Design is NOT a skillset. It's a mindset
Can a design mindset be taught?
“A Fool with a Tool is Still a Fool.”–Grady Booch
Anyone can learn a design tool.
How good they can use that tool is debatable.
Anyone can also read a design book.
But not everyone can put that knowledge into practice (however many books they’ve read).
A tool (a skillset) can be taught. But a way of thinking (a mindset) cannot.
It's something you either have or you don't (controversial I know).
How we act and behave comes from our learnings through life and from our very beginnings.
Our morals. Our beliefs. Our habits. They all help feed our mindset.
Behavioural patterns are set in our DNA.
If you're born lazy, you'll always sway the easy way. And on the other hand, if you're born a grafter, you'll always strive to work hard.
If you’re born a cheater, you may try to cheat to get ahead. But, if you think cheating diminishes what you set out to do, then you won’t (it wouldn’t sit right… would it?).
If you give attention to detail in all the little things, you'll then provide that same care to everything.
Doing the little things RIGHT makes the big things easier to do RIGHT.
Whether it’s wiping the sink after you’ve brushed your teeth or having to go back into a Figma file at 2am, just to check the gutters are still set at 16px.
With the right mindset, you’ll always have a sense of pride in whatever you do.
Care about what you’re DOING and care what you DO. Everything else will fall into place.
The little things add up to the designer you are. If you care, you'll gain respect both as a designer and, even more importantly, a person.
Retired Navy SEAL Admiral William McRaven made the following great speech to college graduates. This speech may not have been focused on design, but it resonates:
“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”–Admiral William McRaven
That last line is the golden nugget:
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”
Can you teach people to think this way? I don’t think you can, it’s more of a formed habit than anything teachable; it’s how you’ve been programmed.
Design isn’t a profession. It’s a way of life.
It all comes down to whether you see it that way; you either have a design mindset, or you don't!
Tools shouldn’t even come into it.
Without the right mindset, it matters very little what your skillset is.
This is why people should always hire people, not skillsets.
Skillsets change, mindsets don’t!
“We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle
References
- 'Make Your Bed' speech by William_H._McRaven
https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/make-your-bed-by-admiral-william-h-mcraven
Knowledge is power.
So keep learning, keep preparing, and keep listening.
