Be kind, design
Embracing kindness as a product design superpower
Well the last time you heard from me I’d written a scathing report on the state of modern product design. That pernicious position paper did some numbers, went viral and subsequently I received loads of emails and messages around how frustrated we all are trying to play this game called digital product design.
How do we fix this?
Well I got nothing new since the last time you asked.
Oh wait… yes I did come up with something.
KINDNESS.
It’s a goddamn superpower. And its going to save product design.
Designers — let’s try to be the kindest industry on the planet. Here are some handy tips on being kinder.
Job hunting
I put out this simple message on LinkedIn. It was a small thought I had over and over again whilst faffing around in my limp and lifeless lunch hour:
Seemed quite a simple thing, bit fluffy and naive.
Got quite a lot of views and replies. Why? It’s such a simple concept. Why the heck are there so many designers unemployed? Why don’t we spend more time promoting other designers?
We don’t help each other out enough. We focus on our own employment and vocational journey.
Teach
The old saying ‘those who can't, teach’, was always a savage and profoundly disrespectful, yet prescient reminder that a lot of formal design training is a bit broad, twee and in an industry that moves so fast, slightly redundant.
It’s hard to take design advice or learnings from anyone who has not actually worked on a thing, or shipped a thing, or felt the pain of a less than acceptable launch, or had a person tell you your app is shit (anecdotally).
Instead of just making all those lovely rectangles, try to break down your process into manageable insights and SHARE THEM WITH OTHERS!
This passive education is great for less senior folk, and gives you an apprenticeship into being a design leader.
Honesty
I get into a lot of trouble by being honest, this affliction of sincerity has had a profound effect on my career progression (mostly negative) but most people know they can trust my judgement and my character.
Designers need people to tell them the bad stuff. Design can be really boring. Clients can be horrible. The Hippo problem is a thing.
There is a reason that the phrase ‘be cruel to be kind’ is so brilliant.
This simple, but utterly raw concept that ‘to do or say something that causes someone pain because you believe that it will help them’ is exactly what is needed in design.
The truth will set them free.
Tell the truth
Heres a simple, yet terrifying concept:
Tell truth to power.
WARNING: You might get fired
Yeah you might get fired, but you are ‘being cruel to be kind’.
YOU ARE STILL BEING KIND.
Ok you might still get a P45 in your inbox, but design is about breaking boundaries and you wont do that if you constantly capitulate to the C Suite.
Reduce the UX bullshit
There is a lot of bullshit in design and UX.
Look at design articles and posts on LinkedIn
For every ‘3 ways to design better signup forms’, there’s another 500 “here’s what *insert bullshit* taught me about SaaS B2B design”.
Reducing the amount of crap on LinkedIn is job number one. I wrote this call to arms and nobody cared, but we need to really get better at driving the narrative.
Less arguing about what an MVP actually is, less UX/UI memes, less job title/education snobbery, less gatekeeping.
It's just noise. It’s unkind and helps to fragment our lovely industry.
Build better relationships
Promoting kindness in the context of product design means making new friends. And that takes empathy and patience.
I wrote this article on relationships being the key to shipping great products. I stand by it as the key to shipping great products is the holy trinity of product + design + engineering
These ‘three amigos’ need to work in perfect harmony.
How?
By understanding how we fit together, empathising with each others role and responsibilities; and communicating as a strong united team, turning real user needs into shippable products and updates
Be a KIND design leader
Design leadership is more about relationships than any other role in design. And you can forge the best relationships, foster trust and mentor other designers to greatness by being kind.
Hire with your heart
Design has a bunch of unquantifiable qualities. So does hiring decent designers. There is a chemistry in both the team, the culture and how you all interact. You are hiring a relationship, not a casual fling.
Kindness is *EVERYTHING* in leadership
Be kind. Don’t be unkind. This seems like the most obvious and simple thing but my goodness I’ve hardly encountered this in my years of being ‘managed’
121's
This is an excellent opportunity to check in and show some kindness, empathy and support. This is not about you, this is not a performance review
One to ones are your weekly (or bi-weekly) opportunity to get closer to your team and try to understand how they are doing, and what you can do to help. It’s really important to structure this to get the best out of the meeting.
Make this a positive experience, focus on them, this is not an opportunity to raise your own issues, just listen and kindly ask these 6 questions:
What are you working on?
What potential blockers exist in this sprint?
What worst-case scenarios were on your mind?
What do you need from me?
What else would you like to talk about?
Share an interesting fact
Don’t speak, just listen, take notes and be an ally, a mentor, remember, if you are any good you will be less vociferous and more humble.
Be KIND.
Share the LOVE for design
Design is *AMAZING* — but a lot of people don’t understand it, and so with any lack of understanding comes apathy.
How do you turn apathy into empathy?
LOVE DESIGN. And share that love. Yeah I know, I feel a bit sick too but bear with me…
Ah “those designers, with their headphones on, pushing pixels and pinging each other on Slack” (actual overheard complaint)
Take your headphones off. Go find a person whose job you don’t understand, and go get coffee with them. Ask them to kindly explain to you what they do, then kindly explain what you do. Boom, now there a new ally for good design, and you have made a friend and learnt a thung.
I like to speak to researchers, engineers and security folk. Thats how you ship industry firsts.
Design needs to permeate through every organisation, as a horizontal not a vertical. To achieve this it needs to be considered at every part of the process. To do this you need to make friends, to do this, you need to be kind.
And you need to check in with your own feelings about design. To be kind in design is part of being in love with design.
Burnout is common, and as you get much older in your career, it’s super easy to fall out of love with design, I wrote this charming article about falling back in love with design.
Represent
Champion your industry. Whichever business you work for, champion the design team and work at the highest level. Run a workshop or design sprint, organise a talk, even do a podcast (eurgh) but keep representing design.
Make stuff simple, inclusive and accessible
By making your design simple, clear, familiar and consistent, you are making it more usable, especially for users with cognitive impairment, or disabilties. Remember that there are millions of over humans that are retired, yet use digital devices, products and services, and need to feel included. I wrote this article on how we can design for older humans.
Inclusive design is kindness personified. What better way for a company to show their empathy and care for their existing and future customers, than putting accessibility at the forefront of good human centred design.
OK lets wrap this up
Well I hope I have made a small yet valid swipe at making product design great again, if all else fails at least we were kind.
Good luck!
