Design Thinking for the Self, pt 2

(be sure to read Parts 1 & 3 as well for the full story!)

It has now been a week or so since running the second workshop (which in all honestly was more like a 45 minute lecture) for Design Thinking for the Self, this time at the Method + Madness conference in Phoenix, Arizona, which is the kickoff event to Phoenix Design Week, a movement I helped create back in 2009.

Back in September, I wrote about the idea of Design Thinking for the Self, my theory about design thinking tools being applied to interpersonal problems, such as body image, self esteem, and confidence.

This theory mainly came from experimenting on myself, as I have managed depression for a number of years, most recently during my separation and eventual divorce from my partner of nearly a decade.

When I was at my lowest, I was reading a book called “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy”, written by David D Burns, which does a fantastic job of explaining cognitive behavioral therapy, which in many ways is a form of design thinking, because it enables the user to develop a deeper understanding of the driving factors behind their tensions.

For example, one of the tools in the book directs the user to write down negative thoughts, and extrapolate why those thoughts exist. The extrapolations are more logical than the initial negative thought, and can be either disproved or worked on.

In design thinking, we can utilize a tool called an “as-is” journey map, which chronicles a situation, outlining what a user is doing, thinking, and feeling in a particular situation. Normally, you could use this to figure out how a customer service representative does their job, but in the case of someone with low self-esteem, you could map out the events of a day, and point out the moments where you feel bad, and see exactly what caused them.

With this clarity in mind, you can start to ideate on ways to solve that particular situation. Here’s a real life example pulled from my own experiences:

At IBM, I find myself routinely surrounded by extremely talented individuals. However, some of them lack tact and empathy for each other, which is to be expected in a studio with a young population. Despite my experience, at one point, a teammates actions & comments made me feel very negative about myself. We were collaborating together, and in a moment of frustration, I overheard the designer say that they wished they were working with another designer to our fellow colleague.

My thoughts were full of self defeat.

In my mind, I wasn’t a good designer, because we weren’t having fun or getting to the solution. I felt marginalized and useless. And it made me shrink.

Looking at the As-Is scenario version of this scene, the moment I felt odd was created by the fact that as a team, we weren’t working out well at that moment. The comment from the colleague certainly didn’t help.

Both of these are logical moments that led to an unfortunate trigger for myself. But now that there is clarity to the problem, you are free to ideate. The next time, we can try different exercises to get our brains moving and collaborate easier. And I can have a discussion with my colleague about the situation.

My feeling useless had nothing to do with the situation at hand. I had internalized it,which is a human thing to do, but still harmful.

These tools help bring rationality to the irrational. Stay tuned for more insights.

• Randy Gregory II is a Design Strategist at IBM based in Austin. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.