, and —hopefully—opportunity for impact that’s way more rewarding than, frankly, battling novice PMs over inconsequential, short-sighted JIRA tickets or panicky feature timelines. I mean, who has time for that?? ;-) 

And yet, those difficult, burdensome questions I articulated in my previous post, coming out of my sabbatical journeys and discussions, still remain ever more present in my mind…They just won’t go away any time soon, for me or for my peers who are just as perplexed by those issues!

Regardless, I intend to stay true to the values & principles I re-discovered amid my journey:

• Pursue design strategically as a committed, equal partner with non-design executives

• Re-assert the intellectual primacy of design discourse in the workplace 

• Drive vivd provocations for new models of business & experience—yes, risky & scary! 

• Guide and educate peers about design process/strategy/culture with a sense of depth and ambition

Beyond that, how am I keeping myself busy these days with this new blend and focus? A variety of things.

• Helping co-organize Enterprise UX 2016 (San Antonio, TX) and supporting the website/marketing of IxDA’s Education Summit 2016 (Helsinki)—working with truly fantastic folks on both events! It’s always an honor and privilege to help stage the forums where inspiring and influential conversations about design can happen.

• Substitute teaching at CCA for undergrad IxD students, on a couple topics: Prototyping and Data Visualization

• Preparing various design talks, including the UX Strategies Summit in early November in SF (redux of my “designing with execs” talk from IxDA 2014) and Design Salon at Citrix

• UX Mentoring via Everwise with design professionals and other professionals seeking UX advice 

• Drafting proposals for design thinking & innovation workshops for various IT firms/clients

• Writing for ACM Interactions and essays on Medium

• Training up on prototyping and pixel tools like Pixate, Macaw, Sketch, etc. (hey, gotta keep those skills sharp!)

Whew! Lots going on, as I emerge somewhat rebooted from my much needed sabbatical…The best is yet to come, as they say ;-) Stay tuned.
 

Well, it’s hard to believe, but it has now been officially two months since I last set foot in an office environment as a regular daily practice, i.e. “my day job”. Whoa! What’s happened since then? 

After departing Peel, a consumer startup trying to improve the “universal remote problem” via smartphone apps, I set upon a personal sabbatical of sorts, with nothing lined up. Crazy? Sure, it’s a bold, daring move. Yet, I last did this upon leaving Cisco in the summer of 2008—while major financial institutions were crashing all around, no less! So that kinda worked out OK…And, in certain rare moments you reach a critical, personal “crossing of the threshold” where your values & principles are at incredibly intense odds with external demands or pressures, thus you simply need to break away and pursue a personal path of self-discovery, right? There’s that conflict of intention, expectation, and benefit that’s just too overwhelming, demanding escape. So that you can then, in effect, become more attuned to the subtler, nuanced aspects of whatever it is that drives you and elevates your aspirations to even greater levels, which tend to get drowned out–or ground down–amid the combative frenetic pace of an emergent, hi-tech development context—for instance ;-)

So I took a break…I traveled. I tried new foods—Japanese style hot dogs! I experienced new things—flying in a seaplane in crazy fog and rain! I met up with other design professionals in Europe. I gave talks on design in Pittsburgh and Copenhagen, and met with design leaders tackling similar issues. I caught up with childhood friends and family, to remind myself what matters most. I drove an Audi A4 Performance Edition in the Texas heat for 8 hours—awesome but tiring! I gave guest lectures at Carnegie Mellon and CCA in San Francisco, as well. Great ways to meet the new generation of designers excited to dive into the madness …that I had left behind ;-)

All the while, though, I have been quietly reflecting upon a variety of conundrums at the core of being a designer and practicing design, such as:

• What does partnership truly mean with dynamic, contested personalities & agendas?

• How can design leadership be measured effectively, the signals for success, and by whose standards?

• What is the path of design authority and influence in immature yet evolving and chaotic contexts?

• How can innovation of the business model happen in tandem with creating novel experience models?

• Why is design still so damn misunderstood, with the lack of bonafide investments in resources and process? 

• How do we preserve the strategic significance of design value amid the wild torrents of short-sighted, tactical frenzy?

Not an easy mix of questions! Lots of hard soul searching required at the personal level of unearthing whatever it takes to plod onward into the murky yet fiery depths of politics, requirements, logistics, etc. And also at that broader level of how to engage and educate organization leaders to want to dig into these tough issues with an open-minded attitude, together. Whew…

But it’s definitely time to get busy and start fresh tackling these challenges, with a new outlook and approach… Stay tuned!
 

