Using a design tool to help with challenging relationships
Liz Citron encourages use of the ‘empathy map’ tool to help with relationship challenges
Liz was an early pioneer in the London UX industry
Liz Citron was one of the first wave of UX pioneers in the London industry. We had crossed paths at various events, when I was interviewing for a job over 15 years ago, and more recently reconnected through our shared paths into coaching.
A shift to helping people develop
Back on January 28th 2020 when I was considering a coaching certification for myself I attended an event she was hosting called ‘Success by Design’.
It was an event targeted at young people trying to get into tech careers. The event focused on coaching itself. We each used one of the infamous ‘Wheel of Life’ tools to evaluate different aspects of our life, and then pair up with someone else to discuss.
With a little guidance from Liz, I was paired up with a lovely woman fresh out of college who was tasked with coaching me through my Wheel of Life. With that guidance, the tool, plus an inquisitive mind, this young woman drew some clarifying insight from me. I was amazed.
We then sat in a circle and various people reflecting on some dilemmas presented by a young guy who sat in the centre. Super intimidating in principle, but incredibly powerful. We spoke in the pub afterwards about coaching, potential courses, and my mind pondered that for a while.
The last time…
Little did I know that the next day i’d see my friend, colleague, client and peer for the last time. Losing Ofer Deshe shook me up considerably. Partly because of the incredible impact on others that they shared after his passing.
A month later, after hearing of Ofer’s passing, I hosted an Interaction 2020 redux event. With some other ex-colleagues and friends of Ofer in the audience, I could only hold back so much of my pain. Liz picked up on it and offered me an exercise over twitter.
I did the exercise, maybe not every night, but it did help. Maybe something to come back to.
Bouncing back
I recently caught up with Liz and we shared stories of our coaching experiences and her focus as a ‘Bounce Back’ coach. I loved the framing, especially as I had a growing interest in the ‘Architectures of Resilience’ that creatives create to cope with the ups and downs of the creative struggle. Liz was curious why I was focused so much on the ‘creatives’. Can’t anyone have a struggle? Absolutely. And I love her willingness to help anyone who needs it. I also appreciated the challenge to the premise.
Using empathy mapping to help with relationship challenges
In the post that Liz nominates for this publication, Liz highlights how you can use the popular ‘empathy map’ tool to help understand colleagues, clients, peers or anyone else that you might be having relationship challenges with. A nice reframing of a tool that many designers and technologists might be familiar with to help tackle a problem so many people struggle with.
This is ‘Walking A Mile In Someone Else’s Shoes’ by Liz Citron:
You can contact Liz directly, and find out more about her on her website here
