How design taught me non design skills
Lessons I Learned from Being a Designer
It was Tuesday evening when I was on my way back home, surrounded by my thoughts, when I came across my friend Ibrahim, who eventually introduced me to his friend Abdul Rahman.
After he knew that I work as a designer, he asked me this question: “What are the top five things I was able to learn from design?”
I personally like these types of questions because they help me reflect on what I’ve truly learned from my career and how I’ve overcome obstacles. So, I answered him, and my response took around 45 minutes to complete. My answer surprised him, not because of its length, but because the skills and lessons I mentioned were not related to design in the way he expected.
Design not only taught me how to pair fonts and colors or organize poster layouts, but it also helped me learn non-design skills.
1. Business
When I started freelancing, I had no prior knowledge of business, so I spent most of the time searching for proper ways to run a business. Suddenly one day I was stopped by the realization that freelancing is the modern way of how business could be made these days, and this idea exposed my mind to tons of insights and thoughts by leading minds in business. So as a freelance designer, I understood that every business must have a product — a product that the people around the business want. In my case, the product was also the service I provide, and I was implementing a business model that relied on a B2B service exchange model because companies and startups were the most interested in what I provided, and this realization made my work even easier.
Why did it become easier for me?
Because before this conclusion, I was trying to make my business appeal to the wrong group of people, “a group of people who were not interested in my product.” Believe me, having a prior understanding of to whom you are providing your product and how it would be consumed will help you in the process of developing your product and making it convenient for them. People won’t buy products they don’t find suitable, regardless of the price, because the price is a reflection of the product’s value and how it can make their lives better.
2. Marketing
When you start in the business world, you will eventually ask yourself, “How can I scale my business?” and scaling your business means you will get more clients. What does that mean to your business?
Probably the answer will be, “My business must have a marketing strategy.” Well, you may be aware of it, or you just simply try to make your business and product appealing to people by replicating ideas that you find personally interesting, like:
“Get two pairs of my product, and you will get the third one for free.”.
Ok, let me say this: marketing is not about you and your business in the first place; it is about making people aware of your business existence.
Don’t overcomplicate it.
Putting your clients ahead and giving them the best experience they could have from any of your business competitors will be enough to be called a marketing strategy.
People want to be understood and heard, and your marketing should be based on how your business will make the lives of people around it better. When they understand the value that you provide, people will give you the chance, so that’s where customer experience will play a vital role.
We remember emotions.
When people have an experience with your business, they don’t remember the words and numbers that you said; they will remember what you made them feel when they came across your business.
3. Leadership
I believe leadership is a trait that is born in all of us, but what made certain people become great leaders was the environment that made them develop it into a skill so they could master it, and I was lucky enough to have this type of environment that made me develop it.
While I was in the development process, I discovered that leadership is not about throwing orders at people around you. To be a leader is to be able to create a group of people around a shared belief or goal and provide them with what they need to achieve, or simply to be trusted enough in a certain topic by a decent amount of people, and when it comes to my personal opinion, one human who trusts you and can follow you is enough.
Leadership is about creating a crystal-clear vision and working toward making this vision clear. But what most people miss is the way and how of communicating this vision so others will be able to see what you already saw, and at the end, they will believe in it. I remember when I was invited by a founder because he thought that he needed a design solution for his product. Several meetings later, I was able to lead the marketing department at his company. Interesting, right?
How did that happen?
When the founder approached me, he thought that he needed something. He trusted my abilities to solve a problem he believed he had, and my responsibility was to make him know what he really needed and then lead him to the path that he should focus on.
Leadership needs a lot of capabilities, so you need to be able to handle it properly. I personally see that the most important one is being able to influence people around you. The ability to influence is powerful enough to put you in the leader role even when you did not work for it or ask for it.
Why? People can only be influenced by other people they trust, and when you can influence people, you are able to lead them.
4. Emotional intelligence
I see that emotional intelligence is the most underrated skill, and I always feel an unfair advantage every time I see how people around me leave this skill untouched or are not aware of it.
Design played an important role in developing this skill, and I can say that if I were not a designer, it may have taken longer to reach the level at which I’m at the moment.
How has design helped me with this?
Every design piece I make, whether it is a graphic design or a product design, when I stop to think about it, I ask myself this question:
If I were a random human on the street or in my house scrolling through social media minding my own business, could this design piece grab my attention? And if it does, what might I think about it?
The path for every human is empathy.
If you look up the definition of emotional intelligence on Google, you will find that it’s directly connected to empathy. Humans with high EI are able to feel how other people feel around them and even anticipate them. In design, marketing, business, and any niche you may cross, you need to be able to see how people would respond and what feelings they created toward your design decisions.
Empathy can be easily done by putting yourself in the shoes of other people and trying to understand how they feel and what the main thing is that makes them feel that way.
5. Communication
Before design came into my life, I had many problems communicating my thoughts to people. I always felt misunderstood by them, and it was hard on me to create new connections with new people. Well, obviously, I was that typical introvert, until that day when I made the decision to learn design.
When I was in the early stages of learning, I somehow figured out how the design core is about communicating, whether it was verbally or visually. Design is about how you communicate your ideas to people.
So I took a side quest in my journey, and I decided to learn more about human communication.
Well, what I can summarize from that quest is that humans in general are social creatures, but at the same time, most of us don’t know how to communicate.
I believe that the reason behind this problem is that we don’t learn anything about communication in school, and we spend most of the time studying history.
Once upon a time…
Stories and storytelling are one of the oldest methods of communicating yet the most effective. Some studies mentioned that ancient civilizations and even ancient humans used this method, and storytellers were considered special people in their societies back then because of their capabilities to communicate ideas with a lot of people.
Returning to our modern days, storytelling remains the most effective tool to influence people, and I bet you heard about it at least once before reading this article.
There are a lot of books that talk about this topic, and I learned how to tell stories by reading none of them, because simply your stories should relate in some way to the people that you are telling them.
The Essence of a Great Story
I went through three frameworks of storytelling, and I came to the conclusion that all storytelling frameworks at their core are the same.
And to summarize, what makes a story good is mainly connected to the story protagonist, the surrounding environment, and his ability to handle challenges that come in his way to achieve his goal or purpose.
A great story always creates tension and makes the audience question themselves about whether the protagonist will overcome his challenges, fostering curiosity in the audience so they will still proceed with the story.
At the end
Design is more than just aesthetics; it is a way of thinking and solving problems. Design principles can help you succeed when you’re designing a logo, leading a team, or developing a marketing strategy. But in it’s core design is all about understanding people, solving problems, and communicating ideas.
These lessons have not only helped me with my profession, but they have also helped me grow personally.
Thank you
for giving me your time to let me explain to you what you was searching for. Until next time we meet be safe.
Hello👋
My name is Jose Ahmad. Strategic designer with a mission to help businesses turn into brands, if you are a business owner and you are looking for turning your business into a brand don’t hesitate to connect with me on Linkedin