As I look back across the nearly 15 years of design gigs that formed the basis of my career path, I noticed an interesting commonality that marks how I actually begin each gig, whether full-time, agency, or contract. It consists of two somewhat interrelated notions that I take to each new job on Day One, as described below:

a) I’m already fired: Yes, let’s start on a boldly dramatic note ;-) Actually, this is a concept I borrowed from reading many years ago the “Code of the Bushido”, a revered Japanese guide to honorable warrior-ship. It begins with the notion of acting as if you’re already dead (or will be), that death is an inevitability and pervasive in the course of one’s life. Grim, indeed. Yet, this notion frees up the warrior to perform to the best of their abilities, with nothing to lose. The field of possibility opens up, unencumbered yet not desperate. Similarly, I apply this to my roles, to invoke a certain degree of fearlessness within my self, of nothing holding me back in doing what I believe to be right and necessary to achieve meaningful success, devoid of anxieties around “getting fired”. It truly becomes a liberating mindset, setting up bold action framed by personal conviction grounded in solid principles and vigorous processes. (Note: obviously, this is not something you go around bragging to folks, nor does it give license to be a reckless jerk! A moral compass is a pre-requisite, with good ol’ common sense.)

b) I’m preparing for my successor: Somewhat ironically related to the former is the belief that what I’m doing will hopefully outlive me and be useful for successive designers occupying my current role, or complementary to it. Work is unpredictable, companies change, roles shift in rather different ways than initially expected. That’s simply how it goes! Yet, I want to be sure that whatever I’m designing serves an impactful cause, effort, or model of enabling design-driven success beyond any one person. Thus, I’m continually thinking of ways to shape and define systems of thinking, principles for prosperity, artifacts that enable, and processes that can propagate beyond any single design output or person. I often ask myself, is what I’m creating contributing to a culture of good design habits, promoting a way of design-driven thinking, that supports the business? Each action you perform is setting up expectations for the person who comes after you, so do what you can to help that as yet unknown individual be set-up for success before they even start!

Being a so-called creative, imaginative designer involves a significant degree of hard work (that “99% perspiration”, as Edison famously said) with many iterations and setbacks, as part of a connective & regenerative process. An essential part of that process is developing a personalized set of “creative habits”. Such activities increase the probability for inspiration and invention of something remarkable in your work — or at the very least, sustain your drive, especially during those moments of self-doubt or anxiety— to continually explore, creating your way forward.

So, what are my personal creative habits? Hmm. Here’s a quick survey of what gets me motivated :-)

* Always keep a sketchbook with a pen: I assume this is almost cliché for any designer, but this is vital for me. I literally do not leave home without this pairing. Sketching is how I process various information, and seizing those spare moments “waiting” while sketching is invaluable, given my busy schedule. (I prefer the Muji mini-sized sketchbooks that fit perfectly into a jeans’ back-pocket, and the Muji black rollerball pen.)

* Browse & read diverse magazines: I’m a total magazine fiend and love to spend time reading articles or perusing photos and illustrations found in The Economist, Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, WIRED, Metropolis, etc. Such contents are a wonderful source of raw intellectual material (ideas, themes, concepts, or just memorable phrases) while photos/illustrations are valued for their stylistic qualities (tones, colors, textures, layouts, etc.). To seek out those “radical adjacencies” that Steven Johnson mentioned in his book “Where Good Ideas Come From”, I prefer articles on economics, society, foreign policy, pop culture, literary or film criticism, keeping me diversely stimulated.

* Indulging in webby serendipity: Every morning I peruse social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) to see what’s new, fun, trending, and flag it for later follow-up or pass along to folks in my network. I also quickly scan specific sites like The Verge, Quartz, Daily Beast, Ars Technica, The Vox, etc. Some days are better than others… If there’s nothing that morning, no biggie. (The trick to this is really time-boxing it, else you get sucked in and start meandering, actively searching for something inspiring, which is not altogether very useful.)

* Seeking constant physical stimuli: My desk is deliberately cluttered with toys, souvenirs, mementos, just stuff to pick up and play with while bored or thinking through some complex problems. Not sure if there’s a scientifically proven basis for this, but I find the physical interactivity stimulates my cognitive and creative energies in some useful ways.

* Taking long walks outside: Yes, it’s healthy to take a stretch and walk in the fresh air. But also, after reading some pretty heavy material, or sketching for a long time, I need to take a long walk to process what I just internalized, to help me make sense of it at that subconscious level, and start sparking up the neural intersections, vectors of inspiration, via outdoor observations, and the kinesthetics of “walking”. You may start to visualize in your mind’s eye some transient, deeper connections… Trust me on this!

* Sipping a good drink: Now, I’m not talking “Mad Men” style — you’ll just pass out that way! And of course, it’s not for everyone. But for me, I find that when I sip a good drink or two (bourbon, single malt, etc.) I enter a nicely relaxed state that fosters… well, some interesting ideas to flow forth! Maybe it’s the melting away all the loaded up cognitive inhibitions of the day, but imbibing on occasion certainly helps me pursue and express novel ideas— or simply form connections among existing ideas— just a little more… fluidly ;-)