The 7.5 things Design School taught us
DeSchool (or DesignSchool or unschool) at MakeMyTrip started with a simple thought. As children one of our main focus is to learn. As we get older, we get jobs, learning becomes a thing we did before we became adults. We get too busy adult-ing to continue learning.
But professionals gather a wealth of knowledge by working. By trying, failing and then trying again — beyond school walls, curriculum, tests, syllabus.
The design team at MakeMyTrip asked how can we tap into this knowledge that people gather by experience?
DeSchool
That was the start of DeSchool — a platform for sharing such real world learning, with dollops of help from the good HR folks from MakeMyTrip. We invited industry leaders, non designers and design champions from other leading product orgs to speak to us about challenges they have faced, tips & tricks and (esp.) stories of their struggles, failures and learnings.
In our first ever design school, we were joined by Akshay Rajwade (former Googler, Consumer Product Lead at Flipkart and now CPO at NearBuy), Ranga Krishnamani (former Design Lead at Adobe and ex-head of Design at RedBus, better known in the dribble and Behance universe as LiquidInk) and Aditya Jalan (Head of Product at the gaming company MechMocha, formerly Product lead at Zomato, Cleartrip and Myntra).
In an entertaining talk peppered with anecdotes from his life — Jalan shared lessons from trying to build some of India’s most Design-savvy products.
Ranga illustrated his journey with the frustrations, triumphs and joys of reimagining products.
Akshay happily answered Product Questions that no one (usually) asks — with wit and wisdom. Including some controversial ones he has got asked in hushed tones.
Our Takeaways
(sans the wonderful examples — some of what gets shared candidly in DeSchool, stays in DeSchool)
1.0 Make everyone work for the user
Designing tech products means tight deadlines and many iterations on the same feature. It is a common mistake to start relying on web analytics and other tertiary research materials in the cycle of designing, redesigning. By doing this we risk losing touch with the user. For a good designer it is important to understand why users do what they do without typecasting them.
Tip: Observe your target users in situations where they need to use your product. Talk to at least 5 users and non-users once a week.
2.0 Communicate effectively
We are so busy creating, we forget to document, articulate, order our thinking. And not communicating design decisions effectively is a sure shot way of getting disappointed during design reviews. Set context, explain the evolution of thinking behind the pixels.
Tip: Go the extra mile so your stakeholders are on the same page as you. Take the effort of forming a naming convention, stick to it. Document & annotate all design decisions.
3.0 Seeing is believing
Designers take their strong imaginations for granted. We often find it frustrating when others aren’t able to visualise things the way we do. But our power as designers is to build people’s imagination and help them believe in a future vision of the product. It’s important to show how it works and what it will looks like — and show it vividly.
Tip: Before discussing a design solution with your stakeholders, even in the preliminary stages, try to represent your thoughts in a presentation.
4.0 ( People + Process ) x Iteration = Outcome
It isn’t about the hours you put into designing something. It is about the final design. So focus on outcome, not output.
5.0 Get married to the problem not the solution
Pouring yourself into a design and then watching it get shot down is all in a day’s work for a good designer. Instead of taking feedback personally detach yourself and stay open to finding a new way to solve the problem at hand.
Tip: MVPs are a great way to validate hypothesis and gather more insights. Check if you design decisions are “approximately-right” or “precisely wrong”.
6.0 Timelines are sacrosanct
Beware of the Endless Loop of Feedback. In the pursuit of the perfection teams (designers, stakeholders etc) get carried away and keep pushing timelines further.
Tip: Ensure all stakeholders are aware of the timelines and abide by them.
7.0 Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted
Every designer should have a side project to dedicate some time to creating or seeking inspiration. A time to forget That Project and simply doodle or play a music instrument or work on a feature you’d want to see live some day or anything else close to your heart.
Tip: Make a schedule that takes into account the time you need for yourself. Then stick to the schedule. Make progress, complete, share, repeat.
And the 0.5?
It wasn’t all gyaan! Sprinkled in between the main events of the day were ice breakers, team activities and some hardcore Djembe drumming that brought Hotel Managers running and left us sweating, energised and ready to jam more often.
What’s more we brought a spell of rain inside the large conference room — it was that Salvador Dali-esque surreal moment! But a little imagination, and a willing team can go a long, long way.
Thoughts, comments and ideas to make DeSchool better? Do tell us, or volunteer to teach us a skill, a method, a process. Write to us at uxnow@makemytrip.com
